Personal Injury Law

More Bad Raw Milk Stories

By Bill Marler, Esq.

Summer, or at least August, is drawing to a close in the Northwest – temperatures have dropped below 100 and rain is expected. Really, no global warming?

I spent most of last week being supportive, but feeling helpless, as a client who ate E. coli O157:H7-tainted Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough, may well be slowing dying after spending over 100 days in the hospital (still there), loosing her large intestine and gall bladder and spending weeks on dialysis. It is crazy that people think a foodborne illness is a 'tummy ache.'

I have a very busy September coming up. I am looking forward to mediation in a few days on the last of the 2006 Dole Spinach E. coli O157:H7 outbreak cases. This client spent 51 days hospitalized, 18 days on dialysis and incurred $500,000 in medical bills. Will Dole, Natural Selection Foods and Mission Organics play hardball with this 80ish lady? We shall see.

I then have speeches at the Arkansas Law School, in Washington DC (with some insurance executives) and then off to China too yet another food safety conference.

So, I decided to take a 'break' this weekend.  I decided to get out of Seattle to focus a bit on the upcoming mediation - the travel and speeches - by spending a few days working/fly-fishing in Idaho. So, after a working/hiking/fly-fishing day, I decided to get a massage. I do not do massages – I'm just not that in to having strangers rub you for money – but that is just me. So, halfway through the massage and being naked (underneath a sheet), the lady starts telling me about the benefits of drinking raw milk.  I decided to not tell her what I did for a living. So, on too the other bad raw milk stories:

Raw Milk Sickens 13 in Wisconsin

Wisconsin state agencies are cautioning residents to discard any unpasteurized milk. Selling or distributing raw milk and its products is illegal in Wisconsin.  The state says the victims have tested positive for campylobacter jejuni. All victims had consumed raw milk or been in households where someone else consumed raw milk and became ill. Symptoms started Aug. 14 through Aug. 20.

3 Los Angeles Firms Charged with Selling Raw Milk Cheese

The Los Angeles city attorney has filed criminal charges against three local businesses for the alleged sale of dangerous, unpasteurized cheese from Mexico. The office said in a statement Thursday that it has charged El Agave Restaurant Oaxaqueno, Mario Brothers Market and Expresion Oaxaquena Market with misdemeanor violations of the Food and Agriculture Code for the sale of raw milk cheese and other unpasteurized dairy products.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on August 29, 2009 (boomark / email).