House committee addresses E. coli, Salmonella outbreaks

Posted on April 24, 2007 by E. coli Lawyer

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce today addressed food safety at its Oversight and Investigations subcommittee today on Capitol Hill. Three families whose members suffered food poisoning after eating contaminated food sent representatives to testify in front of the committee, as did companies whose products were responsible for large foodborne illness outbreaks.

The Associated Press reports that Andrew Bridges quoted testimony from Marler Clark client Michael Armstrong, an Indiana resident whose two daughters became ill after eating E. coli-contaminated spinach last fall.

Gary Pruden, joined by his 11-year-old son, Sean, who was seriously sickened in November by E. coli after eating at a Taco Bell restaurant. Pruden said a key element of trade and commerce is trust - whether placed in accountants, airline pilots or auto mechanics.

"That is also extended to the trust in the food we order or buy from the grocery store - that it's edible and safe. Without that trust, commerce cannot work. And where failure occurs, oversight is required," Pruden told the subcommittee.

Terri Marshall, another Marler Clark client whose mother-in-law became ill with a Salmonella infection after eating Peter Pan peanut butter in January and has not yet recovered, also testified. Mora Lou Marshall has been hospitalized or in a nursing home since early January, after she became seriously ill from eating Peter Pan. The elder Marshall, 85, had kept a jar of the peanut butter on her nightstand to supplement her diet - and had unwittingly continued to eat it, even after she fell ill.

Bill Marler was also in attendance at the hearing, and while he did not provide oral testimony, he did provide written testimony for the food safety hearing.
 

Tags: , ,

E. coli legislation moves forward in California

Posted on April 19, 2007 by E. coli Lawyer
Yesterday, the California Senate Health Committee passed three bills introduced by Senator Dean Florez.  Before they reached the Senate Health Committee, the bills could be summarized as follows:Spinach Harvest
  • Senate Bill 200 gives the Department of Health Services the much-needed authority to recall, quarantine, or destroy produce which may pose a threat to the public. The measure also creates an inspection program to proactively address the threat of outbreaks. DHS inspectors would have the authority to conduct periodic on-farm inspections, including testing of water, soil and produce.
  • Senate Bill 201 mandates Good Agricultural Practices for leafy green growers, covering everything from water and fertilizer use, to worker hygiene, to the creation of buffer zones between fields and potential contamination sources. Growers would be required to maintain extensive documentation of these practices. These documents would be reviewed by DHS to ensure compliance.
  • Senate Bill 202 calls for the creation of a traceback system that can quickly trace contaminated produce through the various stages of the distribution process, from farm to processor, to distributor, to retailer. In the most recent E. coli outbreaks, lettuce and spinach producers nationwide took a major economic hit, because it could not immediately be determined where the contaminated produce came from and every farm was suspect. The ability to quickly find the specific source in an outbreak, combined with DHS’ ability to quarantine or destroy suspect produce, will prevent a similar industry-wide hit in future E. coli outbreaks.
According to an article in today's Salinas Californian, the bills passed out of the Senate Health Committee into the Senate Appropriations Committee, but were amended to instruct public health officials to set safety standards for growers of leafy green vegetables to follow.  The Californian's Jake Henshaw wrote:
Florez originally proposed that the state health department license growers, set field standards and enforce them with inspections.

But SB 201 was amended in the Senate Agriculture Committee, chaired by [Senator Abel] Maldonado, to make state health department regulation a backup to the industry if it failed to adopt its own mandatory safety standards.

SB 200 does require the departments of Public Health and of Food and Agriculture to administer jointly an inspection program of farmers' records and field operations to be sure they are meeting approved standards.
Tags: , , ,

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

Posted on March 23, 2007 by E. coli Lawyer

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.
 

Tags: , ,