Free Republic

Maybe the green onions were not the culprit after all. As the number of confirmed or suspected cases of E. coli infection rose to 400 yesterday, federal officials said that their testing had failed to confirm preliminary findings by Taco Bell that some green onions in its restaurants were contaminated. The chain removed green onions from its restaurants last week. “There’s nothing to implicate green onions right now,” said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer for food safety at the federal Food and Drug Administration. “We have not ruled out any food ingredient. We haven’t ruled any in, and we...

CARTHAGE, N.Y., Aug. 13 - For much of the summer, Dustan Wisner, 15, and his friends have whiled away the days fishing the banks of the Black River. On Friday, he and his friends were beside the river again - no poles in sight. This time, they were learning that a toxic spill was snaking its way through the slow current and killing vast numbers of fish. "That stinks," Dustan said. And it did. The toxin was liquid cow manure - three million gallons in all - creating a murky plume that stretched for miles and giving unfortunate new meaning...

Travellers suffering from "Montezuma's revenge" or "Delhi belly" can take comfort from the discovery that the bacteria responsible for the runs may protect against cancer. The find also suggests a new way to treat colorectal cancer. Researchers were struck by how the cancer strikes disproportionately more often in industrial nations than developing countries. Conversely, traveller's diarrhoea, caused by intestinal Ecoli infections, is more prevalent in developing countries. Dr GianMario Pitari and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the growth rate of a population of actively dividing cancer cells...