The headlines about Shigella have taken a sharp turn. For most of my career the bug showed up in the news the way I knew it best — a daycare outbreak, a sick restaurant worker, a batch of contaminated produce. Lately the headlines read more like something out of an STI clinic: “sexually transmitted superbug,” “drug-resistant Shigella spreading among […]
Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm representing several victims of the recent Florida E. coli outbreak, is calling on legislators nation-wide to put into law requirements for the protection of petting zoo visitors. Proposed requirements include increasing signage and warnings about health risks associated with human-animal contact, providing adequate handwashing facilities at strategic locations throughout […]
UPI also did an article on the trickling in of lawsuits in the outbreak of kidney failures among children who have visited petting zoos in Florida. Statewide, there are 24 confirmed cases of E.coli infection and 40 suspected cases. The lawsuits allege Ag-Venture should have done a better job protecting visitors from the bacteria and […]
As the Times reported in their article “Seattle lawyer says his client may join other cases against Ag-Venture Farm Shows,” Marler Clark filed a suit on behalf of Yvonne Miller, an Orlando mother of three, alleging Ag-Venture should have done a better job protecting fairgoers from exposure to pathogens. As the number of people who […]
A seventh child in central Florida has contracted a life-threatening kidney infection after visiting a petting zoo in Orlando. Five of the seven children were hospitalized in critical condition, including one on dialysis, the Orlando Sentinel reported for Thursday editions. Another had been upgraded to stable condition, said Dr. Mehul Dixit, who is treating some […]
Marler Clark filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of seven people who became ill with Salmonella Enteriditis infections after eating Paramount Farms raw almonds between September, 2003 and May, 2004. The lawsuit was filed in the South Judicial District of the Los Angeles County Superior Court (Case No. NC036770). All seven plaintiffs had Salmonella infections […]
On Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that at least five children were in critical condition in Orlando-area hospitals with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, a potentially life-threatening cause of kidney failure. All visited a petting zoo the week before they became ill. There’s nothing more American than a petting zoo. Countless numbers of children visit petting zoos […]
Unfortunately, some people make suspect and unsupportable foodborne illness claims. It is important to develop a reliable method of identifying suspect, unsupportable, or illegitimate foodborne illness claims. In my experience, food industry corporations over-emphasize, and thus over react to, the presence of such claims. Such a strategy can lead to the denial of legitimate claims. […]
A rise in the number of Escherichia coli cases requires diligent detection efforts. By Debby Giusti, MT(ASCP) Ten-year-old Brianne Kiner spent 40 days in a coma in 1993, while teams of medical personnel worked round-the-clock to keep her alive. Brianne has little memory of the 118 days she was on kidney dialysis or the 80 […]
At least 29 pupils at San Jose Elementary School in Magini, Bohol, Philippines died of likely cyanide poisoning on Wednesday after eating carmelized cassava roots. Health officials said 50 pupils are in critical condition, and at least 100 students became ill with food poisoning after being served the sweetened cassava roots at school. Cassava plant […]
As the Post-Dispatch reported on February 25, a manager for a warehouse and transportation company in Madison admitted last month to illegally ordering that boxes of chicken be labeled and shipped without proper inspection – including some sent to a school in Joliet, Ill., where dozens of people fell ill. Edward L. Wuebbels, the manager […]
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported yesterday that a human rights group has looked closely at a major industry in one country and found safety conditions like those of a century ago, systematic disrespect for workers’ rights and widespread disregard of international labor standards. Yes, conditions for U.S. meatpacking workers are scandalous. Human Rights Watch last week […]
As Tim Hay of the San Mateo County Times reported today, a multinational food company and a Salinas vegetable farm have been ordered to pay an undisclosed amount to an elderly woman who was sickened in an outbreak of E. coli in a local retirement home, as well the son of a woman who died […]
As the The Salinas Californian reports, legal consequences of two food-borne illness outbreaks that sickened at least 63 people and killed one in 2003 have returned to the Salinas Valley, where state investigators say lettuce and spinach — contaminated at an unknown point before they were eaten — were grown. Beginning with those infected with […]
FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATE January 15, 2005 “People’s perception of the disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) is coloured by the fact that it’s not a very nice disease,” adding that salmonella, botulism and E. coli are much more effective killers.” Stephen Moore, chairman of bovine genomics, University of Alberta’s department of agriculture “We’ve resolved our differences. Both […]
As the Herald Salinas Bureau reports, Marler Clark clients who were victims of an E. coli outbreak involving contaminated vegetables grown in Salinas Valley are settling their claims against the restaurants serving tainted produce in 2003. But the legal cases continue while the restaurant owners attempt to pin the blame on Salinas Valley produce companies, […]