Raw Milk Drinkers--- what's your opinion about this news article?

[astrid]

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-west-hartford-milk1212.artdec12,0,4010557.story

 

I"ll also copy the story below. Two CT families are suing a local co-op dairy and Whole Foods, Inc. because their children experienced serious health problems after drinking raw milk. The sale and consumption of raw milk is not illegal in CT, as it is in some states, I believe.

 

I'm interested in your thoughts.

 

astrid

 

Two Families Sue Simsbury Dairy, West Hartford Store Over Tainted Raw Milk

 

By BILL LEUKHARDT

The Hartford Courant

December 12, 2009

WEST HARTFORD —

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two families whose young children became deathly ill in July 2008 from virulent E. coli bacteria in raw milk produced by a Simsbury dairy are suing the dairy and Whole Foods Market Inc., whose store in West Hartford sold the tainted milk.

 

The three children — a brother and sister, then 3 and 1, and another girl, then 3 — were hospitalized. Two of the children suffered kidney failure from the poisoning and needed dialysis to recover, the families' attorney said this week. "There were real concerns about the children's survival. They all ended up in intensive care under the care of pediatric renal specialists," attorney James D. Bartolini of the Hartford law firm of RisCassi & Davis said of victims Evan and Grace Piccioli, now 4 and 2 respectively, and Emma Barringer, now 4. The Picciolis referred all questions to Bartolini, and the Barringers could not be reached. Both families live in West Hartford.

 

The lawsuits, filed in recent weeks at Superior Court in Hartford in the names of the children's mothers, seek money for medical expenses, suffering and future care. The children now lead normal lives, Bartolini said, but their health has been compromised.

 

"No one is sure of the long-term effects of the illness on these children," Bartolini said. "They will need regular monitoring at least into late teen years for kidney function and hypertension. It's a big sword hanging over the heads of these families."

 

The two civil actions are apparently the first filed by the 14 Connecticut residents ranging in age from 1 to 81, who were sickened by drinking the tainted milk from Town Farm Dairy. The dairy ceased selling raw and pasteurized milk on July 9, 2008, after the first reports surfaced of customers sickened by raw milk.

 

A subsequent investigation by the state Department of Public Health confirmed the E. coli, and a state agricultural probe pinpointed the outbreak to one sick cow in the farm's herd of 28 Jersey milking cows that produced an average of 93 gallons of milk each day.

 

Town Farm Dairy, on town land that for decades served as the town's poor farm, closed in September 2008. In August 2009, a new nonprofit group, Community Farm of Simsbury, took over the property and plans to use the farm for lessons and educational programs on farming and to make garden vegetables available to the community. It will neither produce nor sell milk or any dairy products.

 

Jack Papa, the attorney representing Community Farm in the lawsuit, did not return calls seeking comment on the legal action and any possible effect on Community Farm.

 

Steve Bazarian, a Boston-based attorney representing Whole Foods, declined comment on the lawsuit against his client. The lawsuit claims that the raw milk was purchased at the Whole Foods store on Raymond Road near Blue Back Square.

 

Raw milk is not treated to kill potentially harmful bacteria, but its fans say it has better flavor and is more nutritious than pasteurized milk. There are about a dozen raw milk producers among the state's 150 licensed dairy farms.

 

The E. coli outbreak sparked state agriculture officials this spring to push for new state laws requiring labels on raw milk warning consumers that unpasteurized milk presents serious health risks to children, the elderly and anyone with compromised immune systems because of bacteria sometimes found in it. The proposal died in committee.

 

Agriculture officials do not plan to submit similar proposals this next session, said Wayne Kasacek, assistant director of the agriculture department's regulatory and inspection bureau.

 

The lack of what Bartolini calls "adequate warnings" on the raw milk bought by his clients is one reason he is suing both the dairy and the store.

 

According to court records, Evan Piccioli is the only child who actually drank the milk. His sister Grace became ill from exposure to her sick brother. Emma Barringer fell ill after her parents cared for Grace Piccioli while Evan was hospitalized with his E. coli infection.

 

Bartolini said that both Evan Piccioli and Emma Barringer temporarily required dialysis because their kidneys were damaged and weren't functioning properly.

 

The strain of E. coli in the raw milk was E. coli 0157, the same bacterium that, in 1993, contaminated hamburger used by the Jack in the Box fast food chain in the Seattle region. Four people died and more than 700 were sickened by the tainted meat.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant

[OHGrandma]

According to court records, Evan Piccioli is the only child who actually drank the milk. His sister Grace became ill from exposure to her sick brother. Emma Barringer fell ill after her parents cared for Grace Piccioli while Evan was hospitalized with his E. coli infection.

 

I've got to review what I know about transmission of E.coli because I think this sounds like some serious cleanliness issues within the family.

[Julie in CA]

I've got to review what I know about transmission of E.coli because I think this sounds like some serious cleanliness issues within the family.

 

:iagree: Yikes! :001_huh:

[newlifemom]

I am not a raw milk drinker, yet. This article would not stop me from pursuing raw milk for my family. I am at a point where whatever I do is a risk. Consuming food treated with hormones and antibiotics is bad. Food with HFCS is bad. Pesticides, bad. Organic, maybe harboring something that pesticides would have killed, bad. Canned foods, bad. Raw milk, bad. What is a person to do?

 

When I am able to purchase raw milk, I will be very careful about where I am purchasing it to be sure, but golly I could walk outside tomorrow and get hit by a truck.

 

I have no idea if any of this make any logical sense, but that is how my brain is working these days. :D

[JoyfulMama]

I prefer raw milk, and in CHOOSING the unprocessed milk, know that there are potential risks. In my CHOOSING, I must also be educated and knowledgable about those risks, which I feel is MY responsibility.

 

Now, about the e.coli transmision... it would be very possible for siblings to share a bath, which would be a potential way to transmit e.coli. HOWEVER, I personally would not have my child bathe with another child, whose sibling has been ill. And I would be diligent about handwashing, however we do not live in a perfect world.

This would not make the living situation of anyone be unsanitary or questionable.

[Carrie12345]

Um, yeah.

Isn't person-to-person ecoli only transmitted through feces? :001_huh:

 

The only reason we are not raw milk drinkers is because I want to know the cows my hypothetical raw milk comes from, and that just hasn't happened yet.

I do believe that raw milk should have "warning labels", and I believe they're required to in some states. That said, I have a hard time believing anyone who didn't understand the pros and cons of raw would be buying any to begin with!

[danybug]

My family drinks raw milk and I know of the possible consequences in doing so. If you are drinking raw milk you know of the potential issues and I do not think that inadequate labeling should be a problem.

 

There are not many states that allow stores to sell raw milk and I feel like it is discouraging because you can just as likely get Ecoli from vegetables or meat that stores are allowed to sell freely. I think that in this case Whole Foods should not be held liable. And for the two children affected after the fact, I think cleanliness should be a consideration and not be held as part of the case.

 

Just my thoughts, which I quick busted out. Maybe I would feel different if it was my child. The article however does not change my views on raw milk for our family.

[patchfire]

My family drinks raw milk and I know of the possible consequences in doing so. If you are drinking raw milk you know of the potential issues and I do not think that inadequate labeling should be a problem.

 

There are not many states that allow stores to sell raw milk and I feel like it is discouraging because you can just as likely get Ecoli from vegetables or meat that stores are allowed to sell freely. I think that in this case Whole Foods should not be held liable. And for the two children affected after the fact, I think cleanliness should be a consideration and not be held as part of the case.

 

Just my thoughts, which I quick busted out. Maybe I would feel different if it was my child. The article however does not change my views on raw milk for our family.

 

:iagree:

 

I accept the risks of raw milk. However... I also accept the risks of buying conventional bagged salad sometimes. Or occasionally eating at a restaurant. Or in one of a hundred other ways partaking of the usual industrial food chain, which overall, I feel, poses a much higher risk of contamination and disease. Plus, I know my farmer. I buy the milk directly from him. He'd be mortified if any of kids he provides milk for were to become ill, whereas I can't say the same for any food corp. CEO.

[Peela]

I agree that anyone drinking raw milk should know the risks. If labelling is necessary because people are too ignorant, well, put the labels on.

However, there might be unscrupulous practices going on. Our raw milk supplier is critical of another raw milk supplier in our state, because the milk is transferred from one container to another more than hers is, and also, people can take their own containers, which again heightens the risk of contamination.

It's a difficult situation and it really should be up to the comsumer to be aware of the risks and get to know their supplier personally, visit the farm etc. But in a country where it is so personally profitable to sue rather than suck it up and take some resonsibility, its going to be messy.

[Liz CA]

I am sorry they experienced such horrific illness.

I have been drinking raw milk off and on - switching back and forth and have never had any adverse reactions.

E-coli seems to be everpresent in our foods, i.e. the tomato scare, the contaminated spinach etc.

I do not stop eating any of those. I am being careful where I buy, though.

[Heidi]

This is DH typing a response. This is what I remember from many years ago when I was still a kid on the dairy. Take it for what it is worth.......it has been years.

 

Here goes: Raw milk is not the problem with regards to e-coli. Sanitary issues are! Growing up on a dairy we had to exercise extreme caution when cleaning all equipment. After milking the herd we would run a rinse cycle followed by a heavy-duty soap wash completed with an acid wash. The same thing took place with the milk tank when the milk was taken away. If you aren't careful bacteria will grow in the milk lines or in the milk tank. This is bad. Also if you don't filter the milk properly you can get some undersireables in the milk. Usually the milk if filtered several times throughout the process of getting it to your house. The milk is also tested for many things during the process to include bacteria growth. There is a possibility that someone wasn't doing their job very well and allowed some e-coli ridden manure or something else with e-coli on it to find its way into the raw milk.

 

Hopefully this helps a bit. Also a note, in all the years of drinking raw milk no member of my family ever became sick from drinking it.

[danybug]

This is DH typing a response. This is what I remember from many years ago when I was still a kid on the dairy. Take it for what it is worth.......it has been years.

 

Here goes: Raw milk is not the problem with regards to e-coli. Sanitary issues are! Growing up on a dairy we had to exercise extreme caution when cleaning all equipment. After milking the herd we would run a rinse cycle followed by a heavy-duty soap wash completed with an acid wash. The same thing took place with the milk tank when the milk was taken away. If you aren't careful bacteria will grow in the milk lines or in the milk tank. This is bad. Also if you don't filter the milk properly you can get some undersireables in the milk. Usually the milk if filtered several times throughout the process of getting it to your house. The milk is also tested for many things during the process to include bacteria growth. There is a possibility that someone wasn't doing their job very well and allowed some e-coli ridden manure or something else with e-coli on it to find its way into the raw milk.

 

Hopefully this helps a bit. Also a note, in all the years of drinking raw milk no member of my family ever became sick from drinking it.

 

Thank you for sharing some of the details to the process! We buy raw milk, but was not naware of any of the sanitation process.

[smrtmama]

:iagree:

 

I accept the risks of raw milk. However... I also accept the risks of buying conventional bagged salad sometimes. Or occasionally eating at a restaurant. Or in one of a hundred other ways partaking of the usual industrial food chain, which overall, I feel, poses a much higher risk of contamination and disease. Plus, I know my farmer. I buy the milk directly from him. He'd be mortified if any of kids he provides milk for were to become ill, whereas I can't say the same for any food corp. CEO.

 

Exactly. My biggest food-related concern is contamination on a plant/factory level.

[Debbie in OR]

Raw milk is not the problem with regards to e-coli. Sanitary issues are!

 

Exactly. When we were thinking about raw milk, I did all the research and knew there were risks similar to the risks of eating at a salad bar, etc..

 

I also asked my cousin, who is a physician, what she thought. She said she grew up on raw goat's milk and her only caution would be "to know your source." If you know the farm, cows and handlers and know they are maintaining higher than average sanitary standards, you have reduced the concerns to just negligible.

 

We went out and visited the farm where our milk would come from. It's owned and operated by a homeschooling family that lives on 10 acres, with only two milk cows. They wash the udders and pens constantly, don't let them stand udder-deep in mud or their own feces; they have stainless steel automatic milkers to reduce hand to teat contact and the have several levels of straining that goes on. I feel very comfortable about the cleanliness and sanitary issues and therefore feel the risk of bacteria to be minimal. But, having said that, it's always a risk. Just like most everything else. I guess I would rather have this risk than be consuming all the chemicals and hormones from pasteurized milk.

[kalanamak]

I guess I would rather have this risk than be consuming all the chemicals and hormones from pasteurized milk.

 

I thought pasteurized milk was heated and then chilled, not treated with chemicals and hormones to kill bacteria. Did they change things?

 

(As a kid, I thought it was from the root word "pasture", and I couldn't under stand why turning milk more pasture-like was "cleaner". In my mind, they did it in the pasture, somehow....)

[FlockOfSillies]

It's "Pasteurized" -- named after Louis Pasteur, the French scientist who invented the process. ETA: Your mental image of it is much funnier, though. "Take that there milk out to the pasture, son. I'ma gonna show you how tah pasture-ize it."

Edited December 15, 2009 by FlockOfSillies

[Colleen]

As others have said, there are inherent risks in drinking raw milk (just as there are inherent risks in consuming all manner of foods) and people should make informed choices. Part of that information process, imo, is gaining firsthand familiarity with the farm/production facility. As I've mentioned here before, I would not simply buy raw milk off the shelf without that familiarity. I say that as a dairy farmer and as a mother whose five children have been drinking raw milk their entire lives. (Or since roughly age 1, anyway.) I'm convinced raw milk is a boon to their unusually good health but it's our milk. Even at that, I generally won't serve our raw milk to children other than my own.

Edited December 15, 2009 by Colleen

[Critter]

I was raised on raw milk, and for the last few years have had my own milk cow. We love it! It tastes so much better and is so much better for you. A good website is www.realmilk.com. I can't imagine that anyone living in our society today would be ignorant of the possibility for contaminants in our food supply. Pastuerized milk occasionally has it too, but we don't hear about that as much.

[Debbie in OR]

I thought pasteurized milk was heated and then chilled, not treated with chemicals and hormones to kill bacteria. Did they change things?

 

 

Lol! I guess I just lump it all together....antibiotics/hormones = chemicals. Yeah, technically not the same but it's just stuff I don't want in my kids' bodies and mine if it's in my power to do something about it.

[kalanamak]

Lol! I guess I just lump it all together....antibiotics/hormones = chemicals. Yeah, technically not the same but it's just stuff I don't want in my kids' bodies and mine if it's in my power to do something about it.

 

Well, around here organic/no hormone milk that is pasteurized is easily available. I ended up hospitalized with low potassium from such severe diarrhea from raw milk when I was 19. I was so stiff, they drove me in in the back of the pickup, because I couldn't move my muscles to bend to sit in the truck.

[Colleen]

Even as an organic dairy farmer whose family goes through two gallons of raw milk daily, I don't recommend the Weston Price site. Too many assumptions and what I consider misleading information. Case in point, the assertion that "the modern Holstein...needs special feed and antibiotics to keep her well."

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I do not think I would risk raw milk with children under 13 or at all IMHO. I would rather kefir and good yogurt;)

 

As far as suing, I have mixed feelings since they should have known the risk of raw milk IMHO. OTOH, I admit to not have extensively researched raw milk.

[Murphy101]

If the dairy was lazy in sanitation causing ecoli, then I think that's a valid reason to sue. It really wouldn't have anything to do with it being raw milk. The suit would be just as valid as if you found put the last thing someone did before putting the cap on your pasturized milk was sneeze in it. Or heaven only knows what else that basic and standard sanitation should have prevented.

 

I don't think there's any reason to sue whole foods unless they knew there was a problem and didn't take it off the shelf.

 

As for a labeling as per the link illustrates, I think it is nonsense. Might has well label everything. Raw milk done right isn't any more dangerous than organic raw veggies.

 

Not that we ever have either. Can't afford raw milk or organic anything.