| You’ll never know what gets you in Texas |
If you live in Texas and eat food, you will probably die, or at least become violently ill. That’s what we’re taking away from a study that gives the Lone Star state an “F” in reporting outbreaks of foodborne illness.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest studied ten years’ worth of CDC data and decided that the more reporting of such outbreaks a state has, the more likely it is to have a swift-acting, effective public health system.
Because Texas only reported an average of one outbreak per one million people, we apparently blow. Our fellow flunkies in the back row include Arizona, Arkansas, Nevada, Indiana and Kentucky, and eight others. Wyoming, home to a few dozen people and a shitload of cattle, got an “A.”
“These findings suggest that many states lack adequate funding for
public health services, leading to health departments that are
overburdened and understaffed,” the report states. “The result is
decreased outbreak investigation and detection and an incomplete picture
of foodborne illness across the country.”
If you’re a Texan and want to know the specific pathogen that will
inevitably worm its way into your system and make you vomit
uncontrollably, it will most likely be salmonella. That foul bacteria
accounted for 15 percent of the reported outbreaks. However, two percent
of you will probably eat a mouthful of listeria, then come down with
listeriosis and then die.
But don’t pack your bags for an “A” state like Minnesota just yet:
states with higher grades don’t mean fewer cases of food-cooties. You’ll
probably die there as well — it’s just that there’s a better chance
some dude at the CDC will find out about it. Bon appétit.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.
