Mary Rothschild has had an extensive career in Seattle-area journalism as a reporter for 17 years at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and as an assistant metro editor at the Seattle Times for 12 years. She was also an assignment editor at KING-TV in Seattle, city editor at the Eastside Journal in Bellevue and an assistant metro editor at the News Tribune in Tacoma. She now lives in Port Townsend, WA, where she supports the local Farmers Market, the Jefferson County Land Trust’s efforts to preserve farmland and tries to keep the deer out of her own vegetable patch.
On New Year's Eve 2011, a Texas company recalled 228,360 lbs. -- 114 tons -- of spinach because it tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.That Class I recall -- which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines as "a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse...
Washington state and local health officials are investigating an outbreak of intestinal illnesses that struck a number of people who attended a cheerleading competition in Everett last weekend.More than 3,000 people attended, and more than 1,000 competed, in the cheerleading and dance/drill event hosted by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association in Everett on Saturday, February 4, the Washington State Department...
Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates blood levels of trans fatty acids in U.S. white adults dropped by 58 percent from 2000 to 2009 -- a decrease being hailed as huge public health progress.The CDC study, published as a letter Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at trans fat levels in people...
Pennsylvania health officials say 38 people who drank unpasteurized milk from the Your Family Cow dairy became ill, and they expect additional cases to be confirmed.Laboratory tests confirmed Campylobacter infections in 31 Pennsylvania residents; four Maryland residents; two West Virginia residents and one New Jersey resident. Nearly half of those sickened are under 18, Pennsylvania health officials said. The latest onset...
Despite a nearly 40-year ban on the sale of tiny turtles in the U.S., the small reptiles are still being sold -- and still making people sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.Writing in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC said it is working with the Pennsylvania State Health Department to investigate an 18-state outbreak...
Maryland public health officials say lab tests confirmed Campylobacter jejuni bacteria in two unopened containers of unpasteurized milk from the Your Family Cow farm in Pennsylvania.Pennsylvania health authorities have not yet announced the results of their tests, as the number of people who are sick after drinking milk from the raw milk dairy has risen to 35 in four states.The...
With no disclosure about who could have supplied contaminated meat to a Northeastern chain of grocery stories, the outbreak of Salmonella infection involving ground beef sold by Hannaford supermarkets has been declared over.In its final investigation update Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 20 people in seven states were infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of Salmonella Typhimurium.That's...
There now are 12 cases of Campylobacter infection among people who drank unpasteurized milk from a dairy in Chambersburg, PA, Pennsylvania health officials reported Monday.State health and agriculture investigators are awaiting results of tests later this week to see if they can help determine whether milk from the Family Cow farm is the cause of the illnesses.Last week, the Maryland...
Six people have been infected with Campylobacter in an outbreak linked to raw milk from a farm in Pennsylvania, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Friday.Three cases of campylobacteris have been reported in Pennsylvania and three in Maryland. All six infected individuals drank unpasteurized milk from the Family Cow dairy in Chambersburg, PA, according to the health...
Using its newly expanded authority under the Food Safety Modernization Act, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered the detention of cold-smoked salmon in Maine after inspectors found Listeria monocytogenes in equipment and in areas throughout a food-processing and storage facility.The company, Mill Stream Corp. of Hancock, ME, then agreed to destroy its cold-smoked salmon under FDA supervision, the federal...
A $25 million grant has been awarded to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to study how to reduce the risk of 8 pathogenic E. coli strains that can contaminate beef and cause human illness.The five-year research project, announced Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not only will look at E. coli O157:H7, but also the serogroups O26, O103, O45, O111,...
In a letter to Organic Pastures owner Mark McAfee, the California Department of Public Health said 10 samples collected from the raw milk dairy's calf area were positive for E. coli O157:H7, and two were a genetic match for the outbreak strain that infected five children.Those findings support the probability, the public-health agency wrote, that the dairy's milk was contaminated,...
Salmonella Enteritidis infections centered in Texas and Oklahoma, but also spread over 8 other states, sickened 68 people who ate at a Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain in October and November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.The CDC did not identify the restaurant chain, nor did it explain why it was reporting this outbreak for the first...
Infection from E. coli O157:H7 and other Shiga toxin-producing serotypes can lead to the severe, life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, that can injure the kidneys, pancreas and brain.Care during the acute phase is mostly just supportive, because there are scant treatment options for HUS, which is the most common cause of renal failure in children. About half...
In what was the country's largest foodborne illness outbreak of 2011, in terms of number of illnesses, chicken livers contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg sickened 190 people in six states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the outbreak is now over.In its final investigation update Wednesday, the CDC said 109 of the outbreak cases were reported by New...
Copyright © Marler Clark
Managing Editor
