Food Law

Contaminated Water and the Threat of Waterborne Illness

August 12, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Water is an essential building block of life. In recent years, numerous public health campaigns have touted the importance of drinking water, especially as an alternative to sugary sodas and juice drinks. Environmentalists have urged Americans to drink tap water in reusable containers rather than wasting countless plastic bottles. The silent assumption in these messages is that our water is safe to drink. Unfortunately, that is not always true. Recently, we’ve noticed a number of headlines dealing with potentially contaminated water in California and across the nation. Our Northern California unsafe drinking water law firm is prepared to help when drinking water sickens people in our community.

Contaminated Water in Los Altos and Colorado

The threat of contaminated water became all too real for some Los Altos residents in recent weeks as noted in reports from the San Jose Mercury News and radio station KLIV. On Sunday, July 26, the California Water water Service (“Cal Water”) notified customers living in a four to five kilometer segment of the city that tests showed e. coli and total coliform bacteria in their water supply. For a few of the 853 customers affected, the related boil water order was only lifted this past Saturday (August 8) after Cal Water finished treating the water main.

Illnesses and Deaths Tied to Multiple Foods Contaminated With Listeria

April 22, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Imagine you’ve been hit by what feels like a nasty stomach flu. You feel nauseous, develop diarrhea, and spike a fever. Your body aches all over. You feel miserable. You haven’t heard about anything going around until you learn that a friend is battling a similar illness. You and the friend shared a meal (or even just a snack) a few days prior. The culprit may be listeria, a potentially deadly foodborne illness making headlines recently. While symptoms can sometimes pass quickly, listeria can lead to life-threatening complications. Listeria in particular is a major threat to an unborn baby if a pregnant woman is exposed. Our Oakland foodborne illness attorney, Greg Brod, works to help victims of tainted foods recover compensation and obtain justice. Attorney Brod and our firm’s clients also work to protect our nation’s food supply against future outbreaks by holding companies responsible for their products.

Massive Blue Bell Recall Tied to Listeria

On Monday, Blue Bell Creameries took an unusual step and recalled all of the company’s products from stores and food service establishments nationwide. According to CNN, the recall follows weeks of narrower recalls linked to concerns the company’s frozen treats might be contaminated with listeria. Blue Bell representatives say it is unclear how the bacteria was introduced, but note that products sold in different states and produced in different plants have tested positive for listeria. Current tests in Oklahoma revealed a strain of listeria nearly identical to that involved in an outbreak in Texas as far back as 2011.

Sonoma Food Poisoning Lawyer on Food Safety Law and Allegations of Arsenic in Wine

March 31, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Mention Sonoma to a typical American and the conversation inevitably turns to the region’s most famous product – wine. Sonoma is much more than just a place to grow and enjoy some of the world’s best wines; it is a beautiful region that we are proud to call home. Still, in our view, enjoying a glass of wine is one of the best parts of being an adult and there is a special joy in drinking a wine from your hometown. While there’s always the danger of a hangover, a glass of wine should be a safe choice. We should all be able to rely on the safety of foods and beverages sold anywhere in this country and our Sonoma food safety lawyer is here to help those made ill by any form of foodborne illness.

Purported Class Action Alleges Unsafe Levels of Arsenic in California Wines A number of California wines and winemakers are currently at the center of a major class action lawsuit. As CNN reports, the suit was filed on March 19th with two California couples as the named plaintiffs. The plaintiffs say that people who drink the specifically named wines have become the “unwitting ‘guinea pigs’ of arsenic exposure.” The suit alleges that the defendants failed to warn consumers that the products, low-cost wines from well-known wineries like Korbel and Cupcake, contained a dangerous amount of inorganic arsenic. Further, the Complaint says there was 500% more arsenic than is considered acceptable in the wines and that the contamination stemmed from negligent and misleading actions by the defendant wineries.

On behalf of a purported class of wine purchases/consumers, the suit suggests that even a glass or two a day could lead to dangerous arsenic toxicity. Notably, the plaintiffs have not claimed any actual injuries or deaths associated with the wines. They are asking the court to award money damages and order changes in the defendants’ practices.

Spotlight on Listeria as Retailers Pull Dips from Shelves Nationwide

May 23, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

Many of us have experienced the horrible feeling known as food poisoning. Illness can kick in anywhere from hours to days after eating and often involves intense gastrointestinal symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea. Most cases involve a very intense but relatively brief period of sickness. However, some foodborne illnesses can be life-threatening and our California food safety lawyer is following a voluntary recall involving a potentially fatal danger – listeria contamination.

Hummus & Other Dips Recalled for Possible Contamination

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, more than 14,000 pounds of hummus and other dips are being voluntarily recalled due to concerns they may carry the listeria bacteria. The dips are distributed by Hot Mama’s Foods of Massachusetts and sold across the nation including at the popular Trader Joe’s retailer and under the Archer Farms label at Target stores. Officials with the Texas Department of Health identified the threat and the company has asked all retailers to remove the potentially affected products from their shelves. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) recommends that customers who purchased any of the dips either throw out the items or return them to the place of purchase for a refund. A complete list of items involved in the recall can be found on the FDA website. Thankfully, no cases of illness had been reported at the time of the Chronicle’s article.

Long-Term Health Dangers of Pesticides Felt from Farm to Homes

September 25, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Food safety is an issue of particular concern to toxic tort attorney Gregory J. Brod. The safe consumption of the food that we eat can be affected by a variety of factors along the way from farm to dinner table, including contamination from bacteria and other pathogens. However, one of the most inconspicuous yet pervasive ways that our food can become the agent for illness is through the use of pesticides in the growing process and the long-term cumulative impact those substances have on our health.

A report this week in the San Francisco Chronicle focused on the particular peril farmworkers face from long-term exposure to pesticides. A professor of maternal health and child health and epidemiology and a supporting team at UC Berkeley launched a study of how pesticides adversely affect the health of farmworkers in the wake of the federal government’s decision in the late 1990s to fund research about environmental chemicals and children’s health. The UC Berkeley research found the presence of organophosphate pesticides – commonly used in agriculture but known to harm the human nervous system – in the urine of women in the study group drawn from the Salinas Valley and in greater quantity than in women of child-bearing age elsewhere in the United States. Research has established that children who have been exposed to high levels of pesticides in the womb were more likely to register test result markers that determine the likelihood of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

With California a key agricultural state, it stands to reason that the potential exposure of farmworkers to pesticides would be an issue of concern and, indeed, an important treatise on the subject “Fields of Poison 2002” with the subtitle “California Farmworkers and Pesticides” was published a decade ago. But the problem of exposure to pesticides goes way beyond the agricultural sector straight into the lives of consumers. Even though most pesticides used on farms don’t appear in the food we eat there still are troubling facts the Pesticide Action Network of North America has found that are cause for some alarm including the following:

* Tests conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 93 percent of Americans had metabolites of chlorpyrifos, which is a nuerotoxic insecticide, in their urine. Chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to ADHD, has been banned from home use due to its risks to children.
* Tests have determined that 99 percent of Americans are positive for the presence of DDT degradants, this in spite of the fact that DDT hasn’t been used in the United States since 1972. Studies have found that women who have been exposed to DDT as girls are five times more likely to develop breast cancer.
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During Peak Harvest Season, We Are Reminded of Dangers of Food-Borne Illnesses

September 18, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

September is a time of the year to take joy in the bounty of our nation’s agricultural sector. However enticing fresh-from-the-farm produce may seem this month, though, we need to be aware that food-borne illnesses can crop up just as easily in late summer and early fall as in any other time of the year, and our food safety law firm continues to call attention to the pitfalls of contaminated food as well as serve as a top advocate for the rights of those who have been sickened or who have died as a result of consuming tainted food.

Bacteria-Linked Disease Outbreaks a Major Problem in U.S.
Unfortunately, food-borne illnesses are fairly common in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 48 million Americans – roughly one in six of us – will fall ill due to eating contaminated food. Furthermore, CDC data show that during the period from Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2010, public health departments reported 1,527 food-borne disease outbreaks, which resulted in 29,444 cases of illness, 1,184 hospitalizations and 23 deaths. Of the 790 outbreaks with a laboratory-confirmed illness, norovirus was responsible for the most reported infections, followed by salmonella, which was linked to 30 percent of outbreaks. In the most severe cases, however, listeria was the most deadly agent, as 82 percent of those sickened by the pathogen were hospitalized. Indeed, among the 23 deaths during the two-year timeframe, 22 were due to a sickness caused by a bacteria such as listeria, salmonella, E. coli, Clostridium perfringens or shigella.

Vine-stalk vegetables are a major source of food-borne illnesses and hospitalizations due to contamination from such pathogens as salmonella or listeria. Just this month, a Wyoming man refiled a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against a Sheridan, Wyo., Walmart, claiming that his wife died after she consumed a contaminated cantaloupe that was purchased at the big-box retailer, according to the Sheridan Press.

Sicknesses Traced to Cantaloupe Have Hurt Sales of Melons
Contaminated cantaloupe has been a problem that has devastated the melon-growing sector of agriculture, especially in California, where 75 percent of all the cantaloupes consumed in the United States are grown. While neither of the two biggest cantaloupe-linked bacteria outbreaks in the country – a listeria outbreak in 2011 that sickened 147 people and killed 33 in 28 states or a salmonella outbreak last year that caused 261 people to fall ill and three to die in 24 states – were traced to melons grown in California, sales of cantaloupes from all states have dropped significantly in the U.S. And according to Food Safety News, cantaloupe growers in the Golden State decided in June to adopt a mandatory food safety plan as a measure to restore confidence among consumers of their product. The new standards will include government audits of all stages of cantaloupe production and require handlers to pass the program’s audits, which will be run by inspectors from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
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Celebrating Our Nation with a Safe and Happy Fourth of July

July 3, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

On the Fourth of July, we celebrate our nation and our freedom. It is a day filled with activity from parades to parties, barbeques to beaches, festivals to fireworks. Memories are made as families and communities gather. Ensuring the memories are happy means remembering the importance of keeping the holiday safe. The following topics are just a few of the summer safety issues our San Francisco injury law firm hopes you’ll keep in mind so that you and your loved ones have a safe Independence Day.

• Firework Safety

According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission’s (“CPSC”) 2011 Fireworks Annual Report, U.S. emergency rooms saw an estimated 9,600 firework-related injuries in 2011. Notably, approximately 65% of these injuries occurred in the single month span between June 17 and July 17. Children under age 5 accounted for 400 injuries in that focal period (7% of total) and an additional 1,200 injuries involved children aged 5 to 14 years (19% of total). In the focal month, sparklers led to 1,100 injuries (17% of total). Across the full year, burns accounted for more than half of all firework injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments.

Tainted Berries Story Still Developing

June 12, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Costco is a beloved membership-only warehouse club, known for selling a wide variety and selection of merchandise in large quantities, and their Kirkland Signature house-brand items. For customers who wander their large stores, especially over the weekends, food samples are available for taste testing to promote specific items, a very popular part of a Costco grocery run for the entire family. With a massive inventory of such a great variety of goods, it is not surprising then, for quality and safety problems to arise every once in awhile. However, a link of an outbreak of Hepatitis A to frozen berries bought at Costco, is much more serious as cases and the situation are still being assessed.

mixed%20berries.jpg This story was touched upon last week but we are slowly gathering more information about this incident. The frozen mix of berries, sold as the Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend, contain cherries, blueberries, pomegranate seeds, raspberries, and strawberries. Investigations are still ongoing from state health departments, the FDA, and the CDC but it is believed that the outbreak is traced to a specific type of pomegranate seed from Turkey. While other berries in the mix may not be contaminated, it is recommended that the entire mix be thrown out as a safety precaution. Even for those who have purchased this particular blend of berries from Townsend Farms, eaten some, and have not experienced symptoms, the rest of the product should be discarded. The contaminated product has been linked to 34 cases of acute hepatitis A in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California since April. Of these 34 cases, 11 have needed hospitalization.

This outbreak has even reached northern California. A 62-year old woman was hospitalized with hepatitis A from Contra Costa County. As of now, Costco have removed the item from shelves, recalled the batch of frozen berries sold at their stores, and are alerting consumers who have bought these berries since June. Hepatitis A can start anywhere from two to six weeks after exposure and/or consumption. Some symptoms include:

Northern California Food Safety Lawyer Comments on Preventing Food-Borne Illness After Contra Costa Woman Contracts Hepatitis A From Frozen Berries

June 5, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Last fall, our San Francisco food safety law firm called attention to a marked increase in the number of Americans falling ill or even dying as a result of contaminated food. Foods recalled in 2012 included mangoes, cantaloupe, meat, and nut butter. This disturbing trend endangers public health and threatens our ability to trust in the safety of our food supply. It continues to do so in 2013, as evidenced by a recent Hepatitis A outbreak, and it demands the attention of our nation’s food industry.

Contra Costa Woman Falls Ill, Frozen Berries Eyed as Culprit

As detailed in the San Francisco Chronicle, an outbreak of hepatitis A tied to frozen berries has reached our region. Last month, a 62 year-old East Contra Costa County resident was hospitalized due to a hepatitis infection. According to Kate Fowlie, a health services spokesperson, the woman had purchased frozen berries labeled Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend. Fowlie said the woman’s illness was likely tied to the berries. Thankfully, the woman has thankfully recovered and been released from the hospital.

Elder Care, Food Safety, and Other Legal Issues Implicated in Sacramento Poisoning

November 14, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

In law school, students take classes focused upon specific areas of the law, examining topics separately in order to grasp each legal concept. However, in the actual practice of civil litigation, legal issues overlap and a single incident can involve many different areas of law. Our Sacramento injury law firm understands this reality and Attorney Greg Brod’s experience representing victims in a range of civil matters ensures he can help in the very real world where clients need legal counsel capable of seeing the wide range of issues implicated in a single case.

Poisonous Mushrooms Leave Two Dead, Four Ill at Loomis Elder Care Facility

The Sacramento Bee is following a tragic incident that left two dead and four ill at a senior living facility in the Sacramento area. The Gold Age Villa is a small assisted living facility located in Loomis and licensed for up to six residents at a time. Among the qualities touted on its website is the attention to special dietary needs and the preparation of homemade meals, an element that can attract people who dislike the institutional feel of the food services at other, typically much larger, senior care facilities. The facility is owned by Raisa Oselsky who has also run the home for more than five years. Last Friday, a caregiver at the home made a tragic error and prepared a homemade soup using wild mushrooms. Unfortunately, the mushrooms were toxic and the meal led to the death of eighty-six year old Barbara Lopes and seventy-three year old Teresa Olesniewicz. Four others, including the caregiver, also fell ill after consuming the soup. Oslesky did not answer calls about the incident. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office ruled the deaths accidental.