As Joshua L. Kwan reported in his San Jose Mercury News story Woman’s son sues over E. coli death, the son of an 85-year-old woman who died last year during an E. coli outbreak at a Portola Valley nursing home has sued the food service company that supplied contaminated spinach to the home.
”The
The Washington Supreme Court today declined to review last year’s Court of Appeals decision upholding a $4.6 million award to 11 children injured in a 1998 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that was linked to undercooked taco meat served as part of a school lunch at Finley Elementary School. School District had sought the Supreme Court’s review arguing that school districts should not be held legally responsible if ill-prepared food sickens or kills a student. The Supreme Court refused to consider the argument.
Denis Stearns, one of the founding partners at Marler Clark, said:
“Washington State has a long history of holding school accountable when the children in their care are injured or killed. We believe that the Supreme Court’s decision today reaffirms the principle that, when it comes to preparing food for their students, a school’s foodservice operation should be held to the same high standard as any other restaurant licensed to operate in this State.”
“School-aged children are more vulnerable than most when it comes to exposure to contaminated food. Those who argue for lower-standards plainly do not understand what the problem is, or what is truly at stake. If anything, schools should be held to the highest standards. These are our children we are talking about.”
William Marler, a Seattle attorney who represents children throughout the United States poisoned by E. coli, speaks out on Ohio and Kentucky E. coli cases tied to Kentucky Fried Chicken Coleslaw.
“Nearly everyday I hear about another case of E. coli, Salmonella or Lysteria tied to some food product. However, I have never seen a
There’s nothing more American than the county fair. From Washington and California to New York and Texas, countless millions of people are visiting their local fairs to ride the rides, feast on cotton candy and hot dogs, and to visit those cute farm animals.
Unfortunately, some of the visitors to fairs will get very sick. And the sickest ones, most of them small children, may be close to death before their doctors identify the cause – a relatively new strain of deadly bacteria known as E. coli O157:H7.
Most people identify this pathogen with undercooked hamburgers from fast food restaurants. But as a lawyer who has represented thousands of victims of food-borne illness, I have learned that people, especially children, can be infected in a variety of ways – including attending a local county fair or petting zoo.
Any place where people come into contact with farm animals must be considered high risk. The track record speaks for itself. Since 1995, thirteen outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported at fairs and petting zoos. Thousands have been sickened. Many escape with a bad case of diarrhea and cramps. But some, mostly kids, have suffered permanent damage to their kidneys.
And some have died.Continue Reading E. coli and the County Fair
I was featured in the Food Protection Report (December 2004 Vol. 20 No. 12), talking about E. coli O157:H7 and fair outbreaks, specifically regarding the prevention measures taken after the 2002 Lane County outbreak in Oregon… and how kids are still getting sick, even when the fair-runners do everything right.
“I think counties and states may have to reassess whether it is worth having fairs, petting zoos, and other events that bring people in close contact with animals,” suggests prominent food litigation lawyer William Marler of the Seattle law firm Marler Clark. “I know it sounds un-American, but we are now having outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 linked to these events almost on a yearly basis,” Marler told Food Protection Report.
Infections picked up at events where people and animals mingle can spread throughout the community. Since 1998, at least seven E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks have been traced to fairs. The most recent outbreak occurred in North Carolina, where an investigation is ongoing.
Although the specifics of each E. coli outbreak at fairs differ, Marler says, they all have a common denominator and the pathogen lurks in ways that were not seen decades ago. A 2003 study by USDA found E. coli O157:H7 was not only commonly present at fairs but that levels of the bacteria were similar to those found in commercially reared livestock, which surprised researchers.
Continue Reading Are Fairs, Petting Zoos Just Too Dangerous?
Chris Cline of the Daily Journal wrote a moving article about two-year-old Emilie Allen, of Bonne Terre, who contracted E. coli in September and is still suffering complications. She was in the hospital for nearly two months after suffering kidney failure. She was on dialysis until October 19.
According to the article, the St. Francois
As Randi Bjornstad of The Register-Guard reported in the article Back from the Brink: Families of children who contracted E. coli count blessings — and bills, I’ve advised my clients to drop their lawsuits regarding the E. coli outbreak at the 2002 Lane County Fair. Not an easy decision, for me or for my
The News-Observer ran an article a few days ago about 3-year-old Matthew Baldwin, who picked up a nearly deadly case of E. coli from a 45-minute visit to the petting zoo in October. Matthew was the first of more than 100 people sickened by E. coli last month after attending the North Carolina State Fair.
There’s nothing more American than the local fair. Countless millions visit them each year for the rides, the delectable goodies, and for some up close and personal — sometimes even hands on — time with the farm animals. What fair-goers are finding out though, and often through devastating illness rather than education, is that the irresistible petting zoos and livestock exhibitions, which attract more children than anything, often harbor the lethal bacteria E. coli O157:H7. For the sake of the kids, we must turn our attention to this undeniable health concern.
Most people associate E. Coli O157:H7 only with undercooked hamburgers from fast food restaurants. As a lawyer who has represented thousands of victims of E. coli poisoning, however, I have learned that the problem is not so confined. Infection can occur in a variety of ways, including attendance at a petting zoo or the livestock barn at the county fair, and those most vulnerable are our children.
Any place where people come into contact with farm animals must be considered high risk for exposure to E. coli and other poisons. The track record speaks for itself. Since 1995, fifteen outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported at fairs and petting zoos in the United States (see www.fair-safety.com). Hundreds have been sickened. Many escape with a bad case of diarrhea and cramps; but some, mostly kids, suffer permanent kidney damage due to a complication of E. coli infection called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).
Some have even died.
In 2003, 24 people fell ill with E. coli O157:H7 infections after attending the county fair at Fort Bend, Texas. Illness was not linked to food. Investigators found, instead, that all ill individuals had visited animal exhibition areas at the fair. Further investigation revealed that both the rodeo and animal exhibition areas were saturated with E. coli O157:H7.
In 2002, in what is believed to be the largest E. coli outbreak in Oregon state history, at least 82 people became sick after attending the Lane County Fair in Eugene, Oregon. Most were young children, and 22 were hospitalized. Of those who were hospitalized, over half experienced kidney failure. Oregon Health Services eventually traced the infections to the goat and sheep exposition hall, and investigators believe the bacteria were possibly transmitted through the ventilation system.
In 1998, at least 781 people became ill after attending a fair in Washington County near Albany, New York. Of those, 71 were hospitalized and two eventually died from kidney failure. The cause: water contaminated by a neighboring farm.
The list goes on – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio – each outbreak beginning with livestock and other farm animals. In 2001, observing the dangerous trend, the CDC warned operators of petting zoos and county fairs to clean up.
The warning, however, has gone unheeded, and lessons from previous outbreaks are unlearned. Now it is North Carolina with over 100 children sickened at a recent livestock exhibition.
Those farm animals may be cute, but they can also carry a deadly pathogen. A recent United States Department of Agriculture study of over 20 County Fairs found E. coli O157:H7 in 13.8 percent of beef cattle, 5.9 percent of dairy cattle, and slightly smaller percentages of sheep, pigs and goats – nearly the same percentages found in animals in feed lots. How many of us would take our kids to visit and pet animals in a feed lot?
Imagine how government would respond if the same number of people had been injured from falling off merry-go-rounds. Those wooden horses would grind to a halt and the lawyers would have a field day. But when people suffer from E. coli O157:H7 poisoning, fair and petting zoo-related outbreaks are ignored. Why?
Ignoring the risks involved with human-animal contact and allowing outbreaks to continue makes good business for lawyers like me. But I’ll gladly give up that business if it means not having to see four-year-olds hooked up to kidney dialysis machines. So what do we do? Banish state and county fairs? Eliminate Petting Zoos? Of course not. But fair organizers can take some rather simple and inexpensive precautions.Continue Reading E. coli and the Fair
In a tragic story of how our food system fails families, Madeline Drexler’s article “What She Ate Almost Killed Her” for Good Housekeeping paints the painful tale of one little girl’s battle with death, all because she ate a hamburger.
On June 30, 2002, ConAgra recalled 354,200 pounds of ground beef. On July 16, Kristi
