Maple Leaf Foods recently settled a class action law suit that was launched after 20 people died of listeriosis as a result of eating tainted Maple Leaf meat products.  $27 million is to be doled out to victims of the outbreak that include those who have suffered “psychological injuries or trauma” as a result of the outbreak.  I wonder if the news organizations who hyped the ever living hell out of the tainted meat situation will be footing the bill for that part.

The families of those who died will each receive a total of about $230,000 while those who simply “suffered” as a result of listeriosis will receive about $8,000 plus $750 for every day they spent in hospital.  Head cases who whine about how their sensitivities have been damaged by the terribly frightening prospect of getting sick will receive $4,000.

From the first moment I saw it, I saw this entire situation as a larf.  The amount of ink this situation got was ridiculous and having worked in the past for Maple Leaf, I have no doubt in my mind that every thing the company did, it would have done even without the press coverage.  Voluntary recalls, intensive investigations and line shut downs are common fair for Maple Leaf if they detect anything potentially wrong with their product.

In my humble opinion, Maple Leaf does everything it bloody well can to prevent tainted meat from ever reaching the food supply.  This class action law suit awarding people damages for “psychological injuries or trauma” is absurd.  I can understand the company settling with families of the deceased and I can even understand the company settling with those who were temporarily ill but having the courts uphold the idea that people should get a whopping $4,000 for getting frightened out of their knickers about getting sick…well that’s flatly stupid.  Even relatives of those who were ill don’t deserve a dime for being ill equipped to deal with the realities of the world around them.

Bad things can happen and they can even happen to YOU!  I’ve posted this two or three times already but it bears repeating.  Over about 3 months, 20 people died as a result of tainted meat from Maple Leaf.  People actually stopped buying Maple Leaf products because of a statistically insignificant chance of getting listeriosis.  In this case, the chance of even getting sick was about 0.00007% or so.

Over a typical 3 month span, many more people die of several other things.  Over a 3 months span, over 14,600 people will die from illnesses related to the heart.  Over a typical 3 month span, over 1,400 people will die because of diabetes mellitus.  Over a 3 month span, over 14,600 people will die of cancer in Canada.

Statistically, your chances of dieing as a result of suicide is 0.002% throughout the year.  Your chances of simply getting ill as a result of listeriosis is about one third the chance of dieing at your own hand.

There is not one thing about this listeriosis outbreak that hasn’t struck me as incredibly stupid aside from perhaps the compensation recieved by those families who suffered a death as a result of tainted meat products.