Tag Archives: Water

Crypto outbreak in Victoria, Australia pools

Posted on by
Reply

Victorians could be in the poo, literally, if they sought relief at the local pool.

Victoria’s chief health officer Dr Rosemary Lester said there has been a three-fold increase in gastro cases after hot weather sparked people seeking to cool off at pool.pooppublic swimming pools.

She urged those who have had diarrhea not to go into a swimming pool for at least 14 days after symptoms had stopped for fear of passing on the bug.

There were 155 Victorian cases of gastro caused by the cryptosporidium parasite last month, three times the February average of 53.

45 sick; checking for Cryptosporidium in NZ water

Posted on by
Reply

Hawke’s Bay’s water operators are checking the region’s supplies for contamination of Cryptosporidium.

Health authorities have, according to the New Zealand Herald, issued a warning cryptofollowing the diagnosis of 45 people over the past two months.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Nicholas Jones said the health protection team is analysing information to establish the cause of the outbreak – and expect there is more than one source.

“We’ve been in touch with the water operators and they don’t think they’ve got problems at the moment, but obviously it’s something we’re going to be looking into in more detail,” said Dr Jones.

Chilliwack must chlorinate water due to E. coli risk

Posted on by
1

My high school girlfriend had eclectic taste in music. She got me into Neil Young, and I always associate the song, When You Dance, I Can Really Love, with her, but she also liked Chilliwack.

And they were terrible.

To the people of Chilliwack, B.C., chlorine should be your friend.

According to The Province, a battle is on tap between Chilliwack and the local health authority after Fraser Health told council Tuesday that the city must begin chlorinating its water.

Citing the discovery of E. coli in the Chilliwack water system over three of the past four summers, Fraser Health medical health officer Dr. Marcus Lem told council the city will be required to add chlorine to its water.

Lem said present testing methods sample only a tiny fragment of Chilliwack’s water and told council, “You probably have E. coli contamination within your water system all the time.”

 

Environmental sources of E. coli are not always what they seem

Posted on by
1

Up to 24 per cent of E. coli in soil sediment is from urban, not farm runoff, in areas of California.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have identified sources of E. coli bacteria that could help restore the reputation of local livestock. Studies by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist Mark Ibekwe suggest that in some parts of California, pathogens in local waterways are more often carried there via runoff from urban areas, not from animal production facilities.

Even though most strains of E. coli are non-pathogenic, the bacterium is monitored by public health officials as an indicator of water quality. Cows are often seen as the culprits when E. coli is found in local lakes, rivers and other bodies of water.

Ibekwe, who works at the ARS U.S. Salinity Laboratory in Riverside, Calif., and his colleagues collected 450 water and sediment samples from 20 sites throughout California’s middle Santa Ana River Watershed. The collection sites included urban areas, livestock feeding areas, parks, National Forest lands, and three wastewater treatment plants.

Then the scientists extracted E. coli bacteria from each sample and identified 600 different isolates of E. coli in their samples, many of which could be placed into six clonal populations. They found the greatest variety of different types of E. coli in runoff discharged from areas dominated by urban development or human activities.

Ibekwe also tested all the E. coli isolates for resistance to various antibiotics. He found that from 88 to 95 percent of the isolates were resistant to rifampicin, and that around 75 percent were resistant to tetracycline. Tetracycline resistance was by far the most common type of resistance observed in E. coli isolates collected near wastewater treatment plants.

The scientists also found that 24 percent of E. coli collected in sediment samples associated with urban runoff—a total of 144 isolates—showed resistance to as many as seven antibiotics. Results from this work were published in PLOS ONE.

Changes planned after Las Vegas marathon illness probe

Posted on by
Reply

On Dec. 4, 2011, some 44,000 runners participated in the annual Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in Las Vegas. About 500 got sick with sapovirus.

A health district investigation determined that people were probably exposed to the virus the morning before the race — maybe at a runners’ expo where race numbers were distributed, although water distribution during the race had been suspected.

This year, organizers are promising several changes, including strict sanitation rules and a contractor supplying water to runners.

Filthy water for ag workers in California

Posted on by
Reply

Like most children, the students at Stone Corral Elementary School in Seville, Calif., here rejoice when the bell rings for recess and delight in christening a classroom pet.

But while growing up in this impoverished agricultural community of numbered roads and lush citrus orchards, young people have learned a harsh life lesson: “No tomes el agua!” — “Don’t drink the water!”

According to the New York Times, Seville, with a population of about 300, is one of dozens of predominantly Latino unincorporated communities in the Central Valley plagued for decades by contaminated drinking water. It is the grim result of more than half a century in which chemical fertilizers, animal wastes, pesticides and other substances have infiltrated aquifers, seeping into the groundwater and eventually into the tap. An estimated 20 percent of small public water systems in Tulare County are unable to meet safe nitrate levels, according to a United Nations representative.

In farmworker communities like Seville, a place of rusty rural mailboxes and backyard roosters where the average yearly income is $14,000, residents like Rebecca Quintana pay double for water: for the tap water they use to shower and wash clothes, and for the five-gallon bottles they must buy weekly for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth.

It is a life teeming with worry: about children accidentally sipping contaminated water while cooling off with a garden hose, about not having enough clean water for an elderly parent’s medications, about finding a rock while cleaning the feeding tube of a severely disabled daughter, as Lorie Nieto did. She vowed never to use tap water again.

Chris Kemper, the school’s principal, budgets $100 to $500 a month for bottled water. He recalled his astonishment, upon his arrival four years ago, at encountering the “ghost” drinking fountains, shut off to protect students from “weird foggyish water,” as one sixth grader, Jacob Cabrera, put it. Mr. Kemper said he associated such conditions with third world countries. “I always picture it as a laptop a month for the school,” he said of the added cost of water.

Here in Tulare County, one of the country’s leading dairy producers, where animal waste lagoons penetrate the air and soil, most residents rely on groundwater as the source for drinking water. A study by the University of California, Davis, this year estimated that 254,000 people in the Tulare Basin and Salinas Valley, prime agricultural regions with about 2.6 million residents, were at risk for nitrate contamination of their drinking water. Nitrates have been linked to thyroid disease and make infants susceptible to “blue baby syndrome,” a potentially fatal condition that interferes with the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen.

UK school boycotted in E. coli scare

Posted on by
Reply

The. U.K. is sorta ground zero for E. coli O157 outbreaks in schools and little kids.

So it’s understandable that a primary school has been boycotted by terrified parents amid fears of E. coli contamination.

The playground of Lawfield Primary School in Midlothian was flooded with contaminated water from a neighbouring farm field.

The local council admitted “a wide range of bacteria” was present and warned parents of a potential risk by text message.

They also cordoned off the affected area and are insisting all pupils wash their hands with antibacterial gel.

Despite the measures, it is understood that as many as 30 children have been taken out of the school.

Parents say they will not return to the school, which has 230 pupils, until the presence of potentially deadly E-coli bacteria is ruled out.

Mark Wilkinson, 38, who has two sons at the Edinburgh school, was especially concerned as his wife contracted the bacteria while being treated for kidney stones at a city hospital.

The dad-of-three said: “They’re not going back until I know for a fact there’s no E-coli.

“My wife nearly died of E-coli a couple of years ago so I know how easy it is to catch it – it’s a silent killer.

“There is water running into the playground off a farmer’s field which the school believes may be contaminated with E-coli.

“If the council is testing the water why is the school still open?”

Another father, who wished to remain anonymous, said he received a text from the school around 8.30am advising children to bring a second set of footwear, but by that time it was too late.

He said: “I took the girls to school and a nursery teacher said there had been an outbreak of E-coli in the playground – I was shocked.

“When I went to pick my daughter up from nursery at 11.45am about 30 parents were there taking their kids out of school.

“I decided to take my oldest daughter out of school too – I won’t send them back until the council gives the all-clear.”

110 sick; New Zealand tummy bug worsens

Posted on by
Reply

More than 110 people have been struck down by gastroenteritis in the Darfield area after drinking contaminated water.

The notifications come one week after the Selwyn District Council issued a boil-water notice after E. coli was found in some parts of the Waimakariri River.

Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey today said six cases had been confirmed as campylobacter.

Yesterday, there had been 19 notifications. Today, there had been more than 110.

”It’s a pretty big increase and it’s a fairly major waterborne outbreak,” Humphrey said.

He said all notifications had come from the Darfield Medical Centre and the outbreak was ”highly concentrated” in and around the township.

The water supply was the ”main suspect.”

”Children who are only a few months old up to people in their 70s and 80s have been affected.”

It’s only a matter of time before food is contaminated’ Should produce farmers get subsidized clean water to reduce risk of disease?

Posted on by
Reply

The Vancouver Sun reports that Metro Vancouver has rejected a special water rate for regional farmers, arguing the move would lead to a “trickle-down effect” and do little to improve the financial viability of farming.

But some directors argue the decision will lead to contaminated produce, or force farmers to leave the region because they can’t afford the high costs to grow and wash their crops for market.

“We have a huge urban population and people like to eat,” Richmond Coun. Harold Steves said. “It’s only a matter of time before our food is contaminated. We owe it to our people to ensure we have clean water to wash our food.”

However, other directors argued they can’t justify water subsidies at this time, and referred the issue to staff to investigate other measures such as alternative irrigation water sources, to increase actively farmed land in the region.

Surrey Coun. Linda Hepner said her city, where one-third of the land is in the Agricultural Land Reserve, is undergoing a study on potential alternatives to using potable water for agriculture. She and other directors also argued if Metro had agreed to the subsidy, the region could have been inundated with requests by water-intensive industries such as poultry processing farms or flower growers.

Staff would also have to seek changes to provincial legislation to allow the subsidy, which is considered at this time to be more work for limited gains, said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, chairman of Metro’s regional planning and agriculture committee. He said he would like to speak with the Agricultural Land Commission and talk to farmers about the issue first.

“There has to be a more convincing argument that this is going to have a higher benefit,” he said.

Delta is the only municipality to offer subsidized water rates to farmers right now. But if Metro were to follow suit it would cost the regional district $500,000 per year, according to a staff report.

Greenhouses are the major users of potable water. The other big users are vegetable growers, dairy farmers and organic farms.

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson pushed Metro mayors to support the subsidy Friday, arguing “water is the lifeline for agriculture.”

Robert Butler, of the Delta Farmers’ Institute, said farmers aren’t getting a fair shake. Higher costs in land taxes, he said, have resulted in farmers growing more high-value crops such as blueberries and cranberries.

“We are suffering from being a high-cost producer here and we can’t produce a lot of produce because it costs a lot of money,” Butler said. “Metro Vancouver wants us to grow local produce. But how the hell can you grow it if you don’t make any money?”

The primary source of water for irrigation of crops is rivers and ditches as well as groundwater. But the staff report notes with emerging food safety concerns, reduced availability of fresh water and potential effects of climate change, the demand for potable water by agriculture may be increasing.

Withdrawal sucks: Oregon City man lied to consumer hotline about contaminated water his mom drank, blames opiates

Posted on by
Reply

An Oregon City man who told a government hotline last summer his mother had been harmed by bottled water has pleaded guilty to making a false report of consumer product tampering, a federal crime that carries a potential five-year prison term.

He may have been stoned.

The Oregonian reports Curtis A. Purdy, 34 (right, exactly as shown), acknowledged in court papers that he lied last summer to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Consumer Complaint Line about how his mother came to be injured after drinking a bottle of Crystal Geyser water.

Purdy reported to the FDA hotline on Sept. 1 that the water, purchased from an Albertson’s grocery, had caused burns to his mom’s mouth, throat and stomach and that she had vomited and suffered diarrhea, according to a criminal complaint affidavit.

He later told investigators that he had put in the bottle some rubbing alcohol, which he kept around to clean his marijuana pipes. His memory of the incident was hazy, according to the complaint, because he was undergoing opiate withdrawal.