This week in safety: Recalls, recalls, recalls

Feb 6, 2009 4:52 PM

The news about the peanut butter recall just kept getting worse this week. In addition to the scores of products being recalled each day, we learned that packets of the tainted peanut butter had been included in emergency food kits distributed by FEMA to victims of the ice storms in Kentucky and Arkansas. The government also purchased 32 truckloads of peanuts for a free school-lunch program from the company implicated in the outbreak, the Peanut Corporation of America. The peanuts were shipped to schools in California, Minnesota and Idaho between January and November 2007. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has now suspended its contract with the company.

Today, the Associated Press reported that PCA knowingly shipped tainted products.

The accidental deaths of two children also made headlines this week. In Sullivan County, N.Y., a 3-year-old died of exposure after leaving the house while her parents were sleeping. Her body was found in a snow bank in temperatures that were in the single digits. (Watch the news report.) Across the country in Orange County, CA., a 4-year-old died in a front-loading washing machine after her toddler brother apparently pressed the start button. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating the incident to see if the washing machine has a design flaw.

Concerns from lawmakers about implementation of the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act made headlines because the law is due to take effect next week. Today the CPSC spelled out its enforcement policy for new lead limits in children's products. Read the press release.

Kellogg scrutinizes food suppliers due to peanut recall
USA Today
Kellogg says it's reviewing how it qualifies suppliers after a food-safety auditor gave superior ratings to the Georgia peanut plant now at the center of one of the nation's largest food recalls. Read more ...

Not even reports of possible risks change our habits
The Washington Post
There has been a steady drumbeat of high-profile food safety scares in the past several years: spinach, ground beef, tomatoes (later exonerated), jalapeño peppers and now products traced to a Georgia peanut processor. But many Americans are not rushing to change the way they eat. Read more ...

Why don't we irradiate all germ-carrying food?
Scientific America
The four-month-long, nationwide salmonella outbreak from peanut butter—coming on the heels of other, widespread food-borne illnesses—raises the question: Why not just zap all of our food with radiation to destroy contaminants? Read more ...

Toys with banned toxin must go, judge decides
The New York Times
The CPSC may not let toys containing toxic manufacturing chemicals (phthalates) remain on store shelves after a ban takes effect next week, a judge ruled. He said the commission must eliminate a loophole that lets the substances remain in toys made before the ban takes effect Tuesday. Read more ... Read the decision.

Mold leads to major medical problems, legal battle
The Washington Post
The illnesses began three months after the family moved into their new house. But over the next year, they noticed a pattern: The more they were out of the house, the better they felt. After doing some detective work, they discovered that the source of their pain was the place they called home. Read more …

Toxic living is too close to home
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Bernard Weiss has spent more than 50 years researching how toxic chemicals affect people's behavior and health, so he encourages caution when choosing the products you use in and around your body and your home. Of the 70,000-plus chemicals in commerce now, scientists have studied the effects on human development for only a tiny proportion. Read more …

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