By Bryan Jaffe

ST. MARY’S TODAY

CALIFORNIA --- David Shapiro, the Attorney representing Southern Maryland residents who became ill after consuming food at the Roost in Lexington Park and Catamaran’s on Solomon’s Island, told ST. MARY’S TODAY, "The fact that you discovered that these places had no hot water is pretty outrageous."

Shapiro said that he has been involved in Hepatitis litigation nationwide, and warned that it is a serious threat and restaurant patrons should safeguard themselves against contracting it.

"I’ve done Hepatitis litigation nationwide, and I know that the USDA [United States Agriculture Department] will not accept certain kinds of produce from Mexico and other third world nations for programs like the school lunch program," Said Shapiro. He explained that the reason behind this policy is the lack of proper facilities for cleaning the food and a lack of facilities for worker hygiene.

Shapiro said that Mexico and many third world nations do not provide adequate bathrooms and handwashing facilities, causing germs to spread from hands to food, then to those consuming that food.

"The health departments work in conjunction with Maryland to ensure safe handling of food," Shapiro said, "and there should be something done by county government to make sure that these problems are not widespread."

Shapiro said that in one case he is currently working on, an employee had active hepatitis which was spread to restaurant patrons who ate salads prepared by the infected employee. He acknowledged that it was possible that the disease spread due to a failure by the employee to properly wash.

Due to ongoing litigation with the Roost and Catamaran’s, Shapiro could not comment in depth on either establishment. ST. MARY’S TODAY discovered that the Roost failed to provide hot water before two minutes in our January 11^th edition.

As to the importance of handwashing with hot water, Shapiro said that he was unable to comment on the issue. "I defer to the experts on that one," he said.

A release on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website entitled "Why is Handwashing important?" states that the proper procedure for washing hands is "vigorous scrubbing with warm, soapy water for at least 15 seconds."