E. coli Lawyer Will Join Harvard University Panel for Lively Debate over The “Insane Risks” of Raw Milk
Raw milk litigation, the raw milk movement and the pure science behind raw milk will make a splash together on February 16 in a national food safety debate hosted by the Harvard Law School Food Law Society on the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The participants will feature national E. coli lawyer Fred Pritzer of the PritzkerOlsen Law Firm; Dr. Heidi Kassenborg, director of the Dairy and Food Inspection Division of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture; Sally Fallon Morell, president of Weston A. Price Foundation and David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), raw (unpasteurized) milk and raw milk
products like raw milk cheese are to blame for 1,614 illnesses in the U.S. from 1998 to 2008. Two of the
victims died and 187 were hospitalized. Mr. Pritzker has represented victims of raw milk outbreaks, including the family of a Pennsylvania man who was paralyzed from his neck down after drinking raw milk from a local health food store that was unknowingly contaminated with Campylobacter.
The Minneapolis law firm he founded is one of the very few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. PritzkerOlsen has recovered tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning, including raw milk outbreaks.
“It’s insane for states to give farmers the choice of salling raw milk when science has proven that raw milk is no more nutritious than pasteurized milk,” Pritzker has said in previous appearances. “It’s a trap that will continue to inflct an enormous toll on families who will be stricken by illness.”
Pritzker and Kassenborg adhere strongly to the mainstream view that unpasteurized milk is unsafe and especially dangerous for young children, pregnant women, the elderly, infants and people who have weakened immune systems. Besides Campylobacter, raw milk can carry E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, or other potentially lethal pathogens spread by the feces of cows.
Just last year there were at least 10 outbreaks across the country spawned by various pathogens. Four of the outbreaks were caused by toxic E. coli, including three in Washington state alone. Human infections of Shiga toxin-producing types of E. coli lead to a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in 8 to 10 percent of children under age 5 (even previously health children), and HUS is fatal 5 percent of the time. In addition HUS survivors often suffer from lifelong medical issues, including the need for kidney transplants in some.
Tags: E. coli Lawyer, Raw Milk E coli
