FDA has warned California Producers to clean up its act in March 2006.

Put me out of business, please. Opinion-Editorial By William Marler March 1, 2006

On March 1, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued additional Guidelines “for the Safe Production of Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables.” This seems to have been prompted by the August 2005 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections of some thirty people, including children, who ate DOLE bagged, pre-washed lettuce. At least 245,000 bags of lettuce were recalled across the country. In that outbreak alone, eight were hospitalized, and one child developed acute kidney failure, all from eating bagged, "pre-washed" lettuce. However, this is not the first time the FDA has warned this industry, with sales nearing $4 billion annually, to clean up its act.

In 1998 the FDA published a “guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fruit and Vegetables.” In 2004 the FDA sent a letter to the lettuce and tomato industry to “make them aware of [FDA’s] concerns regarding continuing outbreaks … and to encourage the industries to review their practices.” All of these concerns by the FDA were prompted by fifty-five outbreaks tied to fresh fruits and vegetables between 1990 and 1998.

In 2004, 13 residents of a California retirement center were sickened and 2 died after eating E. coli-contaminated "pre-washed" spinach. In September 2003, nearly forty patrons of a California restaurant chain became ill after eating salads prepared with bagged, "pre-washed" lettuce. Dozens were hospitalized and several developed life-threatening kidney failure. In July 2002, over fifty young women were stricken with E. coli at a dance camp after eating "pre-washed" lettuce, leaving several hospitalized, and one with life-long kidney damage. Following these lettuce-related outbreaks, the FDA issued a stern warning to the industry “to reiterate our concerns and to strongly encourage firms in your industry to review their current operations…” In this letter, the FDA cited research linking some or all of the outbreaks to sewage exposure, animal waste, and other contaminated water sources. Now in 2006, the FDA asks the industry to address concerns about employee infectious disease as a possible contributing factor in these outbreaks. Will the industry listen? Will the industry clean up its act and stop poisoning its customers? Will the industry put me out of business?

I am a trial lawyer who has built a practice on food pathogens. Since the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in 1993, I have represented hundreds of families who were devastated for doing what we do every day – eating food. This may prompt some readers to consider me a blood-sucking ambulance chaser who exploits other people’s personal tragedies.

Put me out of business, please. For this trial lawyer, E. coli has been a far too successful practice - and a heart-breaking one. I am tired of visiting with horribly sick kids who did not have to be sick in the first place. I am outraged with a food industry that allows E. coli and other poisons to reach consumers. So, stop making kids sick and I will happily move on. Here is how:

Use common sense – stop using water that is contaminated with cattle and human feces to irrigate. Wash fresh fruits and vegetables. Provide workers in the fields and factories with adequate restroom and hand-washing facilities, and if they are ill with an infectious disease, do not let them work. These simple, common sense steps are good for your customers and good for your business.

None of this will stop E. coli entirely. This microscopic poison has been around a long time and is bound to pop up again. But these steps will help make our food supply safer, and will enable us to keep our most vulnerable citizens - kids and seniors - out of harm's way.

And, with a little luck, it will force one damn trial lawyer to find another line of work.

William D. Marler is a Seattle trial lawyer who represents victims of food-borne illnesses, and the father of three daughters.

It appears that they have not learned their lesson. In addition, things have gotten worse since that irrigation water is reclaimed and supposedly recharged before it is sent to the San Diego water supply.

Would you be suprised to know that certain areas on San Diego were on a mandatory boiling water warning in the first week of August?

Nobody seems to want to connect the dots regarding our recent E. coli "boiling water" alert and the spinach contamination of E. coli in the news.

Are we not the city that has the largest agriculture-to-urban water district in the country?

Doesn't that water come from the agriculture upstream?

Shouldn't that E.coli have been detected further upstream before it got to San Diego?

If the spinach was washed in early August and packaged for shipment, wouldn't that fit into our E. coli timing?

The San Diego Union-Tribune

August 8, 2006 Tuesday

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A-1

LENGTH: 858 words

HEADLINE: What's the best way to tell people,`Boil water'?

BYLINE: Mike Leeand Terry Rodgers, STAFF WRITERS

BODY:

San Diego officials did everything by the book last weekend when they issued the city's first-ever order for boiling water to kill bacteria, then lifted it a day later, state health officials said yesterday.

But the public notification system for about 120,000 people affected by the contamination proved so hit-and-miss that Mayor Jerry Sanders has asked his top deputies to find better ways to tell people about similar emergencies.

"This has clearly brought up deficiencies ... that the mayor plans to address in a forthright way," said Sanders spokesman Fred Sainz.

Sanders held a news conference Saturday afternoon to alert people about the contamination and boil-water order, which affected the communities of Rancho Peñasquitos, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Bernardo Heights, Bernardo Trails, Bernardo Oaks, Oaks North, Pomerado Park and Lake Hodges.

The announcement was a highly unusual event for a major water supplier and the kind of action that health experts said could erode public confidence in utilities.

It prompted about 5,000 phone calls to a city water hotline as of yesterday morning. Some residents didn't learn about the order until shortly before it was lifted. Some remained angry yesterday about what they saw as poor public outreach.

"The city's response ... suggests that it would fail miserably in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack," said Linda Lyon, one of numerous people who complained to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

They should have figured it out by now, but they are not saying anything about it. Most people in San Diego probably don't even know that San Diego gets irrigated water from up north and the City appears to want to keep it that way.

Yesterday, San Diego officials still couldn't explain what caused the bacterial contamination last week, and they said they might never know.

The initial water test showed higher-than-permitted levels of coliform bacteria. Under state rules, that finding prompted a second test to look for E. coli. Exposure to disease-causing pathogens associated with E. coli can cause diarrhea and other forms of gastrointestinal distress.

Results from the second test were issued about 1 p.m. Saturday, according to the state timeline. Sanders held a news conference that afternoon to announce the boil-water order, then lifted the mandate Sunday.

To top it off, the City Council and the Water Department are trying to convince us that "toilet to tap".

SBD

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