Food poisoning from salmonella up in United States

[Billy]

CDC: Food poisoning from salmonella up in United States

ATLANTA (AP) -- More Americans got food poisoning last year, with salmonella cases driving the increase, the government reported Tuesday. Illness rates for the most common serious type of E. coli fell last year. There was a rise in cases caused by other strains of the bacteria, although that bump may just reflect more testing was done for them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

An unusually aggressive strain of E. coli is behind the current large outbreak of food poisoning in Europe, mostly in Germany. That strain has never caused an outbreak in the U.S.

The CDC estimates that 50 million Americans each year get sick from foodborne illnesses, including about 3,000 who die.

The report released Tuesday is based on foodborne infections in only 10 states, or about 15 percent of the American population. But it has information that other databases lack and is believed to be a good indicator of food poisoning trends.

More than 19,000 cases of food poisoning were reported in those states last year. That was up from 17,500 cases in 2009, and about 18,500 in

2008.

Last year, there were 4,200 hospitalizations and 68 deaths in those states. (cont.)

Salmonella means poop in the food.

We want a smaller government with fewer food inspectors, right?

[songbird]

Billy wrote: ...

anyone who knows much about salmonella knows that it has multiple causes.

it may mean poop in the food. it may also mean bad eggs in the food. someone who messed around with an infected turtle. etc.

we do want smaller government with fewer food inspectors because it seems like a waste of money to hire people to tell us the food is as contaminated as we already know it is.

put the money into safe food handling research and education.

reactive food prep surfaces and gadgets. so that when contaminated food touches it it changes color immediately. if your food prep gloves turned neon orange when you touched contaminated food then at least that gives immediate feedback instead of delayed.

songbird

[Nad R]

Not a true statement. I do not know if the food is safe. I want the inspections and I want the government to make sure it is safe.

Cost money for that and I am for increasing taxes to pay for that research and education which should make our lives safer.

I'm not so sure about the theory that smaller government is better. The job of companies is to make money. Most Corporations and individuals will not police themselves. It is the job of the government to protect people (it is stated in the US constitution). Regulations are like laws, inspectors are like police officers.

I believe more regulations are needed. One example is for small cities. Many small cities have a single sewer system that combine storm and toilet into one system. Those single systems should be be banned! When it rains human waist and rain cannot be handled by the treatment centers and the overflow goes straight into the rivers and lakes. This is why many Michigan beaches are closed this summer due to e-coli.

Large cities should be like big cities with a dual sewer system. One for waste and another for storm. When it rains no treatment is needed. Human waist will be completely contained and can be treated by treatment centers. But we have a LOW tax drive by people and this creates problems from small government nonsense. Dual waist system cost much more money than single systems. But small government and low taxation is in reality destroying this country.

Even for individuals should have inspections. Septic fields are not cheap they cost money. Many will cheat the system when their fields fail. They will redirect their system to bypass and send their waste straight into the drainage ditches without processing causing health problems for others. I am for more inspections to make sure our world is a better world.

Small government reduces investment and in research that make things worse for all.

[Frank]

I want a smaller government where important jobs are covered and this is one.

We had a bout of food poisoning earlier this year but could not trace to anything.

Washing and cooking food by consumer is important. The German problem was apparently with sprouts from an organic farm.

[Billy]

How about economic inspectors?

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has halted development of a technology program used to flag suspicious trading because of an $11 million cut in its technology budget, increasing rancor within the small agency about how it should spend its money.

The tensions offer a taste of spending battles to come at the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission if, as seems increasingly likely, Congress refuses to increase the agencies' funding to deal with new mandates created by the Dodd-Frank financial-reform act.

These squabbles have a long history, and often involve budget-process bluffing and gamesmanship between Congress and regulators. The regulators say it's different this time because of the extensive new responsibilities they have been handed under last year's Dodd-Frank legislation. The two agencies say they need another 1,200 staff in total to implement and enforce the sweeping financial overhaul.

German authorities announced Saturday that they located the source of the bacteria. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) confirmed test results announced on Friday that identified bean sprouts in the northern village of Bienenbüttel as carrying the virulent E. coli strain EHEC-0104.   Health officials have given the green light on vegetables "These results are an important step in the chain of evidence," said BfR director Andreas Hensel.   Officials investigating an organic farm in northern Germany said on Saturday they do not expect to take legal action against it for causing an E.coli outbreak.   "Everything we have looked into until now shows the farm was flawless," said Gert Hahne, spokesman for the consumer protection office of Lower Saxony state, where Bienenbüttel is located. "It is hygienic and followed all the regulations."

[Frank]

My wife thinks our problem may have came from some olives she picked up for a salad at a salad bar at the Acme, our local supermarket. Acme said they were not aware of any problem but it has scared us away from salad bars which could be contaminated by customers.

Once saw a Federal Register article from the FDA that talked about incidence of food poisoning from various meats/fishes. Don't recall specifics but pork and beef were safest with most incidents from poultry and seafood. For me, the latter must be thoroughly cooked.

[Billy]

Not trying to argue with you Frank. I just think it's a valuable discussion.

Every year in the United States, 325,000 people are hospitalized because of food-borne illnesses and 5,000 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That¹s right: food kills one person every two hours.

One of the most common antibiotic-resistant pathogens is MRSA, which now kills more Americans annually than AIDS and adds hugely to America¹s medical costs. MRSA has many variants, and one of the more benign forms now is widespread in hog barns and among people who deal with hogs. An article this year in a journal called Applied and Environmental Microbiology reported that MRSA was found in 70 percent of hogs on one farm.

[Frank]

Not arguing. I agree with you. Editorial in C&E News just mentioned the stupidity of using antibiotics to help fatten up farm animals.

I had a lot of dealings with food packaging issues when doing regulatory consulting in plastics. There were a lot of issues but the fact is that people are killed by stuff in food, not the packaging.

[Billy]

Yeah, but there is acute toxicity, and chronic toxicity. Not every poison strikes you down like a bolt of lightening.

[Frank]

All considered when evaluating toxicity. Some long term tests like carcinogenicity cost millions to run. I've seen non-food contact materials dropped from the market because testing costs exceeded any potential profit.

[Billy]

So were back to arguing human cost over financial profit?

It should not be forgotten that review articles written by authors with affiliations to the tobacco industry have been found to be 88 times more likely to conclude that passive smoking is not harmful than if the article is written by authors with no connection to the tobacco industry (Wise, J. (1998) BMJ. 316)