Sludge Watch ==> Western Growers say 'California: Please Regulate Us...with Enforceable Regs'

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Due to the repeat contamination of spinach and now this outbreak salmonella 
- Western  Growers are asking the California Dept of Agriculture to create 
and enforce standards for produce grown in California.

Shouldn't they include provisions to not allow sewage sludge on produce 
fields?  So called Class A sludge is allowed on fields...even home gardens 
with no reporting or restrictions.  Heck..it doesn't even have to meet the 
Class A requirements at the field...only at the sewage plant or production 
site...not at the point of use.  Most of the dried sludge and the dewatered 
Class A become a roiling mass of fecal bacteria ... just add water and wait.

And what about the quality of that Monterey sewage treatment effluent that 
is sprayed on the produce in the Salinas Valley?  Will the the public 
tolerate that practice?   Not the shoppers I talked to at Whole Foods!

Since the US Federal 503's and the Canadian provincial sludge regulations 
don't adequately protect the public from sludge diseases in crops and 
produce..maybe the California Growers will require standards to stop sludge 
use on agricultural lands.

It would be a good start.

......................................................................................


CDC probing salmonella outbreak in 18 states

POSTED: 9:46 a.m. EST, October 31, 2006

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A salmonella outbreak potentially linked to produce 
has sickened at least 172 people in 18 states, health officials said Monday.

Health officials think the bacteria may have spread through some form of 
produce; the list of suspects includes lettuce and tomatoes. But the 
illnesses have not been tied to any specific product, chain, restaurants or 
supermarkets.

No one has died in the outbreak, which stems from a common form of 
salmonella bacteria. Eleven people have been hospitalized, health officials 
said.

"We're very early in the investigation," said Dave Daigle, a spokesman for 
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Outbreaks of food-borne illness have repeatedly made headlines this year. 
Certain brands of packaged spinach, lettuce, carrot juice, beef and 
unpasteurized milk recently were recalled after they were found to be 
tainted with illness-causing bacteria.

The most serious outbreak, first reported in September, involved spinach 
tainted with E. coli bacteria that killed three people and sickened more 
than 200.

The CDC detected the salmonella outbreak two weeks ago through a national 
computer lab system that looks for patterns and matches in reports of 
food-borne illness. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has joined the 
investigation and will try to help trace the outbreak to its origin.

Most of the cases are in adults, and more than 60 percent are women, said 
Dr. Chris Braden, a CDC epidemiologist investigating the outbreak.

The states involved are Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont and 
Wisconsin.

Fifty-one cases reported in Massachusetts in September are the same strain 
as that in the national outbreak, said Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for the 
Department of Public Health. It was not immediately clear whether those 
cases were in addition to the 172 reported nationwide.

Salmonella infection causes diarrhea and is generally not fatal. Other 
symptoms can include, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, fever and 
headache.

There are about 2,500 types of salmonella. The type in this outbreak -- 
Salmonella typhimurium -- is one of the most common, Braden said.

People can catch the infection from many different sources, including water, 
soil, insects, factory surfaces, kitchen surfaces, animal feces, and raw 
meats, poultry and seafoods.

Health officials estimate that more than 1.4 million cases of salmonellosis 
occur in the U.S. each year. About 1.3 million of those cases come from 
food, Braden said.

In California, where the E. coli outbreak was traced to, a trade group on 
Monday proposed mandatory state food safety guidelines for lettuce and 
spinach farmers and processors. The move by the Western Growers Association 
would include inspections by state regulators and sanctions for violators.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture, which would be 
responsible for enforcement, has agreed to work with Western Growers in 
developing a certification process that would give growers who meet the 
guidelines a clean bill of health, said Thomas Nassif, the trade group's 
president.

"It is not normal for a business to say, 'Please regulate us and enforce it 
if we don't do the right things,"' Nassif said. "But that, we believe, is 
essential to restore public confidence."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/10/31/salmonella.outbreak.ap/index.html