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No New U.S. Cases Of Mad Cow Disease In Humans This Week
But hundreds of millions of pounds of beef have been condemned,
because it may infect people with mad cow disease. Most of it has already been eaten. Quoting from: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....72/1018/NEWS01 School districts across Tennessee, including Metro Nashville and surrounding areas, received meat from Hallmark/Westland Meat packing company, which was shut down Feb. 4 for allegedly slaughtering "downer cows" — cattle that could not stand. Such cattle are banned from the food supply because they are at a higher risk than other cattle for mad cow disease. Quoting from: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/featu...,4493321.story USDA recalls 143 million pounds of beef from California slaughterhouse No charges have been filed against Westland, but an investigation by federal authorities continues. Officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten. "We don't know how much product is out there right now. We don't think there is a health hazard, but we do have to take this action," said Dr. Dick Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety. Most of the beef was sent to distribution centers in bulk packages. The USDA said it will work with distributors to determine how much meat remains. Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak. ---------- additional information from Mark Thorson ---------- On December 28, 2004, I sent a letter to the CDC FOI office, following the instructions given on their website he http://www.cdc.gov/od/foia/foidir.htm I requested "any records in the possession of the CDC regarding the results of any tests performed by or for the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center between October 15, 2004 and December 15, 2004 on human central nervous system tissue". According to CDC's FOI page, I should have received a postcard from them acknowledging receipt of my request when it was logged into their system. I also should have received a response within 20 working days. I did not receive a postcard or any other communication. On February 4, 2005, I called their phone number, and their spokesman confirmed that my request had been received and logged as case number 05-0278. I was told that the records I had requested had been received by the CDC FOI office from the laboratory involved, and the records were in the process of being reviewed for release. In a subsequent phone call on March 14, 2005, I learned that the requested records had been received by the CDC FOI office on January 20, 2005, and that the records were still in the process of being reviewed. This is an extraordinarily long delay in the release of these records, much longer than 20 days. This suggests that the case was passed up the chain of command -- no one below the highest level would have authority to release these documents, if they contained extremely sensitive information. On March 19, 2005, I posted an account of these events to rec.food.cooking and a few other newsgroups. On March 29, 2005, I received a letter from the CDC (dated March 23, 2005) denying my request for the records. It seems more than a coincidence that it took a public exposure of this case to shake loose a response from CDC. Had I not posted my account, I think it is unlikely I would have received a response even today. On March 31, 2005, I sent an appeal of the denial to the office of CDC Director Julie Gerberding. To my surprise, I received a letter (dated April 13, 2005) not from the CDC, but from the Public Health Service, acknowledging receipt of my appeal. I guess nobody in the CDC had the authority (in a practical sense, if not a legal sense) to make a decision to release these documents. My appeal was assigned case number PHS-2K5-A-070. After another extraordinarily long delay, on July 23, 2005 I received a letter (dated July 19, 2005) denying my appeal. Oddly, the reason given for denying the appeal is that the records are not in the possession of the CDC, even though the CDC FOI office had told me the records were received on 1/20/05! If these records showed nothing noteworthy, I believe they would have been released to me long ago. I believe that the extraordinary delays in processing my initial request and my appeal indicate that no low-level official could make the decision to comply with the Freedom of Information Act by releasing the records to me. I believe that only information of the most sensitive nature would receive such treatment. As I said in my appeal addressed to Director Gerberding: "The extraordinary delay in responding to my request suggests what these records might contain: documentation of the first human death from variant CJD acquired in the United States. Because variant CJD is a preventable fatal illness, it would be against the mission of the CDC if the public release of documentation of such an event were suppressed or delayed. There could be U.S. citizens that will become infected today who would have changed their behavior to avoid infection, if a death from U.S.-acquired variant CJD were known to have occurred." |
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