This week in safety: Recalled foods that may be in your cupboard
This week's recall of nonfat dry milk didn't attract the headlines of such previous recalls as peanuts and pistachios but it was a major recall nonetheless. The recall notices for nonfat dry milk and related ingredients have been pouring in all week. It's a good idea to pay attention because you may not realize that the milk-based products can be an ingredient in gravy, popcorn, flavored drinks, cake mixes and other foodstuffs.
Earlier recalls of peanut and pistachio products have gotten scant notice lately but products containing those ingredients continue to be taken off grocery store shelves. We recommend that you take a moment to check your own shelves as well as the databases for all three of these major recalls.
Toll House cookie recall
The recall of Toll House cookie dough also made more news this week when the investigation into the contamination turned up not one but three different strains of E. coli. According to the Washington Post, federal and state investigators found two different strains of E. coli bacteria in samples of recalled Nestle Toll House cookie dough, and neither matched the type that caused a national outbreak of illness. The Food and Drug Administration said that laboratory analysis of E. coli O157 found in a sample of cookie dough at Nestle's Danville, Va., plant did not match the strain that is believed to have sickened 72 people in Maryland, Virginia and 28 other states. The state of Minnesota reported that preliminary tests of a package of Nestle cookie dough taken from a household where two people were sickened by E. coli O157 showed that the product was contaminated with a third deadly strain of bacterium, E. coli O124.
We'll continue to keep an eye on all these recalls -- and you should too.
More safety news
Coming of age in the years of living dangerously
MSNBC.com
When Phyllis Murphy's mother was pregnant, back in the 1950s, her doctor advised her to take up smoking for relaxation. A few years later, that same mom smeared her toddler's skin with a concoction of baby oil and iodine for a deep, rich tan. Now, safely in adulthood, Murphy fondly recalls childhood as a time of leaping from rooftops and accumulating "more scars than Joan Rivers." Read more ...
"Boomeritis" hits aging athletes
Reuters
Fifty may be the new thirty, but baby boomers' bodies haven't heard the news. Orthopedic surgeons are seeing a "tidal wave" of 45- to 64-year-olds suffering from exercise-related injuries they've dubbed "boomeritis," said Dr. Ray Monto, a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Read more ...
The Simplicity recall is a ready-made story
Product Safety Letter
Oh yawn, another recall. As tragic as the potential consequences can be for failing to respond to a recall, that's probably the reaction not only of many consumers, but of many news reporters. With the CPSC handling over 500 recalls a year, it's easy to see why. But what might seem like a liability in a current recall might actually help gain attention to it. Read more ...
Faking it: Nothing phony about profits in the knock-off business
Long Island Business News
Trademark counterfeiting -- where a brand name is essentially stolen and slapped on a cheaper and vastly inferior copy -- is big business. On Long Island, fakes are sold at nearly every flea market, in car washes, delis, mom-and-pop stores and at kiosks in the malls. Read more ...
Writers on the Range: An appeal to reduce the West's ATV carnage
The Denver Post
At least 24 people have been killed in all-terrain-vehicle accidents in the West since mid-March, the onset of warm riding weather. A 9-year-old girl in Arizona was among them. So were a 10-year-old boy in California, an off-duty sheriff's deputy in Utah, and 16-year-old girls in Wyoming and Arizona. Read more ...
Clearing the water: CPSC focuses on pool drain law
Product Safety Letter
The CPSC pointed news reporters and pool safety groups to an NBC Today Show segment about compliance problems with the Virginia Graeme Baker pool act, including an interview with CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. NBC also reports that some jurisdictions are implying that only the CPSC can enforce the law. The fact is that state attorneys general also have enforcement powers under the act. Read more ...
Don't miss these recalls
- 240,000 Intermatic in-wall electronic timers (shock hazard)
- 91,900 DesignWare sport balls (lead paint)
- 25,800 Ionic salt lamps (fire hazard)
- 8,200 Craftsman lawn tractors (loss of control)
- 3,200 pairs Charles David women's sample shoes (fall hazard) [Image above]
- 1,570 Dragonfly II mosquito traps and NightWatch bed bug monitors (laceration or burn hazard)
- 800 Polaris 2009 Assault model snowmobiles (loss of control)
- 700 Jaloma pacifiers (choking hazard)
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