When Food Kills

This book about e coli, BSE and disaster science is written by the professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen, who also chaired the inquiry into the 1996 e coli outbreak in 1996. As such, Pennington writes with intimate knowledge not only of the science but also of regulations and committees. He analyses why disasters happen, unlearned lessons and the limits of inspectorates - it is so easy to be wise after the event or to find that existing inspections did not quite have the right parameters. He deals in detail with e coli, CJD and the science of TSEs and BSE. He also compares the way in which government has reacted to a wide range of other disasters like Aberfan and Piper Alpha to draw out wider lessons for policy making, science and inspectorates. Very well informed and wide-ranging.