You like tomato and I like serrano. Tomato. Serrano.  Tomato. Serrano. Let’s call the whole thing off!

Those lyrics might not have passed muster with George and Ira Gershwin, but they certainly apply today, now that the Food and Drug Administration has pinpointed its search for the salmonella Saintpaul outbreak to two farms in Mexico — and to serrano peppers, not tomatoes, as originally believed.

Tomatoes still aren’t entirely off the hook in this investigatory tug-of-war, the FDA says, since the same farms in which salmonella was found in the irrigation supply and in peppers also could have exposed tomatoes to the same contaminated water. Jalapeno peppers also are suspect. But at least after more than three months of futile searching and more than 1,300 documented cases of Americans suffering disastrous digestive disorders, the feds seem to be onto something. (more…)

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Already, using cell phones or sending text messages has proven to be a cause in many traffic accidents, prompting legislation such as the new California law aimed at dangerous cell-talking drivers. But just getting yackers and texters off roads and out from behind wheels won’t solve everything — not when they’re also yakking and texting while they navigate the nation’s walkways.

That’s why Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill which would impose a misdemeanor and a $25 fine on those who are actively cell-calling or texting while crossing a street.

That may sound silly on the surface, but the fact is, people have died or been seriously injured as a result of paying no attention to watching where they walk. In Britain, it’s even estimated that 6.5 million people have been injured due to texting while walking. (more…)

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Again, a Hollywood star with the world at his feet has gotten drunk, driven his car in the middle of the night and been involved in a traffic accident.

This time it was Shia LaBeouf, star of this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and last year’s Transformers. Now Transformers’ sequel will fall behind schedule because LaBeouf required extensive surgery on his left hand after the accident.

In the accident at 3 a.m. Sunday in West Hollywood, LaBeouf also had injuries to his head and knee. A female passenger in his car and the driver of the other vehicle were not seriously hurt and did not require hospitalization. (more…)

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It’s often said that “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist” to understand certain things. In Houston, we fully embrace that concept, given the fact that our city does, in fact, have rocket scientists. But people in Houston or anywhere can appreciate a no-brainer, and one is that pit bull dogs — while not always dangerous — do, in fact, cause great harm to many people.

The latest tragic case involved a 10-year-old boy in Michigan who was left home alone while his parents were out of town and his older brother neglected him. When the brother returned home, his younger sibling was being attacked by the family’s pit bull — attacked so badly that his right arm had to be amputated and he was in a hospital in serious condition. (more…)

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For those who have stopped talking on their cell phones long enough to read this blog, there’s good news: You’re probably safer now that you’ve stopped talking. The bad news is that there’s a chance you could be irreparably harming your health via sustained exposure to cell phones’ electromagnetic radiation.

So far, much has been said, written and studied on this topic, with most research falling on the side of “Go ahead — make that call.” But some believe cell phones haven’t been around long enough to make a definitive case that they won’t eventually cause harm to our brains — in the form of cancer — due to continued, long-standing use.

Such fears were thrust again into the spotlight Thursday when Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, warned his faculty and staff to limit cell phone use due to the possibility that they might be inviting cancer by calling. (more…)

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Less than a week after a construction crane accident claimed the lives of four oil refinery contract workers in Houston, a crane accident in Oklahoma City took the life of an 80-year-old man who was simply an onlooker while a church steeple was being placed.

The man was sitting in the front seat of his car as a steeple was being raised during the building of a new church in Oklahoma City. When the steeple had been lifted about 10 feet off the ground, the crane and its apparatus tipped over, falling on the man’s vehicle and killing him. His wife, who was in the back seat and managed to get out of the car, survived.

This was a much smaller crane than the one which toppled in Houston last Friday. The OKC crane’s boom was only about 80 feet, while the crane which fell at the LyondellBassell refinery at the Houston Ship Channel was 300 feet tall and had a capacity to lift more than a million pounds. (more…)

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As gas prices have gone up, traffic fatalities have gone down — at least when it comes to cars. But while fewer folks are pounding pavements in four-wheelers, more are riding on motorcycles, scooters and bicycles to save gas money. And the added traffic on vulnerable vehicles means more people are dying.

The Texas Department of Transportation reports that motorcycle use is up on the state’s roads and highways, with sales of cycles rocketing. And already, correspondingly, motorcycle deaths are ahead of last year’s pace in Houston alone.

The motorcycle’s allure is a no-brainer, at least as far as fuel costs are concerned. While many cars do well to get 15 miles per gallon, most motorcycles get between 40 and 80 miles per gallon, depending on the cycle and the driving habits of their drivers. In short, if you accelerate slowly and obey speed limits, you’ll save gas. If you tromp it and roar off, you don’t save as much. (more…)

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Again, a person has died in a traffic accident which should not have happened. In this traffic fatality, no one fell asleep at the wheel or failed to yield, nor did a fast-moving car have a blowout.  Rather, this accident can be traced to a common problem on America’s roads and highways: cars, trucks or pickups carrying loads which were not properly secured.

According to Houston Police, a Tuesday morning accident which claimed the life of a roadside work crew member was triggered by the fact that a box filled with insulation fell off a truck and onto the Gulf Freeway near Edgebrook. A southbound car then swerved to miss the box and clipped the rear of another vehicle. Both vehicles then veered out of control and off the road, where the second vehicle hit and killed the roadside worker, who was in a crew picking up trash. (more…)

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Any traffic fatality is a tragedy, but we can take cold comfort in the fact that many such tragedies at least involve people with a purpose. We need our cars and trucks for useful functions, and that’s what many people are pursuing when they’re killed or injured while driving or riding in them. They are trying to get from point A to point B in order to reach their job, buy groceries, pick up their kids or get home in time for dinner.

But many vehicular accidents involve no purpose at all other than sheer – or mere — recreation. These accidents may range from the wildly reckless motorcyclists who terrorize Houston’s freeways by zipping between cars at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour to the thousands of people – including too many children – who take joy rides of their own on a far different vehicle: an all-terrain vehicle or ATV. (more…)

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When it comes to the disastrous digestive disorders caused by salmonella Saintpaul – and their mysterious origin — perhaps we should have known from the start that tomatoes might not be the bad apples.
Tomatoes, after all, are soft and juicy and seem relatively harmless, even if they have been used historically – especially as rotten tomatoes – to hurl at performers whose acts bombed.
But jalapenos? Those veggies can vex even in the best of circumstances, and certainly not everyone should eat them. Tasty as jalapenos can be, not even all bona fide, card-carrying, iron-stomached Texans raised on Tex-Mex food are immune from their indigestive powers. (more…)

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