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CDC: Do Not Eat Any Romaine Lettuce Until Further Notice (wired.com)
Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out an unusually strong statement telling Americans to toss any romaine lettuce in any form: whole, chopped, pre-bagged into Caesar salads, combined into spring mix, and so on. The warning covered not just homes but retailers and restaurants, and came with a recommendation to empty any fridge where romaine has been stored, and wash it out with soap and warm water. From a report: The CDC said it was making the recommendation to not eat, serve or sell any romaine lettuce because 32 people in 11 states, plus 18 people in Ontario and Quebec, have been made ill by E. coli O157:H7, which causes very serious illness because it produces a toxin that destroys cells lining the intestines and kidneys. The patients are all infected with the same strain, based on genetic fingerprinting, and the only thing they have in common is that they all ate romaine.
But, the CDC said, "no common grower, supplier, distributor, or brand of romaine lettuce has been identified." The agency isn't usually so sweeping in its statements, but with a holiday coming -- one that's centered around eating and that takes people offline into the real world of airports and cars and dinner tables -- it warned against all romaine until the threat can be better defined. The Food and Drug Administration, which does have the power to compel foods to be recalled, is investigating, along with health departments in the 11 states where people have gotten sick.
But, the CDC said, "no common grower, supplier, distributor, or brand of romaine lettuce has been identified." The agency isn't usually so sweeping in its statements, but with a holiday coming -- one that's centered around eating and that takes people offline into the real world of airports and cars and dinner tables -- it warned against all romaine until the threat can be better defined. The Food and Drug Administration, which does have the power to compel foods to be recalled, is investigating, along with health departments in the 11 states where people have gotten sick.
... in Germany a few years back. The so called EHEC scandal. (Can't recall if EHEC is the pathogen out the disease it causes). It wasn't pretty. For weeks the republic was frantically tracking down the source and found it in a farm that had basically used raw sewage to fertilize grown sprouts. A few people died a painful death iirc. Don't know if anybody went to jail. This is sort of a borderline case in which dumb Farmers can actually kill people. I don't know if they changed some growing regulations or something after that.
Bottom line: don't think the CDC is exaggerating, this could likely be serious.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
It's not crunchy water to blame, it is migrant farm workers not being given bathroom breaks and so taking shits in the fields instead. "transmission occurs through fecal contamination of food and water supplies" --Wikipedia
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.