January 2005

A human rights group has looked closely at a major industry in one country and found safety conditions like those of a century ago, systematic disrespect for workers’ rights and widespread disregard of international labor standards. Yes, conditions for U.S. meatpacking workers are scandalous.
Human Rights Watch last week released a comprehensive study of the meatpacking and processing industry. It’s a damning report that shows the widespread effects on workers of constant corporate cost cutting, union busting and political irresponsibility.
Worse, as Human Rights Watch acknowledges, much of the picture was already well documented, both in official papers and previous studies. The Human Rights Watch report gives particular credit to the chilling portrayal of workplace conditions in meat plants provided a few years ago by Eric Schlosser in “Fast Food Nation.”
As the Human Rights Watch report, written by Lance Compa, and Schlosser both observe, conditions today sadly mirror those in Upton Sinclair’s classic work, “The Jungle.” Sinclair’s portrayal of meatpacking plants, which will reach its 100th anniversary next year, led to federal legislation that improved conditions for workers and made meat considerably safer for consumers.Continue Reading The Jungle’s new century

PETA had hoped to place its brand-new billboard– showing a middle-aged couple next to the tagline “Meat Causes Cancer … Go Vegetarian”– in Southern Pines in time for the North Carolina Meat Processors Association Conference next week, but it was rejected by the area’s outdoor advertising company, despite the fact that the ad has been displayed in Baltimore, Houston, and Trenton, N.J. PETA wanted to remind residents that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Studies published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, the International Journal of Cancer, the American Journal of Epidemiology, and many other medical periodicals provide evidence that eating meat increases a person’s risk of developing cancer and that a diet based on grains, fruits, and vegetables significantly decreases that risk. Consumption of meat and other animal products has also been linked to heart disease, strokes, obesity, and diabetes, as well as life-threatening bacterial infections such as salmonella, E. coli, and listeria. And of course, the best way to avoid contracting the human form of mad cow disease is to adopt a humane, environmentally friendly, healthful vegetarian diet.Continue Reading PETA Says Focus Should be on Preventing Life-Threatening Disease

Although E. coli has been often in the news as a foodborne pathogen, the vast majority of E. coli strains are harmless, including those commonly used by scientists in genetics laboratories. E. coli is found in the family of bacteria named Enterobacteriaceae, which is informally referred to as the enteric bacteria. Other enteric bacteria are

Eating undercooked ground beef is the most important risk factor for acquiring E. coli O157:H7. Cook all ground beef and hamburger thoroughly. Because ground beef can turn brown before disease causing bacteria are killed, use a digital instant read meat thermometer to ensure thorough cooking. Ground beef should be cooked until a thermometer inserted into several parts of the patty, including the thickest part, reads at least 160 degrees F. Persons who cook ground beef without using a thermometer can decrease their risk of illness by not eating ground beef patties that are still pink in the middle. If you are served an undercooked hamburger or other ground beef product in a restaurant, send it back for further cooking.

    • Avoid spreading harmful bacteria in your kitchen. Keep raw meat separate from ready-to-eat foods. Wash hands, counters, and utensils with hot soapy water after they touch raw meat. Never place cooked hamburgers or ground beef on the unwashed plate that held raw patties.
    • Wash meat thermometers in between tests of patties that require further cooking.
    • Drink only pasteurized milk, juice, or cider. Commercial juice with an extended shelf life that is sold at room temperature (e.g. juice in cardboard boxes, vacuum-sealed juice in glass containers) has been pasteurized, although this is generally not indicated on the label. Most juice concentrates are also heated sufficiently to kill pathogens.

Continue Reading How may an E. coli O157: H7 infection be prevented?

The Salinas Californian today reports more on the Sodexho E. coli outbreak in Salinas Valley and where things are going.
Just before Christmas, Marler Clark settled 29 out of 40 claims of customers sickened at Pat & Oscar’s. We also represent the family of Alice McWalter and Sarah Ish, another sickened Sequoias resident, in lawsuits against Sodexho USA.
From the article:

In an action that is usually a prelude to a lawsuit, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors has rejected two claims that allege the Monterey County Water Resources Agency failed to maintain a creek, resulting in the contamination of a field of produce which was later connected to two food-borne illness outbreaks.
Last Tuesday, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors rejected two claims filed by the companies in November, the county counsel’s office said.
Filing such claims and having them rejected are a necessary prelude to filing full-blown lawsuits.
Legal consequences of two food-borne illness outbreaks that sickened at least 63 people and killed one in 2003 have returned to the Salinas Valley, where state investigators say lettuce and spinach — contaminated at an unknown point before they were eaten — were grown.
Beginning with those infected with E. coli 0157:H7 by the tainted produce, lawsuits have blossomed throughout the food-growing and distribution chain. Now River Ranch Fresh Foods and Diamond Produce, the two companies said to have grown the contaminated lettuce and spinach, have taken preliminary steps toward suing Monterey County.
Lawyers for the two Salinas-area companies say the Monterey County Water Resources Agency failed to maintain Santa Rita Creek, resulting in flooding in 2003 that spread waste across a field where produce was grown.

Continue Reading Creek flooding blamed for ’03 E. coli cases

Because there are so many different strains of E. coli, microbiologists classify it into more than 170 serogroups. Within each serogroup, there are one or more serotypes. For example, O126:H and O126:H27 represent two serotypes of E. coli, with the O126 signifying the particular serogroup to which these serotypes belong. E. coli O157:H7 was identified for the first time at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1975. However, it was not until seven years later, in 1982, that E. coli O157:H7 was conclusively determined to be a cause of enteric disease. Specifically, in 1982, following outbreaks of foodborne illness that involved several cases of bloody diarrhea, E. coli O157: H7 was firmly associated with hemorrhagic colitis.4 As a result of this association, E. coli O157: H7 was designated as an enterohemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC.
Historically, most procedures that were used to detect fecal coliforms or generic E. coli in foods used methods that did not detect the presence of E. coli O157:H7. It was not until the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak occurred, in January 1993, that the importance of testing specifically for E. coli O157:H7 was truly understood. Infection with E. coli O157:H7 is usually confirmed by detecting the bacterium in the stool of the infected individual. Until recently, however, most laboratories did not routinely test stools for the presence of E. coli O157:H7. Now, most hospitals and physicians know to test for this particular bacterium, especially if the potentially infected individual has bloody diarrhea. Still, it remains a good idea to specifically request that you or your child’s stool specimen be tested with Sorbitol MacConkey (SMAC) Agar for the presence of E. coli O157:H7.Continue Reading How is E. coli O157:H7 detected?

Animal-borne diseases can cause tremendous disruptions in the global economy. More than half of all emerging viral and bacterial diseases that threaten humans now come from animals, according to medical reports.
News reports of animal-borne diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or Mad Cow Disease), monkeypox, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and West Nile Virus have all appeared on a regular basis. Closer to home, there is concern over rabies, salmonella and diseases caused by tick bites.
Here is what you should know about some of these animal-borne diseases.Continue Reading Are we safe from animal-borne diseases?

A previously unknown network of immune cells has been discovered in the mammalian gastrointestinal system by a research group based in the Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The finding, reported in the January 14 issue of Science, could lead to better understanding of how the immune system recognizes and responds to dangerous bacteria and viruses and to new approaches to immunization and infectious disease treatment.
“We found an extensive system of immune cells throughout the intestinal tract that take up bacteria and other antigens, giving us a new target for understanding the immune response,” says Hans-Christian Reinecker, MD, of the MGH Gastrointestinal Unit, the study’s senior author.Continue Reading New network of gastrointestinal immune cells discovered