Tag Archives: Poop

Poop from Chinese duck farms linked to 100,000 diarrhea cases

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The Shanghai Daily reports a duck processor in central China has been dumping duck excrement and dead animals directly into a river, contaminating a drinking water source that later lead to more than 100,000 people getting diarrhea.

Duck farms scattered along the Xiaohuang River in Huangchuan County, Henan Province, were accused of discharging waste in the river, killing fish and polluting the water. The farms belong to Henan Huaying Agricultural Development Co Ltd.??

The local water utility stopped collecting water from the river four years ago as it was too polluted, Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.

??However, two reservoirs that were used as new sources of tap water dried up in a drought this year and the county government was forced to resume pumping water from the Xiaohuang in April. Two months later there was a severe outbreak of diarrhea, sickening more than 100,000 villagers.

Three rusted pipes were seen stuck into the muddy river, where bottles and disposable lunch boxes were floating, to collect tap water supplying 280,000 people.
 

Jennifer Lopez’s son had a $6,000 poop in her pool

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The 3-year-old son of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony had a poop in their pool and it cost $6,000 to clean.

Oh The Scandal reports that Marc told Jay Leno this week, “He had an accident in the pool. It got into the filtration system and they charged us to clean it. That was expensive. He took a $6,000 dump in the pool!”
 

RocknRolla: Don’t play in animal poop – at music festivals or elsewhere

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In June 1997, at least seven people who attended the Glastonbury Music Festival in the U.K. were infected with Escherichia coli O157. A cow belonging to a herd that had previously grazed the site tested positive for the same strain, leading researchers to conclude the most likely vehicle of infection was mud contaminated with Escherichia coli O157 from infected cattle.

??In June 2007, hundreds were stricken and 18 tested positive for campylobacter during the annual Test of Metal mountain bike race in Squamish, B.C.?? Dr. Paul Martiquet, the chief medical officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said, "This was an outbreak with a high attack rate. Our future advice to the race organizers is to inspect the route prior to the race to ensure it is not littered with animal feces, and not end the race at the horse ring. If there is any horse poop, they have to remove it."

Up to 160 people who attended the Merida Bikes mountain bike Marathon July 5-6, 2008, based on Builth Wells, in Wales, fell ill, and 10 of the riders tested positive for campylobacter. The report described the course as,??“very muddy and contaminated with sheep slurry in certain areas, leading to significant amounts of mud splashing over participants and their equipment. … The most statistically significant risk was the inadvertent ingestion of mud.

So yesterday, the U.K. Health Protection Agency decided to remind Glastonbury goers not to play in animal poop.

Dr Mark Salter, a consultant in communicable disease control from the HPA’s Health Protection Unit in the South West has been attending festivals, including Glastonbury, for 20 years to offer health protection advice and has devised the following rock and roll tips to help people to stay safe.

If you become unwell, particularly with diarrhoea and sickness, before the festival don’t go as you could spread your illness to other people.

Make sure you use condoms with any new partners to protect yourself against any sexually transmitted infections. In 2010 there were over 200,000 cases of chlamydia, genital warts, syphilis, gonorrhoea and herpes in the 15-24 year old age group in England.

If you have to take medication for an existing condition make sure you take it with you as well as enough to last the duration of the festival.

Avoid using streams and rivers for bathing or cooling off as the water quality may not be suitable.

Don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly after using the toilet, before eating and prior to preparing food. It is preferable to use soap and water but if that is not available then sanitising hand gel is a good substitute – bring your own and carry it around with you.

"My experience of providing health advice and assistance at festivals for over 20 years tells me that people generally end up being unwell due to the combination of too much alcohol, drugs, sex and less than ideal hygiene.”

Would you eat a burger made from poop? Do you already?

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There’s a lot of talk about hamburgers in the run-up to Father’s Day and most of it is crap.

Literally.

Someone in Japan made a hamburger out of human poop, the use-a-piece-of-metal-and-sear-your-tongue method of checking whether a burger is done is making the rounds, and someone else says 120F beef is safe.

The poop burger is the safest choice.

Because if you’re going to eat poop, at least cook it (and try not to cross-contaminate the kitchen).

My Health News Daily reports today researchers in Japan have synthesized meat from proteins found in human waste.

"In the food safety world we say, ‘don’t eat poop,’" said Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University. "But if you’re going to, make sure it’s cooked."

The Japanese researchers isolated proteins from bacteria in sewage. The poop-meat concoction is prepared by extracting the basic elements of food — protein, carbohydrates and fats — and recombining them.

The meat is made from 63 percent proteins, 25 percent carbohydrates, 3 percent lipids and 9 percent minerals, according to Digital Trends. Soy protein is added to the mix to increase the flavor, and food coloring is used to make the product appear red.

The researchers came up with the idea after Tokyo Sewage asked them to figure out a use for the abundance of sewage in mud, Digital Trends says.

Powell is not familiar with the researchers’ method, but said he guesses that they are first heat-treating the sewage before they reap its resources.

"Theoretically, there’s nothing wrong with this," Powell said. "It could be quite safe to eat, but I’m sure there’s a yuck factor there," he said.

However, Powell said there is the potential for cross contamination in the laboratory where the poop meat is made. That’s why it’s a good thing the meat will eventually be cooked.

But what if the final product was not going to be cooked?

"I wouldn’t touch it, " Powell said.

Pass it on: Meat made from poop is safe, but you should cook it before you eat it.

Asian street food smarts

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I know nothing about Asian street food.

When reporter Robyn Eckhardt from Malaysia skyped with me a couple of weeks ago, I repeatedly said, I know nothing about Asian street food.

In this part of the world the term "street food" (or "hawker food," as it’s referred to in Malaysia and Singapore) denotes not just a cheap and quick way to fill one’s belly. It also describes a repertoire of dishes prepared by experienced specialists, dishes rarely duplicated successfully in restaurant kitchens. Eating on the Asian street offers the opportunity to observe cooking techniques up close and to engage with strangers over a meal in a way that would be difficult in a proper brick and mortar eatery (right, vegetarian mi quang, a thick noodle common to Central Vietnam, served in a Ho Chi Minh City street stall. Credit: Dave Hagerman).

There’s just one problem: Asian street food makes a lot of travelers ill. The World Health Organization has designated the developing countries of Asia as among the most high-risk destinations for "traveler’s diarrhea," which means that more than 50 percent of visitors to most countries in the region have a chance of getting ill from what they eat.

barfblog publisher Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University, advises that the best way to avoid illness –- at home or on the road — is to put yourself in the place of whatever it is that’s going to make you sick in the first place: "Be the bug, whether virus, bacteria, or parasite. Imagine how they get into your food and how they move around."

Produce is often contaminated at the farm, from human or animal feces, and then carries its bugs to the street stall. Heat kills them. "You shouldn’t eat poop," is Powell’s blunt advice. "But if you’re going to eat it, make sure it’s cooked." Street food vendors have a particular challenge because they work in small spaces, facilitating cross-contamination between "clean" and "dirty" foods.

But street stalls also boast an advantage over restaurants: transparency. At a street stall everything is prepared right in front of the consumer, which makes it easier to gauge food safety.

Amazing Boring Race plays with poop in India

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Amy watches The Amazing Race for some wind-down after a day of Sorenne and French literature.

I go to bed.

On Sunday night, the racers went to India and had to choose between feed the fire or feed the buffalo. For feed the fire, teams navigated the Ganges River to the home of a milkman. Once there, they had to make 50 traditional fuel patties out of buffalo manure and then slap them on the wall to dry in the sun. Finally, teams loaded a stove with fuel patties and lit a fire to boil milk for the local children.

Using poop to cook the poop out of milk.

But at least they wore plastic gloves.

For feed the buffalo, teams crossed the Ganges, pick up a large load of hay, cross the Ganges again and carry their hay through the narrow streets to a designated address.

The sisters choose buffalo, not knowing there was poop involved. "Man, the crap you do for a million dollars," sister Jen says. Both start gagging over the stench while the local kiddies watch and laugh. When the sisters are done, their poop piles don’t pass muster, and they have to redo a couple.

Lawsuit blames illness on pigeon droppings

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Pigeon poop has been implicated in several public meltdowns, like when Kings of Leon left the stage at a concert last year (was anyone really disappointed?) or when swimmers at last year’s Commonwealth Games started barfing.

A Michigan man who once worked on the Soo Locks is suing his former employers, alleging that he suffered a debilitating illness from on-the-job exposure to pigeon droppings.

The Detroit News reports that 54-year-old Bruce Harrison sued Grand Trunk Western Railroad Co. and Canadian National/Illinois Central Railroad in federal court on Monday. His suit alleges that the companies failed to protect him from hazardous work conditions.

Harrison says he developed symptoms consistent with histoplasmosis — a respiratory disease that can be spread by spores in bird droppings — that have left him unable to work.

He worked on the Soo Locks from 1990 to 2006 and says he was exposed to pigeon droppings on the railroad bridges at the locks at Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan’s northeast Upper Peninsula.

Has the iPhone changed the way people poop?

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Old question. I don’t need no stinkin’ iPhone, I haul my 17-inch MacBook Pro computer to the bathroom, as some started football quests observed on Sunday. Been doing it for a decade (thank you, wireless).

When Chapman first got a blackberry in 2005, he e-mailed me and proudly proclaimed, “I’m in the bathroom” (but not exactly like that).

A new study reveals that 27 per cent of Americans use their mobile devices to check Facebook while in the bathroom.

One commentator wrote, “Some people engage in personal reflection, others scribble on walls and some like to look at pictures of ex-girlfriends and wonder how things could have been. I say good for them. Enjoy your Poopbook.”

Me, I’m a bigger fan of clean sheets and working in bed.

As noted by Canadian comedy troupe Kids in the Hall long before these mobile devices became widely available (like the landline phones by the toilets in fancy hotel rooms) there’s nothing like clean sheets, a mug of cold beer on a hot day, and a good dump in the morning. These are some of life’s greatest contemplative moments and should be used to check e-mail. Or improve your putting. Whatever, just wash your damn hands.
 

Plan to reduce pig pollution by potty training

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Environmental authorities in Taiwan say they are planning to promote potty training for pigs to help curb water and waste pollution.

The Environmental Protection Administration made the pledge following the success of a pig farm in southern Taiwan, where the breeder started to potty-train his 10,000 pigs in late 2009, it said.

To keep his animals from defecating in nearby rivers, the breeder has established special "toilets" smeared with faeces and urine to attract the pigs, it said.

This reduced the amount of waste water by up to 80 per cent. As well as making the farm cleaner and less smelly, it also helped reduce illness among the pigs and boosted their fertility by 20 per cent, it added.

Taiwan has about six million pigs, most of them raised on farms in the centre and the south of the island.

Who didn’t wash their hands while preparing communion in NY?

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Hepatitis A is one of those human-only diseases that spreads when virus particles are shed in poop, and get into dirty water, or onto hands that are not effectively washed.

Health officials on Long Island say hundreds of people may have been exposed to hepatitis A while receiving communion on Christmas Day.

The Nassau County Health Department said Monday that anyone who received communion at either the 10:30 a.m. or noon Masses at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park on Dec. 25 may have been exposed.

A spokesman declined to provide details, citing privacy concerns.