Toxic E. coli infect just three in 100,000 people. Thanks to officials who pushed for a recall, Hudson hamburgers didn't kill anyone. Irradiation backers exaggerate food poisoning's impact, claiming the top seven contaminants kill 9,000 people each year. According to the most recent data, though, fewer than 1,000 people die from tainted food each year. Compare that with, say, car accidents, which kill 40,000 people a year, or smoking, which kills over 400,000.
Food poisoning is a serious risk only for vulnerable populations, like the very young.
For the rest of us, it's an uncommon annoyance caused mainly by inadequately cooked chicken or pork. I'm not against saving a few hundred lives a year for a few pennies extra on my beef, so go ahead and zap my food. But irradiated or not, I'll still order my burgers rare. Atul Gawande, M.D., writes a regular column on science and policy for Slate . Illustrations by Whiting Tennis.