Foodborne Illness Overview

A Public Health & Safety Priority
   Nearly one in three Americans contracts a disease from food each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. More than 325,000 hospitalizations occur annually to foodborne pathogens, and more than 5,000 deaths can be traced to foodborne illness. The General Accounting Office, noting the low diagnosis rate for foodborne illness, considers the actual death toll much higher.
  Foodborne illness is commonly dismissed as a mild stomachache and a day of missed work, but pathogens like E. coli O157:H7, salmonella, listeria and vibrio can have costly and painful long-term implications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome, kidney failure, miscarriage, birth defects, Guillain-Barre syndrome, neurological damage, and irritable bowel syndrome. Thousands of American children and adults are permanently injured each year by biological contaminants in their food.

A Growing Threat
  The populations most susceptible to foodborne disease are children, seniors and people whose immune systems are compromised - and the at-risk group is increasing proportionally as our society ages. People with higher-than-usual risk include not only those with degenerative diseases but also pregnant women; most hospital patients; cancer and AIDS patients; transplant recipients, and anyone who is taking or has just finished antibiotics. Even people taking antacids have demonstrated increased susceptibility to foodborne pathogens.
  Meanwhile, increasingly virulent pathogens have emerged in the last 20 years, and the increasing mechanization and globalization of our food supply continually magnifies their ability to spread. The highly publicized 1993 Jack-In-The-Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was a wake-up call to Americans to demonstrate just how a single source of contamination can spiral into a multi-state crisis.

An Environmental Problem
  Foodborne pathogens have become epidemic in part because of our relationship to our environment. Many pathogens, such as E. coli and salmonella, are harbored in the digestive systems of food animals, and the recent multiplication of these pathogens in our foodstream is linked to intensive farming practices. Animal waste contamination makes manure disposal a fundamental concern. Waterborne contamination, a health threat not only in itself but also in farm irrigation and production usages, is concurrently a symptom of environmental decay.
  Industry response to foodborne pathogens, meanwhile, has veered strongly away from environmental sourcepoint reduction and towards chemical or other interventions during production - or offloading decontamination responsibilities upon consumers. Thus not only the pathogens themselves, but the solutions being offered become environmental concerns.

A Preventable Tragedy
  Most foodborne illness is the result of missteps at several places in the food chain. Pathogens are cultivated through ill-planned farming techniques, allowed entry into the food chain through faulty production, exacerbated by lax regulation, spread by careless food handling, and sustained by the lack of consumer knowledge about safe food handling. With effort, these gaps can be closed, making foodborne illness largely a preventable tragedy.
Consumers deserve the confidence that the foods they eat will not make them sick. Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) is a victim-founded, 501(c)(3) grassroots organization working nationally to teach the public and policy-makers that foodborne illness is a serious infectious disease issue with profound environmental health significance and tangible, achievable solutions. For more information, please call S.T.O.P. at (802) 863-0555 or (800) 350-STOP.

Safe Tables Our Priority 
P.O. Box 4352 
Burlington, VT 05406

Media & Business (802) 863-0555 
Victims & Victims' Families (800) 350-S.T.O.P. 
 
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