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Marler Clark Press Release
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Bill Marler
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Wisconsin, Oregon plaintiffs amend complaints to add additional defendants.

SEATTLE, WA (SEPTEMBER 18, 2006) – On Monday, Seattle-based Marler Clark will file another lawsuit on behalf of a victim of the recent E. coli O157:H7 outbreak traced to contaminated spinach. The lawsuit will be filed against Natural Selection Foods, LLC and National Selection Foods Manufacturing, LLC in federal court in Utah on behalf of Murray, Utah resident Sheila Leafty and her young son, Brayden. Brayden is one of at least 14 Utah residents who have become ill with E. coli O157:H7 infections after eating contaminated spinach produced by Natural Selection Foods. 

Marler Clark also added both Natural Selection companies to two lawsuits that the firm filed last week in federal court in Oregon and Wisconsin against Dole Food Company. Health officials in those states have reported that at least 19 residents (5 in Oregon and 14 in Wisconsin) were confirmed to be part of the outbreak. On Sunday, the Food and Drug Administration reported that 109 individuals in 19 states, sixteen of whom have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (see www.about-hus.com), have been confirmed as being part of the outbreak. One Wisconsin resident died after suffering complications of E. coli infection.

“As the grower and producer, Natural Selections Foods should have been consumers’ first line of defense against E. coli entering the food supply,” said Bill Marler, attorney for the plaintiffs in the three lawsuits. “Instead, this company allowed contaminated produce to enter the marketplace and caused one of the largest fresh produce-related outbreaks in recent history.”

“This is not the first time bagged spinach has been traced to an E. coli outbreak,” Marler continued. Bagged lettuce and spinach were traced to E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in 2002[1], 2003[2], and 2005.[3] “Consumers put their trust in the 31 brands that Natural Selections Foods supplied spinach for. They shouldn’t have to pay for their trust with their health.”

Marler, who is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week meeting with the families of several severely injured children with HUS, began representing victims of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in 1993, when he represented the most severely injured survivors of the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak.  He has been retained by 13 people who were confirmed part of the current outbreak, and is investigating 18 additional cases in seven states.  He has represented thousands of other victims of E. coli outbreaks (see www.marlerclark.com/news/notable-news-index.htm). 

Marler is available by cell phone at (206) 794-5043 or bmarler@marlerclark.com. You can also keep up to speed with Mr. Marler at his blog site, www.marlerblog.com.

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14.sep.06
Commentary from the Food Safety Network
Douglas Powell and Ben Chapman
www.foodsafety.ksu.edu

Now it's killer spinach.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced this evening that, based on preliminary epidemiological evidence, bagged fresh spinach may be the common food in an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 that has left one person dead and at least 50 others sick in eight states. 

Of those, 8 individuals have developed a form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome. FDA is telling consumers to not eat bagged fresh spinach at this time.

This is going to be a major outbreak, and not just because of the pain and suffering, the business losses, the increased consumer skepticism.

For the industry, the timing is terrible, following a nationwide warning to consumers in early October 2005 against eating certain pre- packaged Dole salad products because the lettuce had been associated with an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Minnesota in which at least 18 people fell ill, further ratcheting up attention on the $2 billion lettuce (and spinach) industry.

And maybe that's a good thing.

On Nov. 4, 2005, Dr. Robert Brackett, director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, wrote California lettuce producers, packers and shippers, urging them to re-examine and modify operations from the farm through to distributors to ensure that consumers were provided with a safe product.

Dr. Brackett's November letter noted that FDA was aware of 18 outbreaks of foodborne illness since 1995 caused by E. coli O157:H7 for which fresh or fresh-cut lettuce was implicated as the outbreak vehicle. In one additional case, fresh-cut spinach was implicated. 

These 19 outbreaks accounted for 409 reported cases of illness and two deaths.

A subsequent Dateline NBC report on the Dole outbreak spawned a summer of Internet-amplified warnings about the perils of bagged lettuce, many of them false, which will now, with the latest outbreak, be recycled as truth.

And last week, FDA officials were in California's Salinas Valley -- the "Salad Bowl of the World," -- promising increased scrutiny on the industry.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are good for us; we should eat more. Yet fresh fruits and vegetables are one of, if not the most, significant source of foodborne illness today in North America. With an estimated

76 million illness and 5,000 deaths in the U.S. each and every year from foodborne illness, that's just too much.

The problem with fresh produce is that the very characteristic that affords dietary benefit -- fresh -- also affords microbiological risk.

Because they are not cooked, anything that comes into contact with fresh fruits and vegetables is a possible source of contamination. Is the water used for irrigation or rinsing clean or is it loaded with pathogens? Do the workers who collect the produce follow strict hygienic practices such as thorough handwashing? What happens to that head of lettuce once it gets on to the sorting line, and then gets chopped up? The possibilities are almost endless.

Even more challenging is that many of these problems must be controlled on the farm. There are situations where the most ardent washing of produce by consumers will accomplish … nothing; in some cases, the dangerous bugs can actually reside within the fresh produce.

Instead of the banal -- and in this case, entirely ineffective -- advice to thoroughly wash all produce, consumers, restaurants, grocery stores, everyone, should be asking some difficult but basic questions: what do growers of fresh lettuce or spinach do to control dangerous microorganisms like E. coli O157:H7?

The U.S. lettuce/leafy greens industry took the first step in doing this, releasing a comprehensive set of food safety guidelines, from the farm through to retail, in April, 2006. That's nine years after the FDA first drew attention to the problem of fresh produce. And even though grower groups will tomorrow say, "We have these guidelines …" that is not nearly good enough.

For the past decade, numerous on-farm programs have been created and touted, yet outbreaks associated with produce continue unabated.

Programs mean manuals, checklists and bureaucratic oversight. What's needed is the data to illustrate where, why and how dangerous bugs get into fresh produce, and, equally important, people to provide on- going interaction with farmers, retailers and food service, to compel each individual in the farm-to-fork food safety system to do whatever is possible to further enhance the safety of fresh produce.

We have worked with growers of fresh produce for the past 10 years, and know that any grower can clean up for a once-a-year audit. Given the on-going outbreaks, growers that want to stay in business, will get some food safety religion for the other 364 days of the year.

Seattle food safety attorney William Marler, who this evening filed a lawsuit in the spinach outbreak, recently noted, "Consumers cannot be left as the last line of defense. Adulterated lettuce (or spinach) should not be making it into the hands of consumers – or retailers, for that matter – in the first place."

Dr. Douglas Powell is scientific director of the Food Safety Network at Kansas State University and Ben Chapman is a PhD student at the University of Guelph. They are the authors of, most recently, an academic book chapter entitled, Implementing On-Farm Food Safety Programs in Fruit and Vegetable Cultivation, in the recently published, Improving the Safety of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=831

dpowell@ksu.edu

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MARLER CLARK PRESS RELEASE
Contact Suzanne Schreck
(206) 346-1879
sschreck@marlerclark.com

PORTLAND, OR (September 14, 2006) – An E. coli lawsuit was filed against Dole late Thursday in United States District Court for the District of Oregon.  The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Gwyn Wellborn, a Salem, Oregon woman who became ill with an E. coli O157:H7 infection after eating Dole brand baby spinach.  Ms. Wellborn and her husband, David, are represented by Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm that has represented hundreds of victims E. coli outbreaks, including victims of last fall’s E. coli outbreak traced to Dole brand lettuce.

The lawsuit alleges that Mrs. Wellborn purchased Dole brand baby spinach on August 21, 2006 and consumed the spinach in salads over several days during the week of August 21 through August 25.  Ms. Wellborn became ill with symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 infection, including diarrhea and stomach cramping, on August 25.  Her symptoms continued to worsen, and Mr. Wellborn took his wife to the emergency room at Salem Hospital in the early morning hours of August 27.  Ms. Wellborn was treated and released, but was admitted to Salem Hospital after a second visit to the emergency room at midday on the 27th.  She remained hospitalized at Salem Hospital for six days, and was transferred to Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland on September 2 after being diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).*  While at OHSU, Ms. Wellborn required at least four blood transfusions and eight plasmapheresis exchanges.  She was discharged from OHSU on September 8, and continues her recovery at home.

“The FDA and the fresh produce industry have been working to resolve the issue of E. coli contamination for a number of years,” said William Marler, attorney for the Wellborns.  “It is unfortunate that outbreaks continue to happen and that consumers continue to be injured as a result.”

BACKGROUND:  Marler Clark has extensive experience representing victims of foodborne illnesses.  William Marler represented Brianne Kiner in her $15.6 million settlement with Jack in the Box in 1993.  In 1998, Marler Clark resolved Odwalla Juice E. coli outbreak cases for five families whose children developed HUS and were severely injured after consuming contaminated apple juice for a reported $12 million.  Mr. Marler recently resolved an HUS case for $11 million. 

*  Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome is a frightening illness that even in the best American medical facilities has a mortality rate of about 5%.  About 50% of patients require dialysis due to kidney failure, 25% experience seizures, and 5% suffer from diabetes mellitus.  The majority of HUS patients requires transfusion of blood products and develops complications common to the critically ill.  Among survivors of HUS, about five percent will eventually develop end stage kidney disease, with the resultant need for dialysis or transplantation, and another five to ten percent experience neurological or pancreatic problems which significantly impair quality of life. 

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Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC - A cluster of E. coli infections have been reported locally in the past week, according to Manitowoc County Health Officer James Blaha.

The source of the infections has yet to be determined, Blaha said. He said there has been an increase in reported E. coli cases statewide.

E. coli is a bacteria that causes severe abdominal cramping and diarrhea, which is often bloody. There is generally little or no fever associated with the illness. Infection is acquired by ingesting contaminated food or water, or by coming in contact with fecal material from infected people or animals. Blaha urges seeking medical attention if infected.

He said E. coli infections can be prevented by avoiding consumption of raw or undercooked beef, or drinking unpasteurized milk. Most importantly, he said, people should wash their hands before preparing or eating food, after using the bathroom or after having contact with cattle.

For more information, contact the Manitowoc County Health Department at 920-683-4155.

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