Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Cucumbers Sicken 28 in California, 73 Nationwide

The Food and Drug Administration has blocked cucumber imports from a Mexican company after the vegetables sickened 73 people in 18 states, including 28 in California. The cukes have tested positive for Salmonella Saintpaul, the Associated Press reports. Twenty-seven people have been hospitalized, a ... More >>

10 Million Pounds of Frozen Snacks Recalled

Ten million pounds of frozen pizza and other snacks have been recalled due to contamination with a rare strain of E. coli, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rich Products Corp. is recalling all items produced by at its Waycross, Ga. plant with "Best By" dates rangi ... More >>

Tuberculosis Outbreak On Downtown L.A.'s Skid Row Prompts Federal Response

The federal Centers for Disease Control says it's sending staffers to L.A. to help county and state officials deal with a tuberculosis outbreak on Skid Row. A CDC spokeswoman told the Weekly today that staffers would likely be dispatched downtown within the next two weeks. According to what the CD ... More >>

Americans Get 11% of Calories From Fast Food

Calories from fast food made up more than 11 percent of the typical American diet from 2007 to 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, that's down from 13 percent of daily calories from 2003 to 2006, according to report author Cheryl Fryar. Fryar told U.S. News ... More >>

Overdoses Rise In America, But Don't Blame Marijuana Or Cocaine

You've been having a good time America. Too much of a good time. The Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Heath Statistics looked at the latest data and said this week that drug overdoses were on the rise for the 11th straight year. The good news for L.A., the medical marijuana capita ... More >>

Will Mayoral Candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel Take Action to Protect Mothers and Children From Air Pollution?

Another important study about the impacts of air pollution on children was released last week, but don't expect mayoral frontrunners Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel to say or do anything specific about it. In 2010, L.A. Weekly exposed in the cover story "Black Lung Lofts" the dangerous side effects ... More >>

Gas Prices Are So High That Teens Have Stopped Drinking & Driving

See also: *Gas Prices Could Reach All-Time High in L.A. There's one good thing about our rapidly rising gas prices. They seem to deter kids from drinking and driving. That's one of the conclusions of a Centers for Disease Control study this week that says the incidence of drunk teens behind the wh ... More >>

[Updated] Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Recalled for Salmonella

Update, 9/24 1:12 p.m.: The maker of Trader Joe's peanut butter tied to a multi-state salmonella outbreak has pulled 76 additional peanut and almond products because of possible contamination, NBC News reports. California is among the 18 states that have reported infections of the rare and nasty st ... More >>

Gay Happiness, the New Frontier

Are mental and physical health problems really a reaction to bigotry?

Another Cantaloupe Outbreak Kills 2, Sickens 141

In a fatal rerun of the 2011 outbreak, two people have died and 141 have been sickened since July 7 after eating cantaloupes, the Wall Street Journal reports. But unlike last year's Listeria outbreak in cantaloupes, this year's deadly melons contain Salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease C ... More >>

Sex Disease Up in California; Young People Across U.S. Having Risky Oral Relations, Too

Teens and twentysomethings are having lots of oral sex, it seems, partly because they think it's safer than the other kind, according to a new Centers for Disease Control study. It's not true that oral is safer, of course, and this might explain why American kids are coming up with increasing rates ... More >>

U.S. Prosecutors Probe Deadly Cantaloupe Outbreak

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado is looking into dropping the hammer on Jensen Farms, the cantaloupe processor linked to a Listeria outbreak last year that killed at least 30 people. The company is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the federal government, Businessweek reports. B ... More >>

Rates of Foodborne Illnesses Rising, CDC Reports

In the wake of the massive Trader Joe's salad recall comes a new government report that says the U.S. is falling short of its goals to reduce foodborne illness outbreaks, Bloomberg reports. According to preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data for 2011, the foodborne pathogens Sal ... More >>

Marijuana Toking by Teens Does Not Increase Because Medical Weed is Legal -- Study

Updated with feedback from one of the study's authors, at the bottom. First posted at 9:03 a.m. America's teen tokers are using pot at the highest rate in 30 years, we reported in 2011. You might think that the availability of legal, medical marijuana in 17 states and counting might have some influ ... More >>

Best Food Poisoning Remedy May Be Garlic

For garlic-lovers, there's a new reason to love those cloves even more, and it doesn't have much to do with flavoring your food. A study out of Washington State University found that garlic is 100 times stronger than antibiotics when it comes to killing bacteria that causes food poisoning. Garlic co ... More >>

Sushi Alert: Spicy Tuna Rolls Linked to Salmonella Outbreak

Dubbed the pink slime of the sea, nearly 59,000 pounds of yellowfin tuna have been recalled after a salmonella outbreak. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak has been reported in 20 states and 12 people have been hospitalized. The product is called Nakaochi Scra ... More >>

Fight Against BPA in Food Packaging Takes a Hit

The fight to get bisphenol A (BPA) out of our kitchens took a hit on Friday, when the Food and Drug Administration declined to ban the controversial chemical from food packaging. The FDA rejected a petition from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), but also said it will ... More >>

Taco Bell Implicated in 10-State Salmonella Outbreak

When there was a multistate outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis in October, the Centers for Disease Control would identify the culprit only as "Mexican-style, fast-food Restaurant Chain A." Turns out, that's longhand for Taco Bell. At the time, the CDC refused to name the restaurant chain, saying the ... More >>

Binge Drinkers Hit The Bar Once a Week, Get Wasted: U.S. Health Officials Concerned

America, we've got a problem. The first step is admitting it: More than 38 million of us binge drink about four times a month (only?), having as many as 8 drinks in a sitting (lightweights). In some nations across the Atlantic -- Germany, England, the Netherlands -- this is called being a pussy. ... More >>

The Year in Food Recalls

It was a bad year for orange fruit (papayas, cantaloupes) and leafy greens (especially romaine). Ground turkey took a big hit (36 million pounds recalled), and raw milk products were pulled from shelves. Here's a look back at 2011 in food recalls, a year of E. coli conundrums, Listeria hysteria and ... More >>

Two Million Rape Victims Living in California

​Buried beneath the stunning announcement this week by the Centers for Disease Control that nearly one in five American women has been raped in her lifetime is the data that California, by far the national leader in such sex crime when you look at total numbers, has 2,024,000 women who say the ... More >>

Ready-To-Bake Cookie Dough Carries E. coli Risk

Guzzle & NoshChristmas cookies: delicious but dangerous when unbaked.​In the midst of the Christmas cookie season, it's important to remember one thing: Don't eat unbaked cookie dough. That's the upshot of a recent report published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. After a 2009 multistate outb ... More >>

Looking Back at AIDS

Raw Milk Products Recalled Recall Upheld After Children Sickened in California

Flickr/grongarOrganic Pastures raw milk has been quarantined in California.​ The California Department of Food and Agriculture has upheld its recall of raw milk products, even though the dairy demanded the quarantine be lifted, saying tests show its milk is pathogen-free, according to the Asso ... More >>

Americans Eat Too Much Salt

Flickr/Rafe Saltman​Why you salty broad. You old salt. A new "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health says 88% of the U.S. population consumes more than the recommended amount of salt per day, increasing their ... More >>

CDC Reports: Food Service Workers Smoke. A Lot.

There's nothing like toiling over a smoking stove to get you hankering for a cigarette. According to a brand-new CDC study that surveyed nearly 115,000 working adults between 2004 and 2010, food service workers -- along with miners and construction workers -- are more likely to smoke than most. Th ... More >>

More Trouble With Cantaloupe: Death, Recalls Listeria

A Colorado produce company issued a voluntary cantaloupe recall after a 13th death was linked to the melons tainted by bacteria. Some cases of Listeriosis illnesses have been reported in California, but no deaths. Older adults, pregnant women, newborn children and adults with weak immune systems a ... More >>

36 Million Pounds of Ground Turkey Recalled

Flickr/Social Mediarts​The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey in the wake of a multi-state outbreak of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella linked to the death of a California man, the Chicago Tribune reports. Seventy-seven people in 26 states reported b ... More >>

Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay Youths Less Likely to Use Condoms, More Likely to Use Drugs, Alcohol -- Study

Infidelic​As if life isn't hard enough for them, the Centers for Disease Control on Monday reports that gay, lesbian and bisexual high school students are more prone to drug, alcohol and tobacco use. The study (PDF) includes data from Southern California and indicates, according to a CDC stat ... More >>

Frozen Turkey Burgers Recalled Due to Salmonella

Flickr/JMRosenfeld​ A Salmonella strain in turkey burgers that has sickened people in 10 states, including California, is antibiotic-resistant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Jennie-O Turkey Store, based in Willmar, Minn., recalled 27 tons of frozen turkey bur ... More >>

Oral Sex, Bisexual Women More Common in America Today (You're Welcome, Charlie Sheen)

Action in America.​Read the recent results of the Weekly's own L.A.-centric sex survey here. The sexual revolution might be long gone, but it appears the chill brought on by HIV and AIDS is in the rear-view mirror too. While the latest U.S. Centers for Disease Control "Sexual Behavior, Sexua ... More >>

Homicides Plummet, But L.A. Suicides Are Up Since Recession Started

​For the second year in a row, a resident of L.A. County is more likely to die by their own hand than be killed by someone else. In 2010, suicides were essentially unchanged -- down 1% -- from 2009, and they remained above pre-recession levels, according to statistics from the L.A. County coroner. ... More >>

Raving Without Ecstasy: Is It Even Possible?

Caesar SebastianRavers at Together As One.​Following our weekend report about the 62 medical emergencies and 25 arrests at the annual "Together As One" New Year's Eve rave, several commenters weighed in to accuse us of being biased. After all, these megaraves are just good clean fun for the w ... More >>

CDC: We're Not Eating Our Fruits and Vegetables

Flickr/Kirti PoddarHow Americans prefer to eat their fruit ​ Not only are Americans not eating enough fruits and vegetables--something we've been nagged about for years--our diets are actually getting worse, according to a Centers for Disease Control report released September 9th. Not one st ... More >>

Would Your Kitchen Pass the Cleanliness Test?

Flickr/moriza​ Afraid of dirty restaurant kitchens? To paraphrase novelist Thomas Wolfe: Look homeward. The results of a two-year Web survey conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found that at least one in seven home kitchens would flunk the kind of inspections that ... More >>

Safe Food-Handling Bill Is Sent to Governor

Flickr/stevendepolo​ A bill that requires that restaurant workers be trained and certified in proper food handling was approved by the California state Senate on August 27th. The legislation, which seeks to reduce the incidence of food-borne illnesses in the state, has already been approved ... More >>

Check Your Eggs: Millions Recalled Due to Salmonella

Flickr/stevendepolo​An outbreak of salmonella in eggs has prompted a nationwide recall and lead to hospitalizations in counties across the U.S., including in California, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Since May, at least 266 people across the state have become ill after eating contaminated ... More >>

FDA Plans to Legally Limit Your Salt Intake

Morton Salt​ According to today's report in The Washington Post, the FDA is planning an "unprecedented" effort to limit the salt consumption of Americans. The idea is that putting legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food would significantly lower the number of deaths from heart dise ... More >>

'Valley-wide Outbreak' Of H1N1 Happening Now

Hospitals in the San Fernando Valley are experiencing a spike in patients reporting H1N1 "swine" flu symptoms, leading one administrator to call it a "Valley-wide outbreak" of the virus. Three Providence hospitals in the valley -- Holy Cross, Tarzana and Saint Joseph -- are reporting a 10 percent i ... More >>

Swine Flu: One U.S. Death, One Attempt to Change Flu's Name

As of 8 a.m. this morning one U.S. death, in Texas, has been attributed to the swine flu outbreak. The fatality was a Mexican toddler whose family was visiting the state. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 14 Californians are confirmed as being stricken by SF, while New York City lea ... More >>

The Toxic Mold Rush: California Mom Helps Fuel an Obsession

Ed McMahon is among those caught in paranoia over fungus' supposed perils

Condom Wars

New guidelines gut HIV prevention — and endanger young people’s lives

The Well-Behaved Epidemic

Made in the USA, Part III: US Government Agency Listings

If It Happened Here

A bioterrorism attack on Los Angeles might look a lot like this

The Back Story

Reading List: Week 7

Misguided Billions

A better way to spend the missile-defense budget

Next Time, It Might Kill You

The coming flu pandemic

Letters

AIDS activists fight to keep HIV reports confidential

Ask, But Don't Tell