Doug Powell, who holds a doctorate in food-safety
communications, says the number of people who are sickened by food poisoning is
vastly under-estimated.
“In general, to be captured
in a Canadian surveillance system, a sick individual must:
- seek care;
- have a sample (stool, urine or blood) requested;
- submit a sample for testing;
- the sample must be tested with a test capable of identifying the
causative agent;
- the positive test result must be reported to the surveillance
system.”
Given all of these hurdles, Powell says Canada’s Public Health
service captures “only a small portion of total illnesses” and says there is
both”under-diagnosis and under-reporting taking place.”
It’s in that context that he notes that officials in both the
United States and Canada have cited changing figures for the number of
food-borne and water-borne illnesses each year.
“For years it was one person in four” for the U.S., Powell
writes on his internet “barfblog.com” website.
At that rate, 76 million people were sick every year.
“The Canadians and Australians eventually did their own
estimates and came up with one in three.
“Then the Americans revised their number to one in six, or 48
million people barfing per year.
“Now the Canadians have revised their number to one in eight.
“This doesn’t mean food is safer or worse, just that better
estimates make more accurate estimations – and these are still vast estimations,”
Powell says.
At one in eight, that’s four million Canadians who are sickened
by food or water every year.
