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Clorox to Halt Use of Chlorine at Bleach Production Sites
Monday, Nov. 2, 2009
Clorox Co. said today that it would begin phasing out use of chlorine in the production of bleach (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2007).
Chlorine is a known chemical weapons agent that was used during World War I and more recently by insurgents in Iraq (see GSN, July 2, 2007). Observers have expressed concern that would-be terrorists might target U.S. industrial plants that employ the material.
Beginning with a facility in California, Clorox over the next several years will convert seven plants to use high-strength bleach rather than chlorine in the manufacturing of household bleach.
"This decision was driven by our commitment to strengthen our operations and add another layer of security," Clorox Chairman and CEO Don Knauss said in a press release (Clorox Co. release/Marketwire, Nov. 2).
The environmental organization Greenpeace lauded the decision.
"Once the conversion is completed at all seven U.S. Clorox plants, the company will have eliminated catastrophic risks from chlorine gas to 13.6 million Americans living downwind of its facilities," according to a Greenpeace press release. "This conversion will also eliminate equally disastrous risks posed by the transport of 90-ton rail cars of chlorine gas" (see GSN, March 25).
The Clorox move could strengthen the case for House legislation set for a vote Wednesday that would require "highest-risk" chemical plants to shift away from using chlorine when feasible, Greenpeace said (Greenpeace release, Nov. 2).
Poorly Cleaned Public Cruise Ship Restrooms May Predict Norovirus Outbreaks
ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2009) — A team of researchers from Boston University School (BUSM), Carney Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University School of Medicine, have found that widespread poor compliance with regular cleaning of public restrooms on cruise ships may predict subsequent norovirus infection outbreaks (NoVOs). This study, which appears in the November 1st issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, is the first study of environmental hygiene on cruise ships.
Outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) often occur in close populations, such as among cruise ship passengers. Recent epidemiologic investigations of outbreaks of AGE confirmed that 95 percent of cruise ship AGE outbreaks are caused by norovirus. Despite biannual sanitation monitoring and hand hygiene interventions among passengers and crew members, 66 ships monitored by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experienced NoV infection outbreaks (NoVOs) between 2003 and 2008.
Trained health care professionals evaluated the thoroughness of disinfection cleaning of six standardized objects (toilet seat, flush handle or button, toilet stall inner handhold, stall inner door handle, restroom inner door handle, and baby changing table surfaces) with high potential for fecal contamination in cruise ship public restrooms.
The researchers found only 37 percent of the 273 randomly selected public restrooms that were evaluated on 1,546 occasions were cleaned daily. The overall cleanliness of the six standardized surfaces on each ship ranged from four to 100 percent. Although some objects in most restrooms were cleaned at least daily, on 275 occasions no objects in a restroom were cleaned for at least 24 hours.
Overall, the toilet seat was the best-cleaned object and the least thoroughly cleaned object was the baby changing table. Furthermore, 19 objects in 13 ships were not cleaned at all during the entire five-to-seven-day monitoring period. Toilet area handholds were largely neglected, accounting for more than half of the uncleaned objects on 11 ships. Although almost all standardized objects were assessed at the time of each evaluation, baby changing tables were not found in public restrooms on 79 percent of vessels. On three ships, none of the changing tables were cleaned during the study period. The thoroughness of cleaning did not differ by cruise line and did not correlate with Center for Disease Control and Prevention Vessel Sanitation Program inspection scores which averaged 97 out of a possible 100 points for the study vessels.
According to the researchers these findings are of particular note because five of the six evaluated objects could readily be directly contaminated by pathogens during regular use. "Although hand hygiene with soap after toileting may diminish the transmission of enteric pathogens via bathroom door knobs or pulls, hand washing is unlikely to mitigate the potential for any of the other toilet area contact surfaces to serve as a source of transmission of enteric pathogens," said lead author Philip Carling, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at BUSM. "Furthermore, there was a substantial potential for washed hands to become contaminated while the passenger was exiting the restroom, given that only 35 percent of restroom exit knobs or pulls were cleaned daily. Only disinfection cleaning by cruise ship staff can reasonably be expected to mitigate these risks," he added.
Although the thoroughness of disinfection cleaning was 30 percent on more than half of the ships, near-perfect cleaning was documented on several vessels, providing evidence that a high level of environmental hygiene is achievable. "We believe that additional studies on the role of contaminated surfaces in cruise ship NoV transmission are warranted to determine whether improved environmental hygiene will decrease the incidence, duration, or severity of outbreaks," added Carling.
Co-authors include Lou Ann Bruno-Murtha, DO, clinical instructor in medicine of Cambridge Health Alliance, and senior author, Jeffrey K. Griffiths, MD, MPH&TM, an associate professor in the department of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Thousands were affected by Typhoon Mirinae this weekend
MANILA, 2 November 2009 (IRIN) – Aid workers credit a pre-emptive evacuation of more than 115,000 residents for this weekend’s minimal loss of life from Typhoon Mirinae.
Sixteen deaths were recorded in suburban areas south of Manila and in two eastern provinces, although the heavy rains and strong winds further exacerbated the humanitarian situation for tens of thousands left homeless by two earlier devastating cyclones, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported on 2 November.
With gusts of up to 185km/hr, Mirinae cut a westwards swathe across Luzon Island on 31 October before exiting into the South China Sea a day later.
The state weather bureau said Mirinae would likely hit Vietnam on 2 November.
"We were thankful that the public listened to authorities. People are now more aware of what to do after Ketsana and Parma," Philippine National Red Cross secretary-general, Gwendolyn Pang, told IRIN, adding that authorities had already managed to restore power to most of the 22 towns hit by the storm.
Ketsana dumped a month’s worth of rain on Manila and outlying areas when it hit land on 26 September, causing the area’s worst flooding in over 40 years.
A week later, Parma pummelled northern Luzon for a week. Typhoon Lupit changed course at the last minute on 24 October, providing a break for storm-weary rescuers and a government whose disaster response mechanism has been pushed to the limit by the storms that affected more than eight million people.
While many of those evacuated by the earlier storms had returned home, Pang said relief operations would continue for 87,467 people still crammed into makeshift shelters around Manila and in surrounding provinces.
But with many flood survivors returning to their partly submerged homes, authorities have warned of more disease outbreaks. Government has recorded 167 deaths due to Leptospirosis – a flood-borne disease caused by infection from flood waters contaminated by rat and other animal urine – in addition to 929 deaths due to devastation wrought by Ketsana and Parma.
Reconstruction
"We are now shifting relief operations to early recovery planning and reconstruction. We need to develop a residential plan for those left homeless by the floods," Pang said, noting, however, that disaster relief officials have said many areas, especially near lakes, reservoirs and rivers, would likely remain under water into 2010.
Ida Mae Fernandez, regional project officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the agency was working on "multiple targets" to include the displaced in evacuation centres, as well as families who had stayed in their flooded homes.
"We will implement reconstruction and repair activities on basic public infrastructure, as well as repair of houses," she said.
Hundreds have died following a wave of tropical storms to hit the country
"Also, we are gearing up to work with the Department of Health and the World Health Organization to fast-track health mitigation activities.
"Coordination of actions will be important, and IOM will focus on areas that have difficult access to ready humanitarian aid," Fernandez said.
The NDCC said Typhoon Mirinae left "remarkably less damage to lives and properties" than Ketsana and Parma.
"This is largely attributed to the pre-emptive efforts conducted by the national and local governments through the NDCC and their local counterparts, and the pre-positioning of government assets and relief items in areas which were to have been hit by the typhoon," it stated.
Residents in the direct path of Mirinae were easier to convince to leave their properties than those affected by the previous storms.
"Cooperation among all sectors is truly the best tool we must have in disaster preparation or disaster response," it stated. "We hope the lessons we learned from these past tragedies will remain with everyone, to allow for better disaster preparation and better disaster responses."
President Gloria Arroyo personally led disaster relief officials in the inspection of water levels in flood-ways around Manila and to warn residents against staying there as Mirinae was lashing the city.
Arroyo called on authorities to evacuate residents from the Lupang Arenda resettlement site in Taytay District, east of Manila. The president talked to the residents, many of whom were waiting for the waters to subside so they could salvage what was left of their belongings.
The 200ha site was originally designated a protected wetlands by the government, but in recent years has been overrun by informal settlers – a situation repeated in many other areas around Manila, exposing government’s poor urban planning, which has been blamed by environmentalists for the massive flooding.
At Least 2 Deaths Reported in Massive E.Coli Ground Beef Recall
Fairbank Farms reports over 500,000 pounds contaminated
By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com
November 2, 2009
Food Safety
26 people have been sickened and 2 people may have died due to ingesting ground beef contaminated with a potentially fatal strain of E.coil, health officials said Monday.
New York company Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York has recalled more than 500,000 pounds of ground beef due to the contamination.
One of the deaths was a New York adult with several underlying health complications, said officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The other was a previously reported death in New Hampshire due to complications from the infection.
The CDC said there were a total of 28 cases of infection, including 16 hospitalizations. The agency said all but three of the infections were in the northeastern United States, with the majority in New England.
Fairbank Farms confirmed on Friday that approximately 545,699 pounds of its fresh ground beef products — sold under seven different store labels — may contain the potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7E, which causes bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and can lead to kidney failure.
The company sold the recalled products to distributors in eight states, including Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The company since learned some of its customers may have redistributed the tainted ground beef to other states.
"Our current priorities are to inform the public and address their concerns," Ron Allen, CEO of Fairbank Farms, said in a written statement. "Further, we want to help them to identify and remove any of the recalled products that may be in their freezers."
All the recalled beef is past its expiration date by 23-32 days, Allen said, and is longer being sold as "fresh" in supermarkets.
"We are urging consumers to check their freezers for ground beef products that are listed in the recall," Allen said. "Consumers who identify these products should return them to the point of purchase for a full refund."
• Trader Joe’s products: 1-pound packages of "Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 85/15," and 1-pound packages of "Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef 80/20." Those two products may have sell-by dates of October 6 or 7, 2009. Also recalled are 1-pound trays of "Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef Patties 96/4 Extra Lean," and 1-pound trays of "Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef Patties 85/15."
• Price Chopper products: 1- and 2.5-pound trays of "Price Chopper Meatloaf & Meatball Mix," 1-pound trays of "Price Chopper Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/4," and 1-pound trays of "Price Chopper Fresh Ground Beef Chuck For Chili 80 Percent Lean 20 Percent Fat."
• Lancaster and Wild Harvest products: 1-pound trays of "Lancaster Brand 96/4 Extra Lean Ground Beef," 1-and 2-pound trays of "Lancaster Brand 90/10 Ground Beef," and 1-pound trays of "Wild Harvest Natural 85/15 Angus Ground Beef."
• Shaw’s products: 1- and 2-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 93/7," 1-, 2- and 3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 80/20," 1- and 3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 75/25," 1.3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Sirloin Beef Patties 90/10," 1.3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Round Beef Patties 85/15," 1.3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef Patties 80/20," 3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef Patties Family Pack 80/20," 1-pound trays of "Shaw’s Angus Ground Beef 85/15," 1-, 2- and 3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Beef 85/15," 1-pound trays of "Shaw’s 90 Percent Natural Ground Beef," 1-pound trays of "Shaw’s 85 Percent Natural Ground Beef," 1-, 2- and 3-pound trays of "Shaw’s Fresh Ground Sirloin 90/10," and 1-pound trays of "Meatloaf & Meatball Mix"
• BJ’s products: 5-pound trays of "Fresh Ground Beef, Contains 15 Percent Fat" patties, 3- and 5-pound trays of "Lean Ground Beef, Contains 7 Percent Fat," and 2.5-pound trays of "Meatloaf & Meatball Mix"
• Ford Brothers products: 3-pound trays of "Fresh Ground Beef, Contains 20 Percent Fat" patties;
• Giant products: 1-pound trays of "Giant Extra Lean Ground Beef 96/4," 1-pound trays of "Giant Meatloaf & Meatball Mix," 1-pound trays of "Giant Nature’s Promise Ground Beef," and 1-pound trays of "Giant Nature’s Promise Ground Beef Patties."
All the recalled packages have the establishment number "EST. 492" inside the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) mark of inspection or on the nutrition label.
The recall also includes cases of 10-pound Fairbank Farms fresh ground beef chubs (for store grind) with sell by dates of October 3, 2009, October 4, 2009, or October 5, 2009. Those dates, however, may not be on the package labels. The company distributed these products to retailers in Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia for further processing.
Fairbank Farms said it packaged the potentially tainted beef on September 15 and 16, 2009, and the retail stores may have labeled the products with sell-by dates from September 19 through 28, 2009, unless otherwise noted.
FSIS officials, working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health and agriculture departments, discovered a link between the recalled ground beef and illnesses in Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts.
Consumers with questions about the recall should contact Fairbank Farms’ consumer hotline at 1-877-546-0122.
Safety tips for cooking beef
FSIS officials said consumers should only eat raw meat products that have been cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which will kill harmful bacteria.
The agency also offered the following safety tips for handling fresh and frozen ground beef:
• Wash hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling raw meat and poultry. Wash cutting boards, dishes and utensils with hot, soapy water. Immediately clean spills.
• Keep raw meat, fish, and poultry away from other food that is not being cooked. Use separate cutting boards for raw meat, poultry and egg products and cooked foods.
• Color is not a reliable indicator that ground beef or ground beef patties have been cooked to a temperature high enough to kill harmful bacteria, like E. coli O157:H7. The only way to be sure ground beef is cooked high enough is to use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature.
• Refrigerate raw meat and poultry within two hours after purchase or one hour if temperatures exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Refrigerate cooked meat and poultry within two hours after cooking.
Consumers can contact the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHOTLINE or visit the agency’s Web site for additional food safety tips.
CO poisonings usually occur in winter months when people use heating sources that may produce hazardous CO levels. You can prevent CO poisoning by preparing your home heating sources for winter, acting wisely in case of a power outage, and learning the symptoms of CO poisoning.
CO is a colorless, odorless gas produced by burning any fuel. About 20,000 Americans are treated in emergency rooms each year because of CO exposure; exposure to high levels of CO can cause death. Many people who have CO poisoning don’t know it because its symptoms are familiar complaints.
Common symptoms of CO poisoning include:
headache
dizziness
chest pain
nausea/vomiting
In severe cases of CO poisoning, people may be agitated and confused or tired, or may lapse into unconsciousness.
CO exposure can happen at any time during the year, but most accidental CO poisonings occur from December through February. During these winter months, people rely most heavily on their furnaces and are most likely to warm up vehicles in a garage. Winter storms can bring strong winds or heavy accumulations of ice with them and disrupt electric power for hours or even days while utility companies work to repair damage. Temperatures in your home may become uncomfortable, and bundling up in extra clothing and blankets may not provide enough warmth. Sadly, many CO poisonings are caused by the use of alternative heating sources during electric power outages.
You can protect yourself and your family from the dangers of CO poisoning by observing the following safety precautions:
DO install battery-operated CO detectors in your home, especially near heating sources. Change the batteries in the detector when you change your clocks from daylight saving time to standard time.
DO have a qualified technician check your heating systems, water heaters, and other gas-, oil- or coal-burning appliances every year.
DO have your chimney and flue inspected and cleaned yearly.
DO make sure that your chimney is not blocked with snow before you use your fireplace.
DO move to a fresh-air location and call 911 immediately if you experience the symptoms of CO poisoning.
DO check frequently on children and the elderly.
DO NOT use gas-powered appliances such as ranges, ovens, or clothes dryers to heat your home.
DO NOT use camp stoves, charcoal grills, or hibachis inside your home, in the basement, or in the garage.
DO NOT operate a generator inside your home or garage. Only operate a generator outdoors and away from doors, windows, and vents that could allow CO to seep indoors.
DO NOT run a vehicle inside your garage, even if the garage door is open.
CO poisoning is entirely preventable. You can protect yourself and your family by preparing your home heating sources for winter, acting wisely in case of a power outage, and learning the symptoms of CO poisoning.
1 November 2009 KABUL – Afghanistan on Sunday ordered the closure of all schools for three weeks after recording its first death from swine flu, the country’s education minister said.
“In order to safeguard the health of all Afghans… all public and private schools will be shut for three weeks” from Monday, Farouq Wardak said in a statement.
The move comes after an engineer from Kabul last week became the first Afghan to die of the (A)H1N1 virus.
There are about 7.5 million students and teachers in Afghanistan, the statement said.
Two people, one from New Hampshire and another from upstate New York, have died after eating ground beef that may be responsible for an E. coli outbreak linked to illness in more than two dozen people.
The suspect beef was produced by a company in western New York State, Fairbank Farms, which issued a voluntary recall Saturday for 545,699 pounds of ground beef products.
The products in question are ground beef or packaged beef patties that were made from Sept. 14 to Sept. 16 and distributed mostly in the Northeast. All are stamped “EST 492,” either within the Department of Agriculture’s mark of inspection or near the nutrition facts.
The products went to retailers in eight states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The stores receiving them included Trader Joe’s, Giant, Price Chopper, Wild Harvest and Shaw’s.
Agnes Schafer, a spokeswoman for Fairbank Farms, based in Ashville, N.Y., noted that no tests had yet proved conclusively that the company’s products were the source of the bacterial outbreak, to which public health investigators have linked the illnesses of at least 28 people.
Ms. Schafer also said all the recalled products were 23 to 32 days past their sell-by dates as of Monday, and so none should still be on grocery store shelves.
But Beth Daly, an epidemiologist with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, said there was still some danger. “We’re more concerned that people have this product in their freezer and might still be eating it,” Ms. Daly said.
Infection with E. coli O157:H7 can have a wide range of effects, from mild intestinal discomfort to death. The New Hampshire resident who died of it contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease that attacks red blood cells and can cause kidney failure.
The New Yorker who died was an adult from Albany County who had several underlying health problems, The Associated Press reported.
While thorough cooking can kill E. coli O157:H7, it is dangerous even in microscopic doses and can be spread from utensils or cooking surfaces to other foods.
Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, a food safety organization, said the Fairbank Farms recall, and a smaller beef recall on Oct. 26 in Massachusetts by Crocetti’s Oakdale Packing Company, showed that the nation’s food inspection system needed reform.
“To this day,” she said, “contamination problems are not found by any checks on the products by companies. They’re found when people get sick, and that’s a failure in the system.”
At more than 270 tons of beef, Saturday’s recall was a large one. The Agriculture Department said the median beef recall last year was 7,733 pounds.
RIYADH — Saudi Arabia said Monday it is to vaccinate all its residents attending the hajj against swine flu, pressing ahead with plans to host millions of the world’s Muslims despite a heightened pandemic alert.
The kingdom has received the first tranche of 11 million vaccine doses it has ordered for the A(H1N1) flu.
Authorities were to begin vaccinating hundreds of thousands of health and other hajj workers as well as domestic pilgrims against swine flu from next week, said a senior Saudi health official.
Anyone working on the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina was being strongly urged to get vaccinated, said Dr Ziad Memish, the assistant deputy health minister for preventive medicine.
“The priority is for local pilgrims,” he told AFP, referring to the estimated one-million plus Saudis and residents of the country who will embark on the hajj.
The vaccines will also be made available — but not mandatory — for health workers, hundreds of thousands of government and private sector workers dealing with the hajj, and residents of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, he said.
The hajj, which peaks this year during November 25-29, swells the region in western Saudi Arabia with about three million pilgrims from around 80 countries, including more than one million from inside the country.
Swine flu deaths have reached 62 in the kingdom, most of them involving people with other health problems, Memish said.
Confirmed cases are close to 7,000 since the first case was reported on June 3, while clinically diagnosed cases, which Memish said are more indicative of the presence of the disease, are between 22,000 and 23,000 cases.
Despite concerns about the disease the hajj will go ahead without any forced restrictions on pilgrims, tens of thousands of whom have already arrived in the country for the event.
Memish said the low level of cases during the peak umrah minor pilgrimage period in August and September, only 26 proven swine flu infections among millions of pilgrims, gave them confidence that the hajj will not experience a major outbreak.
“We don’t envision anything disastrous,” he said.
Dr. Shahul Ebrahim, an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who is assisting the Saudi health ministry during the hajj, said that close monitoring of pilgrims and the widespread use of face masks and hand cleaners should be able to stall the disease’s spread.
“These are the only things feasible that we can do,” he told AFP.
“I don’t see anything that the Saudi government is not doing that should be done,” he said.
The governments of several countries sending pilgrims on the hajj, including China and Egypt which has tens of thousands heading there each year, have given vaccinations to citizens making the journey.
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