In a Lakewood laboratory, scientists swab dog chews, looking for bacteria that could rub off on the hands of a child tossing a treat to the family dog and end up making that child sick.
Behind fences and gates at the Denver Federal Center, Food and Drug Administration analysts examine spices from India for traces of dangerous salmonella.
The lab’s 53 scientists have pulled listeria-contaminated salmon and cheese off grocery shelves.
The work of this FDA lab has taken on more immediacy as tainted spinach, peanut butter and pet food command front-page headlines.
At the same time, the federal agency is proposing to close the Denver lab as part of merging 13 facilities into six.
The proposal – which awaits approval by the Department of Health and Human Services – would force workers at the Denver lab and six others to move or quit early next year.
The plan will be the subject of congressional hearings this summer as members of both parties representing the affected regions have taken up the issue.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., tried to insert lab-saving language into a Food and Drug Administration bill this month.
The amendment had to be deleted to get the key legislation passed without objection, Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said.
Another opponent is Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, whose state would also lose a lab.
“We are going to continue to work on this with Sen. Specter, to find another vehicle to carry the amendment,” Wertz said.
Having field sites scattered around the country helps the FDA respond quickly to outbreaks, said Roger Farmer, a microbiologist in the Denver lab. The Denver site is the most well guarded in the country.
“We have the National Guard right here (at the Federal Center),” Farmer said. “In the event of an emergency, we are situated in a very safe place. We could continue our work.”
The FDA’s role in food safety was spurred by the 1906 novel “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair, which revealed abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry.
The novel helped bring about the 1906 Food and Drugs Act.
Denver lab staff say they see their jobs as part of that legacy.
Microbiologist Patricia Stahnke helped run tests on Colorado-made sushi a few years ago and turned up listeria – a dangerous bacteria that can cause spontaneous abortions.
“We kept it off the shelves,” Stahnke said.
Colleague Shauna Madson discovered salmonella on cantaloupes from Mexico last year, stopping the fruit at the border.
Salmonella poisoning kills about 600 people a year in the United States.
Farmer found bacteria on ventilators used to help ill newborn babies breathe – and at least one death was blamed on the contaminated devices, he said.
Today, Denver FDA scientists are perfecting a quick test for melamine in fish. Melamine is the suspected cause of the recent pet sickness and deaths, and was recently detected in fish meal.
Chemists are checking aloe vera imported from India for contamination, and biologists are grinding up cow feed to search for banned substances, including blood and bone from other animals.
If the lab consolidation goes through, Denver employees will be offered work at larger laboratories – in New York, Georgia, California, Washington state, Ohio and Arkansas.
Many scientists will not leave their home, said laboratory technician Kathy Sherer.
“This amounts to a brain drain, a very serious brain drain,” Sherer said.
FDA officials say the consolidation would result in greater testing efficiency, and would let FDA upgrade remaining labs with the latest technology.
The agency can’t afford top-of-the line equipment at 13 sites, and some sites are in disrepair, said Diana Kolaitis, the FDA’s director of field operations.
Kolaitis said she understands some employees won’t move, but the cost-savings associated with that and lower rent payments could mean “more programs with fewer people.”
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
