15 sick; food safety failures, arrogance in Canada?s E. coli O157 outbreak

In mid-1994, Michael Taylor was appointed chief of USDA?s Food Safety and Inspection Service.? On Sept. 29, 1994, USDA said it would now regard E. coli O157:H7 in raw ground beef as an ?adulterant,? a substance that should not be present in the product. By mid-October, 1994, Taylor announced plans to launch a nationwide sampling of ground beef to assess how much E. coli O157:H7 was in the marketplace. The 5,000 samples would be taken during the year from supermarkets and meat processing plants ?to set an example and stimulate companies to put in preventive measures.? Positive samples would prompt product recalls of the entire affected lot, effectively removing it from any possibility of sale.
That?s the long-winded version for what a USDA official said in a 1994 television interview: we?ll stop blaming consumers?when they get sick from the food and water they consume.

With 15 confirmed E. coli O157 illness across Canada linked to XL Foods in Alberta, the company laid off 2,000 employees Saturday, then called 800 back to work so they can get on with re-opening the plant the Canadian Food Inspection Agency closed Sept. 27, 2012.

Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture said, ?My thoughts are with the workers and the community affected by this private sector business decision.?

He didn?t say anything about the sick people, other than platitudes about how ?we won?t compromise when it comes to the safety of Canadians? food.?

But there?s lots of others eager to blame consumers, almost 20 years after the Jack-in-the-Box outbreak sparked Taylor?s actions.

Dr. Jean Kamanzi, who used to be a director at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and now is responsible for food hygiene in Africa for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Program said any E. coli bacteria in the meat could be rendered harmless if it?s cooked to a safe internal temperature ? 71 degrees Celsius.

?The meat we?re now throwing into the garbage, which contains this so-called E. coli, if you take it and cook it like you?re supposed to there?s no problem. It?s edible. These are good proteins. ? ?This is collective hysteria. We?re throwing away meat, we?re throwing everything away. Maybe we?re in a rich country and we can allow ourselves the luxury of not taking any risks at all ? but these risks, we take them every day when we touch meat.?

Jean?s point about this being a problem for wealthy countries is taken, but it?s not collective hysteria, especially to the people who got sick.

Dr. Sylvain Quessy, who teaches meat hygiene and is the vice-dean at the faculty of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal, says that, from a statistical standpoint, the number of illnesses associated with the type of E. coli in the XL Foods safety investigation ? 15 Canadian cases in a month ? is not especially alarming.

?Everyone?s worrying about a number of cases that is not excessive compared with what you?d normally expect. What we?re telling people ? it?s as true now as it was before ? is you need to cook your meat properly. (And) wash your hands and wash the things the raw meat touched and you eliminate the danger.?

Sylvain Charlebois of the University of Guelph, said, ?If you cook your meat correctly and thoroughly, you will likely eliminate all risks. I would argue that if we educate the public, and we make sure that consumers know what to do with their beef products, you will likely eliminate most of the risks.?

And I thought Australia was stuck in the 1980s.

The feds responded, ?despite the fact that proper cooking and handling of food helps prevent illness, the best way to protect yourself is to not eat recalled products at all.?

Taylor did what he did back in 1994 based on the extreme virulence of shiga-toxin producing E. coli like O157:H7, the underestimated risk of cross-contamination, and that food safety isn?t simple, it?s complex. Consumers and food service workers have a role, but these other factors mean loads must be reduced throughout the system.

And this is without getting into the risk of needle- or blade-tenderized steaks and roasts, which sickened some of the people in the XL outbreak.

Just cook it doesn?t cut it. The U.S. meat industry has been told this for years. Why doesn?t Canada?

And although officials insist it was planned months before the XL fiasco, CFIA is going to be audited later this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the first time in three years.

Canada exported more than $4 billion worth of beef and pork in 2010, much of it to the United States.

The final USDA report from its 2009 CFIA audit found weaknesses in the ability of Canadian inspectors to verify consistent sanitation and hazard protection in some slaughter plants, but noted the agency was planning to take action to deal with the shortcomings.

It also said agency inspectors and supervisors were routinely not following procedures for monitoring sanitation controls as laid out by the CFIA.

?Principal areas of weakness included the inability of inspection personnel to implement consistent sanitation and hazard analysis and critical control points verification procedures,? says the report, which was sent to the CFIA in October 2010.

?And, more significantly, (there is) the lack/loss of consistent supervisory reviews to identify weaknesses in inspection performance when it occurred.?

The report did find that the Canadian inspection system adequately verified testing for generic E. coli.

This banter is of no use to people sickened in the outbreak.

Source: http://barfblog.com/15-sick-food-safety-failures-arrogance-in-canadas-e-coli-o157-outbreak/

London 2012 Soccer dwight howard Olympics closing ceremony PGA Championship 2012 John Witherspoon hope solo hope solo

Little Big Planet 2 Special Edition Playstation3 Game SONY $20

First Time? Welcome to Slickdeals! Save money here by finding the lowest and cheapest price, best deals and bargains, and hot coupons. We're all about community driven bargain hunting with thousands of free discounts, promo codes, reviews and price comparisons.

Don't worry, we'll help you find your way. If you haven't already, check out this user guide that explains the features of our site.

Also, try visiting the FAQ.

Check out these other popular features that most people like:

Deal Alerts
Slickdeals Mobile
Slickdeals Blog
Amazon Fillers
Global Search
Price Compare

Source: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5330452&goto=newpost

dr seuss the temptations rush limbaugh sandra fluke green book some like it hot whale shark whale shark

Court will hear Ariz. case on voter registration

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court will take up an appeal from Arizona over its requirement that people prove they are American citizens before registering to vote.

The justices on Monday said they will review a federal appeals court ruling that blocked the law in some instances.

A 12-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that federal law trumps the Arizona requirement. Federal law allows voters to fill out a mail-in voter registration card and swear they are citizens under penalty of perjury, but it doesn't require them to show proof as Arizona's 2004 law does.

The ruling applies only to people who seek to register using the federal mail-in form. Arizona has its own form and an online system to register when renewing a driver's license. The court ruling did not affect proof of citizenship requirements using the state forms.

Arizona officials have said most people use those methods and the state form is what county officials give people to use to register. But voting rights advocates had hoped the 9th Circuit decision would make the federal mail-in card more popular because it's more convenient than mailing in a state form with a photocopy of proof of citizenship.

The citizenship requirement stems from Proposition 200, approved by Arizona voters in 2004. The law also denied some government benefits to illegal immigrants and required Arizonans to show identification before voting. The 9th Circuit upheld the voter identification provision. The denial of benefits was not challenged.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-15-US-Supreme-Court-Voter-Citizenship-Proof/id-8c3912deb4eb4e95b048f5e772d5eeb5

japan earthquake bosom buddies diplo rodney atkins fergie one republic michael dyer suspended

Poll: Obama's lead over Romney with Florida's Hispanic voters tightens

Mitt Romney is closing the gap on President Barack Obama among likely Hispanic Florida voters, a majority of whom say they?re not better off than four years ago, according to a new Florida International University/Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald poll.

Obama is ahead of Romney 51-44 percent among Hispanics, a relatively narrow lead that could spell trouble for a Democratic campaign that?s counting on minority support as non-Hispanic white voters flock to the Republican ticket in droves.

In the rest of the country, however, it?s a different story for Obama when it comes to likely Hispanic voters.

The president wallops Romney 66-31 percent overall across the U.S., according to the poll?s national survey of 1,000 likely Hispanic voters. It was taken Oct. 10-11 along with the 720-voter poll in Florida.

The difference here: Cuban-American voters, who are overwhelmingly Republican and who appear to be increasingly excited about Romney?s campaign.

?What?s remarkable is the demographic split in Florida: Puerto Rican and Dominican and other Hispanic voters trust Obama. Cubans just don?t,? said Eduardo Gamarra, an FIU professor of Latin American studies who conducted the poll with his political research firm, the Newlink Group.

In the national and Florida surveys, Cuban voters consistently gave Obama low marks on handling the economy, immigration and foreign policy. Puerto Rican and Dominican voters said the opposite.

Momentum from Cuban voters could help other Republican candidates on the Florida ballot, particularly in South Florida.

Take out Cuban voters, and Obama wins Florida Hispanics 64 percent to Romney?s 33 percent, according to the poll, which has a 3.6 percent error margin.

Overall, 54 percent of Florida Hispanics said they were not better off than four years ago, compared to 46 percent who said they were. That?s not just a reflection of Cuban sentiment; it?s an indication of Florida?s unemployment rate, which is higher than the nation?s. And Hispanic unemployment is higher still. The number of Hispanic children living in poverty now exceeds the number of non-Hispanic white children, even though Hispanics are a minority.

Nevertheless, Obama edges Romney 51-48 percent over who would better at fixing the economy. He also pulls ahead of Romney 53-47 percent over handling foreign policy and 55-44 percent concerning immigration.

Asked if Obama had ?fulfilled his promises to the U.S. Hispanic community,? 51 percent said no.

That could be a legacy of Obama?s 2008 pledge to pass the pro-immigrant DREAM Act in his first term. It failed in the U.S. Senate thanks to a Republican filibuster.

The nation?s most-influential Spanish-language TV personality, Univision?s Jorge Ramos, made Obama?s failure a major issue last month during a nationally-televised forum at the University of Miami.

?A promise is a promise, and with all due respect,? Ramos said, ?you didn?t keep that promise.?

Obama seemed to agree later when asked what his biggest failure was: ?Well, Jorge as you remind me, my biggest failure has been comprehensive immigration reform.?

The Obama lead is far bigger in the national poll of Hispanic voters ? and would be bigger in Florida were it not for Cuban voters like L?zaro Sierra, a 73-year-old Republican who came to the U.S. four decades ago.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/15/3050723/poll-obamas-lead-over-romney-with.html

epstein joshua komisarjevsky barney frank barney frank rob gronkowski kim richards robert hegyes

India's credit rating: Don't call me junk ? Financial Press

---

DURING Palaniappan Chidambaram?s second stint as India?s finance minister, in January 2007, India had the satisfaction of getting a credit-rating upgrade. After a bout of fast growth and encouraging noises from the government about its finances, Standard Poor?s (SP) boosted India?s rating to BBB-, the lowest rung of investment grade. Today, on his third stint running the ministry of broken dreams, Mr Chidambaram must stop a lurch back to ?junk? status. Both SP and Fitch warned earlier this year that they might lower India?s score given slow growth, a lack of reform and high borrowing. On October 10th, SP reiterated there was at least a one-in-three chance of a downgrade. (Moody?s, a third agency, is less grumpy.)

A downgrade would not in itself cause a crisis. The government-bond market is dominated by local banks and insurance firms which are forced to buy thanks to liquidity and solvency rules. They will hoover up bonds, whatever their rating. The central bank is buying freely, too. It owns 18% of all government bonds, almost double the level of two years ago. Indian firms are perfectly capable of operating abroad if a downgrade happens. Tata Sons? takeover of Corus, a British steel firm, was plotted when SP rated India ?junk?.

Still, an investment-grade rating is handy if, like India, you run a current-account deficit and hope to attract foreigners to help finance your vast infrastructure needs over the next decade. In September the government announced a batch of reforms designed to shore up confidence, for example by relaxing rules for foreign supermarkets. Mr Chidambaram, who took up his post in August, has tried to maintain momentum by, among other things, hinting he will reverse a retroactive tax on Vodafone, a telecoms firm. Tim Geithner, America?s treasury secretary, gamely hailed the changes as ?very significant?.

In response Indian shares and the rupee have leapt. Foreign portfolio investors have rushed in. And the best proxy for India?s sovereign risk?the credit-default-swap premium on debt issued by State Bank of India, a state-backed lender?has fallen to less scary levels (see chart).

But whether India has really got its house in order, and been saved from a return to junk status, is less clear. The biggest worry is the public finances. They have a distinctly European feel, even if India is still growing faster than most countries (the latest IMF estimate for 2012 is 4.9%). The deficit, including the states, is about 9% of GDP and gross debt stands at almost 70%. India is in far worse shape than other big emerging economies with similar ratings. During the go-go years that could be overlooked because the debt-to-GDP ratio was still falling thanks to rapid growth. No longer. The IMF now forecasts that India?s ratio barely dips over the next half-decade.

Talk is cheap on fiscal matters in India. A decade ago the country put in place a legal framework to make politicians run a tighter ship. They ignored it. So far the government has only flirted with decisive action. It has made a tweak to fuel subsidies that was as politically painful as it was financially marginal. It has welcomed the report of a committee of the great and good that warned of a repeat of the financial crisis of 1991. What it has not yet done is act, a task made harder by national elections, due by 2014, which will lead to pressure to spend. If Mr Chidambaram manages material cuts to borrowing levels, despite the electoral timetable, he will surely save India?s credit rating?and rewrite the political rule book.

Article source: http://www.economist.com/node/21564567?fsrc=rss|fec

Source: http://financialpress.com/2012/10/14/indias-credit-rating-dont-call-me-junk/

andy pettitte tyler clementi kevin kolb sarah shahi george clooney rutgers dharun ravi

Breaking tire bead - Can-Am ATV Forum

uum bead breaker. I've also heard of laying a 2x6 close to the bead and driving over i've never tried that method.

I have a cheapo bead breaker from Princess auto (which is I believe similar to harbour freight in the states). It works great. I have to do it about once a month because of dirt in the bead.

Source: http://www.can-amforum.com/forums/atv-tires-wheels/39280-breaking-tire-bead.html

marion barber syracuse ohio state girl with the dragon tattoo ohio state basketball collateral dick cheney heart

Readers hot for erotic books in Frankfurt - The Local

Flush with the success of "Fifty Shades of Grey," erotic literature is increasingly finding ardent fans among women seduced by the discretion afforded by ebooks, publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair say.

"The Perfect Submissive," "Body Temperature And Rising" and "Dark Desires," the titles published by British specialist publisher Xcite leave little room for doubt over their content.

The books were unashamedly on display in the bustling corridors of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's biggest publishing event due to close Sunday, and are enjoying a boost thanks to the advent of the electronic book.

The erotic book is "an ideal genre for ebooks", said Peter Ferris, non-executive director at Accent Press, whose imprint Xcite is the biggest British erotica publisher.

"Print book sales were starting to decline. Getting into the major book stores was difficult. Some stores are not happy to take them and the buyers are very hard to reach," he said.

And then "Fifty Shades of Grey" came along.

The 2011 erotic novel by British author E.L. James was the first part of a trilogy about a relationship between a college graduate and a young business magnate and has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.

Since "Fifty Shades of Grey" started to top the bestseller lists, ebook sales have undergone "a very large increase" and made erotic literature more publicly acceptable, Ferris said.

"It raised the attention level or people's awareness of erotica. It made it more mainstream, more acceptable. It's no longer something you don't talk about, it's in the bestsellers' charts," he said.

Xcite now expects its ebook sales to be three times higher than the printed book sales this year.

Germany's Jolanta Gatzanis, editor in charge of erotic literature at the publishing house that bears her name, said ebooks had been flying off the digital shelves, and without having to be promoted.

"We sold a lot of electronic books this year without doing much publicity. That really surprised us," she said.

In Germany, no fewer than 4,000 erotic reference books for adults are currently available on the Internet, albeit of varying quality, said Roman Jansen-Winkeln, of Satzweiss, a services' provider for publishers and authors.

"There are some of good quality but a huge number of books of very mediocre quality which would have never been printed. A bit like for thrillers. But if a bad thriller can still be quite amusing, there's nothing worse than bad erotic literature," he said.

This genre of books is predominantly read by women, the publishers agreed. Jansen-Winkeln said he believed more than 80 percent of readers of erotic
literature were female.

"We don't actually see the gender of the customer but... the writing itself is aimed at women, and it's written mostly by female authors who are writing for women," said Ferris, of Accent Press which also publishes thrillers and cook books.

Discretion could be the key.

With no cover on display, an ereading device such as a Kindle makes the literature anonymous to the outside world, Giada Armani, who heads up erotic literature publishing house Giadas.

"I think that women have always wanted to read erotic literature. But what woman brandishes an erotic book in the underground or at work whose cover displays the silhouette of a naked man?" she said.

And, as Ferris pointed out, the reader can also retain their own anonymity by downloading ebooks without having to go into a shop.

"You can even erase it once you're finished so nobody knows what you've been reading," he said.

AFP/mbw

Source: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20121014-45543.html

google play franchise tag lesotho a wrinkle in time benjamin netanyahu storm shelters nick lachey