Sen. Gillibrand calls for better safety rules to prevent food-borne illnesses

February 6, 2015 by DELTHIA RICKS / delthia.ricks@newsday.com

Nearly 5 million people in New York are affected annually by food-borne illnesses -- more than 700,000 on Long Island alone -- according to new estimates by a federal lawmaker who is calling for improvements in food safety regulations.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and her staff used statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies to arrive at estimates for all counties in the state.

The release of her data comes as a vast array of food products -- including candied apples, boneless beef, bean sprouts and chicken breasts -- have been cited by federal authorities in recent months as being tainted with some of the most notorious bugs in nature: salmonella, listeria, Campylobacter and E. coli.

About one-third of all chicken breasts sold nationwide that are tainted with salmonella carry a drug-resistant strain, Gillibrand said.

Her data jibes with unrelated federal analyses and university-based research in recent years that also have found drug-resistant strains on poultry.

Chicken -- whole and cut into parts -- was found to be a major source of food-borne illnesses in a study conducted by the CDC last year.

While public health officials unrelated to Gillibrand's report say the number of cases seems somewhat high, they agreed that food safety is critical and that a string of nationwide outbreaks over the past year has left consumers less secure about the food supply.

Gillibrand, meanwhile, is calling for the consolidation of federal agencies in charge of food safety. Currently, a patchwork of 15 are in charge of produce, poultry and meat inspection. She is calling for housing all food safety activities under one roof.

The Obama administration has already taken measures to bolster food safety, but Gillibrand contends more needs to be done.

"Too many New Yorkers are getting sick and even dying from food they trusted was safe," Gillibrand said in a statement Friday.

She estimates 337,906 food-borne illnesses in Nassau County and 378,056 in Suffolk every year. The report estimates 2.1 million people were affected with food-related illnesses in the five boroughs of New York City.

"We need to detect food-borne illness and stop it before it spreads rather than scramble to respond after [people] have already fallen ill," she said.

Public health experts in both Long Island counties Friday explained that food safety is an intricate job that has responsibilities at the local level as well as national.

Suffolk County officials estimate about 1 in 6 people contract food-borne illnesses based on an algorithm using CDC data and a lower number of overall illnesses.

Gillibrand estimated that 87 million people in the country develop food-borne illnesses using a range of federal data from which she arrived at nearly 5 million people statewide being infected annually. But Suffolk public health officials estimate about 250,000 people in the county will be sickened by contaminated food using data currently published on the CDC website.

"We strive to maintain a well-educated food service workforce," said Dr. James Tomarken, Suffolk County health commissioner.

"We also encourage residents to consistently handle food safely in their homes," he added.

Mary Ellen Laurain, spokeswoman for the Nassau County Department of Health Services, said her agency investigates all "allegations" of food contamination in institutions and businesses, such as schools, nursing homes and restaurants.

"In 2014 we had 103 reports of alleged GI [gastrointestinal] illness associated with a facility," she said, adding that anywhere from a few to dozens of people can be affected in any single outbreak investigation.

Dr. David Hirschwerk, a specialist in infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, said his hospital routinely sees people with gastrointestal symptoms caused by contaminated food.

Contaminated food, he said, isn't always connected with outbreaks, even though outbreaks occur in nursing homes and other institutions.

"We've seen it all," he said. "Salmonella; campylobacter; E. coli; listeria; norovirus; hepatitis A."

"Norovirus, which tends to be seasonal requires very few viral particles to cause infection," Hirschwerk said.

He added that campylobacter infections are generally associated with poultry and undercooked eggs. Campylobacter, a highly infectious bacterium,was first seen in the 1980s and has since widely spread throughout poultry.

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