No soap at school, kids sick

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Go evidence or go home.

Children are, according to The New Zealand Herald, becoming sick at one of the country’s most modern new schools, parents say, because for three years the board banned soap and hand towels, fearing that they harmed the environment.

The school, which has Greenstar accreditation for environmentally friendly design, has a healthy attendance rate of 93.4 per cent, the board says, with no unusual illnesses.

But some parents say their children are suffering due to the school founders’ green philosophy and have complained to the board about their children’s repeated bouts of illness.

Stonefields has stocked only hand sanitiser in bathrooms since it opened in February 2011.

After an approach from the Herald on Sunday this month, board chairman Israel Vaeliki said the school would install hand driers and soap dispensers.

One mum, who asked not to be named, said she, her husband and their child had suffered gastro-intestinal illnesses this year. “The hand sanitiser’s not effective.”

The woman had raised the issue with the school but had been assured handwashing, with soap, was available in the children’s learning hubs.

Another parent said her daughter and classmates had suffered several bouts of gastroenteritis, due to the lack of soap and hand driers. Instead, the children would wipe their wet and dirty hands on their clothes. But a third Stonefields parent, Camille Harvey, believed sanitiser was more effective as children tended to do a poor job with soap and water.

The original sanitiser solution was decided by the establishment board in consultation with the Ministry of Education before the school opened, Vaeliki said. “Having no paper towels was in line with the school’s environmental sustainability philosophy. Recently, the school has received one complaint about the solution but otherwise there have been no issues for three years.”

A ministry spokesman said schools were required to provide a cleaning agent and warm water so the potential spread of germs was kept to a minimum.

As hospitals in the U.S. began to realize several years ago, sanitizer does not replace proper handwashing with soap and drying with paper towel.

Water temperature does not matter, but a vigorous water flow does, as does the vigor of drying with paper. Hand driers don’t cut it.

A google search would have revealed handwashing basics for the environmental educationalists.

Hand sanitizers didn’t protect Iowa kids against crypto after petting cows

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Douglas Powell

This is why the UK says, handwashing with soap and water only at any petting farm or zoo.

A recent cluster of cryptosporidium cases cropped up after a Iowa preschool class visited a farm, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, the Iowa Department of Public Health’s medical director, reported this morning. “While on the farm, the children petted cows and ate snacks,” Quinlisk wrote in a weekly email to public-health officials statewide. “The children did use hand sanitizer before eating; however, hand sanitizers are not particularly effective against crypto. Please continue to encourage handwashing with soap and water whenever possible.”

The Des Moines Register reports the parasite sickened hundreds of Iowans this summer, mainly via tainted swimming-pool water. Many of the patients suffered severe diarrhea. The outbreak has slowed now that most public pools have closed for the season. But infections also can happen in other ways, including contact with infected animals.

Quinlisk did not identify the preschool or say how many children became ill.

On Sept. 12, the state health department reported that there had been 861 confirmed or probable cases in Iowa so far in 2013. In all of 2012, there were 328 such cases.

79 sick at health care convention; resort food had ‘fecal contamination’

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Fecal matter found on food at a Huron Township resort in Ohio only strengthens health officials’ suspicions that norovirus is to blame for sickening dozens of people in recent weeks.

Bob England, Erie County’s environmental health director, told the Sandusky Register, “Some of the lunch meat, the ham and the turkey, was contaminated with fecal bacteria.”

Tests on the resort’s food showed significant amounts of fecal bacteria contamination, England said, specifically on the ham and turkey, and lesser amounts on some cheese. Also, of the people who fell ill at the resort, nearly all of them ate salad. The health department sent several containers of lettuce to state health officials for testing, but for some reason the state didn’t analyze those samples, England said.

England said that while he believes the initial outbreak was connected with food contamination — at least two employees at the resort tested positive for norovirus — later cases of the virus may have come from sick people passing on the highly contagious ailment.

England also said the resort’s staff have gone to great lengths to clean the facility in the wake of the illnesses.

49 now sick with E. coli O157 from Brisbane state fair, over 100 being tested

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Douglas Powell

While walking home with our daughters from swimming and trampoline tomfoolery this morning (Monday, I’ve adapted to the different time zone), a friend asked if I’d heard about all the sick people at the Ekka, the Queensland state fair.

I said, yes.

We had a long chat about risk, the hygiene hypothesis, and why handwashng is never enough.

And how all the other parents at school hate me.

She said the other parents don’t like her much either.

For the same infectious disease reasons.

Queensland Health said today 49 people, including 31 children aged between one and 15, had contracted the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).

A 33-year-old Brisbane woman and three children, aged six, 11 and 12 – all from different families living in different suburbs – were the first to test positive to the potentially deadly bacteria on August 23.

Authorities believe they may have contracted E-coli after patting animals in the animal nursery at Brisbane’s Ekka.

Over two weeks after the first cases, there is no critical examination of the Ekka animal areas, no explanation, and nothing beyond wash your damn hands.

On Friday, I’ll be accompanying the 4-year-olds to the Lone Pines animal sanctuary to hang out with kangeroos, wallabies and other Australian wildlife. I’m sure I’ll make some new friends.

A table of petting zoo outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks, and a list of risk factors at petting zoos and animal contact events at fairs can be found in: Erdozain G, Kukanich K, Chapman B, Powell D. 2012. Observation of public health risk behaviours, risk communication and hand hygiene at Kansas and Missouri petting zoos – 2010-2011. Zoonoses Public Health. 2012.

26 now sick with E. coli from petting area at Brisbane fair; handwashing or sanitizers never enough

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Douglas Powell

At some point, people will start asking, how did this happen? Why didn’t organizers of the Ekka pay attention to all the petting zoo outbreaks globally in the past 10 years? And why would the organizers of the Ekka issue a statement like they did on Aug. 23, 2013, stating, “The Ekka has been held here for 136 years, with millions of people passing through our gates over this time, and this is the first incident of this type that we are aware of.”

According to Queensland Health nine people are confirmed to have STEC and a further 17 people are being tested for the infection. Three of these people have been admitted to hospital.

A table of petting zoo outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks.

Because guys need better ways to piss; sink-urinal saves water, encourages men to wash hands

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Douglas Powell

A Latvian designer named Kaspars Jursons is trying to help solve European water shortages by redesigning the men’s restroom. His new urinal design includes a tap and sink right over it.

“It’s not just a fancy piece of art,” he says. “The idea is about function and consumption. You are washing your hands in the sink on top of the urinal, and the same water that’s running is also used to flush. You don’t have to use water twice, like when you use the urinal and wash your hands in separate sink.”

The design, called Stand, sells for about $590 per unit.

Dirty restrooms don’t correlate to foodborne illness outbreaks

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Ben Chapman

While making a recent pilgrimage from Raleigh to Southern Ontario (and back) via minivan I saw a bunch of dirty restrooms. One was so bad (right, exactly as shown) that Dani made us go to the next exit; things almost got messy in the car.

A dirty restroom is gross, and might be a good source of a pathogen like norovirus from a previous, uh, user, but do dirty bathrooms say anything about the food handling practices in the kitchen? Or does a clean bathroom mean that the cooks know their stuff and are reducing cross-contamination? Some argue that a dirty restroom is an indicator of poor sanitation throughout the system (maybe), but analysis of inspection results seem to disagree that dirty bathrooms are correlated with outbreaks. We talked about this a bit in a paper published earlier this year (D.A. Powell, S. Erdozain, C. Dodd, R. Costa, K. Morley, B.J. Chapman. 2013. Audits and inspections are never enough: A critique to enhance food safety. Food Control).

Some good stuff that friend of barfblog Ruth Petran published last year also showed that for certain pathogens there was little correlation between inspection factors related to sanitation and outbreaks. Sanitation of facilities and non-food contact surfaces only came up in noro outbreaks with a relative risk of less than the lack of single use/service articles and weirdly proper cooling and date marking. Dirty facilities wasn’t seen as a risk factor popping up in Salmonella or C. perfringens outbreaks at all. What matters are things like keeping ill employees out of the kitchen and controlling temperatures.

Evidence often isn’t enough to sway public opinion though. UPI reports that in a survey funded by restroom hygiene equipment that cleanliness matters to patrons.

Almost 30 percent of U.S.adults say they will never return to a restaurant with a dirty bathroom, a survey indicates.

Elliott Greenberg, owner of www.TouchFreeConcepts.com said a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive for SCA Tissue North America found 50 percent of restaurant patrons who have a negative experience with the restroom — bad odors, grimy soap dispensers, dirty toilets and other cleanliness problems — will discuss it to friends and family.”

“We live in a world that is consumed with hand sanitizers and green living. The consumer is acutely aware of those things that cause the spread of germs and bacteria,” said Donna Santoro, senior product manager of the washroom solutions global business team for Rubbermaid Commercial Products. “And it is all about touching.”

130 sick, 12 outbreaks; alert over sickness at UK petting farms

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Public Health England says, so far this year, there have been 12 disease outbreaks linked to petting farms across England, affecting 130 people.

The advice is to wash your hands with soap and water – antibacterial gels and wipes will not always work.

Dr Bob Adak, head of gastrointestinal diseases at Public Health England, said: “These outbreaks of illness serve as a reminder for anyone visiting a petting farm of the need to wash their hands thoroughly using soap and water after they have handled animals or been in their surroundings – particularly before eating.

“Although we can avoid obvious dirt there will be millions of invisible bacteria spread all around the farm which can get onto our hands.

“By being aware and by doing these simple things we can help to avoid illness and enjoy a fun day out.”

Anyone with kids knows these suggestions are not simple.

We have additional suggestions, but they’re under peer review at the moment.

A table of petting zoo outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks.

A list of risk factors at petting zoos and animal contact events at fairs can be found in: Erdozain G, Kukanich K, Chapman B, Powell D. 2012. Observation of public health risk behaviours, risk communication and hand hygiene at Kansas and Missouri petting zoos – 2010-2011. Zoonoses Public Health. 2012 Jul 30. doi: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2012.01531.x. [Epub ahead of print]

What’s the best way to dry your hands? Paper towel

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Almost seven years ago, I got hired by Kansas State University after publicly declaring their all-in-one handwashing system sorta sucked.

The prez agreed, and I wrote a summary document of available research

Probably should have turned that into a paper and published it (although we have published other handwashing things).

No worries, Dr Cunrui Huang of the Queensland University of Technology has done it for me, concluding it is more hygienic to dry your hands with a paper towel than an electric dryer.

Paper towels are more efficient because they work more quickly than hot air and physically remove germs from the hand, an Australian researcher found.

The transfer of germs is more likely from wet hands than dry hands.

“A hand dryer takes 30 seconds longer to achieve about the same dryness as a towel. This is important because most people spend less than 20 seconds drying their hands,” Dr Huang said.

“It is likely that paper towels also work better because they physically remove bacteria from the hands, whereas hot air dryers and jet air dryers cannot.”
Dr Huang reviewed 12 studies that evaluated the drying efficiency and removal of bacteria when using paper towels, cloth towels, hot air dryers and new jet air systems.

“What I found was that from a hygiene viewpoint, paper towels are superior,” he says.

Keith Redway, senior academic in Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Westminster University has shown that disposable paper towels remove 58 per cent of bugs and cotton roller-towels 45 per cent.

“The message has to be to wash and then dry your hands thoroughly, using paper towels, not the hot-air dryers,” explained Redway.

Unfortunately, paper towels are rare in Queensland and Australian bathrooms, and in many other places. There are lots of handwashing preachers, but what about providing the proper tools for handwashing, like paper towels?

And yes, I still take pictures in bathrooms.

138 sickened; norovirus outbreak confirmed at Calif. restaurant In Feb.

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Following weeks of investigation, an outbreak of norovirus in February at midtown’s Mulvaney’s B&L has been confirmed by Sacramento County public health officials. The investigation found that 138 people – including at least six food service workers – reported symptoms. One patron later tested positive for norovirus, and two food service workers tested positive for norovirus.

The Sacramento Bee says the report did not identify if norovirus was first introduced to the restaurant by a worker or patron. The outbreak occurred over six events, including a company dinner and family-style dinner – over four days in late February. A lawyer for Mulvaney’s first informed county health officials that a number of patrons had fallen ill.

Since the outbreak was limited to a specific range of dates, and no further cases of illness were reported, Mulvaney’s has continued to operate. The popular midtown eatery passed its most recent food facility inspection on Feb. 13.

The report entailed interviews with 256 patrons, and the consumption of Turkish coffee pudding, pickled beet salad and ham showed the greatest risk of norovirus exposure. On the contrary, some foods including rib-eye and mushroom pasta did not show a link to illness. The report theorizes these dishes were prepared by non-ill restaurant workers.

Chef and proprietor Patrick Mulvaney said he’s continuing to work with county officials to make sure a similar episode doesn’t happen again.

“Obviously, I was horrified and frustrated and confused about it,” said Mulvaney. “Since then we’ve worked hand in hand with the (county) medical officer and redoubled our efforts about handwashing.”

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