Torres Asks Dismissal of Inspectors in Cheese Case

Calling inspections of California’s cheese plants a “sad joke,” state Sen. Art Torres urged Gov. George Deukmejian on Monday to fire the officials who had the responsibility for monitoring the Jalisco processing facility, where deadly bacteria contaminated the company’s Mexican-style cheeses.

“I think these people ought to be removed, period,” said Torres (D-South Pasadena), chairman of the Senate Committee on Toxics and Public Safety Management, who chaired a hearing in Sacramento last month into criticism that government agencies responded too slowly in alerting the public and medical profession to the dangerous outbreak of listeriosis.

Torres refused to name the individuals he thought should be fired, but added: “I think the responsibility lies with those people who are the directors and, ultimately, the responsibility lies with the governor, because this is his problem.”

Deukmejian’s office, contacted by The Times, had no response to Torres’ statements.

‘Health Is Too Important’

“Public health is too important to be left in these people’s hands,” Torres said, referring to the state inspectors. “I suggest they do cattle brand inspections in Bakersfield.”

State Food and Agriculture Department spokeswoman Jan Wessell said no inspector or supervisor has been suspended since the investigation of Jalisco Mexican Products Inc. began in early June because “we need all the inspectors we have now out in the field.”

But Wessell conceded that Jack Pollock, who was responsible for inspecting Jalisco’s Artesia plant, had “embarrassed” the agency.

“It’s pretty obvious he (Pollock) knows what he is up against,” Wessell said.

She said the department was surprised to learn from Pollock, when he testified before Torres’ panel, that Jalisco made its cheeses at night but that Pollock made his inspections during the day.

“It was a surprise to hear that the inspector wasn’t alerting anybody (about nighttime operations) and going out there only in the day,” Wessell said.

The number of listeriosis deaths reported to the state by county health officers stood at 53 Monday, according to Dr. Benjamin Werner of the state Department of Health Services. However, some of those deaths have not been linked to Jalisco cheese.

Torres was particularly bitter about how the department handled inspections at cheese plants.

He noted that in 1984 the agency failed to conduct quarterly pasteurization or sanitation inspections of Jalisco and that this year inspectors failed to complete written reports on Jalisco until after the plant was implicated in the listeriosis outbreak.

Evidence in March

“The inspection program as it exists today is a joke--but a very sad joke,” Torres told reporters.

Torres also said a substantial number of deaths and illnesses could have been prevented if county and state health officials and hospitals had been “more sensitive to the threat posed by food-borne illnesses.”

Torres said that beginning in late March, strong medical evidence began surfacing that a listeriosis outbreak was occurring in Los Angeles County but that it was not until June 13 that health officials went public with the news.

“The county and state health response was deficient,” he said. “This delay undoubtedly resulted in additional illnesses and deaths.”

County health officials have defended their actions, claiming that they did not have strong evidence of a link between Jalisco-made cheeses and listeriosis until June 13 , when they received preliminary confirmation from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta that unopened packages of the cheese sent there for tests had been found to be contaminated.

County Report Due

The county health department is conducting an internal examination of its handling of the Jalisco case and a report is expected to be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors later this week.

Torres, meanwhile, said he is carrying legislation in the Senate (SB 859) that would create a new class of reportable diseases, including milk-borne diseases such as listeriosis, diphtheria and salmonellosis. Currently, listeriosis is reportable for cows, he noted, but not for humans.

The proposed legislation would give health officials authority to condemn or quarantine milk products that are linked to those diseases.

Jalisco voluntarily shut down its plant and recalled its products when news of the outbreak was made public. The company has temporarily laid off its employees.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office began a criminal investigation of Jalisco last week after it was discovered during an audit that the company received nearly 700,000 pounds more raw milk between April 1 and June 12 than its pasteurizing equipment could process. That finding prompted Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to speculate that raw milk was deliberately mixed in with pasteurized milk during cheese making at the plant.