(Untitled)

[pittenweem]

For those of you not in Canada, there has been an outbreak of listeriosis over the past couple of weeks. Ten deaths have been linked to sickness contracted by eating certain processed meat products. While I do think it's important for the media to let the public to know which products have been recalled, I find the media barrage a bit overkill. I

Comments

[plazmah]

I agree with you about the need for the media/people to place blame when things like this just happen. I used to work for Maple Leaf Foods, so I know they have crazy-strict internal requirements for food safety.

Every time I see articles online about the outbreak, people inevitably comment that this all shows that people should be vegetarian or that corporations are eeeeevil. Which totally ignores that the last few outbreaks were for tomatoes and bean sprouts, and also ignores the fact that (like you pointed out) restaurant food can make you sick as well.

[pittenweem]

Yeah, from the descriptions, it sounds like they stick very closely and strictly to the food guidelines for safety. Anything you eact unless you grow it and micromanage its growth and cook it yourself can be dangerous, and even then iy could be dangerous. I honestly thing big plants are probably cleaner than most of our own kitchens, because they have set proceedures and stronger products.

The bottom line is that life is dangerous and shit just sometimes happens and it's nobody's fault.

[pittenweem]

Do you know, I don't think I've ever eaten egg salad in my life. A kid in my first grade class used to eat an egg salad sandwich every day for lunch and I never liked the look of it, so I've always refused to eat it. I'm not really an egg fan, anyway, though; I only like them scrambled or as omlettes (sp?) or quiche.

[momof2girls]

I agree that people seem to want to blame someone else for uncontrollable problems that occur. And the multimillion-dollar lawsuits don't help. People seem to think they are entitled, and lawyers play on that, too. (Not very eloquently put, but hopefully you know what I mean.) I have a law degree, but I'm disgusted at the lawyers who play on people's fears for big-money lawsuits.

BTW, before I got pregnant with Older Daughter, I got tested for toxoplasmosis, just to be on the safe side. I don't know how long they've been recommending that blood test, though.

[pittenweem]

Toxo is odd; if you or I got it, we would just be sick for a couple days. But when pregnant women get it, the little buggar attacks the baby. The severity of the damage depends on when during the pregancy one is infected, but I forget now whether it's worse earlier or later.

As I say, it's very, very strange that my mom didn't have it before she was pregnant with me. Just unlucky.

[lazyknight]

Can we say "No win, no fee?"

People don't worry about the things that are really dangerous, but are only concerned with the possibilities that can arise from some one else's fuck-up.

Little known fact: flying is only safer than driving if the stat you are looking at is fatalities per passenger mile. If you look at fatalities per journey, it's the other way round... stats are a wonderful thing :-/

[pittenweem]

I never thought about the flying statistics that way before... That's a bit scary.