Pritzker to Speak at Northeastern University School of Law on Foodborne Illness Litigation
Food safety attorney Fred Pritzker is speaking at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts, at the school’s winter symposium: “From Seed to Stomach: Food and Agricultural Law.” The symposium will take place on Friday, January 21st, 2011. To register as an attendee, visit the school’s website at http://www.nulj.org/index.html.
Mr. Pritzker will be part of a food safety panel discussing foodborne illness litigation. He will be joined on the panel by Jason Sapsin, former Associate Chief Counsel at U.S. Food and Drug Administration and now an attorney with Polsinelli Shughart PC, and Shawn Stevens, Food Safety Defense Attorney at Gass Weber Mullins LLC.
Pritzker Calls for Action on New E. coli Research
This is a call to action for the New Year and beyond.
It’s made on behalf of the tens of thousands of people who have already suffered E. coli O157:H7 poisoning and the millions more who will be afflicted by it in the future. It is made because new research convincingly demonstrates that even people with so-called “mild” cases of E. coli O157:H7 – those thought to have made a full recovery – have a dramatically increased lifetime risk of hypertension, kidney impairment and cardiovascular disease. This ground-breaking research shows that E. coli O157:H7 patients require extensive annual medical evaluations and testing to “to prevent or reduce silent progressive vascular injury.”
In response to this research, we are calling for the following:
- We are calling on the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to immediately post this research on its websites and convene an appropriate panel to evaluate these data and implement guidance in light of them.
- We are also calling on food companies responsible for E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks — including past outbreaks — to responsibly notify their customers about these newly identified risks and treatment needs. As the entities that should have prevented these illnesses from occurring in the first place, it is only appropriate that they fully pay for the needed medical care.
The findings of Dr. Clark and his co-authors are contained in the British Medical Journal article published on November 17, 2010 entitled Long term risk for hypertension, renal impairment, and cardiovascular disease after gastroenteritis from drinking water contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7: a prospective cohort study. The complete article is available free at http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c6020.full.pdf.
In summary, people who suffer E. coli O157:H7 poisoning but do not go on to develop the rarer and much more serious complication, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), nevertheless have a 33% greater risk of hypertension and a more than two-fold increase in cardiovascular events as reported as congestive heart failure, heart attack or stroke. They also face more than a three-fold increase in the occurrence of both structural and functional kidney impairment, compared to a non-exposed comparison population.
The study authors recommend that any individual who has suffered gastroenteritis as a result of E..coli O157:H7 exposure should have an annual assessment by a physician and a blood pressure measurement coupled with a urinanalysis, serum creatinine value and micro albumin :creatinine ratio to determine if they have hypertension and/or if they have structural or functional kidney impairment. Certainly any cardiovascular complaints would also be recorded with appropriate risk factor investigation with subsequent modification by exercise, diet and medications. Individuals who had definite E. coli O157 H:7 gastroenteritis, in view of their potential cardiovascular risks, would likely warrant low dose ASA prophylaxis if there are no other contraindications. Those detected with hypertension will require specific anti-hypertensive treatment including a low salt diet, medications and a BP monitor for home recording and long term follow-up to make sure their blood pressure reaches their target (if they have evidence of renal impairment the target is 130/70 and without renal impairment the target would be 130/80).
If any patients have micro albuminuria or proteinuria not previously detected, then the use of an ACE Inhibitor, an ARB or an anti-renin to reduce their protein excretion rate (if it exceeds 0.5Gm on 24hour quantification) with follow-up by annual 24 hour urine protein or a microalbumin: creatinine ratio. Identifying individuals with high blood pressure can prevent many of the future vascular complications and if they already have structural and or functional kidney impairment consideration should be given to initiating an ACE Inhibitor, angiotensin receptor blocker or anti-renin agent to reduce the proteinuria as well as to control their blood pressure.
To contact our law firm for more information, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our online form.
Food Safety Lawyer Fred Pritzker Presents at Food Safety Litigation Conferece
Attorney Fred Pritzker
Food safety attorney Fred Pritzker spoke at the American Conference Institute’s Foodborne Illness Litigation conference in Chicago on October 27 & 28.
According to the conference program: “The food industry is under the microscope like never before. As reports of food-borne illness continue to rise, it was recently reported that the estimated annual cost of illness caused by only one strain of e.coli is $478,381,766. How much of this expense is your company prepared to bear?”
Representatives from food production companies and food safety lawyers like Pritzker came together for this two-day event of knowledge sharing and networking to educate producers on the legal matters of food safety. Pritzker presented a mock cross examination of an epidemiologist testifying in a foodborne illness outbreak case.
Food Safety Attorney Fred Pritzker to Speak at National Forum on Food-Borne Illness Litigation
Food safety attorney Fred Pritzker is scheduled to speak at the American Conference Institute’s 4th National Forum on Food-Borne Illness Litigation, October 27-28 in Chicago.
Attorney Fred Pritzker
Fred’s topic is cross examination of an epidemiologist testifying in a foodborne illness outbreak case. Fred represents foodborne outbreak victims throughout the United States.
The annual National Forum on Food-Borne Illness Litigation features nationally recognized experts in the fields of foodborne illness litigation (both plaintiff and defense), foodborne illness investigation and corporate public relations.
See Fred’s video on E. coli O26.
Grading Restaurant Cleanliness
Doug Powell is a food safety professor, journalist, commentator, critic and blogger. He was one of the first to aggregate food safety news and is widely read in the food safety community.
He often writes about restaurant safety and the public’s right to know about how restaurants score on sanitation inspections. His piece today talks about the debate in NYC about passage of a law requiring restaurants to post letter grades based on inspections.
A few weeks ago I was invited to speak to a group of Illinois sanitation inspectors whose job it is to inspect and grade restaurants. My presentation was about how lawyers prove food safety cases. During the talk I asked the sixty or so attendees what they thought about mandatory restaurant grade posting. Surprisingly, at least to me, most were against it. Their comments are summarized as follows:
- Inspections are just “snapshots in time;” what happens on just one day may or may not be indicative of restaurant cleanliness throughout the course of a year
- With so much riding on a sanitation score, the relationship between inspector and restaurant will become contentious and lead to much more administrative action
- Posting restaurant scores is punitive; it’s better to encourage (one inspector from a small town said their practice is to publicize good scores)
- Many low risk violations may lower a score even though there is no real threat to the public.
My reaction to the inspector’s comments is that those concerns can be address in a uniform and fair grading system. And the system can be fine-tuned over time. Overall, the public’s right to know trumps any perceived unfairness to restaurants. Transparency is rarely a bad thing.
Pritzker Olsen E. coli-HUS Client Featured in New York Times Article
My client Emily Grabowski was featured in a May 27, 2010 New York Times article about the E. coli O145 outbreak involving fresh romaine lettuce from Freshway Foods, Sidney, Ohio.
Ms. Grabowski, a college freshman in New York, is one of 26 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
As of May 20, 2010, a total of 26 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak have been reported from 5 states since March 1, 2010. The number of ill persons identified in each state with this strain is: MI (11 confirmed and 2 probable), NY (5 confirmed and 2 probable), OH (8 confirmed and 3 probable), PA (1 confirmed), and TN (1 confirmed). The reported cases in Tennessee and Pennsylvania do not reflect expansion of the outbreak but retrospective identification of cases using the PulseNet system – these cases are part of the original cluster due to the original implicated lot of lettuce from March.
As a result of her E. coli O145 illness, Ms. Grabowski developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a potentially lethal condition known to cause severe kidney damage, neurologic deficits and hypertension.
This outbreak, another one involving leafy green vegetables, points to the need for significant regulation of an industry responsible for repeated outbreaks.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its final report on the outbreak on May 21, but so far refused to identify the farm at which the implicated romaine lettuce was grown.
Fred Pritzker On Newsmakers
