Salmonella victims angry over no prosecutions

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

ATLANTA - At the height of the nationwide salmonella outbreak nearly a year ago, FBI agents raided two peanut plants and carried away boxes of evidence. FDA inspectors found roaches, mold and a leaky roof. Then, Congress revealed e-mails from the peanut company's top executive that seemed to suggest the pursuit of profits over ensuring public safety.

Despite the fanfare over the criminal probe of one of the largest product recalls ever, no one has yet been charged in the outbreak, which was linked to hundreds of illnesses and nine deaths.

Federal prosecutions in food-illness outbreaks are rare, but food safety experts and legal analysts say the salmonella investigation seemed as cut-and-dry as any case.

After all, investigators said the head of the company at the center of the probe fired off e-mails to employees amid reports salmonella had been detected in his products to "turn them loose" and said the business "desperately" needed to turn raw peanuts into money.

Nine months after the e-mails were made public by a U.S. House panel, prosecutors have been tightlipped on whether executives with Peanut Corp. of America will face charges, infuriating relatives of those sickened by the salmonella.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33715380/ns/health-food_safety/

[Demeter]

1. Unconscionable

There was so much undone left for Holder, the man needs to clone himself and every useful person in the Justice Dept.

[endless october]

2. irradiating foods would be a safe solution to this mess.

but everyone is more afraid of the word "irradiation" than they are of potentially life threatening cases of food poisoning.

even though France does it right now and they're not dropping dead from it.

[kestrel91316]

3. France has better worker protections and radiation safety enforcement

than we do, would be my guess. I don't want irradiated foods forced upon me with no choice, but MORE importantly I don't want companies to be using and abusing the process for profit, because they have a long track record of cutting corners when it comes to safety.

[endless october]

4. i definitely want the irradiated products labeled.

that way, informed people can buy safe, irradiated food and the paranoid can risk food poisoning.

[TheMadMonk]

5. Indeed. The only known physiological effect from irradiated food.

Irradiated baked beans cause fewer farts.

[Stryst]

8. Pretty safe technology

I worked for a company called Kensolo for a while that built x-ray imaging devices and food and medical equipment sterilization devices. The set up to sterilize food packages with x-rays look just like the thing that the TSA uses to scan your bags when you go through the air port; its just a box that sits over one part of the conveyor belt. VERY simple to use, self contained, and the only way to get an accidental exposure (which is still a fairly low dose) would be to crawl inside the thing while it was on. And happen to catch the half a second flash.

But Americans are terrified of the word radiation; even if it's something as simple as a UV pump they'll panic if it goes anywhere near them. You can tell them till you're blue in the face about electron beam projectors and how they don't produce neutrons so nothing stays radioactive. Doesn't matter though, because the moving picture box told them that radiation will kill them and their children.

[dflprincess]

6. I wonder how many campaign "contributions" the executives of Peanut Corp have been making

since this happened.

[unkachuck]

7. "...infuriating relatives of those sickened by the salmonella."

....we have to remember, this is corporate America harming and killing Americans....if you or I were to shoot someone injuring or killing them, we'd receive life in prison or execution....

....since this is corporate America harming or killing Americans, you don't seriously expect the corporate system to punish corporations or their goons, do you? More often than not, corporate America can harm and kill Americans in the name of capitalism with impunity....

[depakid]

9. Obama's "Justice" Department is nothing short of a disgrace

It's not even comparable to Bush I.