NEW YORK (AP) — A big government study has fingered leafy greens like lettuce and spinach as the leading source of food poisoning, a perhaps uncomfortable conclusion for health officials who want us to eat our vegetables.
“Most meals are safe,” said Dr. Patricia Griffin, a government researcher and one of the study’s authors who said the finding shouldn’t discourage people from eating produce. Experts repeated often-heard advice: Be sure to wash those foods or cook them thoroughly.
While more people may have gotten sick from plants, more died from contaminated poultry, the study also found. The results were released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans — or 48 million people— gets sick from food poisoning. That includes 128,000 hospitalization and 3,000 deaths, according to previous CDC estimates.(AP news-29 Jan,’13)
Earlier it was pesticides. Often untested innovation in agriculture created an unprecedented disaster, especially in the fifties. There was a ‘biotic’ approach and there was the ‘scorched earth’. The former was cheaper, safer, longer acting, natural solutions to pest problems. For example, introducing a fungus that causes a fatal disease in this insect can control the menace of Japanese beetle. In the latter the chemical industry advocated pesticides were safe, and imprudent public officials accepted this disinformation without a murmur. Progress is often touted by special interest groups like Chemical industry.
The publishing of Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson showed the Chemical industry was irresponsible for the long-range consequences of chemical pesticides. (The primary inspiration for the book was a friend of Carson’s who was concerned about dying birds in her hometown where the authorities had sprayed DDT to control mosquitoes. At about the same time, a disastrous pesticide campaign against the fire ant of the Southeast was receiving national attention. Formerly a science writer for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson already had some acquaintance with research on pesticides, and Silent Spring impacted the American public.
Till results prove what the public get to see wizards but later we see crooks in pin-stripe suits whose gift of the gab had run faster than their worth. Enron, and many others are evil genie let out because of those who are set to safeguard nation’s health preferred quick gains. If these multinationals walk with a heavy tread, these may be only 1% but carry weight, you may be sure quality of life for the rest shall become degraded fast. The sky is polluted,- and China is blindly blundering through the same mess the US went, so are rivers. The earth is getting the taste of the accumulated misdeeds of the greedy nations.
benny
Bennythomas's Weblog 