U.S. Food Safety No Longer Improving

[babylonsister]

U.S. Food Safety No Longer Improving

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: April 9, 2009


WASHINGTON — After decades of steady progress, the safety of the nation’s food supply is no longer improving. And in the case of salmonella — the dangerous bacteria recently found in peanuts and pistachios — infections may be creeping upward, the government reported Thursday.

In 2008, 16 out of 100,000 people in the United States had laboratory-confirmed cases of salmonella infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That translates into about 48,000 serious illnesses, since individual stool samples are sent to labs generally only when someone is suffering a severe bout. In 2005, the figure was 14 people per 100,000 — or about 42,000 cases of laboratory-confirmed salmonella infections.

The apparent increase in salmonella is not statistically significant and could be a statistical fluke, according to the disease centers. Across a range of different food-borne illnesses, there has been no statistically significant change over the past three years in the share of the nation’s population that has been severely sickened by food.

But health experts said the lack of improvement was disheartening. And in the case of salmonella, the numbers mean that the nation is unlikely to meet goals created in 2000 under the government’s “Healthy People 2010” program to reduce the incidence of salmonella infections to about half its current level.

“This highlights the urgent need to overhaul our food-safety system,” said Erik D. Olson, director of food and consumer product safety at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “In some cases, there are early indications that progress may be reversing for some diseases. The children and elderly in our families are most at risk, and it is our duty to better safeguard them.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/health/policy/10food.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Warpy]

1. Yes, 8 years of a bible besotted idiot

who was taking all his advice from corporations instead of from people in agencies that were regulating them is running its course through our whole economy.

Food isn't the only thing that isn't as safe as it used to be.

This is what happens when the Republicans get their idea of SMALL GOVERNMENT and allow corporations to self regulate. They don't regulate at all.

The military gets fatter and the citizens are abandoned to their fates in natural disasters.

Any time someone around you starts to bleat about small government, remind them about all this stuff. This is what small government is all about!