A two-part article appearing in the December 9th and 10th issues of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE exposes the danger that our children face daily � nationwide � if they partake of what their school cafeterias offer as "food." Entitled "SCHOOL LUNCHES: ILLNESS ON THE MENU," the article by staff reporter David Jackson opens with three subheads, to wit:"The number of school food outbreaks reported to federal officials soared 56 percent in the 1990s."

"In a notorious case, tortillas from a South Side factory were implicated in the illness of 1,200 students."

"It�s often difficult to trace spoiled food because companies are allowed to keep their suppliers secret."

The article begins with a description of an outbreak of food-created illnesses in Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota, where first graders were "crouched in pain and vomiting two and three times in succession." More than a thousand miles away, meanwhile, "elementary pupils in Upson County, Georgia, and Port Salerno, Florida, got sick after eating burritos packed in the same squat brick plant on Chicago�s South Side."

The writer goes on to describe what he calls "one of the most far-reaching school food outbreaks in the last decade," in which more than 1,200 children in at least seven states were sickened. Even today, he states, details of the case remain hidden from public view. Tribune staff writer David Jackson refers to records which indicate that, "The number of school food outbreaks reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rose by 56 percent in the eight years from 1990 through 1997." In addition, case reports gathered by the CHICAGO TRIBUNE from health agencies in 10 large states "suggest the number of school outbreaks has continued to climb.

"The report contains a map showing the trail of this prominent, though avoidable, plague. Hardest hit, according to the map, seemed to be: North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida." But, warns the writer, "the reported cases represent only a fraction of the actual total. Ill people often do not seek medical care, health officials rarely collect food specimens for diagnosis, and only some test results are communicated to health officials."

He concludes:"Though Americans experience an estimated 76 million food-borne illnesses a year, fewer than one in 5,000 of those cases � only 15,000 a year � are reported in the CDC outbreak database."