0 Unexpected Consequences
despite expert belief at the time that beef could be eaten safely. To buoy
public trust, the minister of agriculture invited camera crews to record
him and his four-year-old daughter eating hamburgers. Only later was
it discovered that beef muscle containing small bits of central nervous
system tissues posed a risk to health— 23 individuals in twelve countries
were eventually infected and later died.
For me, a widespread foodborne threat that lacked a straightforward
explanation and resolution was cause for serious concern. It was fun-
damentally different from the stories I’d heard while growing up of indi-
viduals falling ill at a church supper or neighborhood gathering. There,
it was easier to pinpoint the offender—foods like deviled eggs or potato
salad that were not properly refrigerated, allowing harmful bacteria to
multiply. These were isolated incidents that affected a small number of
people and never made the national evening news.
Several months after the mad cow disease risk assessment was com-
pleted, I was handed another assignment for our small center in Colo-
rado— Escherichia coli O:H (E. coli) in cattle. This time we were
asking where the contaminated ground beef was coming from and being
distributed.
The assignment was prompted by a foodborne outbreak particu-
larly devastating to children. The problem first appeared in Washington
State, where parents had fed their children hamburgers from Jack in
the Box restaurants. Some of those children had ended up in hospi-
tals. Unlike foodborne outbreaks confined to a unique local source, this
one had spread across the Pacific Northwest. More than seven hundred
people were affected, four children died, and at least 8 others suffered
permanent kidney or brain damage.
The pathogen was identified as E. coli, a bacteria benign to cattle.
Somewhere between the slaughter of cows and the preparation of
hamburgers, E. coli had found safe passage from the guts of cattle to
those of people. When not repelled by the stomach’s acid, it quickly
multiplied. Otherwise healthy individuals experienced nausea, vomiting,
cramping, and severe pain, but generally recovered within a few days.
For young children, older adults, or anyone whose immune system
was less than robust, the invasion could turn deadly. The bacteria tore
apart cells in the intestine, streamed into the circulatory system, blocked
kidneys from functioning, attacked other major organs, induced stroke,