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Health Law

Food Poison Blog

Surveillance and analysis on food poison news and outbreaks.
By Marler Clark

Post Frequency: 17.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 12:57:03

Salmonella Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Memphis Father and Son Sickened by Food from Local BBQ

Posted on July 30, 2009
An outbreak of Salmonella in Memphis Tennessee linked to a local bar-be-que restaurant has resulted in legal action. A lawsuit was filed today in the Circuit Court for Shelby County, Tennessee against A&R Bar-be-que, LLC. The lawsuit was filed by Seattle foodborne illness law firm Marler Clark and by John Day of the Tennessee firm Day & Blair on behalf of a Memphis father and son...

US House Passes Food Safety Enhancement Act Of 2009 With Large Bipartisan Majority

Posted on July 30, 2009
Republicans did not like how the Democrats did it, but they provided enough votes Thursday to see the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 pass the U.S. House of Representatives with a strong bipartisan vote of 283-to-142. Just before passing the biggest food safety reform since 1938, the House Democrats had to turn back a 'last stand' attempt led by mostly rural Republicans to send the bill back to committee "with instructions...

Dingell Makes Move To Get H.R. 2749 Vote On House Floor

Posted on July 29, 2009
The U.S. House of Representatives is now on the floor debating H.R. 2749 "to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve the safety of food in the global market, and for other purposes." Forty minutes of debate will be followed by a vote to suspend the rules and allow voting on final passage...

"Cook until juices run clear" is bad food safety advice

Posted on July 29, 2009
Today's Boston Globe features a recipe for grilled chicken salad with pecans and cranberries. I make variations of this recipe frequently, and was excited to see whether the Boston Globe recipe included any new ingredients that I could add to my mix...

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Fireside Coffee Co. Recalls Tea Products Over Salmonella Fears

Posted on July 29, 2009
The FDA announced today that a Michigan company is recalling several flavors of tea due to possible contamination with Salmonella. The report states: Fireside Coffee Co., which is based in Swartz Creek [Michigan], is recalling vanilla, decaf vanilla, chocolate and spiced chai, because their ingredients include dry milk produced by Plainview Milk Products after June 2007, the U...

Consumer Advocates Frustrated by Defeat of HR 2749, Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009

Posted on July 29, 2009
Today's failed attempt at comprehensive food safety reform left consumer advocates deeply disappointed, but ready to resume the fight. Many in the food safety community expected to have the votes to pass HR 2749, a bipartisan measure that unanimously passed out of committee in June, but the measure fell just short of the supermajority required under a suspension of the rules...

H.R. 2749 Killed (For Now) On Floor of U.S. Congress

Posted on July 29, 2009
John Dingell came up six or seven votes short today, and failed to get food safety reform legislation passed through Congress. Dingell, the once powerful Michigan Democrat who lost his chairmanship of the Energy & Commerce Committee before the start of the 111th Congress, fell just short of getting the necessary two-thirds majority vote to suspend the rules and adopt H...

Kidney Trafficking Case Highlights Difficulties Facing HUS Survivors

Posted on July 28, 2009
The news media has been full of reports concerning the arrests of more than 40 people folllowing a corruption investigation in New Jersey. Among the more startling aspects of the story are the allegations that those arrested were involved in the trafficking of human kidneys...

Mississippi Baptists Sue Over Their January Illnesses: But Actual Cause Remains A Mystery

Posted on July 28, 2009
Last January 18th, a group from the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Itta Bena dined at Greenwood Pizza Hut in northern Mississippi. Afterwards 19 people were taken to the hospital with symptoms of vomiting and nausea. The Mississippi Health Department investigated but could not find the source of the illnesses...

Craft brewers concerned about proposed water treatment in Portland

Posted on July 27, 2009
In a July 23, 2009 editorial titled, 'The potential end of Beervana as we know it,' The Oregonian's editorial board discusses the Portland City Council's impending decision on whether to approve a $385 million proposal to begin filtering water from the Bull Run watershed, the source of Portland's municipal water...

Hepatitis A linked to Milan McDonalds tops 25 and that number may likely grow - over 5,000 people received IG or Hepatitis A vaccines

Posted on July 25, 2009
Hepatitis A is a communicable (or contagious) disease. The virus is transmitted by the 'fecal – oral route,' (human feces gets into your mouth) generally from person-to-person, or via contaminated food or water. Outbreaks, like the one at the Milan, Illinois McDonalds, associated with food have been increasingly implicated as a significant source of Hepatitis A infection...

Hepatitis A report "fell through cracks"

Posted on July 24, 2009
WQAD reported today on a Rock Island County Sheriffs Department investigation into the hepatitis A outbreak in the Quad-Cities area. The outbreak has thus far resulted in at least 25 confirmed hepatitis A cases since June, most allegedly linked to the consumption of food and beverages served at the Milan McDonald's restaurant, where 'patient zero' worked while infectious...

Ground beef contaminated with antibiotic-resistant Salmonella recalled

Posted on July 23, 2009
The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that King Soopers, Inc. of Denver, Colorado, was recalling 466,236 pounds of ground beef products due to potential Salmonella Typhimurim DT104 contamination yesterday...

Missouri DNR Hides Evidence of High E. coli Levels in Lake of the Ozarks

Posted on July 23, 2009
Scott Dye, program director for The National Sierra Club Water Sentinels Program was spot on today when he said 'DNR stands for Do Not Release.' The State of Missouri's Department of Natural Resources decided not to release evidence of excessive E...

Was The Communicable Disease Reporting System Broke Or Just Ignorred In Rock Island County Hepatitis A Outbreak?

Posted on July 22, 2009
In the final analysis, the Milan McDonald's Hepatitis A outbreak is not simply about who is lying or who is inept in this single instance. It is about whether the public health system for reporting and managing communicable diseases really works...

Lettuce recalled for Salmonella contamination

Posted on July 22, 2009
Tanimura & Antle, Inc. recalled one lot of romaine lettuce for Salmonella contamination yesterday after a Wisconsin Department of Agriculture test came back positive for the bacterium. According to a press release on the Tanimura & Antle website: Within hours of being notified yesterday, Tanimura & Antle, Inc...

Class Action Hepatitis A Lawsuit Against McDonald's - Ten Thousand People May Have Been Exposed to Hepatitis A at Milan Restaurant

Posted on July 21, 2009
A class action lawsuit was filed today in the Circuit Court of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of Rock Island County against McDonald's Inc., and Kevin Murphy, the owner of the McDonald's restaurant at 400 West First Street in Milan, Illinois. Marler Clark, the Seattle-based foodborne illness law firm, and the Illinois firm of Foote, Meyers, Mielke & Flowers LLC, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the named plaintiff, Cody Patterson, and all others who were forced to receive Immune globulin (IG) shots after being exposed to the hepatitis A virus (HAV) at the Milan McDonald's...

FDA Announces Recall of Infant "Teethers" Due to Bacteria

Posted on July 21, 2009
The FDA announced today that Luv N' Care Ltd. of Monroe, Louisiana is voluntarily recalling gel-filled "teethers" nationwide due to concerns that the gel may be contaminated with bacteria. According to the FDA, the gel was found to contain "bacillus subtilis and Bacillus circulans bacteria...

Opinion - Roy Costa - McDonald's Hepatitis A Scandal May Involve Health Department

Posted on July 20, 2009
Roy E Costa, R.S., M.S./M.B.A. In yet another blatant case of disregard for public health and safety by the food industry we have a report that the McDonald's in Rock Island, Illinois at the center of a hepatitis outbreak lied about their knowledge of an infected employee...

KWQC TV6 Drops a Bombshell - Former Milan Illinois Hepatitis A McDonald's Employee was Ill in June and Told Employer

Posted on July 19, 2009
TV6 once again digs for the truth in what is quickly turning into both a PR nightmare for McDonalds and the Rock Island Health Department, as well as a growing public health disaster. Those now counted ill are at least 20 with 11 so far hospitalized...

Illinois Health Department Closes Milan Illinois McDonald's Due to Hepatitis A - Immune Globulin (IG) Shot to be Given to Customers

Posted on July 18, 2009
Deirdre Cox Baker (Ms. Hepatitis of the Quad-Cities) reports this evening that the Rock Island County Health Department is investigating a connection between a Hepatitis A outbreak and a McDonald's restaurant in Milan, Illinois. In fact, the Health Department has ordered the McDonalds closed...

Marler Opinion - McDonald's Hepatitis A Problem - How Many Times Does Lightening Need to Strike Before You Wake the Hell Up?

Posted on July 17, 2009
I was 'struck' how easy it is to spend a few moments on Google to see what a problem McDonalds seems to have with Hepatitis A infected employees. I really do not get it? Why risk it? The Hepatitis A vaccine is a 2 dose series with the 2 doses given at least 6 months apart for lasting protection against infection by the Hepatitis A virus...

E. sakazakii infection from powdered infant formula: Know the risks

Posted on July 16, 2009
In early May of 2007, the Center for Acute Disease Epidemiology (CADE) of the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) was notified that a two-week-old premature infant had been diagnosed with Enterobacter sakazakii (E. sakazakii) infection. The child, a twin, was born at a low birth weight, and was fed a mixture of powdered infant formula and breast milk while in the NICU...

19 Hepatitis A cases Linked to Milan, Illinois McDonald's was preventable says Food Safety Advocate and Attorney William Marler

Posted on July 16, 2009
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 19 confirmed cases of Hepatitis A. 13 are in Rock Island County, and six more are being reported in Henry, Mercer, Warren and Woodford Counties. John David reporter for WQAD has reported that: 'Lunch customers coming to the Milan McDonalds on Thursday found the doors locked...

Marler Clark Files Second E. coli Lawsuit against JBS Swift Washington State Toddler Gravely Ill due to E. coli-Contaminated Beef

Posted on July 16, 2009
A second lawsuit stemming from the current Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) recall by JBS Swift Beef Company was filed today in the US District Court, Eastern District of Washington. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the family of a young Selah-area child who fell ill with an E...

First Responders In Foodborne Disease Outbreaks Now Have Common Guidelines To Work With

Posted on July 16, 2009
The last time anybody counted, there were 2,864 local health departments operating in every state except Rhode Island. Some are units of state governments, cities and counties operate many, and others are a state-local hybrid. To think that the so-called 'first responders' on the frontlines of food-borne illness outbreaks would ever be on the 'same page' might be expecting too much...

William Marler Op-ed: Dave Theno had it right - Secretaries Vilsack and Sebelius should pay attention

Posted on July 15, 2009
Lauren Beth Rudolph died on December 28, 1992 in her mother's arms due to complications of an E. coli O157:H7 infection - Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. She was only 6 years, 10 months, and 10 days old when she died. Her death, the deaths of three other children, and the sicknesses of 600 others, were eventually linked to E...

The Next Foodborne Threat? MRSA infections from contaminated meat

Posted on July 15, 2009
In an interesting article published online today, the author discusses the growing threat to the public health posed by the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in our food supply. See Stephanie Woodard, Concerns Over Superbugs in our Food Supply, available at www...

Is the Convenience of Bagged Spinach and Lettuce Worth the E. coli Bacteria Risk and Damage to the Environment?

Posted on July 14, 2009
A battle for the soul of agriculture is being waged in California in a new sort of green revolution -- and counter-revolution. Jackson West "If we want to have bagged spinach and lettuce available 24/7, 12 months of the year, it comes with costs," lawyer Bill Marler told the San Francisco Chronicle...

Consent Degree Reached Between Peregrina Cheese Inc. & FDA; Brooklyn Factory To Remain Open; Recalls Everything Since March 17, 2009

Posted on July 14, 2009
Brooklyn's Peregrina Cheese Inc. and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York have entered into a 16-page Consent Degree with many requirements---including the recall of all food products the food company has distributed since March 17, 2009...

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