an open letter to our innumerate governor

Governor James Doyle
The Little House on the Lake
Madison, Wisconsin

“Raw milk can cause serious infections. Raw milk and raw milk products (such as cheeses and yogurts made with raw milk) can be contaminated with bacteria that can cause serious illness, hospitalization, or death. These harmful bacteria include Brucella, Campylobacter,  Listeria, Mycobacterium bovis, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Shigella, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Yersinia enterocolitica.

From 1993 to 2006, 69 outbreaks of human infections resulting from consumption of raw milk were reported to CDC. These outbreaks included a total of 1,505 reported illnesses, 185 hospitalizations and 2 deaths. Because not all cases of foodborne illness are recognized and reported, the actual number of illnesses associated with raw milk likely is greater.”

Okay, let’s look at the numbers.  That’s what scientists do when making informed decisions.

In 13 years, 1,505 people got sick from raw milk.  Two people died.  That’s too bad.

This must be understood and burned into your mind, Governor.  Two people.  Nationwide.  In 13 years.

The data for those years is available, but I don’t have the time nor the patience to download the years, compile the data and report out.  Instead I used the CDC datasets and grabbed what I could, which was 1999-2006. 8 years was the best I could do.

Here are the results.  Do not laugh.  Death is not funny.

• Raw milk – 2 deaths.
• Volcanic eruption – 3 deaths.
• Wrong fluid used in infusion – 4 deaths.
• Marasmic kwashiorkor – 5 deaths.
• Intentional self-harm by blunt object – 16 deaths.
• Crushed, pushed, stepped on by crowd or human stampede –  33 deaths.
• Contact with hot tap water – 334 deaths.
• Rider or occupant injured by fall from or being thrown from animal or animal-drawn vehicle in noncollision accident – 619 deaths.
• Atherosclerotic heart disease – 1,695,716 deaths.

So, this means that volcanos, incompetent nursing staff, a rare African disease, crowds,  hot water heaters and horses and/or buggies all are more lethal than raw milk.  Not to mention someone clubbing themselves to death with a piece of firewood.  Then there’s heart disease.  Just for a reference.

Then, Governor Doyle, you did an equally ridiculous thing.  You did NOT veto the “pickle bill,” which allows home production of canned goods for sale so long as the amount is under $5,000. This means that a little old lady with six cats milling around her kitchen while she cans beets to sell at the swap meet is, by your logic, less of a danger than a well-managed dairy herd.

Governor, I promise you that I’d rather have E. coli from raw milk (you recover from that) than Botulism from a jar of canned beans (you don’t recover from that). In fact:

• Botulism – 27 deaths.

And yes, I used to work for the Bureau of Public Health as an epidemiologist.

P.S I must add, because of my puerile sense of humor, that Priapism (mortality code N48.3) caused two deaths between 1999 and 2006.  Yep.  Maybe we should outlaw Viagra and Cialis.