Posted on 02/09/2008 8:27:24 PM PST by blam
Is pig-brain 'mist' linked to mystery ailment?
09 February 2008
NewScientist.com news service
WORKERS at two pork-processing plants in the US have developed a mysterious nervous ailment after using compressed air to blast brain tissue from severed pig heads. The end product is a pink food paste that is canned and exported, but the process also generates an aerosol of brain matter that workers may inhale.
Since 2006, 12 workers at a Minnesota slaughterhouse have developed symptoms ranging from weakness, tingling and numbness to acute paralysis, US health authorities reported on 31 January (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol 57, p 1). Other workers have developed similar symptoms at a slaughterhouse in Indiana.
"In some, the weakness has improved, but no one is completely better," says neurologist Daniel Lachance of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. All those affected have similar patterns of inflammation in their spinal and peripheral nerves, and Lachance suspects that this is the result of autoimmune damage triggered by immune reactions to proteins from the pig brains.
Only three US plants use the blasting process and they have all stopped as a result of the investigation.
From issue 2642 of New Scientist magazine, 09 February 2008, page 7
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
[cue Dan Castellanetta]
“Mmmmmmmm...pig-brain mist....”
What does the Geneva Convention say about use using pig-brain-dust matter in combat?
KRAMER
The pig-man! I saw a pig-man! He was just lying there and then he woke up. He looked up at me and made this horrible sound (MAKES SOUND).
George
Kramer, what the hell are you talking about?
KRAMER
I’m talking about the pigman, George. I went into the wrong room and there he was.
George
A pigman?
KRAMER
Yes, a pigman. Half pig, half man.
Elaine
That’s nice, Kramer.
Not a job I'd apply for.
I was just going to link that, it’s an interesting piece.
What great job that must be...paging Mike Rowe!
I come from a long line of folk who have procured much of our protein in the wild ... hunting. It is my contention, and that of my ancestors that it is ok to leave some parts of the critter behind.
LOL. I haven’t seen that cover since college.
Shouldn't the entire pig be used in some manner? Using only brain matter seems wasteful. If the entire pig body could be accelerated to supersonic velocities, it would be more effective as a weapon.
Are you serial?
I wonder if this is a prion disease, like mad cow? Pigs get used as human analogs for many studies and some diseases pass easily from pigs to people. It might be time to stop eating bone-in pork.
Damn.
Totally! I got it straight from the beeber’s mouth!
If this disease/syndrome spreads, why, it could be HUGH!!
Pretty good movie too.
Another Hugh Jackman?!?
Yes, the ramifications could be super serial!
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