Have a Shrimp Craving?...How Likely is BP Crude to Reach Your Plate? An Opinion...

As many of you know, I interned at Thermo Fisher Scientific this summer. When the BP oil spill happened, news quickly spread in the office that the company deployed resources to begin analyzing seafood in the local waters. It was only last year, as a matter of fact, that the company opened a state-of-the-art food safety testing facility in Europe with global interests. http://ir.thermofisher.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=89145&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1413264&highlight==

More often than not, you could tune into the news at anytime and always catch a report of how much oil was leaking out, how many days had passed, the probability of success with each attempt to cap the well, etc. Never, however, would you catch a news report that actively delivered real time information as to the health adequacy of the seafood in the area-no matter how little was actually being fished out. Just because there wasn't any fishing though, didn't mean that there wasn't any seafood extraction for analytical testing. In fact, there was plenty....but you never heard much about it!

Given the lag/lack of information, it's no wonder why local fisherman, local and nationwide restaurants, grocery stores, etc. were frustrated over their inability to harvest fresh seafood-they never had anything to look forward to except for the one eventual day that a government official would give a green light to recommence fishing operations.

My idea (and one I would consider for the biotech/healthcare team project) is lobbying for an app development that stake holding, local mobile device customers could download and then begin to receive real time data relative to the analysis of any local/regional testing for a public health concern/crisis. We are totally reliant on mass media when it comes to pubic safety concerns. Companies (like Thermo Fisher Scientific) conducting and supplying the testing results to the public via mobile devices could be incentivized while also being held accountable. It could also potentially be great PR!

What does everyone think? Thoughts?