Sewage Sludge Fuels Prion Diseases
Author/activist Gary Chandler continues to bolster our advocacy for abolishing land-disposed sewage sludge in America.
Gary's recent article below (as attenuated by me) discusses further the well-clouded epidemic of Prion Diseases, including the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathys (TSEs) that assault us and other animals, primarily as a result of inadequate and antiquated wastewater treatment systems. The resulting prion diseases affect humans and animals in various ways, such as by inciting Alzheimer's Disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Mad Cow Disease or Chronic Wasting Disease in Deer.
It appears that neither the US Environmental Protection Agency nor any State or local agency has any interest in controlling the propagation or transmission of infectious prions in or through our wastewater systems. Not one agency has taken an assertive lead in eliminating the known prion etiological agents in raw sewage, wastewater effluent or sewage sludge. Prevention of chronic disease is not their obvious mission, interest or priority.
So, where do we go from here?
Step One: Recognize the problem.
Step Two: End immediately all human exposure to sewage sludge, 'treated' or not, which means abolishing all land disposal of sewage sludges in any form.
Step Two Point Five: End all human exposure to wastewater effluent.
Step Three: Enjoy the lives saved and the resulting substantially-reduced medical cost burden.
rch
Original Article: Sewage, Biosolids, Reclaimed Wastewater Fueling Chronic Wasting Disease, by Gary R. Chandler, June 3, 2015.
http://garychandler.com/sewage-biosolids-reclaimed-wastewater-fueling-chronic-wasting-disease/
Prion Diseases are Spread By Victims
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is ravaging wildlife in many regions across North America. It's part of a larger epidemic of neurological disease that is killing millions of people, wildlife and livestock around the world. Once again, wildlife are serving as the proverbial canary in a coal mine.
CWD is part of an incurable spectrum disease called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). The operative word is "Transmissible." Mismanagement of pathogens associated with the disease are contributing to a broader epidemic of neurological disease among wildlife, livestock and people. Few, if any, mammals are immune to prion disease. There is no species barrier.
TSEs include Alzheimer's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, mad cow disease and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. Few, if any, mammals are immune. There is no cure and there is no species barrier.
TSEs, including CWD, are caused by a deadly protein (a self-replicating infectious protein fragment) called a prion. Prion disease is unstoppable. Prions defy all attempts at sterilization and inactivation. Victims can spread the disease even further via their bodily fluids, cells and tissues. Victims often are contagious long before they appear sick. Their saliva, urine, blood and feces spread the pathogen further every day. Prions linger in the environment and on objects indefinitely. They migrate, mutate, multiply and kill with unparalleled efficiency.
Although there are many causes and pathways contributing to CWD and the prion disease epidemic, many pathways are being mismanaged around the globe. Thanks to raw sewage, sewage sludge (sometimes referred to as 'biosolids'), reclaimed sewage water (wastewater effluent) and feedlot waste, we're recycling the prion pathogens that causes neurological diseases right back into our watersheds, which we share with deer, elk, moose, livestock and other creatures that are vulnerable to prion disease. Rain, wind and irrigation spread deadly prions further every day. Healthy wildlife are being exposed to deadly prions through food, water, air and contact with infected animals.
In reality, CWD is likely to be in wildlife herds where sewage sludge has been dumped openly in forests, fields and on open lands where wildlife and livestock graze. Wildlife that drink downstream from these open sewage dumps also are at risk, and so are people.
Since prions are in the bodily fluids of its victims, the mismanagement of sewage sludge and wastewater effluents are top concerns. Wastewater treatment plants can't detect or stop prions. Therefore, putting sewage sludge ('biosolids') on crops and the open dumping of sewage sludge throughout our forest watersheds is a very bad idea. Dumping sewage sludge and wastewater effluent from billions of people on land and at sea creates deadly prion freeways.
Every sewage system in the world has been used by a person, if not by millions of people, with Alzheimer's disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Sewage systems have become prion incubators. Biosolids, wastewater effluent reuse and sewage sludge disposal have made sewage systems potent prion distributors. The waste from feedlots is likely contributing to the problem, as well.
It's impossible to neutralize or stop prions in even the most sterile environments, including in hospitals. It's ludicrous to think that sewage sludge or wastewater effluent may be prion-free, no matter the wastewater treatment process used. Prions from people are much more infectious than those found in other species.
According to the US EPA, "Prions are extremely resistant to inactivation by ultraviolet light, irradiation, boiling, dry heat, formaline, freezing, drying and changes in pH. Methods for inactivating prions in infected tissues or wastes include incineration at very high temperatures and alkaline hydrolysis."
The EPA National Water Research Compendium 2009-2014 lists prions eight times as an emerging contaminant of concern in sewage sludge (biosolids), wastewater effluents and manures.
The EPA issued what it calls the "Sludge Rule," which basically disclaims any responsibility for its risk assessments regarding sewage sludge or biosolids (See URLs below for documents and opinions on the matter of the land disposal of sewage sludge).
Prion researcher Dr. Joel Pedersen, from the University of Wisconsin, found that prions become 680 times more infective in certain soils. Pedersen's research also found that sewage treatment does not inactivate prions. Therefore, prions are lethal, mutating, migrating and multiplying everywhere sewage sludge is dumped.
Wastewater treatment plants do not neutralize deadly prions. "Our results suggest that if prions enter municipal wastewater treatment systems, the agents bond to sludge, survive anaerobic digestion, and would be present in treated sewage sludge (biosolids)." Pedersen said, "Land application of biosolids containing prions represents a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results emphasize the importance of keeping prions out of municipal wastewater treatment systems. Prions could end up in sewage treatment plants via slaughterhouses, hospitals, dental offices and mortuaries, just to name a few of the pathways. The disposal of sludge represents the greatest risk of spreading prion contamination in the environment. Plus, we know that sewage sludge pathogens, pharmaceutical residue and chemical pollutants are taken up by plants and vegetables."
(Gary R. Chandler: Public affairs and issue management strategist. Sustainability author and advocate. Founder of Crossbow Communications and Sacred Seedlings. @Gary_Chandler.
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/biosolids/
http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/wastewater/treatment/biosolids/genqa.cfm
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/biosolids/503pe_index.cfm
http://www.deadlydeceit.com/SludgeMagic.html
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1205470/
A few fungal species thrive in toxic sewage sludge, with some pharmaceutical packaging,
including edible species, rendered now as toxic.
Land-Disposed Sewage Sludge hidden in our forests.
Toxic Sewage Sludge flows across the forest floor amongst the dead things, amid lots of plastic debris.
Murky waters flow away from a sludged forest into the wetlands and streams below.
You can spot the sewage sludge leachate and runoff foam on the impaired forest waters from afar, even miles beyond the sewage sludge open dump sites.
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