Posted on 06/08/2008 3:49:11 AM PDT by Pharmboy
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday.
Investigations by the health departments of Texas and New Mexico and the federal Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked tomatoes.
“We’re seeing a steady increase,” said Deborah Busemeyer, the communications director for the New Mexico Department of Health.
An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same salmonella infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Investigators are trying to determine if raw tomatoes are also responsible for the illnesses in those states, said Arleen Porcell, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C.
The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses has not been determined.
At least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported, Ms. Porcell said.
The rarity of the salmonella strain and the number of illnesses “suggest that implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout the country,” she said.
Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak, Ms. Busemeyer said.
Salmonella, snip...usually is transmitted to humans who eat food contaminated with animal feces.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
First I’d heard about this was last night. We went into a Five Guys and a sign said “no tomatoes due to Salmonella outbreak.”
Frankly, I was surprised that nothing was posted here on this. I just wanted to make sure that as many people on these boards knew about the outbreak before they packed sandwiches for the pool, beach or picnic.
Dirt’s good fer ya. Eat some dirt.
Years ago, there was a show on PBS about some hippy guru geezer commune in like Virginia or something. They grew most of their own food. But about once a week, they would have a ritual where they would sprinkle some of the local dirt on their salads.
Result?
They basically couldn’t remember the last time they got sick. Of course living an agrarian lifestyle tends to give you alot of exercise and keeps you healthier than being a couch potato, but there was something about it.
You gotta give the immune system something to do. Otherwise, it will get bored and po’d and start punching out your own cells, and be unable to function when a real scoundrel shows up.
Sure...a little dirt can’t hurt, ‘cept when it’s got Salmonella in it.
Thanks, I was going to put tomatoes on my “bathtub cheese”
sandwich.
That’s kinda what I’m pointing out. Salmonella is, in the world of toxic/poisonous bacteria, pretty much a lightweight.
Go out in your front lawn and dig a shovel full and you will most probably pick up some viable anthrax spores, some pretty deadly TB, and a good dose of Tetanus bacteria.
Salmonella’s a rookie. People been gettin the chits from salmonella since the first time a man ate a dove’s egg.
Thanks for the heads up, Pharmboy!
What’s a six letter word for polluted produce - Mexico.
A few years back school kids were getting sick from strawberries. Source? Mexico. Investigators found the Mexican farmers were washing the strawberries in sewage water. Yummy! I’d start looking at our Mexican friends as a source of polluted tomatoes.
I wonder why grape and cherry tomatoes are “safe” to eat - maybe because they don’t touch the ground?
Disney did cartoons about this in WWII for the third world. DON’T CRAP IN THE FIELDS!!!
I’m already seeing restaurants no longer offering raw tomatoes (just like when they stopped selling spinach cooked or raw awhile back).
“homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak”
Really? That’s good that it isn’t some midnight plague.
Humans are of the animal family. It is why just because an action can be found in nature does not mean that civilized men should engage in it.
Right on. A bored immune system is a dangerous one! I’ve firmly believed that for years.
I was always the kind of mom who never freaked out about a little dirt (either on or in my kids) and I don’t think my kids or myself have ever had what could be called ‘food poisoning’- ever.
Of course, they’ve grown up in a rural setting with livestock about, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re immune to anthrax, hoof & mouth and any other weird biological boogeymen out there.
If it is like the scare presentation that I witnessed Caesar Chavez give to college students, it is because they are picked by a different union.
He was warning us on the toxic problems with table grapes urging a boycott. His real goal was union negotiation. He lied to kids. He was repeatedly asked about rasins and wine, etc. He said that those were different unions and not to boycott them.
ping
Were all these tomatoes transported by truck? We all have heard stories about nasty truck drivers and their “lot lizards”.
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