Covered Internet – CDC, but am No Smarter
Didn’t want to just bring you something extra to worry about, wanted to be able to tell you that there are things you can do in the event that you have had cantaloupe lately. I love cantaloupe and am a regular user – its fresh, clean and satisfying to me. Short of checking every grocery store receipt for the past month, there is no way of putting my mind to rest on this. Like it or not, I’m a so-called “elder” and should be “on guard” Somehow, just knowing that OHIO has not reported any incidence doesn’t really encourage my sense of safety. The Oregon company stated that their stuff is sold and re-sold to the point that they don’t really know where it winds up.
A really bad outbreak happened in Canada in 2008. Much testing, panic, illness and deaths. Accusations flew over political stuff; whether or not to turn the government responsibility over to private industry to monitor the safety of the way food is checked from growth to delivery. Felt sorry for the Maple Leaf Co in Toronto who seemed to be doing everything right and it wound up costing them more than ten times what it should have. ($20 M) It turns out that what ever contamination happened, occurred in the crating and boxing of product
These problems, whatever they are and who or what is wrong – MUST stay in the hands of government. Can’t you just imagine how quickly the world will go to hell when ‘private (unregulated) people’ are doing the so-called testing? It’s bad enough now! (because industry still manages to control right through the government regulations, making it come out to suit their corporate needs). When there are large populations, ‘Rules’ are necessary in an effort to try to make stuff come out fairly and equitably.
I simply haven’t found what I wanted – - some homeopathic (natural), organic step to take to offset or protect self from letting the Listeria bacteria continue to ‘germinate and percolate’ for the month or so they say happens. I know that people (like me) who enjoy fermented veggies – (don’t want to bore you with my predilections again), will have far healthier guts than most other people. Why is that important? Well, that is the place where your immune system starts and conducts it’s business 24/7. So if one is constipated – got problems with lousy diets – not enough fiber; fart a lot and always gassy - may be eating Okay, but body not handling well – maybe its the combinations – it ain’t workin’. May need a dietary overhaul, probiotics. . . everybody is different.
So far, all I have found is charcoal (probably tablets) because they will absorb the toxins and eliminate them. But I am forgetting something. Something I already know and have temporarily forgotten. I promise, I’ll keep working on this and get back to you – - kinda like I had to do with the bladder leakage thing. Don’t always get what I want when I want it but hey, that’s just life sometimes. I’ll be back
Meanwhile, here is the very good article to which you may want to give some attention. Jan
TAINTED CANTALOUPES
Listeria victims likely to increase
By Mary Clare Jalonick ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials said yesterday that more illnesses and possibly more deaths might be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks.
So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses — including up to 16 deaths — in 18 states, making it the deadliest food outbreak in the United States in more than a decade.
The heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said
- consumers who have cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms in Colorado should throw them out.
- Neither the government nor Jensen Farms has supplied a list of retailers who might have sold the fruit.
Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo., says it shipped cantaloupes to 25 states. But the FDA has said it might be more; illnesses have been discovered in several states that were not on the shipping list. A spokeswoman for Jensen Farms said the company’s product often is sold and resold, so they do not always know where it ends up.
The recalled cantaloupes might be labeled “Colorado Grown,” “Distributed by Frontera Produce,” “Jensen- farms.com ” or “Sweet Rocky Fords.” Not all of the recalled cantaloupes are labeled with a sticker, the FDA said.
The company said it shipped more than 300,000 cases of cantaloupes that contained five to 15 melons, meaning the recall involved 1.5 million to 4.5 million pieces of fruit. The FDA said none of the cantaloupes had been exported, reversing an earlier statement that some of the tainted melons had been shipped abroad.
Frieden and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said that illnesses are expected for weeks to come because the incubation period for listeria can be a month or even longer. That means that someone who ate contaminated cantaloupe last week may not get sick until next month.
Jensen Farms last shipped cantaloupes on Sept. 10. The shelf life is about two weeks. The CDC has said that 13 deaths have been linked to the tainted fruit. State and local officials say they are investigating three additional deaths that might be connected. The CDC reported four deaths in New Mexico, two deaths each in Colorado and Texas, and one death each in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Maryland. The CDC said illnesses and deaths have occurred in 18 states; none was in Ohio.
