Blue Bell Creameries expanded a recent recall of products after tests found additional products may be linked to an outbreak of listeriosis that resulted in at least three deaths. [More]
illness
Legislation Aims To Make It Harder For Kids To Snack On Yummy-Looking Detergent Pods
By 2.26.15
Federal safety agencies and poison control centers have continuously expressed concern that the ever-popular, and convenient detergent pods are extremely dangerous to children, with more than 17,000 kids being poisoned by ingesting the detergent since they came on the scene three years ago. Today, the House and Senate took steps to ensure the single-serve detergent packs no long threaten childrens’ safety by introducing legislation that would enact stricter packaging standards for liquid detergent. [More]
Lawsuit Claims Thousands Of Dogs Became Ill Or Died After Eating Purina’s Beneful Kibble
By 2.25.15
A recently filed lawsuit claims that instead of containing nutrient-rich, high-quality ingredients, Nestle Purina PetCare Company’s most popular brand of dog food includes toxins that have led to serious illness or death for thousands of dogs. [More]
28,980 Pounds Of Chicken Kiev Recalled For Connection With Salmonella Illness
By 10.31.14
Sometimes you want Chicken Kiev but don’t feel like pounding out the chicken breasts, stuffing them with butter and herbs, and then cooking them. But if you’ve got some Antioch Farms Chicken Kiev sitting in your freezer, check the label because 29,000 pounds of the pre-stuffed chicken have been recalled for possible Salmonella contamination. [More]
Norovirus, Not Brawl, Breaks Out At Chuck E. Cheese’s
By 4.14.14
Something terrible broke out at a Minnesota Chuck E. Cheese’s last week, and for once it wasn’t an adult brawl requiring police intervention. No, this time it was something even more frightening: norovirus. Authorities believe that the illness didn’t spread through food, but across other surfaces. [More]
Study Finds Produce, Restaurants Most Likely To Give Consumers Foodborne Illnesses
By 4.8.14
There’s now another compelling reason to eat at home rather than going out. And if you’re preparing a meal at home make sure you wash your produce. A new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest finds that consumers are twice as likely to get food poisoning from food prepared at a restaurant than food prepared at home, and illnesses at home are most often linked to our love of all things produce. [More]
Hell Is Flying Across The Pacific With 26 Barfing, Pooping Norovirus-Infected Teens
By 8.5.13
I used to think that there couldn’t be anything worse than being in a closed environment like a cruise ship or a nursing home where quickly-mutating norovirus makes multiple passes through the population. Then I learned about the flight from Chile to Australia where 26 high school students came down with the disease while in the air. [More]
To Waive Flight Change Fee, Delta Wants To Talk To My Dying Aunt’s Doctor
By 3.11.13
Stacy doesn’t have a lot of money to throw around, but she booked a flight to visit her terminally ill aunt on the other side of the country. Then she got the flu. Spreading the disease to her fellow passengers would be bad enough, but a cancer patient certainly doesn’t need the influenza virus. Stacy rescheduled to a time when she would be less of a walking germ factory, and asked Delta whether they could waive her change fee. Sure, they said: as long as she gave them contact information for her aunt’s doctor. [More]
Dish Network Doesn't Want Hospitalized Customer Back
By 4.27.11
E.’s dad has been in the hospital since February recovering from complications from heart surgery. The family didn’t expect him to be hospitalized this long, and his bills are in a bit of disarray. The only company not willing to work something out? Dish Network, which canceled his past-due account, which was still in his ex-wife’s name. [More]
US Airways: Sorry Your Sister Is Gravely Ill. $30 To Sit Together, Please.
By 9.24.10
Bernadette writes that when sister-in-law was gravely ill on the other side of the country, her husband booked an expensive last-minute flight to bring her back to the East Coast. He was alarmed to learn that U.S. Airways couldn’t guarantee that he and his sister would sit together on the flight from California to New Jersey…unless he paid an extra $15 “choice seating” fee on each ticket. It’s a relatively small amount of money, but the family found it heartless under the circumstances. [More]
CDC And Celebrity Cruises Can't Figure Out Why Passengers Keep Getting Sick
By 3.16.10
Remember the diarrhea nightmare vessel that sickened 450 passengers a few weeks back? Once it got back home, Celebrity Cruises delayed the next trip by a day so that it could perform a “full cleaning.” It didn’t help much, though: CNN says that about 10% of passengers on the next sailing got sick, and about 19% of passengers on the current sailing are now sick. [More]
Lawsuits Accuse Illinois Subway Of Selling Contaminated Sandwiches
By 3.16.10
Patrons of a Chicago area subway got an extra topping with their $5 dollar footlongs — potentially lethal bacteria, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Hospitalized patrons, who dined at the Subway from Feb. 27 to March 2, are filing lawsuits against the sub sandwich chain, which is accused of contaminating sandwiches with the fecal-borne bacteria to customers at the location in question. [More]
CDC Will Probably Advise Flu Shots For Everyone This Fall
By 2.25.10
An advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control has recommended that everyone get flu vaccinations from now on, not just people in special higher risk groups. According to WebMD, “the CDC almost certainly will make universal flu vaccination official U.S. policy for this fall’s 2010-2011 flu season, as it consistently follows the advice of the panel of outside experts.” [More]
Caribbean Cruise Ship Turns Into Diarrhea Nightmare Vessel
By 2.23.10
When gastrointestinal illness hits a cruise ship, there’s nowhere to run or hide, as nearly 450 passengers and crewmembers aboard the Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury have discovered. Celebrity Cruises says they they’re still investigating what caused the outbreak, but the symptoms include “upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea,” according to their spokeswoman. [More]
H1N1 Phishing Email Making The Rounds
By 12.4.09
The Centers for Disease Control have issued a warning that there’s a new, swine flu-themed phishing email going around. It says something about an imaginary State Vaccination H1N1 Program, and asks you to create an account on the cdc.gov website–and if you click the link, malicious code may be installed on your system. Obviously you have brain worms if you fall for this. [More]
No Rebooking For People With H1N1 , So, You Know, Good Luck Flying
By 11.23.09
When I look at flight attendants I do not see mere mortals. I see heroic flying immune systems. When the zombificating superflu does eventually strike, those who survive will no doubt be ruled by former flight attendants and elementary school teachers. In the meantime, they’ll somehow continue working in a “flying petri dish” as some airlines continue to refuse H1N1 as an excuse to rebook.
Swine Flu Self-Assessment Saves You Worrying
By 10.9.09
Do you have H1N1 flu? Probably! Aaaugghh! But before you haul your feverish butt to a clinic or a doctor, consider taking this free online flu self-assessment test from Emory University. It probably could have been combined into a one-page flowchart, but that’s not as much fun as pressing YES/NO buttons.
Doctors Remove Plastic Wendy's Fragment From Man's Lung
By 9.18.09
For nearly two years, a 50-year-old man in North Carolina has suffered mysterious coughing fits, fatigue, and pneumonia. Now he’s back to normal after doctors removed a 1-inch piece of plastic from his lungs, which he apparently inhaled while enjoying a soft drink.
