[glenntaj]

--from today's NY times, regarding autoimmune molecular mimicry processes (so often implicated, though hard to prove, in neurological disorders):

A Medical Mystery Unfolds in Minnesota

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/he...tml?ref=health

[MelodyL]

Well!!!!

I clicked on the link and started to read the article.

I couldn't get past these two paragraphs

"The brains were pooled, poured into 10-pound containers and shipped to be sold as food — mostly in China and Korea, where cooks stir-fry them, but also in some parts of the American South, where people like them scrambled up with eggs.

The person blowing brains was separated from the other workers by a plexiglass shield that had enough space under it to allow the heads to ride through on a conveyor belt. There was also enough space for brain tissue to splatter nearby employees"

OH MY GOD!!!! I may never eat scrambled eggs again.

jeez!!!

.

[Aussie99]

I have never read anything like it. Ingesting aerasolised pork brains through the eyes... MY GOD!!! What an awful job!!

So some of these poor workers would be sprayed and breath in by pig brains and the company reckons this is ok

Good article though on molecular mimicry, one for the stickies I reckon.

[shiney sue]

We have onne of those plants about 30 miles outside of Coiumbia Mo.
I will try and find the newspaper articles. They wear taking Chili all
sorts of produts off the market. China and Korea always mentoned
but I never by this stuff so I have listened. Then a lady I knew from
Chrurch told me her husband,was complaining of leg pain,heavy
legs,tinging,in feet and hands,spams ect. She asked me what I
had,I explained,even got information. from my neuro's office.

Nobody got healthcare,they got laid off,long enough where they
had no one would hire them,they wear so sick they were applying
for disability. Wifes where getting jobs at the Unversity Hospitals
to get insurance for the family...Then they closed the Factory here
and reopened it in Tenn..Some of the people that were still working
went to Tenn. with them..No they never wore masks or gloves
or full length garbs...This is not the only place it's happening
all over. Our Governor said he wasn't going to run this year.
People take these jobs out of desperation,get sick and are forgotten
about...Well I for one am glad you printing that...My son lives
in Mpls.Mn got to ask him about this,he works at University of Mn.
Thanks Glenn, Sue

[cyclelops]

It is amazing to me that they would not use the same blood borne, air borne pathogen protection for meat processors of all kind of animals, I don't care if it is chicken, pig or cow. If it can get in your respiratory tract, on your skin or in contact with your body in anyway, 'it', whatever 'it' is can potentially cause illness.

I am appalled that these people had to work in conditions where they were breathing aerosolized tissue and had tissue all over their skin. Frankly, I am surprised the nursing staff, safety staff of the plant, and OSHA didn't figure out this was a bad idea before people got sick to begin with.

Most workplaces have instructions on how to deal with human 'messes'...procedures as to how to clean up vomit, or blood for example. Would not the same apply to animal crud?

I imagine this is quite the workers comp issue.

The other thing that bugs me is the centralized manner of food processing....thousands of animals' 'meat' gets mixed and then sent to other plants where it gets further mixed. The products from one diseased animal can conceivably end up in thousands of products worldwide these days.

The other issue you can not get around is buying local meat processed at local butchers....altho it is technically safer, as your exposure is more limited, the caveat is CWD. Most local butchers where we live, process deer. I am not sure, if the deer brains are tested for CWD prior to butchering or after butchering and dispersal of the meat. I am hoping they test the brains before, but I do not know for sure. CWD and human forms of CJD appear to be dose dependent, however, here where we live, they feel that CWD is spread via saliva, so that is hardly 'dose' dependent. This is interesting as most of these prion diseases seem to be dose dependent on the amount of neural tissue consumed or amount of neural tissue the individual is exposed to, and the route of exposure. Brain probes inserted into brain of course, is more of a high dose situation, as is eating brain, spinal cord or other neural tissue of affected animals.

You can not get prions off equipment....no how.....that is why when there is a case of human CJD, the operative equipment has to be trashed and every one who had a surgical procedure using that equipment, notified of exposure....luckily, it doesn't happen too often. Then again, we hardly have a 'handle' on CJD.

I wish we still had the family farms we used to. I have seen the decline of family farms and the rise of large corporate farms and it is just plain sad for all of us, for many reasons.

Speaking of the midwest, I am buried in a flatland avalanche right now....this is interesting. It has been a good many years since we had a winter like this.

[Yorkiemom]

Yuck... It is at times like this that I think maybe I could become a vegetarian...

Recently, our government approved the use of cloned animals in the food chain... Wonder where this will lead...

Why is it that the more sophisticated society has become in providing food for humans (and animals, for that matter), the more problems we seem to have???

Cathie

[dahlek]

Neuropathy [PIN for short]....
It isn't on the regular lists of acronyms for neuropathies nor for immune diseases...
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96117.php
This is one case where I do think that health officials were on top of things...tho after the fact. But then most of us do not LIVE or WORK in environments that make diagnosis in terms of cause and effect so epidemologically connected.
I found the overall statistics of this particular article interesting in that they actually determined that the majority of the folks affected did work mostly in that particular part of the plant.
Apparently some in Asian countries like the 'brains' as foodstuffs. I suppose these things are either an acquired or cultural taste.
As with the whole 'gluten' issue with pet foods tho...as Cycleops brought up, who knows where our foods and the ingredients for much of it comes from these days? That you can get asparagus, fresh citrus and green peppers out of season in the northern hemisphere and yet, most produce isn't labeled with area of origin. Who knows these days how/where our meat is prepared as well? As said, the 'mass' 'production' of such foods is a wide open door to possible [and, in the past] actual disasters. The inspections, resources and quality controls what were imposed by the FDA in the '70's are stricter than currently used. Governmental priorities? Do you cut the FDA or Medicare prudently? Hard choices when bucks go many other elsewheres.
Commercial 'advocacy'? Don't 'regulate us to death' We know best what to do. Yep with a whole list of qualifiers and exclusions... So, when things go wrong, we blame the gummint. Cost of doing business, risks of operation and all that- it boils down to BUSINESS and the buck. Pay extra extra for 'safety' or go cheaper and play roulette.
Honestly, that the Minn. State Dept. of Health put pieces together so quickly and helped folks get treatments and testing is really a credit to that STATE! That other states and the mfrs. got to working on it as well is a credit to them as well.
I only hope the very best for those afflicted tho! My heart truly goes out to them and how life-changing this PIN can be! - j

[cyclelops]

I happen to be a big fan of Minnesota. They do have a very pro-social state. It's a great state, no I don't happen to live there, but, I think it provides a good quality of life for its people, not counting the weather, which, I share with them. It is good they tracked it down afterwards....fairly fast, I guess. I do think this could have been anticipated.

I still, however, do not understand how the government, be it local, state or federal has no real rules on what animal secretions or tissue we are exposed to, when, human secretions and tissues is generally something we prefer not to be splattered with. Look at how protected operating room workers are....except for sticks or slices, which, is a risk of the business. The only one inhaling any aersolized human is the patient, inhaling what becomes airborne of themselves. I won't get any more graphic.

To assume because it comes from an animal that it does not pose a potential contagion to a human is naive. Autoimmune mimicry aside, which is a totally different issue than infection, it seems a stupid assumption that inhaling animal 'inards' is OK.

Inhaling anything but plain old air, seems repugnant to me (somedays even our air is a stretch)....inhaling pig mist is beyond what I consider risky behavior....it seems to me, like a good way to get really, really sick. BEEEYUCK....which in my part of the country is worse than YUCK.

[shiney sue]

I love mn. as well,am always inpressed, how clean that state is..Now
Northern Mi. nice just do think Detroit is. Love holy cow you got
a 18 inches of snow in very preety central Wi. ouch!!! I hope we have
that much Friday,so I can cancel the Dentist. Just something iccky
about someone sticky had in mouth. Glen I think C and I would
like you to tell us about body parts. Yorkiemom just loves that,
stuff.. Me when I had all my teeth. Hugs to all Sue

[cyclelops]

Yep we are in a lateral avalanche....because of the bad tornadoes down south, there has not much has been news coverage up here, but it 'ain't pretty'. One small city just north of the IL. state line got 20 inches....now it is starting to blow. We have over 14 inches...and by Sunday it will be down to -3 degrees.

Nothing is open, and I mean nothing.

They are rescuing stranded motorists on I-90 south of Madison where it is at a standstill. Quite a few major highways drifted shut and the plows can't keep up. It has been snowing for over 26 hours straight.

You know it is bad when they stop the busses, pull the plows off the roads, close the malls, and close the courts but ask the jurors to report (odd logic-but that is law and I never got the hang of it)....oh and churches....only the Catholic churches remained open for Ash Wednesday. No one has gone by on my road for hours....I am sure it is drifted shut just north of my house, and I am sure the drifts are over 3-4 feet....even in a small snow storm they get to two feet up there. I have not seen a plow in quite a while, so I assume they pulled our plows off the roads here too.

If the EMS has a rural run, they will have to call for the closest municipal plow....I don't think an ambulance could get thru without a plow escort....

We are used to bad storms, but seldom do they close stuff like this. We dont have the barriers that the Plains states put up for their freeways, heh heh, we just have semis jack knife to close it. If you are dedicated or dumb enough to be out there, you had better be prepared to walk off. We all stayed home, at my insistence, (hissy fits) LOL. We have power, at least so far, so we are fine....just bored....only so much weather and election coverage you can watch.

Eh, by tomorrow it ought to be cleaned up pretty well and all the excitement will be over....poor kids will likely only have a two hour delay tomorrow for school.

Sue, now what about body parts, and Glenn??? I thought this was about pig brains...you know, pigs are very smart and lovable. My kids once rode a pig, a 1500 pounder named Teton....he had a special job...but I can't say what that is on here. Well, he made baby piggies....I guess that is OK to say. He did not go to the pig factory. He was a happy pig. He had hog heaven here on earth.