Are Nitrates in Water A Cancer Risk?

A peer reviewed study published by the Environmental Working Group proposes that nitrate pollution of U.S. drinking water may cause from 2300 to 12,594 cases of cancer per year.  Most of these cases are in the rural farmland area where agronomic inputs, septic systems and home lawns becomes the source of this contamination.  Currently, the EPA acceptable level is 10ppm, but the EWG wants to see a lower level, about 0.14 ppm.

These statistical studies make a lot of inferences based on diverse data, so it is important to recognize the limit of this.

Jeff Stoltzfus, Penn State's Farm Food Safety Educator, was kind enough to provide some facts.  First, the baseline level, or background level, found in undisturbed aquifers is 1ppm and as high as 3ppm.  Vegetables and meat also contribute significant amounts of nitrates to our diet.  Finally, there are many, many activities we engage in each day that represent a higher risk than this.

Environmental Research, online 11 June 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.04.009

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393511930218X?via%3Dihub
Exposure-based assessment and economic valuation of adverse birth outcomes and cancer risk due to nitrate in United States drinking water.
 Alexis Temkin a, Sydney Evans a, Tatiana Manidis b, Chris Campbell a, Olga V. Naidenko a
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.04.009

Highlights

• First of its kind national analysis assessing nitrate exposure from drinking water for the entire U.S. population.
• 2,300 to 12,594 nitrate-attributable cancer cases annually in the U.S., of which 54-82% are colorectal cancer (CRC) cases.
• Up to $1.5 and $6.5 billion in medical and indirect costs may be associated with annual nitrate-attributable cancer cases.
• Meta-analysis of eight studies assessing nitrate in drinking water and CRC supports a health benchmark of 0.14 mg/L

Case of Intentional Contamination in Michigan - Man Sprays Salad Bars with Chemical Mixture

In Michigan, a person was arrested after intentionally contaminating salad bars in local restaurants with a chemical mixture that included mouse poison.  There have been no injuries reported.

This is a reminder that intentional contamination can occur and that employee in food establishments must always be on the lookout.

 

 

Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development News Release

https://www.michigan.gov/mdard/0,4610,7-125-1572_3628-383985--,00.html

Advisory: Consumers Urged to Throw Away Potentially Contaminated Foods

Agency: Agriculture and Rural Development

Drug-laced Bread Sickens 40 in LA

A bread made in celebration of Three Kings Day was contaminated with synthetic cannabinoid, or synthetic pot.  It affected at least 40 people with the symptoms that included heart palpitations, dizziness, numbness and hallucinations. 

This specific chemical, JWH-122, was developed for research and would be illegal to have, but other forms of synthetic pot, known as Spice or K2, can be purchased legally.

Police continue to investigate how the chemical got into the food, most likely a case of intentional contamination.

Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bread-648036-synthetic-people.html
Testing: Three Kings Day bread laced with 'substantial' amount of synthetic pot
Jan. 13, 2015    Updated Jan. 14, 2015 9:56 p.m.

A holiday sweet bread that caused dozens in Orange County to become ill might have been deliberately laced with a synthetic drug that mimics the active ingredient in marijuana, the president of a Santa Ana-based lab said Tuesday.

Neil Spingarn, a pharmacologist who heads up S&N Laboratories, tested a sample of the Three Kings Day bread and found it contaminated with “a substantial” amount of a synthetic cannabinoid – an artificial THC with intensified effects. THC is the main chemical ingredient in marijuana.

“The levels in the cake are not small.” Spingarn said. “What is most striking is that this was not inadvertent.”

In Japan, man arrested in frozen food conatamination case; over 2800 ill

In Japan, a man was arrested for contaminating frozen food products with the pesticide malathion. The deliberate contamination resulted in over 2800 becoming ill, many of them children. The company was forced to recall over 6 million units of frozen food including frozen pizza and lasagna. It is suspected that the perpetrator added the contaminate immediately before the packaging process. 9 products are reported as having been contaminated.

It is interesting in that, according the news reports, that the company had restrictions on bringing personal items into the production area....so much so, that one person, according the news reports, was astonished that someone was able to get the chemical out on the floor. He also worked as part of a team when on the production floor - there were 4 people assigned to the crust area including the accused.

Another interesting note is that the President of the company as well as the President of the subsidiary will resign in March due to this incident. Salaries of these and other top officials will be cut for a period of time.

The accused is reported as being a contract worker, although he worked at the same facility for 8 years.

This case shows the amount of damage one person can cause through deliberately contaminating food, especially considering it occurred in what appears to be a facility with decent controls.



Arrest made over tainted frozen food
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000973903
Japan NewsMonday, January 27, 2014

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A man in his late 40s was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of obstructing business by lacing frozen foods with a pesticide at a major food maker’s subsidiary plant in the town of Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture.

The man, Toshiki Abe, 49, is a contract employee working at the plant of AQLI Foods Corp., a subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc., police said.

Investigators detected malathion on clothes he wore at the plant. He had been missing since Jan. 14, but was discovered in Saitama Prefecture on Friday.

Fear the Grocery Carts?

Here is a study just released in Food Protection Trends. The study shows that grocery carts are a bit unsanitary as indicated by the presence of bacterial indicators (APC, coliforms, generic E. coli). While the study is a bit soft in the methodology (should have actually checked for pathogens, should have used better methods for testing), it does show that shopping carts are not the cleanest things in the world, and there is the possibility that carts can be a source of contamination, primarily children riding in those carts (putting their fingers on the cart seat and then sticking those same fingers in their mouth).  

But before we all go crazy worrying about grocery carts, it is important to point out this is just one of many risks that we all face each day. How about that grass where the kid is crawling….might that be a place where birds, dogs, or cats may have pooped? The refrigerator where juices from raw meats may have dripped…did it get on the apples?. That grocery store conveyor, where the packs of raw meat may have dripped…could those drops contaminated your other food packages?. How about those reusable grocery bags that never get washed after being used to carry raw meat? Where did you put your hands while eating lunch on a park bench where earlier, a group of the pigeons deposited their load as they flew by? Certainly it is important that we take precautionary measures such as washing our hands, cooking our food, and washing our grocery bags, but for each study that comes out that demonstrating the somewhat obvious, we cannot let the potential of contacting a contaminated surface become the bane of our lives. As they say, the key to a healthy immune system is a constant challenge.


Bacterial Contamination of Shopping Carts and Approaches to Control

Charles P. Gerba* and Sheri Maxwell
Dept. of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Food Protection Trends, Vol. 32, No. 12, Pages 747–749

Summary

Placing children in grocery shopping carts has been implicated recently as a source of infection with Salmonella and Campylobacter in young children. This study was conducted to assess the occurrence total bacteria, coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli on grocery shopping cart handles and seats. A total of 85 shopping carts in parking lots of grocery stores were tested in five major metropolitan areas across the United States. The total numbers of heterotrophic bacteria were as great as 1.1 × 107 on the handle and seat. Coliforms were detected on 72% (62) of the carts. E. coli was identified on 18 of 35 carts (51%) on which coliform identifi­cation was conducted. The results of this study suggest the need for improved sanitation of shopping cards/baskets to reduce exposure to pathogens and potential transmission of microbial infections among shoppers.

Employee Fired after Posting a Photo of Himself Standing on Food

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