Disease Proof

• In the Netherlands, a third person has died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of mad cow disease. Humans can contract mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, by eating meat from infected cows. Since 2005, two people have died from mad cow in the Netherlands; via Reuters.

• Investigators reveal the chopped peanuts, imported to the Blakely, Georgia plant, responsible for the salmonella-peanut butter outbreak contained a putrid substance later identified as metal fragments. And officials claim the FDA failed to adequately analyze the adulterated peanuts; from the Associated Press.

• Bad news for mushrooms too! A Pennsylvania farm has recalled enoki mushrooms because they may be contaminated with Listeria. The mushrooms were shipped to retailers in the U.S. and Canada. Listeria is not normally fatal, but can be in people with weakened immune systems; FoxNews reports.

• A British mother was given a suspended sentence after her 3-year old was filmed smoking. In the video the kids puts a cigarette into his mouth, lights it with a lighter and draws smoke into his lungs and does it with some accomplishment. He puffs away while his mother babbles on her phone; CNN investigates.

• Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is imploring America’s food processors to willingly cut sodium in foods by 25% over the next 10 years or NYC will impose laws on salt similar to those on smoking and calorie-content; via The New York Times.

• Speaking of New York City, a bakery in Greenwich Village started selling racist cookies in honor of our new president called “drunken negro head” cookies, igniting a firestorm of angry customers. The dope who knows the place said he is not racist, it’s all for fun and the cookies are art; from the Gothamist.

Image credit: teresia