A new scholarship at Medway High School has been announced today. The Food Safety Law Firm, Marler Clark, donated $5,000 to found the Powers Family – Marler Clark Scholarship for students who are interested in pursuing higher education in a science field.
The Seattle, Washington-based law firm represents victims of foodborne illness nationwide. In 2009
I just received this message from the Senate floor:
“Prior to adjourning, the Senate passed H.R.2751, as amended by the text of S. 510 (with Tester/Hagen Amendment) minus the offending blue slip provisions. The House now needs to vote to pass. It then needs to be signed by the President.”
Interestingly, I had been working
On the long flight home from D.C., as I was thinking about what appears to be the lost battle over new Food Safety legislation, I was also thinking about what I can do personally to make our food supply safer, and I thought that it has been over a year since we filed the Petition
It has been a busy year for outbreaks related to milk or cheese – mostly raw – See, “Outbreaks, illnesses and recalls linked to raw (unpasteurized) and pasteurized dairy products, United States, 2010 (through December 18, 2010).” The last several raw milk cheese outbreaks (see below), prompted me to take a hard look at
It is Saturday morning and I am watching and listening to the ongoing debate on the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal which seems like it might pass. The “Dream Act” on the other hand seems like it will not overcome a Republican filibuster, and then there is the pesky thing called “START” – Senator Kyle
According to Chicago area press, a salmonella outbreak is being investigated after illnesses were reported in Will County and eight other Illinois counties, a state health agency said in a news release Friday. The Illinois Department of Public Health is investigating the salmonella outbreak. Many people who have become ill reported eating alfalfa sprouts at
There are Eight E. coli O157:H7 illnesses with indistinguishable PFGE patterns in four states – Oregon, Washington Vermont and Minnesota. The Cheese distribution list in part is below:
Whole Foods, (GTN) (RSQ) (PRN), Great Ciao, Provista Specialty Foods Inc., Ideal Cheese, Aniate Cheese, Cavanioles Gourmet, Marion St. Cheese Market, The Herbfarm, Tomales Bay Foods, Farmstead
In one of those moments when I thought; “I should have done that first,” Jim and Angela have done a great job and making Food Safety Law more that a bit(e) interesting. As I said in the foreward:
“For those not acquainted with my neighborhood, Food Safety Law will help you navigate the roads and
In what has hit the dozen mark of raw milk and/or raw milk cheese outbreak and/or recall 2010, this press release landed in my inbox as I was packing to head home to Seattle from Washington D. C. According to a press release by Sally Jackson Cheese of Oroville, Washington, the company is recalling all
Being in D.C. this week allowed me both to do my day job of being a lawyer and my other day job of trying to put myself out of business (I do blogging at night). Thanks to the lack of function in politics here, retirement is not yet in the cards for me. I did, however, do a series of confidential E. coli settlements. Here are some of the details:
A) 15-year-old girl, hospitalized for several days with ongoing Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She has incurred $34,000 in medical bills. As she says:
I feel like I live in a nightmare of pain day to day. Sometimes I feel like I’m waiting to be well but it will never come true. This is the most stressful thing I have ever been through. I never thought that eating food would change my whole life. The hardest thing to know is that there will never be a day where I’m not in pain. My favorite sport is basketball and I can’t even go to a practice without being in pain or crying.
B) Another, a 21-year-old woman hospitalized for days with $14,000 in medical expenses and the risk of ongoing Irritable Bowel Syndrome. As one medical provider said:
As you know she had acute colitis (documented by colon wall thickening on abdominal CT scan) due to E coli O157:H7 (culture proven), and was hospitalized from 5/8/10 to 5/11/09. Acute symptoms were lower abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Following discharge from hospital, she continued to have intermittent symptoms, described as crampy abdominal pain, sometimes with diarrhea, usually occurring an hour after eating, and lasting about half an hour. These symptoms occur about twice a week, with diarrhea about three times per month. On June 30, 2010, her symptoms were more severe and with bloody diarrhea she presented to an emergency room, where no cultures were done and she was given symptomatic therapy and gradually improved over the next several days. A follow up evaluation on 8/9/2010 at the MUSC resulted in further workup, with normal upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, although biopsies from the right colon showed mild focal inflammation. Since that time she has continued to have intermittent symptoms as described above that are clearly different from before her E coli infection. In my opinion, it is more likely than not that she has post infectious irritable bowel syndrome related to her acute E coli O157:H7 infection.
C. And, yes another 21-year-old woman, who was hospitalized for weeks, incurring $110,000 in medical expenses and as one expert opined:
She unfortunately, has been left with significant chronic and progressive renal damage. Her proteinuria and reduced GFR, more than a year post-HUS, indicates that she is experiencing hyperfiltration injury and has already lost substantial renal function. It is therefore my opinion that, more likely than not, she will develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD), also known as stage 5 kidney disease, within the next 20 years. As her renal failure worsens, and she develops ESRD, the two options will be dialysis and/or transplant.
The long, slow decline in renal function will have multiple impacts:Continue Reading Yea, we don’t need a Food Safety Bill – Settlements reached in yet another E. coli Outbreak
