In an attempt to make as many people as possible aware of the recall, and to alert folks to potential serious injury, I've posted to the Digital Journal Health Canada's recall affecting baby strollers.
Five children in the States have had fingertips amputated after catching them in the canopy hinge.
If you have a Graco stroller or any stroller from Elfe Juvenile Products of Toronto/Montreal, please click on the Digital Journal link above.
I was raised in the Anglican Church in a parish in Canada. As a teen I taught Sunday school. But the Anglican Church was not for me. When I left my teens, I left the church. (Although I did return for a number of years when I discovered that the young man who had been a curate at my original church was now the minister of a local Anglican church. When he left, retired, I left, also retired.)
Last year I attended a Buddhist ceremony in a temple about ten minutes from my London home. I find Buddhist koans and Christian parables have a lot in common. Each Christmas, kind of odd when you think about it, my wife gives me a small Zen Buddhist gift - a book of koans, for instance.
Now that my granddaughter of four months is starting not only to smile but to laugh with little shrieks of pure joy, it makes me think of the story of Han Ong.
Today's post is inspired by a talk given by Zen Master Seung Sahn entitled: What is Happiness, What Is Sadness?, given in London in 1978. This talk has become quite famous. My version will never be so well known or oft quoted.
What is Happiness, What Is Sadness?
Han Ong was a student of Zen Master Ma Jo. Everyone, on learning that Ong's master's was Ma Jo, would tell Han Ong, "You're lucky; You must be happy." He would reply, "What is luck? What is happiness?"
Han Ong had a horse which he rode every day and everyone said, "You're so lucky." He'd reply, "What is luck?"
One day the horse was stolen and everyone said, "You're so unlucky." They asked, "Are you unhappy? Are you sad?" Han Ong replied, "What is luck, or happiness or sadness?"
Everyone agreed, "This man has no feelings.''
A week later Han Ong replaced his lost horse with a much better steed for which he paid a very fair price. Everyone said, "You're lucky; You must be happy." He replied, "What is luck? What is happiness?"
Han Ong's son also liked the horse and he rode it every day. Then one day the horse balked and threw Ong's son hard to the ground, badly breaking his leg. Everyone said, "We're sorry your son broke his leg. How unlucky." Han Ong only shrugged his shoulders.
Soon after this, there were a string of wars between North China and South China. All the young people joined the army but for Han Ong's son who had a lame leg after having broken it so badly. He could not go; He had to stay home and help his parents. His leg was not so bad that he couldn't work in the garden and help his parents. Everybody said, "You're so lucky. You must be happy." Han Ong replied, "What is luck? What is happiness?"
But many who heard his words thought they saw a smile --- a twinkle in the old man's eyes --- as he turned and rode away on his horse, his son holding on tightly behind him.
I've messed with this story but then I'm not a Buddhist. For an accurate telling try the blog, Handful of Sand and scroll down to A Day of Mindfulness.
Little Fiona is only four months old. She still has a clean little mind, unencumbered with language and the labels that come with language. She appears to feels happiness and sadness. But she doesn't appear to have much memory.
She seems to take life as it comes. If it's good, she makes the most of it. She doesn't let the horrors of a recent bath sully the quiet pleasure of being held in grandpa's arms. She lives in the present.
And they asked Fiona, "Are you happy?" The little girl couldn't reply but many thought they saw a smile - a twinkle in the little girl's eyes.
And they were right; She was laughing at the question and thinking: "Happy? What's happiness?"
If you have a young child using a crib which was made before September 1986, destroy it.
Crib design has changed a lot since '86. Even with the improvements one still hears of recalls of poorly designed or poorly made cribs.
What is wrong with the picture on the left? The side bars on the crib are too far apart. The maximum space allowed by law is 6 cm (2 3/8 in.). Also, it is possible for an infant to trap a small hand in the space between the bottom and the side.
Health Canada has a crib safety booklet online. If you have a baby, or a crib in your home for that matter, please take the time to read this booklet.
You have to very diligent when it comes to buying products for a young child.
Consider the Amby Baby Motion Bed which Health Canada is advising parents and caregivers to immediately stop using. This is a hammock advertised for use with infants up to 12 months of age.
Health Canada and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) are aware of two infants suffocating in the United States while using these products. In the United States, along with the two fatalities, there have also been three other incidents reported.
The product's inclined sleeping surface increases the risk of the infant rolling and becoming wedged in a position where they can no longer breathe.
Sunday evening I caught a PBS special on the evolution of comedy in the United States over the past decades. There was Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and others, such as the Smothers Brothers. This sent me to YouTube searching for a Smothers Brothers clip. I found one of the brothers doing their yo-yo man routine.
Did the yo-yo man visit your school when you were a kid? Yes? No? If no, that's too bad, a shame.
In the '50s the yo-yo man would wander school yards at recess, but only once or twice a year, performing those oh-so-impossible yo-yo tricks. He made it all seem so easy; Anyone could do them: Walk the dog, rock the baby, round the world. Ah, the memories . . . and the frustrations.
We all fell for the yo-yo man's spiel, year after year. He was just so cool with pockets bulging with yo-yo's. The girls always bought pink yo-yo's circled with rhinestones. The boys favoured the black yo-yo's or the dark blue ones. At first the yo-yo's seemed to work. We all could make them sleep; waking them up was another matter. We could all walk the dog, but only a few of us could make rover return.
Soon all our yo-yo's had tightly tangled strings. If you could get your yo-yo to drop to the end of the tangled mess, it would simply sit at the end of the extended string and slowly twirl. Its yo-yoing days were over. Some of us would buy replacement strings but they too would soon fail.
We all took responsibility for the destruction of our yo-yo's. We never blamed the yo-yo or, even more unthinkable, the yo-yo man.
Now, watch this YouTube video of the Smothers Brothers doing "Yo-Yo Man." (It takes a moment to get into the fun but be patient. Tommy is one heck of a yo-yo man. He could have performed in my school yard anytime.
While I search for more answers on the food we eat, how about some food for thought?
As I searched the Web for stuff on food, a pattern emerged. There are an awful lot of recalls. Today I am going to start this post and then add to it until it contains the food recall information I have bookmarked in my Internet travels.
This is not a recall and so technically should not be here. On January 4, 2010, Perfection Packers Inc. pleaded guilty to labelling meat in a misleading manner. The use of the meat inspection legend is approved for persons who are licensed to operate registered establishments with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Perfection Packers Inc. is not licensed but used an official symbol or something that was likely to be mistaken for one. Perfection Packers was fined $24,000.
Perfection Packers: What's in a name?
2 --- Company: Eat More Spouts
On January 10, 2010, Eat More Sprouts recalled two different products for E. coli 0157:H7 contamination: mung bean sprouts, and certified organic bean sprouts. Isn't it interesting that one of the products being recalled is certified organic.
This is a class I recall indicating that there is a high risk that eating or drinking the product will lead to serious health problems or death. The CFIA issues a public warning for all Class I recall when the product is available for sale or could be in the consumer’s home.
1 --- Company: Olymel l.p.
Olymel l.p. is a leader in the slaughtering, processing and distribution of pork and poultry meat products in Canada, with facilities in Québec,Ontario, and Alberta. The company employs more than 10,000 persons and exports nearly half its production, mainly to the United States, Japan and Australia as well as some sixty other countries. Its sales stood at $2 billion this year, with a slaughtering and processing capacity of 160,000 hogs and 1.7 million poultry every week. The company markets its products mainly under the Olymel, Lafleur, and Flamingo brands.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued the following "Expanded Health Alert" on January 5, 2010. It warns that "Certain processed meat products may contain listeria monocytogenes." The manufacturer, Olymel S.E.C., Montreal, QC, is recalling affected products.
Pregnant women particularly at risk: According to the CFIA, food contaminated with Listeris monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled. Consumption of food contaminated with these bacteria may cause listeriosis, a foodborne illness . . . Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Infected pregnant women may experience only a mild, flu-like illness, however, infections during pregnancy can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn, or even stillbirth.
It must be noted, there have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these recalled meat products: Olymel cooked ham extra lean, Olymel cooked ham extra lean family pack, Olymel mock-chicken meatloaf family pack, Royal bologna and mock-chicken meatloaf duo pack, Royal chopped cooked ham and mock-chicken meatloaf duo pack (two sizes of packaging), Lafleur cooked ham extra lean and Roma pepperoni family pack. For more info to this link to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency bulletin.
According to a 2005 post, Foodborne Illness, by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States) there were 37 people hospitalized in the States every hour, with one person dying from food poisoning every one hour and 46 minutes when this report was released. 76,000,000 Americans were being made ill every year from foodborne pathogens.
Those numbers would be unbelievable if they were not from the CDC.
I'm not a vegetarian. I eat meat. I like meat or should I say I used to like meat. I'm having second thoughts. As I continue my investigation of our food supply I am shocked to discover that it is not just meat that can carries pathogens.
Today a Nestlé USA plant in Danville, Virginia, which was producing cookie dough was closed after the Toll House product tested positive for E. coli bacteria. Flour is the suspected source of the contamination.
It is important to note: The tainted dough did not leave the factory; No recall was necessary.
This was not the story last June when Nestlé issued a huge recall of the refrigerated, ready-to-bake cookie dough. It was linked at the time to an outbreak of foodborne illness in which at least 72 people in 30 states became ill after it is believed they ate raw dough.
All this made me think about sprouts, a food that I loved for decades. Then in 1996 an outbreak of foodborne illness in Japan sickened 6000 and killed 17 after they had eaten radish sprouts contaminated with E. Coli O157:H7. The same bacteria was also implicated in outbreaks involving sprouted seeds in several U.S. states between 1997 and 2004.
Sprouts! When I first read about contaminated sprouts, I thought how is this possible? According to Health Canada, Risks Associated with Sprouts:
"Scientists believe that the most likely source of contamination is the seeds that are used to grow the sprouts. Seeds may become contaminated by animal manure in the field or during storage, and the conditions required to grow sprouts (e.g, warmth and humidity) are ideal for the rapid growth of bacteria."
Since many sprouts, such as alfafa sprouts, are only eaten raw, they are not exposed to the high cooking temperatures necessary to kill dangerous bacteria if present. But even sprouts, such as mung bean, that are cooked are not heated sufficiently. An outbreak of salmonellosis in Ontario in 2005 was linked to lightly-cooked, stir-fried mung bean sprouts.
Health Canada takes this problem so seriously that it has a site devoted to Sprouted Beans and Seeds.
What initially attracted my interest in doing a take on food was a couple of articles in The New York Times examining a little know ingredient in much of the ground beef sold in the United States - ammonia.
It seems a rather creative fellow, Eldon Roth, devised a way to turn fatty slaughterhouse trimmings into what a U.S.D.A. microbiologist, Gerald Zirnstein, called 'pink slime.' Roth's product is used as a ground beef filler in much of the hamburger sold throughout the United States. It was, at one time, even found in Big Macs.
As I read the article, I wondered, "What's in Canadian ground beef?" The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) lists Canada as the second biggest consumer of American beef and veal.
"Beef Products, Inc. (BPI) has ground beef down to a science. A top US provider of boneless lean beef, the company grinds more than seven million pounds of meat a week. Its customers include fast-food chains, restaurants, food service operators, meat packers, food processors, and the USDA's school lunch program. Its 60-pound blocks of frozen meat chips are used in hamburger patties, ground beef, hot dogs, beef snacks lunch meat, sausages, meatballs, and frozen entrees. The company touts food safety as a priority. It uses two metal detectors to scan beef before and after processing at its Sioux City, Iowa, manufacturing facility. Outside of the US, Beef Products' customers are located in Canada, Mexico, and Japan."
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As the lawsuits concerning some of the food products mentioned mount, I have edited all my posts on food and food production.
Years ago John Miner, a fine reporter at The London Free Press, and I flew to St. Louis to visit the Monsanto plant. They were still developing their genetically modified seed at the time. We were there to investigate FrankenFood.
There have always been questions about the safety of the Monsanto product and now two online papers are carrying stories casting serious doubt on the safety of the Round-up Ready corn seed. At least, I believe this is the corn seed under question.
I wonder if The London Free Press will be able to find the staff to investigate this latest FrankenFood story?
I would write more but I have no time. My little sister, she's older than I but I always had a protective brotherly attitude towards her, has taken a fall and broken her hip.
She fell last Thursday evening and was taken to the nearby hospital in the big city - my sister lives in a small town. Friday they operated. Now, she is in a facility focused on rehab. Why some Americans are so against a Canadian-style medicine is beyond me.
I joked with my sister that she is lucky the death panels didn't refuse her treatment on account of her age. Sarah Palin would be surprised.
Cheers,
Stay away from ground beef if you're a Yank,
We may all have to worry about corn,
And carry a cane if you totter,
Rockinon
