Pima County Health Board Member: Hand Sanitizer Isn't Communism
In Arizona today, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to reject a proposal by the county’s board of health that would have required food trucks to provide hand sanitizer and food festivals to provide a hand-washing station for every five portable toilets, according to a story in the Arizona Daily Star.
The supervisors, who previously rejected proposals from the health board to require hand sanitizer for all portable toilets and to post hand-washing reminders in restrooms, said the impact of such a measure on festivals large and small wasn't clear.
What is clear is that festivals and foodborne illness outbreaks go hand in hand. Health officials in North Carolina have been scrambling for weeks to pinpoint the source of an E coli outbreak associated with the Nortth Carolina State Fair that has sickened 12 people, seven of whom are children who required hospitalization after developing a severe complication of an E. coli infection called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the leading cause of kidney failure in children in the United States. Children with HUS are generally hospitalized for weeks or months and many require future kidney transplants.
The North Carolina outbreak is tragic, but not unusual.
- In August, three people contracted E coli infections after attending a county fair in Michigan.
- In July, one child died after visiting a petting zoo at a county fair in Indiana.
- In August 2010, a toddler developed HUS after visiting a Wisconsin petting zoo.
- In August 2010, three children contracted E coli infections at a regional fair in Michigan.
- In July 2010, a four-year old developed HUS after visiting a county fair in Indiana.
- In 2008, eight people contracted E. coli at an Indiana county fair.
The list goes on. While handwashing may not be able to prevent all cases of foodborne illness, it can prevent some, which is why the Pima County board of health wanted to make sure that people attending events in Pima County could wash their hands. "It doesn't mean they will, but if they can't, they won't," health board member Brad Brumm told the supervisors.
The supervisors were not swayed by statistics on fairs and foodborne illness or by Brumm and other health board members. People who want to wash, will have the common sense to carry their own hand sanitizer, Supervisor Ann Day said. Some festival organizers and food-truck operators agreed, saying the county doesn't need to legislate hand-washing, according to the story.
"Hand sanitizer isn't communism, it's common sense," Brumm said. But his comments fell on deaf ears. And dirty hands.
