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Is Pig-Brain 'Mist' Linked To Mystery Ailment?
New Scientist ^ | 2-9-2008

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ailment; brain; mystery; mysteryillness; pigs; workplace
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To: blam

“Pig Brain Mist”

Band name!


21 posted on 02/09/2008 8:50:46 PM PST by Rb ver. 2.0 (Global warming is the new Marxism.)
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To: jazusamo

I don’t know if there is a connection between pork and MS. Somehow I think it a bit of a stretch.


22 posted on 02/09/2008 8:51:29 PM PST by SatinDoll (Desperately seeking a conservative candidate.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Ralph!!!, the patron saint of toilets, wouldn’t eat that.


23 posted on 02/09/2008 8:52:34 PM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Rurudyne
You're chardin' right, my FRiend!! Mark my words!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
24 posted on 02/09/2008 8:54:28 PM PST by pillut48 (CJ in TX --Soccer Mom and proud Rush Conservative with no dog in the presidential race now *sigh*)
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To: blam

Haven’t seen it.

Ya know, this story reminds me of reading many years ago about a possible connection between simian brain matter and the Aids Virus. Also, about many world religions offense to consuming brain matter. Perhaps a warning from God that had best obeyed.


25 posted on 02/09/2008 8:57:56 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Elections have consequences.)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
["...using compressed air to blast brain tissue from severed pig heads..."]

Not a job I'd apply for.

From the New York Slimes:

Quality Pork is the second biggest employer, with 1,300 employees. Most work eight-hour shifts along a conveyor belt — a disassembly line, basically — carving up a specific part of each carcass. Pay for these line jobs starts at about $11 to $12 an hour. The work is grueling, but the plant is exceptionally clean and the benefits are good, said Richard Morgan, president of the union local. Many of the workers are Hispanic immigrants. Quality Pork’s owner does not allow reporters to enter the plant.

I think these are some of those famous "jobs which Americans won't do"...

Cheers!

26 posted on 02/09/2008 8:59:25 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Rurudyne

Give it to Mikey. He’ll eat it. He’ll try anything.


27 posted on 02/09/2008 9:01:19 PM PST by weegee (Those who surrender personal liberty to lower global temperatures will receive neither.)
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To: SatinDoll

I agree, I thought the same thing when I read it.


28 posted on 02/09/2008 9:01:52 PM PST by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: blam

sounds like the roots of a good future weapon against radical islam!


29 posted on 02/09/2008 9:05:39 PM PST by RDTF
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To: blam
Maybe there are some jobs most Americans don't want to do.
30 posted on 02/09/2008 9:08:25 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: blam

bump for later


31 posted on 02/09/2008 9:16:33 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

The photo on that can brought back ancient memories. Two of the first meals we had after butchering hogs were the liver and the brains. Liver is no problem for me. Brains? Yuck!!!!!


32 posted on 02/09/2008 9:30:51 PM PST by Ghengis (Of course freedom is free. If it wasn't, it would be called expensivedom. ~Cindy Sheehan 11/11/06)
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To: martin_fierro

Great album! I can listen to it from beginning to end without skipping a track!


33 posted on 02/09/2008 10:09:55 PM PST by 31R1O ("Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."- Immanuel Kant)
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To: blam

“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.”

I bet the ole highschool guidance counselor doesn’t bring up this career path very often. And one must also ask, exported, where, to whom, why, what else is served with brain food paste? Couldn’t we just smear the stuff about as a kind of anti islamofascists wonder paste?


34 posted on 02/09/2008 10:31:18 PM PST by lastchance (Hug your babies.)
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To: jdm

lol

Beat me to it.


35 posted on 02/10/2008 5:17:32 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: blam

i read that last week in the nyt.

disgusting.


36 posted on 02/10/2008 5:18:15 AM PST by ken21 ( people die + you never hear from them again.)
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To: blam

Pig + brains is not recommended reading before Sunday morning breakfast


37 posted on 02/10/2008 5:20:03 AM PST by Hot Tabasco ( Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.)
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To: IncPen

story i was speaking about last week


38 posted on 02/10/2008 5:26:30 AM PST by Nailbiter
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To: grey_whiskers
Related 2003 link....

Illegal Immigration Coming to Small Town America

Three guesses why no-one was on the horn to OSHA before this. Yeah, let's hear it for illegal immigration.

39 posted on 02/10/2008 5:34:04 AM PST by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: SatinDoll
I don’t know if there is a connection between pork and MS.

It may be. MS can be reproduced experimentally in rats, by injecting sc a mixture of MBP(Myelinic Basic Protein) with some fats from tuberculosis bacterium.MBP comes from the brain. After ~ 10 days from injection, the rats develop an acute encephalomyelopathy( similar to that of MS) and at this moment it is the model FDA approved for MS drug testing.By injecting foreign MBP the rats respond by attacking with Cytotoxic lymphocytes against self MBP in brain. It is a immune response.The induced MS in rats is reversible in 3-4 weeks. It is possible that aerosols loaded with pork brain(containing MBP)triggered an immune response. It is a possibility that should be explored.
40 posted on 02/10/2008 6:03:57 AM PST by SeeSalt
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