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March 3, 2010

Report: Health-related costs from foodborne illness have been understated

By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com

A report released Wednesday shows the annual cost of foodborne illness in the U.S. is $152 billion, and Ohio’s annual bill, $5.8 billion, is the seventh highest in the nation.

The report is an effort of the American Public Health Association, Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Safe Tables Our Priority, and Trust for America’s Health. Its release comes as the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on comprehensive food-safety legislation. The U.S. House passed its food-safety bill last July. The Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions unanimously approved the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act late last year.

The report was discussed in a conference call Tuesday with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who expressed optimism that the staggering number would attract the attention of those who heretofore have ignored the human suffering component.

“Maybe they will be willing to listen on an economic issue,” she said.

Previous studies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggested the annual cost of foodborne illness was between $6.9 and $35 billion. Robert L. Scharff, assistant professor in the Department of Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University, said the data used by the USDA were more than a decade old. Further, those figures focused on only five common pathogens in foodborne illnesses.

The new study relied upon data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and looked at all pathogens, including bacteria, parasites, viruses and “unknowns,” said Scharff.

The $152 billion figure includes health-related costs, including drugs, hospital and physician services. It also includes quality-of-life losses, including death, pain, suffering and functional disability, an approach used by the Food and Drug Administration in making estimates. USDA does not take this approach. Without that consideration, the figure would be $103 billion.

Costs per case were calculated for each state, and ranged from $2,008 in Hawaii to $1,731 in Kentucky. In Ohio, which ranked 24th, the cost was $1,837 per case, using September 2009 dollars as a reference point.

“It really illustrates how serious foodborne illness is as a problem in society,” Scharff said.

The report attributes $39 billion annually in illness costs associated with produce contamination, including fresh, canned and processed produce. Produce is a target of the study because of recent outbreaks linked to peanuts and spinach, as well as the political ramifications of having FDA oversee that aspect of food safety.

“Today, because of the number of recalls and in the past several years, people are scared. They are reluctant to pick up leafy green vegetables or peanut butter,” DeLauro said.

She pointed out that 5,000 Americans die from foodborne illnesses each year, more than died in the Twin Towers terrorist attacks on 9/11.

“We are losing 5,000 people every year. It is our job to go to war against foodborne illness in this country,” she said.

DeLauro hopes the study will invigorate the Senate to move on the bill and start the reforms that will lead to safer food in the U.S. She wants to see the FDA split into two divisions, one responsible for drugs, the other for food safety, and the 14 other agencies that deal with food safety eventually brought under the one FDA division.

The report did not offer any estimates of how much it would cost to create the system of oversight necessary to reduce deaths and illnesses from food in the U.S. DeLauro said those estimates can’t be made until after the final legislation is passed.

online: makeourfoodsafe.org

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