Mystery illness connected to pig brains

If you've got a weak stomach, you might want to stop reading-especially if it's close to mealtime. This one even made me a little queasy.

Workers in pig slaughterhouses in both Indiana and Minnesota are being afflicted with an illness called progressive inflammatory neuropathy - symptoms range minor weakness and numbness to full-on paralysis. And as if a mysterious neurological disorder popping up in a food processing plants weren't disturbing enough, what the Centers for Disease Control has identified as the suspected cause of the disease is equally unnerving. Read on if you dare (and don't say I didn't warn you!).

Seems as if all these workers have one thing in common: They all work at the "head table." No, I wouldn't exactly call it the place of honor-it's the area of the plant where the pigs' heads are processed with a technique that involves shooting compressed air into their heads until their brains spill out (it's called "blowing brains").

If you're wondering how that could make someone ill (besides the obvious nausea), I'll tell you: The process produces splatter and aerosolized brain material that the workers are exposed to, and their immune system produces antibodies to fight against it. Problem is, that nasty brain matter is similar enough to your own body's tissue that it ends up attacking itself in the process.

Even though nothing concrete has been proven, the link between the compressed air brain removal technique and this illness is so strong that ALL the pork processing facilities in Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska have voluntarily discontinued this practice. Right now this story is like a small-time, modern version of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. What other dangers are these pork processing workers being exposed to for the sake of the efficient dispatch of thousands of pigs a day? For once, the processing plant owners have shown the good sense to put an immediate stop to the practice before things get any worse.

But there's another angle to this story that no one's talking about.

Many of the workers who complained of the symptoms have since returned to work, but their current condition is still unknown. The Indiana Department of Health's epidemiologist who has examined these workers has declined to comment on their status because of "patient privacy laws."

True enough. But I'm sure there's another reason why we won't hear much of an outcry from those afflicted with this strange disorder - I would guess that every last one of these workers is an illegal alien. If you doubt me on this, just think about it: What American plant worker can you imagine contracting a work-related illness and then not trumpeting their next legal step all over the national news? Nope … the poor suckers who've been breathing in whatever nastiness is in pig brains are keeping quiet so they won't get deported.

So far, neither state health officials nor the CDC has raised any red flags about the potential danger of this illness spreading beyond the slaughterhouse and affecting consumers. But it does make you wonder. This isn't the first time I've told you about unhealthy practices in food processing plants. All the more reason to know where your food is coming from-and to stay as far away from any and all major killing operations as you possibly can.