5221.0: Wednesday, October 24, 2001: 4:30 PM-6:00 PM

Oral Session

Hot Topics in Food Safety

In recent years, there has been a considerable public interest on food safety issues ranging from toxic chemical and microbial contamination of foods, food irradiation to transgenic foods. Acute kidney failures and death in children who consumed ground beef infected with Escherichia Coli O157:H7, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow" disease from beef consumption, microbial resistance as a public health consequence of intensive veterinary use of antibiotics, and toxic and allergenic effects associated with transgenic foods have been among the topics of numerous newspaper headlines. There is no question that food safety will continue to receive increasing attention in the 21st century. Increasingly, risk assessment is used by policy-makers worldwide to ascertain the degree of risks associated with foodborne contamination and determines the effectiveness of new policies to reduce risks of foodborne illnesses. In this session, risk assessments for E.Coli O157:H7, BSE and fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter will be examined. A risk management and communication model for BSE will be presented. Generic risks among important crop plants for food production will be discussed. In addition, the politics of U.S. food safety policy in context of food safety inspection will be evaluated.
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this sesion the attendees will be able to: 1) discuss the roles and limitations of risk assessment in food safety policies. 2) discuss the history, background and current research surrounding: microbial resistance issues relating to veterinary use of antibiotics, BSE and E.Coli O157:H7. 3) discuss public health risks associated transgenic foods. 4) develop an appreciation for the political challenges in food safety
Organizer(s):Nga Tran, DrPH, MPH, CIH
4:30 PMCommunicating and managing the risks of BSE
William Hueston, DVM, PhD, David B. Schmidt
4:45 PMIs Congress culpable of endangering the public by legislating in favor of the meat & poultry industries? Could "mad cow" or other meat born diseases stalk us?
Thelma Correll, BA, MPA
5:00 PMManaging Risk and Public Health: Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and other Food Safety Issues
Steve Anderson
5:15 PMGlobal health hazards of agricultural biotechnology
Luca Bucchini
5:30 PMReview of the USDA E. coli O157:H7 risk assessment - Findings of a National Academy of Sciences study
David A. Butler, PhD
Sponsor:Environment
Cosponsors:Food and Nutrition; Occupational Health and Safety; Socialist Caucus
CE Credits:CME, Environmental Health, Health Education (CHES), Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work

The 129th Annual Meeting of APHA