E. coli in produce: Is irradiation the answer?

Posted by E. coli Lawyer on March 28, 2007

Dateline NBC reported on fresh food contamination, with emphasis on fresh spinach and lettuce grown in California, and whether irradiation is the answer to ensuring our fresh produce is safe.

"We can say all day long that we have the safest food system in the world," says Seattle attorney Bill Marler, who specializes in cases involving victims of E. coli-contaminated produce. "Well, we don't. And we have systems that are broken. We have things that need to be fixed."

Marler represents Michelle Matthews, who is suing Dole Foods and Natural Selections/Earthbound Foods to cover her past and future medical bills and her pain and suffering. He says the industry has known about and ignored the problem for years.

"It's easy in these situations to go, 'I'm not sure exactly what caused the problem, so there's nothing I can do. But I'm making a lot of money selling spinach and lettuce in a bag, so I'm going to keep doing that.' They didn't take the time to figure out what the problem was," says Marler.
 

E. coli lawyer profiled in The Oregonian

Posted by E. coli Lawyer on March 28, 2007

The Oregonian recently profiled Bill Marler, a lawyer from Seattle who began representing victims of E. coli and other foodborne illness outbreaks in 1993 during the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak. Since 1993, Marler has represented thousands of victims of foodborne illnesses, including salmonella, hepatitis A, and shigella.

Marler has emerged as the country's preeminent plaintiff's lawyer in food-borne-illness cases. His firm has won nearly $300 million in settlements from restaurants and suppliers, and the financial drain -- coupled with Marler's constant calls for reform -- has leveled pressure on industry and government to better police food.

"Put me out of business," Marler repeats as his rallying cry.

But business has never been more brisk. Government regulators play a limited role in addressing rising consumer claims of harm from what they have eaten. As a result, lawyers on both sides of such food fights have found a lucrative line of business working out differences between consumers and corporations over U.S. food safety.

Even before ConAgra Foods Inc. began recalling salmonella-tainted peanut butter last month, resulting in 4,500 potential victims contacting Marler's office, he and his staff were inundated. Among their current caseload are reports of deaths and illnesses tied to E. coli in spinach, E. coli contamination at two taco chains and a hepatitis A outbreak at an Illinois restaurant.
 

Johnny Depp's Daughter Was Lucky to Survive a Battle with Deadly E. coli

Posted by Bill Marler on March 23, 2007

Lily-Rose, the daughter of Johnny Depp and his longtime partner Vanessa Paradis, is said to survive a battle with the deadly E. coli bacteria.

The seven-year-old girl was hospitalized in London earlier this month suffering a mystery illness. It was reported at that time that she had contracted blood poisoning after stepping on a rusty nail. Despite all the persistent rumor, a member of the production crew on Depp's new movie "Sweeney Todd" claims Lily had the deadly E. coli bacteria, which caused her kidneys to shut down.

"Everyone gasped when we were given the real reason for Lily-Rose's illness. It was touch and go for a while," British newspaper The Sun quoted a source as saying.

"Sweeney Todd," a musical, drama, thriller flick directed by Tim Burton, has to halt its production because Depp wanted to be by his daughter's side until she got the all-clear.
 

E. coli in spinach: final report issued

Posted by E. coli Lawyer on March 23, 2007

The California Department of Health Services and the FDA have released their final report on the spinach E. coli outbreak.

Authorities for the first time said they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch in San Benito County from a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics, a spinach grower.

They found E. coli "indistinguishable from the outbreak strain" in river water, cattle feces, and wild pig feces on the ranch within a mile a from the spinach fields, the California Department of Health Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a joint report.

Investigators also said they could not make a "definitive determination" as to how the E. coli contaminated the spinach.

The Paicines Ranch, which breeds Angus cattle and quarter horses, said in a statement on its Web site that it leases land to crop growers and was not under investigation in the outbreak.
 

E. coli outbreak: spinach farmers to benefit from Iraq War bill

Posted by E. coli Lawyer on March 23, 2007

The addition of $25 million of funding for spinach farmers who lost revenue during last year's spinach recall is affecting those victims of the E.coli outbreak.

The losses to the farmers came when they were unable to sell their crops last fall after Americans got sick and died from e-coli bacteria in a batch of tainted spinach.

Some of that spinach found its way to the Matthew's dinner table. Michelle got sick, but her daughter, Arabella, almost died. Arabella was just two-years-old when she came down with E. coli. She spent nine days at Primary Children's Hospital, had an operation and was on kidney dialysis from hemolytic uremic syndrome.

The Matthews have about $60,000 in medical bills now, mostly covered by insurance. She says the family has been assured the spinach grower's insurance company would pay the bills, but no money has arrived. Then Mrs. Matthews read that the spinach farmers stand to gain $25 million from the Iraq war spending bill.

"I understand this is the way our legislature works, but I think it's just sickening," Michelle Matthews of Eagle Mountain told ABC 4 News.

In an article for USA Today, Marler Clark client Darryl Howard whose mother, Betty, died after becoming ill with an E. coli infection, said, "They killed my mother, and now they want me to pay for it." Marler Clark is also representing Michelle Matthews.
 

Son of Woman Killed by E. coli Testifies: Legislature must go farther than industry-led marketing agreement

Posted by E. coli Attorney on March 19, 2007

Darryl Howard, the son of Betty Howard, a Richland, Washington, resident who died after contracting E. coli O157:H7 last September after eating California-grown spinach, will testify before the California Senate Agriculture Committee in Oakland, advocating for legislation to ensure fresh produce safety.

Mr. Howard and his two brothers will attend the hearing in support of Senate Bills 200, 201 and 202, which are sponsored by Senator Dean Florez.

“The state needs some jurisdictional teeth not just over products, but over potential E. coli sources,” said Mr. Howard.  “After listening to testimony by John Dyer, CFDA’s chief counsel who helped write the agreement for the state, say, ‘Growers aren’t subject to this act, and to the agreement’ and ‘Marketing Orders and Agreements are not food safety-empowered programs,’ I knew this agreement did not go far enough and gives the public a false sense of security.”  The leafy greens marketing agreement goes into effect on April 1st, to which Mr. Howard said, “It’s appropriate because it’s April Fools Day.”

Howard will submit for the record the federal testimony of Dr. Kevin Reilly, Deputy Director, Prevention Services, California Department of Health Services.  Dr. Riley gave testimony on November 15, 2006 to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.  In his testimony, he stated that, “The Salinas Valley appears to have systemic E. coli O157:H7 contamination in the environment that has led to a number of fresh produce associated outbreaks over time.”
 

Lawmaker wants agency to release findings on E. coli tainted Valley spinach

Posted by E. coli Attorney on March 14, 2007

State officials say they will soon release results of an investigation into last year's deadly Salinas Valley E. coli outbreak, including naming the San Benito County farm where the tainted spinach was grown, but Senator Dean Florez says consumers can't wait any longer.

"Time is a luxury we don't have," the senator said at a legislative hearing Monday. "We cannot wait any longer to solve this problem."

The September outbreak killed three people and sickened more than 200 nationwide. State and federal officials have traced the outbreak back to a 50-acre spinach plot. The E. coli strain identified in the contaminated spinach has been found in a nearby stream and in cattle feces and in wild pigs.

But the Department of Health Services has declined Florez's request to release further details until the report is in its final version. It is still being reviewed by the federal Food and Drug Administration, which has aided in the inquiry.

"We believe it will be released in the coming weeks," said Jennifer Kent, associate secretary of legislative affairs at the state Health and Human Services Agency. She testified at the Senate Select Committee on Foodborne Illness, which Florez leads.

The results of the Salinas Valley investigation are likely to play a major role in several lawsuits filed on behalf of E. coli victims. Marler Clark, a Seattle law firm representing 90 plaintiffs alleged in a lawsuit that the tainted spinach was grown at a farm called Mission Organics.
 

A Secret Of The Fatal Food Poisoning Bug E. Coli O157 Is Revealed Is It Looking For Iron?

Posted by E. coli Attorney on March 11, 2007

Microbiology researchers trying to uncover the secret of the success of the dangerous food poisoning bacterium E. coli O157 have discovered that it uses a unique iron-gathering trick that may help it to overcome our bodies' defenses.

Part of the normal way our bodies fight off bacteria and other disease threats is by withdrawing supplies of iron from our tissues iron, which is vital for the bacteria's growth and reproduction. Some very dangerous bacteria overcome this defense mechanism by specifically targeting supplies of iron in our bodies.

Scientists at the University of Reading have discovered that the dangerous O157 strain of the common E. coli bacterium possesses an iron transporter, which is mutated and non-functional in the closely related but harmless K-12 strain that lives in our gut.

"The presence of the active form of this transporter in E. coli O157 appears to give the bacterium a special advantage when operating in low-iron, acid conditions conditions that may reflect those experienced inside the human host", says Jieni Cao from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, who made the discovery. "This could allow the food poisoning strain of E. coli to grow and multiply quickly during infection".

The researchers hope that by identifying the unique way the bacteria operate they will have also discovered a new target for antibacterial treatments in the future. A key component of the iron transporting system is similar to iron-uptake systems in some fungi, such as Candida, which causes thrush.
 

Senator demands E. coli outbreak results

Posted by E. coli Attorney on March 10, 2007

Senator Dean Florez has criticized the California Department of Health Services after the department refused to release its report on September's deadly E. coli outbreak.

That outbreak, which killed several people and sickened hundreds, was linked to a California spinach farm, but the Department of Health Services refused to acknowledge which farm is responsible, and what went wrong.

Florez thinks the department is keeping the report from the public because he believes they "dropped the ball" when it comes to protecting the public from food-borne illnesses.

"When you have this cloud of secrecy and you have this whole department unwilling to come and tell the public ultimately what went wrong, why it went wrong, and ultimately who is responsible, it is very difficult for the public, I believe, to think the government is actually working toward the food safety policy," said the senator.
 

E. coli Find Sparks New Criticism of Organic Foods

Posted by E. coli Lawyer on March 09, 2007

In an article by Fred Lucas of CNSNews.com on March 09, 2007 I was quoted:
Though the state of California did not specifically identify the property where the contaminated spinach came from, a law firm which brought a class-action suit against Dole Food Company -- which packaged some of the contaminated spinach -- added Mission Organics to the list of defendants.

The location of the contamination really doesn't matter to the lawsuit, said attorney Bill Marler, who represents 87 people filing a lawsuit against Dole Food Company. Nor does it matter to him that it came from a farm that was moving toward becoming an organic farm, since the spinach wasn't sold as organic.

"There are steps all parties could have taken to prevent the contamination from getting in the spinach," Marler said. "It's not really very significant. This is a strict product liability case and the target is Dole. How a product becomes contaminated is not something I care about."
"How a product becomes contaminated is not something I care about." What I meant to say is that in a strict product liability lawsuit how the product became contaminated does not matter a great deal in the legal context - the issue is that it should not be in a finished product in the first place.

Washington Firm Recalls Ground Beef for Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination

Posted by E. coli Attorney on March 02, 2007

Tyson Fresh Meats, of Wallula, Washington, is voluntarily recalling approximately 16,743 pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department 4 of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

The products subject to recall include:

  • 60-pound boxes containing six 10-pound chubs of "ROUND, COARSE GROUND BEEF, 85/15."

The problem was discovered through routine FSIS microbiological sampling at another federally inspected establishment. FSIS has received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of these products.

The ground beef was produced on Feb. 16, 2007 and was sent to distributors in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington.