Comparing cadavers to ground beef
09/01/2002
Which is more deadly, 19 million pounds of E. coli-contaminated ground beef or harvested human tissue for transplantation that is tainted with fungus and bacteria?
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It may be hard to ponder, but it is one question the federal government has not considered because it represents two separate incidents with two very different courses of action.
Some may think the 19 million pounds of contaminated hamburger from ConAgra Beef Co. (Greeley, CO), which sickened many throughout the mid- and northwest, posed the greatest risk to public health. Others will say CryoLife Inc., a Kennesaw, GA-based human tissue bank, was far too lax in validating cleanliness and is, by far, the worse of the two.
Maybe it shouldn't matter.
If a meat packing company refuses to clean up its feces-laden operation, the most the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can do is pull inspectors out of the facility, refuse to certify the products and merely recommend to the plant to "voluntarily" recall whatever product made it to market.
That may be effective, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had far more power when it stormed CryoLife, halted certain product sales and ordered the recall of human tissue that was processed from last October to the present.
Why is it that the FDA can be all over CryoLife like the same stink on ConAgra's ground beef, but the USDA's own meat hooks are tied when it comes to a company that distributes the equivalent of contaminated cadavers?
Even the U.S. Attorney's Office can throw the book at a company that fails to employ contamination control [See "Aircraft component maker did not use cleanrooms, indictment alleges," p. 1].
Is comparing food to human tissue like comparing apples to oranges if one, the other or both pose a serious public health risk?
At a time when real-time sensing of viable particles and bacteria and bio-engineered drugs and foods are muscling their way to forefront, it only makes sense to have a unified approach to keeping contamination at bay and punishing those who violate laws that are in place to protect the public.
If not, there may come a day when the question will be: Which is more deadly, 19 million pounds of E. coli-tainted ground beef, bacteria-strewn human tissue or the bio-engineered product that was somehow contaminated and morphed into something profoundly lethal?
Mark A. DeSorbo
Associate Editor
Clarification:
In the August Product Spotlight (page 33), the company name "The Texwipe Co." should have read ITW Texwipe.