In the 1920s, farmers succeeded in conquering The Great Prairie Plains of the Midwest. The plains were then transformed into the “amber waves of grain” we know today. However, this transformation came with a heavy price.

In fact, the agricultural triumph over The Plains was the tipping point that changed a typical La Nina-type drought cycle into an enormous environmental disaster that we now know as the Dust Bowl.

Depending on where you are in the world, a drought can have different meanings. According to the United States Weather Bureau, a drought is a period of 21 or more days during which rainfall is no more than 30 percent of the average rainfall for a specific geographical area at a designated time of year. 

The Dust Bowl was an area in the United States that experienced an extended and intense period of drought, which lasted from 1931 until 1939. The states that made up the Dust Bowl were Kansas, southeastern Colorado, northeastern and southeastern New Mexico, and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. 

Throughout the Dust Bowl, soil from roughly 150,000 square miles of farmland was blown by the wind into huge dust storms. Immense clouds of dust filled the sky as far east as New York City, New York and Baltimore, Maryland.

While the Dust Bowl occurred during a period of drought, researchers know that the Dust Bowl drought, while much hotter and drier than a typical drought, did not fit the profile of the periodic droughts that generally hit farther to the south. Actually, while regular climate oscillations may have triggered the initial drying, the contribution of human land degradation played a big part in this atypical disaster.

In the absence of modern agricultural techniques, large-scale crop failures at the drought’s onset reduced vegetation cover, which only exacerbated the heat. Then, the resulting dust storms brought on by the badly eroded croplands also affected the atmospheric moisture content enough to further intensify drought conditions.

In 1931, dust from the seriously over-plowed and over-grazed prairie lands began to blow. And, it continued to blow for eight long, dry years.

As the storms blew across the plains, it came in a yellowish-brown haze from the South and in rolling walls of black from the North. This just wasn’t any wind, this dust-filled wind made even the simplest acts of life difficult. Taking a walk, eating a meal and breathing were no longer easy and they couldn’t be taken for granted.

Most children wore dust masks to and from school, people started hanging damp sheets over windows in feeble attempts at stopping the dirt and farmers could only watch as their valuable crops were blown away. The agricultural devastation that resulted from the Dust Bowl windstorms helped to lengthen The Great Depression, whose effects were already being felt worldwide. 

During the years of normal rainfall, the grasslands in the Dust Bowl states had been deeply plowed and the land had produced bountiful crops of wheat. However, as the drought of the early 1930s worsened, farmers continued plowing and planting, even thought very little could thrive in the parched soil.

The ground cover that once held the soil in place was now gone. The winds had whipped across the fields pulling billowing clouds of dust and dirt into the skies often reducing visibility to just a few feet. The skies would be darkened for days, and it became common for even the most well-sealed homes to have a thick layer of dust on the furniture. In some of the hardest hit areas, dust drifted like snow and covered whatever was in its path, including farmsteads, cars and city streets.

In 1932, there were 14 reported dust storms, also referred to as “black blizzards” or “black rollers.” As conditions worsened, in 1933, the number of black blizzards jumped to 38. These devastating dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area and affected the entire country. The extensive drought that accompanied the dust storms is said to be the worst drought in United States history because it covered over 75 percent of the country and severely affected 27 states.

The Yearbook of Agriculture for 1934 says, Approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop production; 100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of the topsoil; 125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil.

Because this ecological and human disaster caused millions of acres of farmland to become useless, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes. These people became known as “Okies” because so many of them came from Oklahoma. Countless Okies migrated to California and other states in hopes of better living conditions and jobs.

However, what they found were economic conditions little better than those they had left behind in the Dust Bowl. Because they didn’t own land and had no home, many people traveled from farm to farm picking fruit and working in the fields for only starvation wages.

With no rain clouds in sight, the drought continued and so did the Dust Bowl storms. On Sunday, April 14, 1935, the worst black blizzard occurred, causing extensive devastation and turning the day to night.

Shortly after Black Sunday, the United States Congress declared soil erosion “a national menace” and established the Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture. The SCS developed extensive conservation programs, which helped to retain topsoil and prevent irreparable damage to the land.

Farming techniques, including strip cropping, terracing, contour plowing, crop rotation and cover crops were promoted. Farmers were now paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques.

The SCS and these new land-friendly farming techniques was a great step in the right direction, but the storm was not over yet. By the end the year, experts estimated that about 850,000,000 tons of topsoil had blown off the Southern Plains during 1935 alone. The fear was that if the drought continued, the total area affected would increase from 4,350,000 acres to 5,350,000 acres by the spring of 1936.

Because the Dust Bowl black blizzards raged on and the drought continued, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Shelterbelt Project in 1937, which called for large-scale planting of trees across The Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern Texas. The goal was to protect and preserve the land from erosion.

Native trees, including green ash and red cedar, were planted along fence rows separating properties, and the farmers were paid by the government to plant and cultivate these trees. Ultimately, the project cost roughly 75 million dollars over 12 years, and had somewhat limited success.

However, as time passed, even thought the drought continued, further land conservation efforts began to make progress. The extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees in shelterbelts and other conservation methods had finally resulted in a 65 percent reduction for soil blowing.

In the fall of 1939, after nearly a decade of drought, the rain finally came. This brought an end to the black blizzards of the Dust Bowl and allowed The Plains to recover and once again become golden with wheat.

In today’s ever-changing world, in areas where vegetation loss often leads to increased wind erosion, it appears that history could repeat itself and we could experience Dust Bowl-type droughts again in the future.

Researchers with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center report that, although it is not possible to predict the exact time, history suggests that another great drought could certainly occur in the future.

The first step for anyone wanting to predict the risk of a future catastrophic climate event is to look at past occurrences. Unfortunately, however, good rainfall records only go back about 100 years, and accurate atmospheric records only exist for the last 50 years.

With that said, historical measurements do suggest that droughts have been a fairly regular event in this country. North America experienced a dry spell during the 1950s and another in the late 1980s. NASA’s research suggests that there was almost a drought in the 1970s, but for some reason it did not happen.

On a much longer timetable, sediment records, tree rings and other alternative evidence of climate change suggest that The Great Plains has actually weathered multiple droughts, which lasted significantly longer than the Dust Bowl.

These severe droughts appear to have happened once or twice a century over the last 400 years. Some evidence even points to droughts lasting over a decade during the late 13th and 16th centuries, which were much more devastating than the droughts of the 20th century.

It seems that history indicates that we can expect much worse than the 1930s Dust Bowl in the future, but knowing when and where remains anyone’s guess.

For the people of the densely populated city of Bhopal, India, December 2 and 3 of 1984 mark a very dark anniversary — a time that left thousands dead and thousands more deathly ill and clinging to life. 

It all started in the late 1970s when Union Carbide India Limited constructed a pesticide plant in Bhopal. Their initial goal was to produce pesticides that would help increase production on local farms. However, the sale of pesticide did not pan out and the plant soon began losing money.

Then in 1979, the factory began producing huge amounts of the highly toxic methyl isocyanate, or MIC, because it was a cheaper way to make a pesticide known as carbaryl. In an attempt to further trim the company’s budget, employee training and factory maintenance were radically cut.

This is when many factory employees began complaining about working in potentially dangerous conditions. Many warned of possible deadly disasters, but management appeared to turn a deaf ear to these warnings.

Late in the evening of December 2, 1984, something began going desperately wrong in storage tank E610. E610 just happened to be the tank that contained some 40 tons of MIC. Water leaked into the tank, which ultimately caused the MIC’s temperature to rise dangerously high.

Some sources report that water actually leaked into the tank during a routine cleaning of a pipe, and the safety valves inside the pipe were faulty. The Union Carbide company claims that a saboteur placed water inside the tank. To date, there is still no proof to back up the company’s claim. It has further been posed that some of the workers may have thrown water on the tank once it began overheating, not realizing they were only making matters worse.

Whatever the cause, by 12:15 in the morning on December 3, MIC fumes began leaking from E610. There should have been six safety features, which would have either prevented the leak in the first place or, at the very least, contained it. Each of the six safety features failed that night.

The cause of the incident has been extensively researched. As water began causing the exothermal reaction, which released an amount of gas big enough to open the safety valves, the scrubbers failed. Under safe working conditions, the scrubbers would intercept any escaping gas.

Research also shows how factory personnel neglected numerous safety procedures. There were no valves to prevent water from entering the storage tanks in the first place, and the cooling installation of the tanks and the flaring installation that might have burned the escaping gas were also out of order.

In short, compared to its other locations, safety was very low on the priority list for this Union Carbide factory. As is often the case, imperative safety procedures were neglected because of budget cuts.

An estimated 27 tons of MIC gas escaped from E610 and began spreading across the densely populated city of roughly 900,000 people. In an attempt to warn the citizens of Bhopal, a warning siren was turned on; however, it was quickly turned off again to prevent people from panicking.

So as the gas began and continued to leak from E610, most Bhopal residents slept. Many only awoke when they heard other family members coughing and trying to get their breath, or when they found themselves choking on the mysterious, noxious gas.

It is reported that many people felt severe burning in their throats and eyes as they frantically got out of their beds. Some even choked on their own bile, while others fell to the ground in anguish and pain.

As panic ensued, thousands of people ran from their homes, but they did not know where to go for safety and help. Many families were separated in the mass confusion, and numerous people fell to the ground, became unconscious and were then trampled.

It is important to note that estimates of the death toll vary greatly. Most sources, however, report that at least 3,000 people died from immediate exposure to the gas, with higher estimates going up to 8,000. In 14 years following this terrifying and deadly disaster, about 20,000 more people have died from damage caused by the MIC gas.

Yet another 120,000 people are still living every day with the effects and fallout from being exposed to MIC. These people suffer from various ailments, including blindness, extreme shortness of breath, cancers, birth deformities and early onset of menopause.

To date, chemicals from the pesticide plant and from the leak have infiltrated the water system and soil near the old factory. Because of this, people who live near the factory site are still being poisoned.

Just three days after the disaster, the chairman of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, was arrested. When he was released on bail, he fled the country. Although his whereabouts were unknown for many years, he was eventually discovered living in the United States with one home in the Hamptons in New York and another in Florida. Anderson continues to be wanted in India for culpable homicide for his role in the Bhopal disaster.

One of the worst parts of this tragedy is actually what has happened in the years following that fateful night in 1984. Although Union Carbide has paid some restitution to the victims, the company claims they are not liable for any damages because they blame a saboteur for the disaster and claim that the factory was in good working order before the gas leak. The victims of the Bhopal gas leak have received very little money. Many of the victims continue to be in poor health and are unable to work.

Union Carbide was accused of deliberate evasion of regular safety procedures. During legal proceedings, where victims demanded compensation, solid evidence was shown that proved Union Carbide used untested technology in the Bhopal factory on a regular basis. In fact, when the gas leak occurred local physicians were not told anything about the gas. This resulted in a serious delay in getting proper treatment for exposure and developing emergency safety measures.

After long legal proceedings, in February 1989, a settlement was achieved. Union Carbide promised to pay 470 million dollars in compensation, but only a small part of this compensation was ever paid to the survivors.

However, Union Carbide states on its website that it paid the full settlement to the Indian government within 10 days time. In 2004, the Supreme Court forced the Indian government to pay the remaining 330 million dollars compensation to the victims and their families.

Eventually, Union Carbide sold the Indian factory to a battery maker. Then, in 2001, Dow Chemical Company took control of Union Carbide. This takeover led to discussions on who should be responsible for cleaning up the tons of poisonous waste that is still present.

Environmental activists are trying to convince Dow Chemical Company to clean up this massive toxic mess, which could lead to serious nervous system failure, liver and kidney disease, and cancer for many years to come.

December 3, 1984 will likely always be memorable for the city of Bhopal in Madya Pradesh county, India. The day when a cloud containing at least 15 metric tons of methyl isocyanate covered an area of Bhopal of more than 30 square miles.

Approximately 100,000 people still suffer from chronic disease related to gas exposure, and ten more people die from this exposure every year. This event is now known as the worst industrial environmental disaster to ever have occurred.

Today, the location is still polluted with thousands of tons of toxic chemicals, such as hexachlorobenzene and mercury. These chemicals are stored in open barrels. Rainfall causes rinsing out of pollution to local drinking water sources. Research also shows that some wells still contain up to 500 times the legal limit of these toxins.

From the evening of June 6 to the morning of June 7 2008, Central Indiana was pounded by severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. Amounts of nearly 11 inches were recorded in some areas. This rain quickly led to record-breaking flooding in some areas during the week after.

These storms were produced when strong winds above the ground interacted with an outflow boundary left over from the storms that produced severe weather earlier in the day of June 6. This left the region with too much water, mud and debris, which ultimately resulted in catastrophic damage, destruction and devastation around Columbus, Indiana and its surrounding counties.

Across the nation, people learned about the City of Columbus, possibly for the first time. While many didn’t realize there was a Columbus, Indiana, those who live there were experiencing flooding that had not been seen in about 100 years. Travelers stranded by rising, swift-moving floodwaters learned of Columbus as they became stranded on Interstate 65 and roads leading to and from the city.

Photo: American Red Cross

With all of the national coverage, however, nothing did the flood’s power justice. Nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of such devastation. Areas never known to flood were suddenly submerged in several feet of water and once quaint neighborhood streets and avenues were reduced to boat-only travel.

It wasn’t until the flood waters began receding that Mother Nature’s true force and devastation could be seen. What was left in the wake of this flood made many areas of the town virtually unrecognizable. Driving or walking through neighborhoods that had been completely saturated and submerged under tons of fast-moving, dirty river water was like moving into another time or place into what looked like a battle zone.

As I-65 South became passable again, major water trouble became apparent quickly. Excessively high levels of all the creeks and rivers leading into Columbus were found. Farmer’s fields were soggy with standing water. For many of these farmers, their livelihoods were drenched and showed no signs of drying out. Many of these crops were completely or partially lost.

Mud, dirt and river debris covered virtually every road and highway affected by the flood. Remnants of the flood were everywhere. Random objects sat in fields, including propane tanks from a local fuel company. Cars and trucks floated away during the flood and got scattered in fields waiting to be discovered by their owners.

Photo: American Red Cross

Life’s everyday-items were strewn about. Laundry baskets, grills, furniture and trash bags littered the county’s waterlogged corn and soybean fields. 

As the water continued to recede, many businesses were considered a total loss and too-numerous-to-count homes were completely destroyed. Business, like Burger King, McDonalds and several gas stations were closed and had their inventory in their parking lots to see what, if anything, could be salvaged.

But the most sobering sight, by far, was traveling through the streets of Columbus and surrounding communities severely affected by the unforgiving, record-breaking flood waters. In some neighborhoods, piles of debris began appearing in front of every home.

The amount of ruined personal possession was staggering. It was an eerie sight to see peoples’ lives destroyed and piled up, just waiting to be hauled off the to the landfill. Photographs, cloths, toys, tables, chairs, beds, computers were everywhere. Just about anything found in a typical American home was lining the streets of Columbus following this epic flood. The devastation was overwhelming.

As it turned out, the June 2008 Midwestern United Stated floods were part of an on-going flooding event that had profound affects on a large portion of the Midwest. After several months of heavy rainfall, a number of rivers and creeks crested and overflowed their banks for numerous weeks at a time. Levees were broken at several locations and flooding continued into July.

The midwestern states affected by the flooding included Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri. During this flooding crisis, the American Red Cross came to the aid of tornado and flood victims and the National Guard was mobilized to assist in disaster relief and evacuation efforts.

In Columbus, as the food waters rose, marines temporarily stationed at Camp Atterbury were called to assist in rescue and evacuation efforts.

During this period, flooding continued for about two weeks with central Iowa and Cedar Rapids hardest hit. In Missouri and Illinois, estuaries drained massive amounts of floodwater into the river. This devastating flood left 13 dead and damage region-wide, which was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

As for Indiana, central and southwestern Indiana was particularly hard hit with damage costs expected to make the flood of June 2008 the costliest disaster in the history of the state. Commencing on June 4, rain saturated parts of south-central Indiana leading to initial floods in and around Bloomington.

On June 7, additional rain brought the worst of the flooding to larger portions of south-central and western Indiana. The highest recorded rainfall amount was in the small town of Edinburgh, which saw 10.94 inches (278 mm) of rain in a short seven hour period. Another Indiana town, Paragon, saw 10 inches (250 mm) of rain in just a few hours, which left 90% of the town underwater.

Not only were the East Fork of the White, the Driftwood and the Flat Rock Rivers rapidly rising above their banks, all creeks and streams were also on the rise. Haw Creek, which snakes through the city rose so rapidly and unexpectedly that the only hospital in town was flooded and had to be evacuated. 

In fact, the major flooding in Columbus came from Haw Creek, which overflowed its banks following the torrential downpour encompassing central Indiana. Columbus, isolated by floodwaters, was shutdown because many city streets were under water.

During this flash flood along Hawcreek as well as the steady rise of all local rivers and streams, many people had roughly 15 minutes to evacuate from their homes and businesses. Most people had no time to gather their belongings and had to wade through rapidly rising, murky water and debris.

Many Indiana counties saw flood levels exceeding the records set in 1913. On June 9, President George W. Bush declared 29 counties in central Indiana a major disaster area opening up the region to receive federal aid and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance.

IMPACT

At this time, the county hospital remains closed and many businesses and homeowners are still in the process of recovering from this disaster. It will be months before many people can move back into their homes and before business will reopen. Some homes and business, however, have been condemned and will likely be bulldozed.

Governor Mitch Daniels estimates and expects total damages to top $1 billion.

Surprisingly, only two deaths were reported as a direct result of the flooding in Columbus, Indiana.

Landslides caused by the Sichuan earthquake have blocked rivers and formed new, possibly unstable, lakes. Satellite images taken by the Taiwan’s National Space Organisation (NSPO) show one such lake forming in Beichuan County, one of the areas worst hit by the quake.

[via BBC]

Texas A&M University in College Station Texas,¹ has been conducting research into so-called “select agents,” i.e. biological agents that the government thinks can be turned into biological weapons. The university’s efforts are part of an $18 billion federal program to develop vaccines.

On April 20, 2007 the Centers for Disease Control — the CDC — issued a cease-and-desist order for Texas A&M’s work with the Brucella bacterium.² On June 30, the order was expanded to include all work with select agents and toxins.³ The CDC then conducted a five-day comprehensive inspection of the A&M labs and issued a report⁴ on August 31 listing numerous flaws in oversight, working conditions, and security, including missing vials of select agents, unauthorized research with recombinant DNA, access to the lab by unauthorized personnel, and exposures of lab workers to bacteria that cause brucellosis and Q fever that went unreported to the CDC.

Based on the comprehensive inspection, the CDC has extended the suspension of all select agent and toxin work at A&M until all the issues identified in its 21-page report are addressed.

On September 6, Texas A&M’s interim president, Eddie Davis, held a press conference to address the report.⁵ As to how the universities “select agent” program got into trouble, he said:

“I would tell you that it is our assessment that it we have not had the level of expertise in terms of plants and the complex processes required to run such a select agent program and we’re putting that in place with new personnel.”

On the eve of the press conference, the Sunshine Project, a small non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas, that is dedicated to biological weapons control, released documents it had just obtained through a Texas Public Records Act request.⁶ The documents indicated that a flood had occurred in one of the labs on campus.

In a phone interview, Edward Hammond, Director of the Sunshine Project, described what he knows so far about the incident:

“It was obviously a serious flood that happened. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information. But what we know was that on the twenty-second of February, a biosafety level [BSL] 3 lab that was handling biological weapons agents flooded at the university. It flooded so badly — the water came from above — that the integrity of the lab was clearly compromised. A number of seals were broken. Water infiltrated into the lab from outside.

What’s really perplexing about this is that although the flood occurred on the twenty-second of February, there’s no record of any safety inspection of the lab until seven weeks later, the 16th of April, which probably not co-incidentally was the same day that federal agents arrived on the Texas A&M campus to probe their research program. So we have this nearly two-month delay between a flood that compromised the integrity of a laboratory handling biological weapons agents and any apparent action to assess the damage and get about the business of fixing it.”

University President Davis indicated at the press conference that he was hearing about the flood for the first time then and there.

Davis’ ignorance was no surprise to Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Trivalley CAREs⁷ in Livermore, California, whose organization has sued to keep the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from opening its own BSL-3 facility.

“This is both a national problem and a specific problem at Livermore Lab,” she said in a telephone interview.

“Historically, the manager for Livermore Labs has been the University of California and historically, the University of California has known very little about what actually goes on at the laboratory. I would not be surprised at all to find out in the future that the [new] UC-Bechtel management is in the same position vis-a vis the Livermore biofacility that the Texas A&M President was in respect to the Texas A&M lab, which is they don’t know.”

Representatives of the CDC declined to be interviewed for this story. But in email to this writer, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck wrote that “[a]s part of the select agent rules, labs or entities that are certified are required to immediately report any potential lab exposures, releases or loss of a select agent. Historically, the entities in the program have alerted the CDC to these.”

The Texas A&M situation points out what can happen if the entity inadvertently or intentionally fails to report, and its managing institution –often a university is kept in the dark about what is going on at the lab.

Edward Hammond’s research has turned up similar problems at other labs. He cited a number of exposures to agents including anthrax, plague, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, at the University of New Mexico, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley.

At the press conference, Texas A&M President Davis said, “I think it’s fair to say that the review that was done at Texas A&M in July was very intense, very thorough and very deep. My expectation is that other institutions, under that same level of review, would probably have findings that could be reportable to the CDC.”

Marylia Kelley questions the need for all the high-containment biolabs that are sprouting up across the country, and says money is behind the building boom:

“This country is building way too much biowarfare agent research capacity at other sites in addition to Livermore Lab. Tri-Valley CAREs believes that what is needed is an overarching national assessment of our biodefense capabilities, to look at whether, in fact, we have any deficiencies in our capabilities. The Bush Administration has thrown about $36 Billion on the table and initiated what is in fact a multiagency feeding frenzy to get part of this $36 Billion to build all these facilities willy-nilly across the country.”

Texas A&M hopes to have its labs reopened by the end of 2007.

Sources

¹Google Maps

²A copy of the order is in the Texas A&M files of the Sunshine-Project at http://sunshine-project.org/

³Ibid.

⁴A copy of the report is in the Texas A&M files of the Sunshine-Project

⁵This writer attended by telephone and recorded the event.

⁶The documents are posted on the website of the Sunshine Project

⁷The Tri-Valley CAREs website

On November 4, 2005, federal health officials warned California farmers to improve the safety standards of the produce they grow. This warning came just shy of a year before the most recent E. coli contaminated spinach outbreak, which was officially announced by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) on September 14. This announcement advised that already 50 people in eight states had already been infected by E. coli as the result of bagged fresh spinach contamination.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that all fresh spinach is again safe for human consumption. However, this outbreak was not the first time we saw this type of E. coli contamination and will not be the last. Dating back to 1995, this most recent E. coli poisoning episode is the 20th occurrence linked to spinach, lettuce and other salad greens.

This type of bacterial contamination has been happening for many years, and the problem does not appear to be going away any. This new outbreak is especially nasty as it involves a particularly dangerous strain of the bacteria – Escherichia coli 0157:H7.

Individuals infected with Escherichia coli 0157:H7 will typically begin experiencing symptoms between two to eight days after exposure to the bacteria. The infected person will experience severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Although, occasionally, E. coli 0157:H7 causes non-bloody diarrhea or no noticeable symptoms. Typically, there will be little or no fever present.

The symptoms of E. coli 0157:H7 usually begin to resolve within five to 10 days. For some individuals, particularly children under five years of age and the elderly, E. coli can cause a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). When HUS is present, the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. In the United States, HUS is the primary cause of acute kidney failure in children, with most HUS cases being caused by E. coli O157:H7.

We all have a form of E. coli bacteria in our intestinal tracts, which aid our bodies in converting our food into useful vitamins and nutrients. However, E. coli 0157:H7 is a particularly dangerous strain from the Enterobacteriaceae family. In fact, it is the exact same strain found in Washington state’s E. coli outbreak in 1993, which involved beef served at Jack in the Box restaurants. That outbreak alone infected 700 people and killed four.

So far and as October 6th, 199 people have been infected with E. coli O157:H7 in 26 states. Among the ill, 102 have been hospitalized, 31 have developed HUS and at least three people have died as a result of this food contamination.

There are additional deaths, which officials consider “suspect cases.” Suspect cases are not known to have been infected with the outbreak strain, so are not included in the confirmed case count. Stool sampling can be done to determine whether or not the E. coli present in the stool sample has the “DNA fingerprint” of the potentially deadly 0157:H7 strain.

With such a serious epidemic of contaminated produce recurring over the years, there are obvious problems with farming regulations. One problem is that the FDA is unable to regulate farms until people actually start getting sick. The FDA must attempt to manage hazards, such as E. coli contamination, by asking the produce growing industry to make voluntary changes. It is obvious that voluntary compliance is not the answer.

The initial thought is that the agency needs to be equipped with better tools of detection, stronger authority to take preventative actions prior to outbreaks along with more people and resources to enforce rules both on farms and in packing and processing plants.

The FDA may want to learn a vital lesson from the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA, after severe E. coli outbreaks involving beef during the mid-1990s, took a necessary and powerful action. The department implemented new, more rigorous rules and quality standards.

For the beef industry, the problem of E. coli in ground beef has dramatically declined. To the contrary, the produce producing industry, being regulated by the FDA, has seen a continual rise in the number of E. coli cases over this same time period.

One reason may have to do with cooking. With meat, proper cooking will kill any dangerous bacteria. But, no one wants to cook their salads. While washing our veggies will reduce bacteria, it will not completely eliminate or kill it.

This is the very reason why the produce farms need to be the ones held accountable for the contamination of their produce. There is no household resolution for this problem, which means the solution must come from the farms, before the produce ever finds it way to our supermarkets.

Going back to 1998, the FDA issued “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fruits and Vegetables.” The Guide contained voluntary guidelines, which were supposed to help farmers and produce packing plants implement safety practices. Even with knowledge of the contamination problem, the FDA only relied on these voluntary measures. As you can guess, the safety practices were not implemented on any notable scale.

CONTAMINATION CULPRIT

The FDA has announced that, so far, all spinach associated with the most recent E. coli outbreak has been traced to Natural Selection Foods, LLC located in sunny San Juan Bautista, California. This discovery was based on laboratory as well as epidemiological evidence obtained by several states and coordinated by the CDC. Natural Selection Foods issued a recall of 34 brands of suspect fresh spinach products on September 15.

These products were distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. According to Natural Selection, all of the contaminated produce was non-organic spinach. The company packages both conventionally grown and organic spinach at the San Juan Bautista, California plant, although they are handled in separate areas. States feeling the effects of this outbreak include California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Four other companies also issued secondary recalls as a result of receiving their fresh spinach directly from Natural Selection. It is noteworthy to mention that spinach processed by other produce plants have not been involved in the outbreak.
As history shows, since 1995, there have been 19 other food poisoning outbreaks connected to fresh spinach and lettuce. Of these 19, at least eight were definitively linked to produce grown in California’s Salinas Valley. In all, these outbreaks involved greater than 400 illnesses and two deaths.

Further investigations are underway by the State of California, the CDC, the FDA and the USDA. These investigations include continued inspections and environmental sample collections in produce facilities, the surrounding environment and water as well as assessments of animal management and water contamination.

The FDA’s investigation has focused on spinach growers in three California counties. Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara have been under strong scrutiny. Aside from Natural Selection Foods, River Ranch Fresh Foods has been named as a second company implicated in the outbreak.

According to the FDA, River Ranch acquired salad greens, including spinach, from the first company offender; Natural Selection. River Ranch’s spinach was passed on to the public using the brand names Farmers Market, Hy-Vee as well as Fresh and Easy.

Natural Selection initially denied allegations that its packaged spinach, which were sold under such brand names as Dole, Earthbound Farm and Trader Joe’s, was a responsible party in the outbreak. However, many of the consumers stricken by E. coli O157:H7 have said they ate one of these brand named spinach products prior to becoming ill.

The FDA also contends that detecting and pinpointing the exact source of E. coli contamination is often very tricky. In many cases, the cause of the outbreak is never truly known, although likely culprits are suspected.

What typically happens during the investigations following an E. coli outbreak is the process of talking to the victims, if they are physically able to communicate with investigators. This method, called the epidemiological method, is an expected and accepted tool used by public health agencies, especially since no physical evidence remains after contamination and chemical testing is usually futile.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

E. coli, which travels via animal feces, can contaminate produce by getting into water used in farming irrigation. Aside from feces contaminating the water used in farming, animal manure used in organic farming as natural forms of fertilizer is also a good source of E. coli contamination. This could mean a lot to farmers who make their living growing and selling organic foods.

As it turns out, fresh produce is often contaminated with Salmonella, E. coli as well as a variety of other potentially deadly microorganisms. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), produce effluence comes from the use of irrigation water sickened by fecal waste from animal agriculture farms, the use of untreated, natural manure fertilizer and the accidental exposure to dangerous bacteria at the processing plants.

California animal and produce farmers as well as food safety officials have a lot on their plate when it comes to preventing future E. coli contamination. So far, no particular instance of E. coli sickness has been linked to one particular farmland, which was irrigated by any one river.

Additionally, no concise evidence has been presented charging Natural Selection Foods, or any other processing plant investigated, with failing to use proper handling methods.

In fact, this particular E. coli outbreak may have little to do with the farmers who grow the produce and the processing plant workers. A strong link naturally leads right back to what many would consider a dissimilar food industry – cattle farms.

Consider first that E. coli is typically a harmless germ found in vast numbers in the guts of all healthy humans and cows. Usually, if you are exposed to the typical, most common strains of E. coli, the acid in your digestive tract will attack and usually be strong enough to kill it. In other words, you won’t get sick.

The problem with this most recent outbreak, however, is that E. coli O157:H7 can be deadly for humans. The acid in our stomachs is usually not strong enough to eliminate this microbe, which can result in the onset of physical symptoms and, in some cases, death.

One vital fact to remember is that not all cattle farms contribute to the contamination of E. coli 0157:H7. In fact, 0157:H7 is not even found in the gut of cows raised on a natural diet consisting of hay, grass and other fibrous feeds.

O157:H7 does live in the unnaturally acidic digestive tracts of cows fed on grain, which is the classic ration on most industrial cattle farms. As a result of this diet, the contaminated cow manure pollutes the groundwater and transfers the dangerous bacteria to produce, such as spinach, being grown on surrounding farms.

Because bacteria thrive in water and past E. coli outbreaks have been linked to tainted water in the Salinas Valley, produce farmers must ensure that their irrigation water for crops is not derived from sources containing runoff from cattle farms.

The Journal of Dairy Science reported in 2003 that as much as 80 percent of all American dairy cows carry E. coli 0157:H7. The Journal’s report also proposed a means of prevention based on straightforward research. When cows were fed a diet of hay, instead of grain, for just five short days, the presence of E. coli 0157:H7 in the animals’ digestive tracts declined 1,000-fold.

Does this mean that the 1993 outbreak involving the Jack in the Box restaurants could have been prevented? It is suggested that if the diet of beef cattle was changed, from grain to grass and hay seven days before slaughter, there would be a noticeable reduction in E. coli contamination from manure.

It would take much more than just a week to diminish contamination in ground and floodwaters as well as rivers, which are the main irrigation sources for California’s spinach farms. Much needs to be done to prevent future food poisoning caused by E. coli-infected feces originating from industrialized cattle farms.

What this means to taxpayers is that we are currently funding agricultural policies that treat the symptoms of this pollution problem, but does not offer a solid solution. Currently, the USDA recognizes the hazards associated with the vast amount of contaminated animal waste. The Department shells out roughly 75 percent of the confinement cattle farmers’ costs of building watertight manure pits.

The one truly long-term fix for this problem is obvious, although not likely to occur. Farmers need to stop feeding grain to their cows and give them a more natural diet, which will be better for the health of the cattle as well as to the consumers.

CAN’T BLAME IT ON THE COWS ALONE

Because E. coli can be spread numerous ways, the diet of dairy and beef cattle is not the sole contributor to this problem. In addition to manure and contaminated irrigation water, E. coli can be spread by farmhands using the field as a toilet, by insufficient produce washing by processors and by inadequate refrigeration, which promotes bacteria growth in the sealed bags of fresh salad greens.

Although California produce farmers are required by law to provide hand washing and toilet facilities for all of their field workers, the workers are not always willing or able to get to these facilities and still meet their employer’s work requirements. Even though the bathroom facilities are supposed to be within either a five-minute walk or one-quarter mile from the work site, workers, for whatever reason, do not always utilize these facilities.

Once harvested, the spinach is transported to a packing plant to be washed with water containing chlorine and another similar chemical. These chemicals are not supposed to destroy any bacteria already on the produce. They are only intended to prevent already contaminated plants from passing the pollution to other healthy plants. Once washed, the produce is then bagged and sealed.

Next come the refrigerated trucks and warehouses, which are responsible for keeping the harvested produce cold. When not kept cold enough, E. coli will thrive in the neatly sealed plastic bags.

It is clear that there are many players in the potentially deadly, food poisoning threat associated with E. coli 0157:H7. Until all players are working on the same team, these devastating outbreaks will continue.
While it may not be possible to prevent all E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, dramatic improvements in prevention and in the current methods of farming plants and animals are an absolute must.

Ideally, the dead bird would tip the miners off in time to evacuate the area before an explosion. But today, electronic sensors are used instead of canaries. One would think this would be better–certainly for the canary population–if for no one else. But apparently, something went wrong at the International Coal Group’s West Virginia Sago Mine.

Perhaps that should not have been entirely unexpected. The International Coal Group was cited for over 200 violations last year at the mine. That sounds like a high number, particularly for an industry that is already so inherently dangerous. Yet almost half of those violations resulted in the minimum fine of just $60 and none of them resulted in a fine higher than $900, despite the fact that violations can result in fines of up to $60,000. The bigger question, however, is if over 200 violations occurred, wouldn’t the sheer number of problems be enough to warrant serious concerns and to justify more than minimum penalties?

Interestingly, the main stream media is focusing on the “positive.” NBC news has a headline on their web site that reads “Safety improvements have made once-common coal mining disasters a rare event.” An odd choice for a headline in the wake of the industry’s recent disaster.

Still, the number of coal mining disasters has gone down in recent years, and many say the reduced disaster rate is due to government regulation. A Progressive Movement to improve mine safety was launched after a series of disasters in 1907 that killed over 600 people. Despite public concerns, however, the mining industry, which tends to see government regulation as interference, protested the movement. Still, by 1909, it had become clear to industry executives that poor safety regulations might actually cause a lack of productivity; and hence, lower profit margins.

So, in 1910, Congress created the US Bureau of Mines, which became an agency under the auspices of the Department of the Interior. While the Progressive Movement of the times was pleased, the Bureau had little power to enforce their own recommendations. As a result, industry executives implemented a few of their own safety measures, mostly to show a token level of cooperation, but those were reportedly minor and had “little effect on the safety of the workers.”

By 1968, however, the writing was on the wall. Eighty-seven men died that year in coal mining accidents, prompting Congress to pass the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, which was updated in 1977.

One would think that the resulting legislation would have prevented the Sago Mine disaster by forcing the International Coal Group to shut down the mine until the noted infractions had been addressed–particularly since the infractions included 16 “related to failures to prevent or adequately monitor the buildup of explosive gases in the mine,” and nine citations were for failing to properly implement a “mine ventilation plan.” In addition, last year the company was cited seven times for failing to perform pre-shift mine examinations–something Tim Baker, deputy administrator for health and safety at the United Mine Workers of America, says is critical: “We look at that as an absolutely crucial first step of any mining operation.”

These don’t sound like “minor” infractions to me.

To be fair, the International Coal Group, which oversees 12 mining complexes in Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia, only acquired the Sago Mine last November. So perhaps the regulatory powers that be decided it wouldn’t be fair to burden the company with the same restrictions they might have placed on them had they had more time to make the necessary improvements. But this begs the question: what is more important, protecting the safety of the workers or giving the company a grace period to correct deficiencies while allowing them to continue to make a profit ? The answer, clearly, is the latter.

To understand why, we need only look at the 1977 version of the Mine Health and Safety Act. While the act was ostensibly written for the protection of the miners, Congress always lists the reasons for their legislation (“findings and purpose” they call them) before the actual content of each measure. While the current Mine Health and Safety Act does cite the importance of protecting the health and safety of the miner, a key to the failure of the legislation is the fact that “miner” is defined not as a human being whose life has inherent value, but as the industry’s “most precious resource.”

The findings go on to say that mine safety legislation is justified because accidents have a negative effect on the growth of the industry and on future profitability. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with securing business interests and making money. However, when we’re talking about legislation that is being created to promote worker safety, isn’t saving lives a good enough argument for such legislation, all by itself? Apparently not.

While International Coal may feel that it’s only fair to give them time to clean up the mess of a prior company’s poor (and very dangerous) habits, it seems clear that the bottom line was allowed to take precedence over the safety of the miners. While the company continued to profit from the coal their workers mined, the health and safety of their “most precious resource” took a back seat.

Perhaps we can’t fault the company for the violations they inherited, but surely they have responsibility for their decision to continue to operate despite the danger their operation so clearly posed to their workers.