INQUIRER: It’s not clear yet how the recent recalls of more than half a billion eggs from two Iowa producers might influence Americans’ habits. Eggs from the two farms are believed to be linked to an estimated 1,250 illnesses, and may have caused tens of thousands more. But the story of what has happened since the 1980s to what the American Egg Board likes to call “the incredible edible egg” is also a story of turf disputes and inaction in Washington that were countered in parts of the country by frustrated state officials and farmers. In Pennsylvania , a coalition of egg producers, state agriculture officials and academic researchers created a risk-reduction system two decades ago that is just now being replicated nationally by the Food and Drug Administration, according to food-safety experts such as Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. MORE
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Bloodsucking bedbugs are biting in New York, and Philadelphia, and all over Ohio. The pest control company Terminix released Tuesday a list of the 15 most bedbug-infested cities, based on an analysis of call volume reporting bedbug infestations and of confirmed bedbug cases reported by sales professionals in 350 of the company’s service centers. The Big Apple topped the list, followed by Philly and Detroit. Ohio has four cities in the top 15 , Cincinnati is fourth, Columbus is seventh, Dayton is eighth and Cleveland is 14th. Bedbugs can be found in mattresses, furniture and clothing, and they feed off animal and human blood. Insect scientists say bedbugs are showing up on a scale not seen since before World War II, due to the rise in international travel and the elimination of certain chemicals once used to fight them. MORE
