Andy Spragg wrote:

Martin Brown pushed briefly to the front of
the queue on Mon, 10 Feb 2003 21:38:43 GMT, and nailed this to the
shed door:

^ eddy wrote:
^
^ how real are these for us to worry about.

^ against. Botulism is relatively common but only a serious health risk if
^ you try making your own herbs in oil and don't get the mix exactly
^ right.

Boggle. Care to expand a little?

Yes. It should be more widely known. The risk is small but has increased now
that trendy "things" in oil have become rather more common. Some DIY versions
have in the past proved fatal.

A reasonably simple description of the problem and how to avoid it is at:

http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/safefo...R/v2n4s08.html
http://www.foodbiotech.org/pathogens/botulism.htm

US health & safety sites tend to be a shade more paranoid than UK ones.

A web search will get you more gory details.

Regards,
Martin Brown