MEDINA — The son of the 85-year-old Medina woman killed by salmonella poisoning said he hopes new regulations will help prevent deaths from food-borne illness.

After the death of Nellie Napier in 2009, her son, Randy Napier, made four trips to Washington to urge Congress to pass legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration more authority over the nation’s food supply and greater ability to trace contaminated food.

Napier

He was backed by Pew Charitable Trusts in his efforts.

“I would never have guessed in a million years I would have been lobbying in Washington,” he said. “It helped me deal with the loss of my mother and at the same time get something done.”

President Barack Obama signed the Food Safety and Modernization Act into law on Tuesday. It gives the FDA the power to issue mandatory recalls for the first time and calls for increasing government inspections at food-processing facilities to prevent food-borne illness.

“If this had been in effect when the peanut butter first came out, my mom would definitely still be here because it took so long to trace the contamination and the FDA did not have the authority to issue a recall,” Napier said.

Nellie Napier was one of nine people who died in the 2009 salmonella outbreak, which caused more than 700 illnesses nationwide. Results from testing of the peanut butter container served to Napier at a Medina nursing home linked Napier’s death to salmonella-contaminated products that were manufactured by now-bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America.

Two days after her death on Jan. 26, the company issued a recall for the tainted peanut products.

Randy Napier also is involved in a wrongful-death suit against Solon-based Kanan Enterprises that alleges the company failed to ensure the peanut butter purchased from Peanut Corp. of America and distributed to nursing homes was safe.

“It’s unfortunate that there are people that consider the dollar bill to be more important than human life,” he said. “What these people did was wrong.”

Contact Lisa Hlavinka at (330) 721-4048 or lhlavinka@medina-gazette.com.

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