Risk is attached to almost everything we consume
Published Thursday August 28th, 2008
The media was awash this week with articles, updates, and an apology about the latest food scare, processed meats contaminated with listeria.
The first I read about it was last Saturday, when the Globe and Mail wrote how Maple Leaf Foods had warned distributors not to ship certain sliced meats and that its Toronto plant was being investigated by health authorities.
The insinuation of scandal, moreover, was that the distributors were informed four full days before the public.
The scandal being reported now is that inspection services were stretched thin, with plants conducting their own inspections. Furthermore, the Canadian Press now cites a leaked cabinet document which says the government planned on making this a formal arrangement.
Making industry responsible for policing itself is like basing traffic rules on the honour system, good in theory but subject to conflict of interest.
Earlier, on Aug. 19, there were reports that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was recommending the public not consume certain lots of roast and corned beef that may have been contaminated with listeria monocytogene bacteria.
The bulk of this meat was sold to institutions such as hospitals. Chillingly, this bacteria is more likely to affect the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.
On Aug. 20, it was reported that cold cuts served at fast food restaurants were being recalled because of bacterial contamination. This day also saw the first fatality linked to the outbreak, and the number of deaths is now climbing.
This past Monday the president of the company was on television apologizing, and by Tuesday Google News had thousands of articles linked to the Canadian Press report on the ongoing listeria outbreak and the CBC's article that the health minister expected more cases.
The significance of this 'outbreak' is that it shows how at risk we are from ordinary foods in our culture, foods produced with high standards of hygiene. Moreover, this story also shows how the media is an essential vehicle by which we learn about risk.
The story has been reported from Halifax to Vancouver, and from Ireland to India.
There are now several class action lawsuits, including one launched by a Regina lawyer, which are expected to reap hundreds of millions of dollars.
Anyone who has lost a loved one, or lost money due to the recall, or worried unnecessarily, is encouraged to file their claim online.
So if it's not yet a crime, there is certainly discussion of responsibility. And like Walkerton, which is being compared to this crisis because of the apparent lack of oversight, I predict there will be an inquiry. The finger will point to the government's inspection process as well as to industry, and there will have to be an accounting.
The bacteria responsible for this outbreak, listeria monocytogenes, has been established as a cause of food-borne disease only recently. Consequently, while the disease is potentially fatal and listeriosis attracts widespread media attention when deaths occur, in a 1999 nationwide survey about half of respondents with at-risk household members were not aware of the disease.
However, of far greater concern is how the public handles the information it receives from the media about risk. Since the 1980s, reports of salmonella and listeria have joined mad-cow and hoof and mouth disease. SARS paralyzes our travels and disease makes us afraid to buy groceries. Our panic culture is ideal for creating anxiety when so much of what we consume is outside our control.
The public develops its own versions of risk derived from media reports, which further complicate the problem. Does the public think everyone is at risk, or only some? Does the public think the risk was avoidable, or inevitable?
It parallels how we think about crime. We think it happens to people who leave their doors unlocked, to people who live in bad neighbourhoods, who walk alone at night or are in the wrong place at the same time. These ways of thinking help protect us from concerns about living in modern society, where we come in contact with strangers on a routine basis.
We fear the pedophile but not the pyjamas that might catch fire. We fear the molester but not the meat we buy. We don't expect to be killed by something we buy in the grocery store.
Chris McCormick teaches Criminology at St. Thomas University and his column on crime and criminal justice appears every second Thursday. Please send comments to letters@dailygleaner.com.
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