Reading through the entire report, I don’t see where they even considered the workers as a possibility of contagion. Shouldn’t they have tested the workers to see if they carried the same strain of E. Coli ? Just because it was found in nearby pastures doesn’t mean it didn’t also exist elsewhere, right ? Sounds like sloppy science for reasons of political correctness.
The report noted an abnormal # of absentees from work a week or two previous to the time the contaminated spinach was processed. That would indicate that the investigators were considering the possibility of the workers being somewhere in the loop. Absent medical records & cultures, and given the time lag, possibly there was no way to determine the reason they were sick...if that was the case. A good number may have played hookey, have been hungover... Another indicator is that evidently none of them were hospitalized; as I recall, about a third of the documented cases were hospitalized.
An important point, not to be overlooked, is that the E coli was not 'on' the spinach. It was within the structure of the plant. That would eliminate the possibility (almost completely) of the spinach having been contaminated during harvesting or processing. And it is a very strong indicator of soil and/ or water contamination being the source. That's the Really Big Spook Factor. And that's the reason that I planted my first garden this summer after a 15 year layoff from veggie gardening.
Getting back to the workers--IF any of them were determined to have been sickened by the E coli, then it would need to be determined where they picked up the bug--possibly from being exposed to the spinach/ soil?
Sounds like sloppy science for reasons of political correctness.
I disagree. The investigators were trying to reconstruct an historic event. Pieces of the puzzle are just gone and it is impossible to get them back and, when it comes to ground water movements & knowing exactly where all the water came from, very difficult to determine even as a contemporary event. There just are some things that can't be known.
Given the surging expansion of the cattle/ dairy industry in CA, the produce industy and the water situ in the state, no one should be all that surprised when this happens. I'm sufficiently spooked to have given over a good chunk of my lawn because of it.