Food Poisoning and Food Infection 291 



six to twelve hours after ingestion, the enterotoxin produced by 

 these organisms can cause typical food poisoning symptoms. 



Reports are occasionally encountered that such bacteria as 

 Proteus and Escherichia species appear to be implicated in food 

 poisoning. The evidence is not too conclusive to warrant classify- 

 ing these organisms in the same category as others mentioned as 

 the usual causes of food-borne outbreaks. 



CHEMICAL FOOD POISONING 



When compared with microbial food poisoning, chemical 

 poisoning comes in a poor second as far as the number of cases is 

 concerned. In spite of warnings on labels and precautionary 

 measures advocated by public health authorities, there are 

 thousands of cases of chemical poisonings in the United States 

 every year. Volumes can be written on the subject, but the 

 presentation of a few examples might serve to call the attention 

 of students to the problem. Since the clinical symptoms are 

 frequently mistaken for microbial food poisoning, a brief discussion 

 here seems warranted. 



As ridiculous as it may seem, sodium fluoride, a constituent of 

 many rat poisons, is commonly mistaken for baking powder, starch, 

 and similar appearing materials. Why people insist on storing 

 rat poison in the same area with foodstuffs is difficult to explain, 

 but they do. Housewives have been known to prepare biscuits 

 and pancakes from sodium ffuoride which has been taken for 

 baking powder or baking soda. Either the label on the container 

 was lost or it was not read before the powder was carefully added 

 to the mixture of other ingredients. When a physician prescribes 

 aspirin for a sick child, it is hardly sporting to feed the child 

 arsenic just because the two words happen to begin with the 

 letter a and have four other letters in common. This may sound 

 facetious, but the example is grimly true. 



Cheap enamelware has been the cause of severe illness when 

 foods, particularly acid foods, are cooked in these utensils. The 

 underlying antimony may be dissolved in the food in high enough 



