CDC Guts Food Safety Net: A Dangerous Gamble with American Lives
Media Contact: Lisa McDonald, Vice President of Communications, 202-207-2829
Washington, DC – In 1736, Benjamin Franklin advised the people of Philadelphia that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Our famous forefather was talking about fire prevention but his words should now be directed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recently cut its Food Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) to track only infections from two foodborne pathogens, Salmonella and Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC).
It is true that Salmonella and STET are among the top contributors to foodborne illnesses in the U.S. Yet, another six major pathogens – Campylobacter, Cyclospora, Listeria, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia –also contribute to the estimated 48 million cases of foodborne illness in the US every year. And now, CDC has decided that it will be up to the states participating in FoodNet to determine if and how they will track and report illnesses from these pathogens.
It is worth remembering that the CDC created FoodNet in 1995 as a response to the 1992–1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, when over 700 people were badly sickened and four children died from eating hamburgers containing the deadly strain of Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacterium. It was a national scandal the country vowed not to repeat. “Sadly, the CDC has decided to play Russian Roulette with the health of Americans because states simply do not have the ability to coordinate information and data beyond their borders,” says Nancy Glick, Director of Food and Nutrition Policy at the National Consumers League. Therefore, the detection and information-sharing about major food pathogens will become more difficult and the spread of foodborne disease outbreaks will be more likely.
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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
