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Harrowing story of meat safety. It's maddening that some of the industry practices are SPECIFICALLY to prevent tracing contamination. I didn't know that E. Coli can apparently paralyze you for life.

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nytimes meat safety ecoli

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.
Food scientists have registered increasing concern about the virulence of this pathogen since only a few stray cells can make someone sick, and they warn that federal guidance to cook meat thoroughly and to wash up afterward is not sufficient.
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- The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets.
- But even Costco, with its huge buying power, said it had met resistance from some big slaughterhouses. “Tyson will not supply us,” Mr. Wilson said. “They don’t want us to test.”
- “They would not sell to us,” said Timothy P. Biela, the officer. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. One, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them. So we don’t do that.”
- “I’ve had women tell me that E. coli is more painful than childbirth,” said Dr. Phillip I. Tarr, a pathogen expert at Washington University in St. Louis.
- Ms. Smith’s illness was linked to the hamburger only by chance. Her aunt still had some of the frozen patties, and state health officials found that they were contaminated with a powerful strain of E. coli that was genetically identical to the pathogen that had sickened other Minnesotans.
- Like Ms. Smith, the others had eaten Cargill patties bought at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart.
- hamburgers had to be cooked to 160 degrees to be sure any E. coli is killed and urged them to use a thermometer to check the temperature
- In a warm kitchen, E. coli cells will double every 45 minutes
- the Department of Agriculture needed to issue better guidance on avoiding cross-contamination, like urging people to use bleach to sterilize cutting boards.
- after the outbreak, Cargill had new incentives to find out which supplier had sent the tainted meat
- A recent industry test in which spiked samples of meat were sent to independent laboratories used by food companies found that some missed the E. coli in as many as 80 percent of the samples.
- Dr. Samadpour, the laboratory owner, has said that “we can make hamburger safe,” but that in addition to enhanced testing, it will take an aggressive use of measures like meat rinses and safety audits by qualified experts.
- For Ms. Smith, the road ahead is challenging. She is living at her mother’s home in Cold Spring, Minn. She spends a lot of her time in physical therapy, which is being paid for by Cargill in anticipation of a legal claim, according to Mr. Marler. Her kidneys are at high risk of failure. She is struggling to regain some basic life skills and deal with the anger that sometimes envelops her. Despite her determination, doctors say, she will most likely never walk again.

22 Sep 09

Snead's three TD passes carry Mississippi past SE Louisiana - NCAA College Football Recap - ESPN

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He got little help from his receivers, who dropped several passes. Markeith Summers had a touchdown pass glance off his hands in the end zone, forcing the Rebels to settle for a field goal. And Lionel Breaux dropped a wide-open pass that would have gone for significant yardage.

11 Sep 09

Flight School Reviews - Vertical Reference Helicopter Forums

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05 Sep 09

Pet Insurance for Dogs and Cats - Petplan Pet Health Insurance

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28 Aug 09

Depression's Evolutionary Roots: Scientific American

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Depression seems to pose an evolutionary paradox.
the brain plays crucial roles in promoting survival and reproduction, so the pressures of evolution should have left our brains resistant to such high rates of malfunction. Mental disorders should generally be rare — why isn’t depression?
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- the Ache of Paraguay and the !Kung of southern Africa — societies where people are thought to live in environments similar to those that prevailed in our evolutionary past
- we argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits

23 Aug 09

Basics - Finally, the Spleen Gets Some Respect - NYTimes.com

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the spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocytes, and that in the event of a serious trauma to the body like a heart attack, gashing wound or microbial invasion, the spleen will disgorge those monocyte multitudes into the bloodstream to tackle the crisis

Ghostwriters Paid by Wyeth Aided Its Drugs - NYTimes.com

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the level of hidden industry influence on medical literature is broader than previously known
Because physicians rely on medical literature, the concern about ghostwriting is that doctors might change their prescribing habits after reading certain articles, unaware they were commissioned by a drug company.