Reclaimed Wastewater News

Reclaimed Wastewater News

Seattle PI | Link to original

Before Oak Harbor indebts its citizens by another $100 million for a new wastewater treatment plant (more than double that including interest), someone should suggest a cheaper alternative that is far more environmentally friendly: Composting toilets.

This is not a new suggestion. It was first proposed by environmentalists before Langley built its new sewer plant years ago. The proposal penciled out but didn't pass the nose test. The thought of a toilet in one's bathroom that composted waste rather than flushing it away was too indelicate for Langley's prim population to seriously ponder.

Jul 8, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed that the death of an Arizona resident who had traveled to Germany is linked to Europe's sprout-related Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak.

The CDC had previously said it was investigating if the fatality was related to the outbreak. In today's update, the CDC said it has now confirmed all six of the US cases that have links to the outbreak. Four of the US patients had hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), including the Arizona patient who died.

Five of the US patients had traveled to Germany before they got sick, and one was a close contact of a Michigan patient who had HUS, a serious kidney disorder.

The Arizona case is the first fatality in the outbreak outside Europe. The Arizona Department of Health Services had previously said that the patient is a man older than 65 who died in mid June after he was hospitalized for HUS, according to a Jun 24 report from the Arizona Republic.

Nanotechnology was supposed to revolutionize the world, making us healthier and producing cleaner energy. But it’s starting to look more like a nightmare.

Nanomaterials—tiny particles as little as 1/100,000 the width of a human hair—have quietly been used since the 1990s in hundreds of everyday products, everything from food to baby bottles, pills, beer cans, computer keyboards, skin creams, shampoo, and clothes.

But after years of virtually unregulated use, scientists are now starting to say the most commonly used nanoproducts could be harming our health and the environment.

One of the most widespread nanoproducts is titanium dioxide. More than 5,000 tonnes of it are produced worldwide each year for use in food, toothpaste, cosmetics, paint, and paper (as a colouring agent), in medication and vitamin capsules (as a nonmedicinal filler), and in most sunscreens (for its anti-UV properties).

Chicago Tribune | link to original - At a time of rising concern over pathogens in produce, Congress is moving to eliminate the only national program that regularly screens U.S. fruits and vegetables for the type of E. coli that recently caused a deadly outbreak in Germany.

The House last month approved a bill that would end funding for the 10-year-old Microbiological Data Program, which tests about 15,000 annual samples of vulnerable produce such as sprouts, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cantaloupe and cilantro for pathogens including salmonella and E. coli.

Over the last two years, its findings have triggered at least 19 produce recalls, according to the Food and Drug Administration.