The Shanghai Daily reports a duck processor in central China has been dumping duck excrement and dead animals directly into a river, contaminating a drinking water source that later lead to more than 100,000 people getting diarrhea.

Duck farms scattered along the Xiaohuang River in Huangchuan County, Henan Province, were accused of discharging waste in the river, killing fish and polluting the water. The farms belong to Henan Huaying Agricultural Development Co Ltd.



The local water utility stopped collecting water from the river four years ago as it was too polluted, Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.



However, two reservoirs that were used as new sources of tap water dried up in a drought this year and the county government was forced to resume pumping water from the Xiaohuang in April. Two months later there was a severe outbreak of diarrhea, sickening more than 100,000 villagers.

Three rusted pipes were seen stuck into the muddy river, where bottles and disposable lunch boxes were floating, to collect tap water supplying 280,000 people.
 

The farm at the epicenter of the German sprout storm that has killed 53 and sickened over 4,000 from E. coli O104 is sparkling clean to reopen after testing and removal of all fenugreek seeds.

But as science-types have pointed out, the farm may function with the clarity and cleanliness of Marie Antoinette’s but that won’t prevent future outbreaks if the seeds themselves are contaminated.

As reported by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), despite the epidemic curve’s trending down, the outbreak can’t be considered over. The ultimate source — the contaminated seeds from which salad sprouts were grown — has been so widely distributed that no one really knows where they have gone or for how long they might remain for sale. One prediction, based on the probable package labeling, is that they could remain on shelves for 3 more years.

Wired magazine reported the first wave of cases, in Germany in May, arose from a firm that grew and sold sprouts at wholesale. The sprouts from that farm would subsequently be linked to 41 separate clusters of cases; all of them could be traced back to that facility’s sprouts, re-sold as a produce item somewhere in Europe.

A second wave, in France in June, initially confounded investigators. Out of those 16 cases, 11 had attended the same event. They did eat sprouts there — but not sprouts from the German farm. Instead, the sprouts had been grown by the event’s catering firm, from seeds the company had bought at an everyday garden center.

That shifted the focus from the German farm’s practices to the seeds that both the farm and the caterer used. The German farm sold two blends of grown sprouts, spicy (grown from fenugreek and radish seeds and black and brown lentils) and mild (fenugreek and alfalfa seeds, adzuki beans and lentils). The French caterer had used three seed types: fenugreek, mustard and rocket (or roquette; what Americans call arugula). The only type in common with both companies and all the mixtures was fenugreek.

That discovery sent EU investigators in pursuit of fenugreek seeds back down the European food chain, in a rapid-fire search that deployed personnel from eight countries’ food agencies as well as the ECDC, World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. They drafted a detailed 4-page questionnaire that fed data into Excel spreadsheets and a relational database. They crunched (and crunched and crunched) the numbers, and this is what emerged:

All of the seeds came from a single shipment that left a port in Egypt almost 2 years earlier, on Nov. 24, 2009.

The seeds took a tortuous path. That initial shipment — which was immense, 15,000 kg (33,000 lbs) — was containerized at the port of Damietta in Egypt, shipped by boat to Antwerp in Belgium, went by barge to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where it passed customs, and then was trucked to Germany. There, an importer broke up the shipment:
10,500 kg to a single German distributor;
3,550 kg to nine other German companies;
375 kg to a Spanish company;
250 kg to an Austrian distributor that sold the entire lot to a single Austrian company;
and 400 kg to a company in England.

The German importer broke up the 10,500-kg shipment into multiple lots. Only 75 kg ended up at the German farm that sparked the first wave of illness. The rest went to 16 other companies. One of those 16 broke its shipment up further, selling the seeds on to 70 additional companies: 54 in Germany, 16 in 11 other countries within the EU.

A new report details the complexities of the E. coli O104 outbreak investigation. Thanks to Albert Amgar in France for sending it along.

Source food from safe sources; including seeds and other inputs.

That's what I told my friend Matt Shipman who interviewed me last week for an N.C. State website feature.

As farmers' markets across North America fill up with bounties from local (and sometimes not so local) fields and backyard gardens produce more beans and tomatoes than folks can eat over a couple of meals, canning veterans and N00bs are getting out their jars and pressure canners.

Canning is a great way to keep foods for a while (and not take up fridge or freezer space) but if done incorrectly can lead to serious consequences. Earlier this year a botulinum toxin-linked illness was linked to home canned watermelon jelly sold as a fundraiser. A death and 4 illnesses (resulting in paralysis and months of recovery) connected to improperly processed green beans occurred in WA and OH over the past couple of years. In 1977, 59 patrons of a restaurant ended up with botulism after kitchen staff filled jars with cooked peppers and sealed them without processing.

Canning, If done wrong, can kill you.

From Matt's piece:

“Interest in home food preservation is definitely increasing,” says Dr. Ben Chapman, an assistant professor of family and consumer sciences and extension food safety specialist at NC State. “North Carolina Cooperative Extension, which is run by NC State and North Carolina A&T in partnership with the counties, is the primary source for education and training in this area. We’ve fielded well over 5,000 inquiries in the past couple of years, and we’re always being asked to hold more workshops on canning and related preservation techniques.”

Part of the interest in food preservation stems from pop culture’s increasing focus on all things food-related, as evidenced by the rise in everything from celebrity chefs to cooking-oriented reality television. Another factor is economics. People often view canning as a cost-effective way to stock the pantry – particularly if they’re growing their own fruits and vegetables.

One key to safe canning, according to Chapman, is to use tested recipes – don’t wing it. “Unless it’s a recipe that has been scientifically tested and shown to be safe, you are putting your health at risk,” Chapman says.

The sources I trust are the NCHFP, the Ball Blue Book and USDA's Complete Guide to Home Canning. Most Cooperative Extension-based recipes across the U.S. come from one of these three sources.
 

The Yuma Sun reports a recent increase in a rare nervous system disorder that can lead to paralysis has led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send agents to Yuma to investigate.

Health officials announced Wednesday that health officials in Yuma County and San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., have reported an increase in acute diarrheal illnesses caused by campylobacter infections and cases of Guillain-Barre' Syndrome (GBS) over the past three months.

As of July, there have been six confirmed cases and one pending case of GBS in Yuma County, said Becky Brooks director of the Yuma County Health District.
In a normal year, there are typically three to four cases.

“(In June) we started noticing an increase in the campylobacter infection first,” Brooks said. “And then we started hearing about a syndrome they call acute flaccid paralysis. There had been some people who had gone to (the Yuma hospital) and had been sent to Phoenix.

“Once we started hearing those names a few times, we started checking into it. That's when we contacted the state, and the state then contacted the CDC.”

The CDC confirmed the increase in GBS constituted an “unusual cluster,” which happens with a variety of diseases and for a variety of reasons to occur across the country at any given time, Brooks said.

Sunday in Brisbane (that’s in Australia) was a perfect chance to discover the local wildlife: kangaroos and koalas at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Emma and Sorenne were overly excited by the opportunity. When it was their turn to get their photo taken with the koala, however, I noticed the sign on the hand sanitizer station saying, “Out of Order. Sorry for any inconvenience.” As we exited the area into the food court, Emma grabbed some sanitizing wipes that were available (but unmarked and almost not noticeable) on a table and cleaned up Sorenne’s hands the best she could.

After our afternoon “tea” (that’s Australian for “snack”), we headed into the Kangaroo Rescue area. For $2 I bought a rather large bag of kangaroo feed, and we proceeded to shove our hands into the faces of every kangaroo who passed by. Emma was brave and lay down on the ground to pose with one of the big boys. For me the highlight was either seeing a pregnant mommy ‘roo whose joey was wiggling about in her pouch or watching Sorenne’s face light up when the baby kangaroos ate from her hands (right exactly as shown).

Upon exiting the area (which was filled with scrub turkeys, ducks, wombats, emus and feces in addition to the kangaroos), there was a handwashing station with ample running cold water and soap but no paper towel to dry hands. The park prides itself on reusing water, and there was clear signage indicating that all water in use was recycled except for handwashing, food preparation, and drinking water. I didn’t feel confident that they were able to separate distribution so well after realizing that handwashing wasn’t possible in the koala cuddling zone.

Handwashing really isn’t simple, especially when the proper tools are not available.
 

It's about to get really hot in Raleigh. Today's high is 100F (38C in Canadian terms) and with humidity it's going to feel like 110F.

When I was growing up, no one we knew had air conditioning or a pool. The only relief for a Southern Ontario heatwave was to hit the Donald D. Summerville pool on the beach (I can't remember ever swimming in Lake Ontario) or the wading pool at Kew Gardens (both right, exactly as shown).

Playing in that wading pool is the extent of my spray park/splash pad experience. I have a vivid memory of encountering poop as I pretended to snorkel in the 18" of water.

I didn't realize the cultural significance of that event until I saw Caddyshack. 

As Toronto dealt with excessive heat this past weekend, new procedures employed by public health officials to reduce the risk of waterborne illness were challenged. Wading pools and other sites that use recycled, non-circulated water were drained (and refilled) every four hours. The pools had typically been open for 5 hours or more per day, chlorine checked hourly, and immediately closed and refilled if the water began to appear cloudy (or poop was found). The clean start is meant to provide a chance for staff to address any of the visible doody-that-looks-like-a-chocolate-bar events as well as the sneakier hard-to-see smaller release of bacteria, virus and parasites from tiny swimmers.

According to the Toronto Star,

Parents are unhappy that Ontario’s new water treatment guidelines could mean less pool time for their kids.

At Leslie Grove Park, where temperatures soared to 31C on Sunday afternoon, parents struggled to understand the shorter hours.

“I’ve never noticed anything dirty in this pool and I’ve been coming here since I was young,” said Alyshia Williams, who stood in the wading pool to escape the heat while watching her niece play. “It’s a good way for the kids to be outside and cool off a bit.”

I'm not too sure of the significance of four vs. five hours between refills, and neither is Toronto Public Health (TPH). A TPH spokesperson was quoted as saying, "Discussions between Toronto Public Health and Ministry [of Health and Long-Term Care] staff today confirm that the choice of four hours is a best-practice recommendation and is not based on any specific scientific evidence of health risk associated with less frequent water changes."

Just like food handling recommendations, wading pool and spray park best practices need to be based on evidence.

As a parent of a couple of little kids, I don't take my kids to non-circulated pool at all, regardless of refilling practices. The risk is too great for me; that decision is built on a lot of evidence.

Annually, there are outbreaks linked to spray parks and wading pools across North America. Part of the problem is that one of the more prevalent pathogens, cryptosporidia, is passed through poop and can survive in chlorinated water. Norovirus and pathogenic E. coli also seem to pop up as culprits every summer.

In mid-June, 15 children in Alabama acquired E. coli O157 after visiting a spray park that used recycled water.

Cryptosporidia illnesses were linked to multiple water parks across the midwest in 2007; 1,902 cases were confirmed in Utah alone, the vast majority linked to spray parks, wading pools and other public swimming sites.

In March 2008, Great Escape Lodge water and spray park in Queensbury, New York was linked to a norovirus outbreak. Over 400 Children who had visited the park became ill with diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps.

Kids are poopy (at least my kids are) and having that poop float throughout a wading pool increases risk of illness, regardless of how often it's drained.

“I got tired of talking about hypothetical risks.”

That’s what I told Maclean’s and the Medical Post today in a brief story about genetically engineered foods.

And I agreed with a spokesthingy who said, “To date, Health Canada has not identified health risks associated with GM foods that have been approved for sale in Canada.”

As the journal Nature reported in 2009, “No one gets into research on genetically modified (GM) crops looking for a quiet life. Those who develop such crops face the wrath of anti-biotech activists who vandalize field trials and send hate mail… [Those] who suggest that biotech crops might have harmful environmental effects are learning to expect attacks of a different kind. These strikes are launched from within the scientific community and can sometimes be emotional and personal…”

Dr. Douglas Powell, a professor in food safety at Kansas State University who sat on the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (CBAC) in the early 2000s,, said, “(CBAC) reviewed everything that was out there and there was nothing to show GMOs present a risk to health. In fact, Dr. Powell has since moved away from researching the subject because, he says, “I got tired of talking about hypothetical risks.”

With at least 48 million suffering from foodborne illness each year in the U.S., I got plenty of work.
 

I'm a sucker for pop music; although I don't have any Katy Perry on my iPod I do have a bunch of equally-uncool tracks that pop-up when it's on shuffle. According to bitten and bound, Katy is cancelling some shows after falling ill with foodborne illness.

The singer is suffering from severe dehydration after battling food poisoning.  Her Windy City fans won’t be the only ones disappointed because her Saturday performance at the Xcel Energy Center in the Twin Cities has also been canceled.

Perry released a statement to her fans: “I apologize to my fans in Chicago and the Twin Cities for not being able to perform this weekend, but I am going to return in a few weeks to give them the very best show ever!”

Lamely, the only joke I can think of is whether she's experiencing fireworks in the bathroom.

Maricopa County's Environmental Services Dept. (that’s where Phoenix, Arizona, is) has adopted a new health inspection system.

Operations Supervisor Jaime Vinaras told KPHO that they no longer use terms like 'major' or 'minor violations.'

Instead, they're putting potential health problems into three categories:
*Priority item.
*Priority foundation.
*Core item.

However, when you look up restaurants on the county's web site, www.maricopa.gov , the violations are listed as 'risk factors' and 'good retail practices.'