Word: coli
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Taco Bell's attempt at damage control needs damage control. The fast-food chain has responded poorly to this week's E. coli outbreak, experts say, and its bad public relations could hamper Taco Bell's efforts to reassure its customers...
...Since Nov. 20 at least 60 cases of E. coli infections have been reported across six states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most of them linked to Taco Bell restaurants. Forty-eight of those people have been hospitalized, seven with potentially fatal kidney failure, and more cases are likely to be reported. The New York Times reported on Friday that there are at least 169 confirmed E. coli cases, most of them centered on Long Island and in New Jersey. The cause of the outbreak remains unknown, although green onions from Taco Bell restaurants...
...This week, the chain temporarily closed at least 60 stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware for cleaning and restocking of all food. Most of the stores were reopened within a day. Taco Bell also launched its own investigation into the E. coli's source, and its private laboratory found E. coli present in some samples of green onions. On Wednesday, Taco Bell removed green onions from all 5,800 of its restaurants...
...while leaving ourselves exposed to real ones. Six Muslims traveling from a religious conference were thrown off a plane last week in Minneapolis, Minn., even as unscreened cargo continues to stream into ports on both coasts. Shoppers still look askance at a bag of spinach for fear of E. coli bacteria while filling their carts with fat-sodden French fries and salt-crusted nachos. We put filters on faucets, install air ionizers in our homes and lather ourselves with antibacterial soap. "We used to measure contaminants down to the parts per million," says Dan McGinn, a former Capitol Hill staff...
Unfamiliar threats are similarly scarier than familiar ones. The next E. coli outbreak is unlikely to shake you up as much as the previous one, and any that follow will trouble you even less. In some respects, this is a good thing, particularly if the initial reaction was excessive. But it's also unavoidable given our tendency to habituate to any unpleasant stimulus, from pain and sorrow to a persistent car alarm...