Expert available to discuss consumption of products containing pistachios

Apr 1 2009

Dr. Steven M. Marcus, executive director of the New Jersey Poison Information & Education System (NJPIES) at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School is available to provide comment on the Federal Food and Drug Administration warning issued today on the consumption of products containing pistachios.

Marcus applauds the directive by food safety officials that advises people to refrain from consuming any food containing pistachios, including candy, cookies or ice cream. "At this point, since the FDA hasn't determined where the contamination occurred, it is best to avoid any foods that contain pistachios," said Marcus.

Marcus established the New Jersey Poison Control Information and Education System (NJ PIES), the state's poison control center. He is a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health and associate professor of pediatrics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.