Progress Towards FDA Food Safety Reform—Not A Moment Too Soon

Progress Towards FDA Food Safety Reform—Not A Moment Too Soon

For the first time since my daughter's best friend died from  E.coli O157:H7, I am finally starting to feel that we are making progress towards comprehensive FDA food safety reform.  Last week the U.S. Senate held its first hearing on S.510, Senator Durbin’s bipartisan bill that updates our ancient food safety system. At Safe Tables Our Priority (www.safetables.org), we work closely with many wonderful families that have suffered needlessly from contaminated food.  Senators have finally acknowledged those families' pain and anguish, in many cases noting that these tragic stories were the impetus for their commitment to better protecting American families. The following is a roll call of sorts from the hearing:

• Senator Brown (D-OH) discussed Nellie Napier, who had a large extended family in Ohio and was the last person to die from tainted peanut butter during the PCA outbreak.

• Senator Franken (D-MN) shared Shirley Almer’s story, a 72-year-old woman who survived cancer twice -- only to be killed from Salmonella in peanut butter. Her son, Jeff, has been become a vocal advocate for change in his mother's name. Shirley's case helped the Minnesota health department figure out the outbreak.. If the appropriate mechanisms had been in place, others would be alive today.

• Senator Dodd (D-CT) acknowledged Haylee Bernstein, who at age 3 was nearly killed by E.coli in lettuce. More than ten years later, Haylee still suffers from health problems related to her near-fatal incident with food contamination.

• Senator Durbin (D-IL) has always credited S.T.O.P. President Nancy Donley with teaching him about the severe shortcomings of our food safety system after her own son Alex died in 1993 from eating tainted hamburger meat. Durbin also spoke of Marian Westover, an 80-year-old S.T.O.P. member who nearly died from E.coli in spinach more recently.

Please help stop future suffering and urge your Senator to vote on this bill before the end of the year by clicking here. And help protect yourself and your family by signing up for e-alerts that keep you informed about current food recalls and outbreaks:  http://www.safetables.org/about/root_joinus.cfm.