Sushi Sickness

“Sushi sickness” was the Urban Dictionary’s Urban Word of the Day for December 2, 2012, but the term has been little-used. “Sushi sickness” means an illness someone has after eating sushi; the term has been cited in print since 1985 and 1986, when the Food and Drug Administration warned that sushi could contain dangerous microorganisms and parasites.
 
Actor Jeremy Piven left the Broadway play Speed the Plow in 2008 and claimed “sushi sickness,” but the producers of the play claimed that Piven had made up the disease to get out of his contract.
   
 
Google News Archive
20 February 1985, Milwaukee (WI) Journal, pg. 11, col. 2:
Sushi sickness called
a risk for raw fish lovers
NEW YORK, N.Y.—(UPI)—Sushi-lovers beware: That tasty piscine morsel may harbor tiny white worms that hook on to the stomach and intestinal walls, causing excruciating pain, according to Japanese researchers.
 
Google News Archive
30 September 1986, The Daily Record

Shaving the odds of getting sushi sickness
WASHINGTON (UPI)—(...) Thomas Schwarz, assistant director for program development in the retail food protection branch of the Food and Drug Administration, said sushi may contain raw seafood, and that the raw seafood may contain microorganisms and parasites that are less than healthful.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Sushi sickness
Author: Vittore Baroni; John M Bennett
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Luna Bisonte Prods 1996.
Edition/Format:   Book : English
 
Grub Street
What to Believe About Jeremy Piven’s Sushi Sickness?
12/19/08 at 4:23 PM
The Food Section points out that while some are dubious that Jeremy Piven’s health problems stemmed from sushi (the FDA and EPA advisory applies mainly to women who are or might become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children), it seems Piven was exceeding the EPA’s recommended dosage of mercury by about fifteen times (As Vulture points out, Piven’s doc said six times the healthy amount).
 
US Weekly
Jeremy Piven: Obama Calls Sushi Sickness “World’s Gravest Chemical Problem”
MARCH 25, 2009 AT 7:11PM
BY USWEEKLY STAFF
The actor is currently butting heads with the Actors’ Equity Union and producers of Speed the Plow after he pulled out of the show last December claiming mercury poisoning. Playwright David Mamet slammed Piven for “leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer,” but, in his new statement below, the Entourage star points out mercury poisoning was “recently described by the Obama administration…as the world’s gravest chemical problem.”
 
Urban Dictionary
sushi sickness
December 2, 2012 Urban Word of the Day
The nauseating, upset stomach feeling you sometimes get after dining out on some cheap sushi.
(...)
by westfalia Jan 18, 2010
 
New Times (Phoenix, AZ)
Sushi Sickness: CDC Reports Spicy Tuna Linked to Salmonella Outbreak
By Ando Muneno Tue., Apr. 17 2012 at 6:00 AM
The CDC is tracking a sushi centered salmonella outbreak that has sickened 116 people so far. Of that number, 12 were sick enough to be hospitalized. The CDC has only interviewed about half of the people affected by this outbreak but among those people 91% reported eating sushi prior to becoming ill and 84% reported eating some form of spicy tuna. Due to the lag between when a person ingests the bacteria and when they become sick enough to seek medical attention, there will almost undoubtedly be more cases on the way.