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A prominent food safety lawyer says more illnesses can be expected and Congress should investigate Boar's Head after deli meat produced in one of the company's plants was linked to an ongoing multistate listeria outbreak. The outbreak has led to at least 57 hospitalizations and nine deaths in 18 states since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially reported it on July 19. The CDC on Aug. 28 reported six new deaths connected to the outbreak including the first deaths in New Mexico, New York, South Carolina (2), and Tennessee. (Snider, 9/1)

The Virginia plant where Boar's Head produced its tainted products had dozens of health and safety violations, prompting a lawyer to liken it to a "listeria factory." The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service published a 74-page PDF earlier this month detailing the numerous violations that were found at the Jarrett, Virginia, plant from January 2022 through Aug. 1, 2024. The report included that "multiple instances of meat were found around the department on the floor," and "standing water containing a brown mud/dirt like substance." (Rousselle, 8/31)

The National Institutes of Health said Friday that it is stopping its research of what’s commonly known as Havana syndrome, a mysterious illness experienced by a number of spies, soldiers and diplomats who have reported sudden debilitating symptoms of unknown origin. The NIH said it would end the work “out of an abundance of caution” after an internal investigation found that people had been coerced into to being part of the research. The coercion, the agency specified, was not on its own part, but the NIH did not elaborate as to who may have forced the participation. However, it noted that voluntary consent is a fundamental pillar of the ethical conduct of research. (Christensen, 9/1)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has mandated more people show photo identification when buying tobacco products, as the health regulator raised the age verification requirement by three years. As part of a rule finalized by the agency on Thursday, the FDA now requires retailers to verify the age of anyone under 30 when they buy tobacco products, from under 27 previously. The FDA also said retailers cannot sell tobacco products via vending machine in places where individuals under 21 are present or permitted to enter, from 18 years previously. (8/30)

A new approach to a routine blood test could predict a person’s 30-year risk of heart disease, research published Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine found. Doctors have long assessed their patients’ risk for cardiovascular disease by using a blood test to look at cholesterol levels, focusing particularly on LDL or “bad” cholesterol. But limiting blood testing to just cholesterol misses important — and usually silent — risk factors, experts say. (Sullivan, 8/31)