Summary: A new report from three government agencies finds the government's not doing such a great job of keeping our food safe. Kyle Norris takes a look at what the agencies say needs to happen.
And... dozens of invaders have gotten a slimy toehold in the U.S. by hitchhiking
on foreign cargo ships. Lester talks with author Jeff Alexander about his new book, Pandora's Locks. In it, he describes the utter failure of the government to do anything effective to stop the invasive species. More…
The government admits it needs to do a better job at keeping food safe.
This is The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.
When you discover people are getting sick from a food bourne illness like salmonella, you want to stop others from getting sick from it as fast as possible. Kyle Norris is here… you learned a new report from three government agencies finds they’re not getting any faster.
Yeah, this report was a collaborative effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Food & Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture.
The report found the number of reported salmonella cases each year is about 15 people in 100,000. And… that’s not gone down since 1996.
Lola Russell is a spokeswoman for the CDC.
“This plateau means we must have new efforts developed that will evaluate food safety practices from the farm to table. Particularly here at CDC we are planning to increase the capacity of state health departments so that outbreaks can be better detected and investigated.” (:20)
Russell says the CDC will work with state and local health departments to get more “boots on the ground” to detect an outbreak. The report also indicated the FDA is looking at the best options to prevent food borne illnesses in the first place.
LG: The Government Accountability Office has been pretty critical about food safety and the hodge-podge system. What’s the FDA plan to do better?
When we asked the FDA what it was doing, the FDA referred us back to the CDC, saying this “collaborative report” was issued by the CDC. When we called up the CDC again, it said it couldn’t comment on other agencies.
LG: Well… there you go….
THANX
Maybe you’ve heard about zebra mussels. The thumbnail-sized mussels have invaded fresh water lakes and rivers, clogged water intake pipes and damaged the environment across a good portion of the U.S. and they keep spreading.
The zebra mussel is just one of dozens and dozens of invasive species that have been brought to the U.S. by foreign cargo ships entering the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway that connets the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.
What happens is: ships in Europe or Africa or Asia take on ballast water, sucking up millions of gallsons of water from a foreign port. Aquatic life is sucked up with it. Then as the ships take on cargo in the Great Lakes, that ballast water is discharged and with it, things like zebra mussels and other foreign pests.
And many of those species have spread from the Great Lakes into the Mississippi River system and then transported by recreational boating in every direction from there.
Jeff Alexander has written a book that chronicles not only those invasions, but the utter failure of the government to do anything effective to stop these introductions.
You make the argument that these invasive species-- biological pollution, if you will-- amount to a more serious environmental diaster than the Exxon Valdes oil spill in Alaska. How’s that?
There are eight states that border the Great lakes. Members of Congress are aware of this problem. Why haven’t they taken action to ensure this problem is dealt with once and for all?
Jeff Alexander’s new book is Pandora’s Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. Thanks Jeff.
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