Normal intestinal flora, already present in the toilet bowl.

If it was anthrax, I'd be concerned. E.coli is nothing to worry about. You can get that eating almost anything.

Well I like to build my immunity up by putting a dash in my cocktail at night. Keeps the plumbing top notch and it really is cheaper than going to a health clinic to clean the ole bowels out.

Why no mention of who rents the apartment?

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. What do get for that special someone who has everything ? Seriously , let's hope the owner doesn't have an Arabic name, or the guy is tied to some extremist group.

As the product of inept American public school system and corrupt teacher-labor unions, the stupid authorities treated the vials of E Coli as if they were chemical/biological weapons.

E Coli is a very common gram positive, Entero Bacterium. It is present in the gastro-intestinal( GI) track of every normal human beings. Because E Coli is ubiquituous, benign, and large, microbiologists have made E Coli the choice bacterium for research almost immediately after its discovery nearly one century ago.

There are more than several dozens of strains of E Coli. As part of the normal flora of the intestinal track, E Coli has more beneficial effect by crowding out and creating an inhospitable surrounding to pathogenic microbes. Unless the patient has a compromised immune system, the common pathway infection of E Coli is benign.

While vials of E Coli are no more dangerous than vials of molds, it is understandable when the lowly janitor is alarmed after discovering 30 vials of E Coli stored in the refrigerator. But when several entire governmental agencies fail to appreciate the innocuousness of E Coli, and mobilize precious resources to combat their own ignorance, we begin to suspect that the function of Big Government is to be the employer of last resort.

They didn't say how many vials were missing ....

Hey Fat Cat,

What strain of e coli? There is one that is very toxic and has caused deaths. Check out version 157 O

FatCatGets$700Bil:

All that high-fallutin' scientific talk, yet you fail to recognize the many, many incidents of e coli food poisoning that happen every year. But that wouldn't make you sound smart and better than "the lowly janitor", would it? Talk about ignorance...

Tiredofitall:

The virility of E Coli alone is not sufficient to cause death. While certain strains of E Coli are more aggressive than others in their toxicity to tissues, that quality alone cannot cause death.

Successful infection of a host by a bacterium depends on the method on innoculation, dosage of the bacterium, virility of the bacterium and the susceptibility of the host.

These factors explain why all people do not become infected even though all were exposed to the same pathogen through the same vector.

Finally, unlike a virus, bacterium degrades over time and dies even if stored in the refrigerator. E Coli is no exception.

Yes homeland security Janet Lip-o- brain says are borders are secure, but home grown terror is alive and well..

EugeneSaxe:

"Food poisoning", a generic term for food contaminated by lots of bacteria, is caused by sloppy, careless, unhygenic food handlers. Bacteria is everywhere. It is in the air, water, soil, workplace, home, and on our skin. Our skin is home to dozens of bacteria, creating a flora that keeps the pathogenic ones in check.

Food poisioning arises when irresponsible food handlers created a favorable environment for bacteria to grow out of control in food chain. Under a normal food chain, E Coli contamination of food is rare. But our mega slaughter houses and mass production agri-business are more interested in the bottom line than producing healthy wholesome food.

Sick cows unable to stand on their own are bulldozed into the slaughter house. Manures are allowed to accumulated several inches deep until cattles are forced to lie over the waste. Wind and water transfer the waste into nearby farms contaminating vegetables. Farm workers must relieve themselves in the field because portable toilets with a lavatory to wash hands are not provided in the field.

Human misconduct, not a new virulent E Coli, causes food poisoning.

Food poisoning need not arise only from E Coli. Brucella, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, Clostridia, and etc may also cause food poisoning. Botulism is caused by improper canning of food, encouraging the production of Clostrium toxins. The disposal of large quantity of human waste into the water supply ultimately creates Cholera or Dysentry.

To save face and mitigate law suits, the guilty party that causes the food poisoning has issued propaganda to mislead the public. Often the disinformation blames the bacterium or cites a new virulent form of the bacterium for the food poisoning outbreak. Fortunately for these evil doers, the gullible public, a product of the failed US public school system, swallows all of it.

.

There is nothing illegal about keeping E. Coli around in your fridge. Seriously. There is equally nothing illegal about actively splicing genes with your E. Coli. Seriously. It's affectionately called "biohacking" in certain circles and has been gaining popularity amongst nerds like me for many years now. The government is quite aware of said activities and even actively takes out booth space (FBI) at some of the conventions we attend. It is the uneducated masses that know next to nothing about molecular biology/biological engineering that spread fear and mistrust with their ignorant objections about a subject they are unqualified to have an opinion of. I advise all of you to just take a few intro bio courses at your local community college BEFORE you break out into a mass hysteria.

A bio-hack cleanup could have been easily implemented with a pair of surgical gloves and a bucket of bleach.

This seems to be a severe overreaction, but then again post 9/11 I am surprised they didn't evacuate and quarantine the whole block. One more example showing who is clearly winning the "war on terror".

Anyone notice a high incidence of the runs in Arkansas lately?

FatGuy...

The apparent idiocy of the "authorities" after the fact is easy to see.

However, I'd prefer we give them the benefit of doubt. Regardless of how the vials were marked, is it not more sane to handle the situation as if it's vials of small pox?

Deception is a hallmark of people wanting to do harm. For example, I'm sure you're aware that extremists in the past have used corpses or cute little stuffed toys to hide IEDs or the triggering device.

Granted, as is always easy to do AFTER the fact, people will lambaste them for "over-reacting". What would the Monday morning quarterbacks have said had they NOT taken those precautions and it turned out to be a deadly strain of Small pox, Ebola or some other hemorrhagic type disease? You know the type with a 75 or greater percent fatality rate.

and it turned out to be a deadly strain of Small pox, Ebola or some other hemorrhagic type disease?

Yes let's play the "what if" game. Who's to say they guy wasn't keeping Small pox in his ketchup bottle? Or Anthrax in a jello mold....

This was an overreaction plain and simple.

Over reaction? Maybe. But give me one single legit reason someone would keep 25 vials marked 'E-coli' in their home in a residential complex. No? Neither could I. So why not err on the side of caution. Treat it with respect.

Hell, use it as a training exercise in the event of a real life scenario. It's one thing to train your bio-hazard team on a military base in some building in the middle of nowhere. It's another to train to remove something from an apartment in a populated area. The article doesn't state what was all involved in the removal of it, just that some fire fighters washed their boots and gear after.

So rather than whine about it, be happy that if and when the real thing happens again, they might actually know wtf to do. I'm sure that the 5 dead people in 2001 would have preferred that alot of people had known how to handle unknown substances better.

I contracted ecoli in 2005 and nearly died, I am still paying the medical bills because my insurance claimed it was a "pre-existing condition".

I think the authorities should try and find the last person who lived there, he may have more vials and he may be using them is a terrorist plot. I know I would rather die of a bomb than of ecoli, a bomb is quick and instant, Ecoli you crap yourself to death and that aint no way to go.

Why is this a story? When I was in college I had vials of E. Coli. in my fridge too. I needed them for a Biology project. E. Coli. doesn't make a very good bioweapon so I also don't understand their reaction to it. You could take the vials out of the fridge with your bare hands, just don't touch yourself and wash your hands afterwards. I understand some people having a bad reaction to it and alot of that depends on the strain; it just isn't that big of a deal for the most part. Sorry about your experience, Doug, but any terrorist worth his salt wouldn't bother with this particular bacterium.

Need more info on this story....Did the renter work at say @ Golden Coral ??

Yes, we all carry 'weapons of (m)ass destruction' in our colon... very, very dangerous stuff...

Seriously FatCatGets: "Lowly" janitor- you are trying hard to get the medical jargon down, but how insulting. If it wasn't for the "lowly" janitors, people would be dropping like flies in this nation. "Entire Government" agencies treating it like Bio Hazard: Do you think they looked at 30, I repeat 30 vials of anything and assumed it was poop? You patronizing attitude is insulting. Just try being honest, probably 50 % of the people walking out there have e-coli under their finger nails as we speak.

Maybe he is a distributor for Taco Bell??? Quite a few outbreaks there.

So I can keep vials of E.coli in my house but my pet Cobra is off limits.

I am sure it would have been used for no good,they need to name the person that lived there last.

Well ron, your cobra is a dangerous creature that is not native to North America. E. coli is in your toilet bowl and on every other surface of your house. Simply having E. coli is not a crime. It can be cultured easily and by anyone. The bacterium is harmless unless injected directly into your blood or ingested in high doses. Most strains, if ingested in high doses, would only cause diarrhea. Hell most things are harmful if injected directly into the blood or eaten in high doses!

E.coli would also not be very happy living at refrigerator temps for extended periods. Most likely the stuff was of low viability. Even if it were viable and was a particularly harmful strain the method for disposal would be the same - a little bleach and a wash of the hands.

That doesn't mean that they shouldn't question the renter as to why he had cultures in his fridge, but this alone was certainly no emergency. A dirty bathroom would pose a greater danger.

Crime or not, anyone who has ever set foot in a micro lab knows this is just unhygienic, unsafe, and breaks every GLP I've ever read. You don't even drink coffee in a micro lab, much less store samples in the same fridge you store food.

Radagast- pop those little guys in a little glycerol and you have freezer stocks - viability for years.

Pretty careless, to say the least.

Some people consider gene splicing to be their hobby. As a professional I don't think it is wise, however as a professional, I can also see that a small company keeping their engineered strains in multiple locations in case of disaster. It's called "continuity of business"

Would be a good idea to take it with you when you leave though.

Granite, while it may seem like an over-reaction I think it best to remember that ALL Bio HAZMAT teams now belong to the state Army National Guard. Yes, even in your own.

Granite-1297101, your snide moronic statement OZARK HICK shows your lack of intelligence. Jonesboro is no where near the Ozark Mts. and is as flat as your head!!!

Granite, Have you ever even been to Arkansas? Beautiful state, friendly people. Unless you are from Texas or Illinois, they had a president elected from there more recently than any other state.

They over-reacted, BUT, it seems little to no individuals were inconvenienced due to this. So if the over-reaction did not cause harm or inconvenience, who cares. Good job Arkansas.

No doubt that the authorities will find out 'who' lived there and follow up (hopefully) to see why they had such a thing in their possession. The article said it was 'medical grade' which means it should have NEVER been removed from the facility in which it was housed at, originally.

we also have that at our house, labeled "leftovers from the back of the fridge"

@stonepipe,

I believe that's what Dahmer labeled his body parts....YUM..

HA HA HA

Yep that was the same stuff that killed a few kids a few years back HA HA HA

Seriously?

The person who has 25 vials of e-coli in the refrigerator has some serious issues or is up to something. No more dangerous than Poop? Do you store Poop in your refrigerator? If you do, you also have issues.

jwfun, if you take a few upper level classes, life wouldn't be such a frightening place for you. Vials of E. Coli are not inherently dangerous. The crystal meth lab you run out on your back porch is certainly more dangerous. Grow up, take a bio class or two.

I vaguely remember this. Didn't they take over Antelope, Oregon and sort of vote themselves into the town's offices?

I have the detailed report. It was a diabolical clever Hindu sect trying to take over a small town government...as a first step. They slipped.

In 1981, Bhagwan Shree - means "Sir God" a Hindu from Poona, India - paid $5.75Million for a 64000 acre ranch in Wasco County, two hour drive from The Dallas, County seat, Oregon, to build a "BuddhaField", an agricultural commune in which to celebrate his enlightened credo for love, beauty, drugs and guiltless sex.

Violating zoning laws and regulations this Hindu religious group built a 2.2acre meeting hall; a 160-room hotel which was bugged; a two block long shopping mall; a casino and disco; a dam and lake; networks of new roads; sophisticated water, sewage, and transportation systems; an air-strip on the valley floor for the sect's 5 jet planes and a helicopter...and four thousand people indulging in promiscuous sex...the locals were terrified by the sex orgies - the population had reached 14,000! They had doctors, lawyers, engineers to do their bidding.

After they had spent over 35Million in the ranch they decided to poison the town to take it over completely...

The details read like a mystery thriller. In short, they were caught before this massive terrorist action, the country has ever seen, could be completed but a huge number of the population was poisoned nevertheless and hospitals, clinics, emergency personnel, and bio-labs. were overwhelmed.

The FBI report, agent Lynn Enyart and State attorney Robert Hamilton coordinated the task force and lead the criminal investigation. Aside from the general population - county milk, food supplies and restaurants, water were pumped full of Salmonella by the Hindu Cults Lab. team - the FBI found a death list that include high government officials...including the US Attorney.

The report on the greatest Bio-terrorist attack on US soil, as I said, reads like a thriller in deadly earnest...

I will leave there for the time being.

yes a true story of how they were going to take over the local government

They could have just bought their politicians, like true Americans.

A maintenance man cleaning out the unit at the Willow Creek Apartments on Friday found 25 vials marked "E. coli" in a foam box in a refrigerator, officials said.

One could assume the tenant moved out perhaps.

I had to laugh at your remarks about your first wife's cooking. My husband doesn't mind eating deli meat past it's time. I've caught him at it red-handed! I do the sniff test and if doesn't pass that I won't eat it. Jeff, he doesn't care, he washes the slimy stuff off and he's good to go. I give him wide berth for the evening after that. It's an instinctual survival tactic that women are born with. LOL He says it's no worse than eating the food on the ship for twenty years.

(Having been on an aircraft carrier once, I tend to agree with him. The odor coming out of the ship board galley was sickening.)

E.coli does kill, immuno-compromised people, the very young, and the very old. Strains now abound which are especially virulent. These seemingly must not have the type found. These types would have had to be stolen from a high-security facility; or from a hospital having this particularly virulent strain from a local epidemic. However, they would pose little/no threat to someone with a healthy immune system, especially one who washes his/her hands before placing them in their mouth, or contaminating their own finger foods with unwashed hands. I myself eat at salad buffets, which could be easily contaminated accidentally by the workers with poor hygiene. While it's true that it should never enter via the upper digestive tract, it is a symbiotic parasite in our guts vital to our life (primary source for Vit K).

many bacteria can kill immunocompromised people and you could give them the infection that kills them by shaking their hand.

Kai -

Jeff, he doesn't care, he washes the slimy stuff off and he's good to go.

I think that's a man thing. Mine will sometimes eat it even if there's fuzzy green stuff. He just spoons out the "bad part" and goes for it.

Bwahahahahahahaha!! Yeah, mine, too. I've caught him getting into some left-overs that time forgot. LOL

Laboratory grade E. coli won't really make you sick. It lacks the necessary genes. That's why they use it in the lab (because it grows really well and the technicians don't get sick handling it). I even doubt it could survive out in the wild as it would be out competed by naturally occurring E. coli colonies. They're used to clone genes and then transfer them into other organisms. It was probably just left behind by a graduate student who was trying to steal a copy of some gene construct he painstakingly made. Maybe he was afraid his supervisor wouldn't share the sample with him after graduation. Your lab samples and lab notebooks are technically property of the lab/institution where you work, so it's not uncommon for students to photocopy all their notebooks, backup their work files, and even steal samples during the months before they leave (you'd be surprised).

I have 35 years experiance as a surgical tech- origional training courtesy of your federal income tax dollars at Ft. Sam Houstan. E.coli is not the weapon of choice for a 'mass outbreak' scenario- it will make you sick. It might kill some weaker individuals but most contacts will survive. This is not some terrorist threat, this is some fool medical/lab/biology student's failure to clean out his fridge. Period. Get over it. I've stored far more dangerouse stuff in my fridge and nobody died from it. No I didn't store E. coli in my fridge... never saw the need.

Now when you have somebody purchasing sulfuric and nitric acid along with glycerine... and several bags of ice... THEN you might be concerned about what's in the fridge. Notify the bomb squad and get out of the way... far away while yer at it...

I took a class on Bio-circuit and have played around with modify a few strain of RNA mostly from E.coli.

Bio-weapon? Far from it as E.coli is everywhere, you most likely have it on your hand most of the time and chow down on your food with it without even knowing about it.

A strain of RNA? Don't tell me you passed the class.

Jay F. Morrow;

I would know where to go - right out the front door to the garbage container or dumpster in the case of a apartment complex. Ever been to a landfill? Drainage goes into a pond into a lift station that pumps it into the sewer system that goes to the reclamation facility that treats it. One of the lab tests for final effluent at discharge is fecal coliform which levels are controlled by chlorine, ozone, UV or other treatment. No, the sky is not falling.

E.coli would be perfectly safe in the trash. Unless you regularly eat garbage that is! It would eventually die in the vial. Even if the vial leaked the bacteria would simply join all of the other strains of bacteria growing happily in the trash.

News flash - wash your hands!

All cases of food borne E.coli have been traced to animal feces and improper hygiene at farms. The cases are widespread for the simple reason that factory farms ship their produce to all corners of the country. Before factory farms these incidents were local in nature and not widely reported. I seriously doubt that there is a band of terrorists going from farm to farm pouring E.coli on our lettuce. The E.coli is already on the lettuce when it is plucked from the soil.

Hey thanks to all you for setting me straight. So we don't have to worry if somebody poured 25 vials of ecoli all over a salad bar than. As long as you wash your hands before you eat the salad you will be safe. What a relief this is.

Yes, normal people WOULDN'T have medically labeled vials in their fridge. GRADUATE BIO STUDENTS would. Most CERTAINLY would. I do.

Define "normal". Most people lack the education to comprehend that this was a very low level threat. No need to panic, unless you are "normal".

More likely to contain salmonella.

He was probably planning on culturing a few samples for class. There is nothing inherently nefarious about medically labeled E. Coli bacteria.

maybe this person just needs industrial strength laxative

Why are you shocked? There is a huge college there and probably had to do with a student. Why is your concept of what Arkansas is like so twisted? Don't they teach anything where you are from?

You sir, are a fearmonger with absolutely no knowledge of bioengineering.

you sir, have your head in the sand, I am by no means saying this person was up to anything nefarious or that anyone should be afraid. It is however justifiable to be cautious. Scientists just took a virulent and deadly strain of bird flu that does not infect humans and modified it so it is transmissable to humans just to show that it could be done, furthermore they were gonna publish this information and how it was done in the journals Nature and Science. you can believe what you want. if an abandoned biohazardous material is found in someone's fridge, (when i worked in a microbiology lab even the mundane e. coli is considered bio hazardous). i would not mind if the police thoroughly investigated the incident.

don't be gullible- There is a difference between non- pathogenic E. coli and pathogenic bacteria or viruses. There are different standards of care when handling them. It is common and legal to send strains of bacteria by mail between colleagues. It is also common and acceptable to take non-pathogenic E. coli home to deliver to a colleague or when transferring positions to take your strains with you.

E. coli is the most common bacteria used in the lab for study based on its hardiness and its stability. Almost every undergrad bio major has worked with e. coli and ANY graduate student in bio has almost CERTAINLY taken his or her "work" home with them. There is nothing inherently nefarious about a few vials of medically labeled E. Coli.

"WHAT does THE LAW say about medical vials of e coli in the hands of whoever rented that apt."

probably nothing since nonpathogenic E. coli has a measly BL1 containment requirement. in layperson's terms, that's code for a standard refrigerator works just fine.

"And why did this person have it in his frig,?"

probably a med\lab\grad student that brought his work home. this bug is great for molecular work since it's so stable, ubiquitous, and great at reproducing quickly.

Baby ghost is correct. In fact, it was E Coli, short for Edward Coli, a CIA (Central Intestinal Agency) agent who sneaked into the both World Trade Center buildings and planted the explosives for 9-11. Being really small and used to working in tight spaces, such as butt cracks, he worked his way from top to 'bottom,' doing his dirty work...then the government wipped up after him, made sure there was no paper trail and washed their hands of the matter.

I smell a cover up butt it is too late sense the evidense has been flushed away by the Tidy Bowl Man...an agent from the FBI (Fecal Bearing Intestine).

Ty David you just made me smile from ear to ear. As a worker for the water and wastewater dept. I would like to print your post and hang it at work. We all love a little bathroom humor :-) hope you don't mind.

Are you off of your meds again, Poltergeist?

Almost 140 million years ago, Escherichia and Salmonella became two different species, but bacteria are always exchanging genes, mutating etc. so there will always be new strains appearing. E. coli is certainly older than humans so I doubt it was developed by government ( or maybe dolphins have been up to more than we know about.)

Yes, just this weekend we had a 'bacteria gene swap' to help raise funds for "E coli Awareness Week." EcAW's intent is to educate people who are prejudiced against this common bacteria to let them know it means them no harm...it just wants to be left alone in the poopie world it occupies.

The motto of EcAW is: Can't we all just get along?"

Dr. Horowitz is an angry man who is out to destroy bacteria and viruses as a way to vent his hatred of his mother, Elvira, for naming him "Leonard."

There ya go again making me crack so early in the morning. Keep it coming David.

Just checked my fridge. Vials of e.coli.......nope, didn't find any.

I'll reserve final judgment until the media lets us know who actually rented that apartment, but until then, I will hope and pray that a medical student or someone in a related field moved out and left the vials.
Should that be the case, then it would behoove such persons to take their CRA* with them next time.

P.S. I am not a conspiracy nut, but I do firmly believe that bio warfare is alive and thriving.

A broad abroad, if you truly believed that bio warfare was alive and thriving then I would hope that you would do some research into the subject. E. Coli bacteria are not suitable for "bio warfare". Even ill-tempered seabass are a more lucrative money pit to develop as bio warfare devices. The fact is that the poison you can make from certain beans is far more dangerous than the most hideously mutated E. Coli could ever dream of being. It is also cheaper, easier, and more reliable to make. Don't buy into the hype - we're a ways off from creating superbugs destroying civilizations. Nature has billions of years of evolution on us.

One more senseless attack against 'sea bass!"

Right. And for 1 million dollars, wait... Make that 100 gazillion trillion dollars, I won't use my Alan Parsons Project to blow up the moon!

Hamzsque El Sid313! :
You are nuttier than squirrel poop. I'd really hate to be you, honestly. The fear must be closing in from all sides right now.

You really ought to consider going back on the meds the doctor gave you. They aren't "mind control pills", I swear.

Hamzsque El Sid313!* I am quite aware and what you "speak" is factual. I leave it there.

Enough to say none of you can begin to figure out what I am alluding to, saying while avoiding to say it at the same time...only Mossad, KGB or its new version, FBI, or CIA, or at least their bio-operatives know what I am hinting at,

Yes, it represents a hazard understood only by members of elite spy organizations... and by you.

But you would never let on to anybody about your secret knowledge, only allude to it, in a way that a terror agent might understand.

Right!

Good work, 007. Say hi to Plenty O'Tool for me.

Dude, put your aluminum hat back on - the waves are starting to affect you.......

Yes, work at home manufacturing e-coli and shipping it around the world to those who are in need of such things.

My years of security clearance and training in the elite underground resistance have clued me in to the only surefire way to combat the coming E.colipocalypse.

The closely guarded secret.....

soap and water! Spread the word my brothers!!

Seriously, do you think that an evil terrorist would have labelled his weapon "E.coli?" This is nothing more than the sloppy work of some grad student.