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More Details on Sick Building Syndrome and the Nasties Living in your Trash Chutes
"To err on the side of caution residents might serve themselves well to wear a HEPA filter respirator while depositing trash into the chute system. The Biological Health Hazards at minimum can cause upper and lower respiratory ailments with cold like symptoms as well as multiple allergies. It could very well be that the lack of trash chute cleaning is adding to the high occupancy rate of the medical physician's office."
Analytic & Biological Laboratories
"The intent of this study was to determine what types of organisms were present in the physical surfaces of the garbage chutes what organisms were airborne and the efficiency of a unique cleaning system that was applied to the contaminated surfaces. For those individuals who by virtue of their age might be in jeopardy owing to a compromised or deficient immune system the exposure to such pathogens as well as opportunistic pathogens might compromise an immediate health problem. A question now arises concerning those cases of Salmonella or pulmonary disorders whose etiology was unknown in the past. With the obvious colonization of bacteria in disposal chutes in apartment complexes it would behoove the local health departments to investigate these chutes as a possible source of threats to public health."
Analytic & Biological Laboratories
"Of the organisms recovered the pathogen Salmonella was the most predominant. This organism if contracted by handling or ingestion can cause considerable malaise as it has been involved in areas of Typhoid and food poisoning. In severe cases and if untreated it could be fatal in those areas where nutritional reserve is not sufficient. Because yeasts and molds are airborne the incidence of inhalation by exposure is always present. There are numerous pathogenic molds that will under certain circumstances inhabit the respiratory tract of man and depending upon the species become life threatening."
Palm Beach Post - "Cockroach Crud Can Lead to Asthma Among Children"
"Five years ago a team of researchers set out to determine why asthma is such a severe urban health problem. They penetrated the worst neighborhoods in seven big cities and spent $17 million vacuuming up dust, administering allergy tests, and pouring over the medical records of poor children. In a few months their first formal reports will hit the medical journals. Perhaps 50 papers eventually will be published. But in the end the piles of data largely boil to a single nasty word 'COCKROACHES'. The surprising result is likely in time to change the way the medical world thinks about childhood asthma. Already those in charge of the study view these bugs as a serious public Health Hazard."
Ambient Laboratories
"The risk of illness increases only when bacteria that can produce disease are selectively amplified in an environmental reservoir and these organisms or their products become airborne and successfully reach the breathing zone of susceptible humans. Due to the feet that the samples were collected from inside the garbage chute, elevated levels were expected. The presence of some of the above fungi cause allergic reactions, infections, and respiratory problems in sensitive individuals if elevated concentrations of spores become airborne. Elevated bacterial levels often indicate water-related conditions."
Sun-Sentinel
"Tests found two to three dozen types of bacteria and fungi -'a who's who of what's in the bacterial world' - is the way one state epidemiologist Juan Suarez put it. And in one chute's updrafts they detected Salmonella a potentially dangerous pathogen associated with rotten meals. Suarez, like Flenniken, suspects air currents inside chutes may increase the risk of exposure if something harmful is lurking inside."
Enact, Inc.
"Some of the microbiological agents (basically the bacteria) recovered and cultured by the laboratories are considered to be pathogens and could cause illness and disease in humans. Some of the fungi recovered and recultured by the laboratories can cause hypersensitivity and/or irritant type symptomatic responses in some sensitive individuals. With both the bacteria and fungi present it could present a potential health threat especially to those individuals with a weakened or compromised immune systems taking into account age, general health, and exposure to the concentration of microbial agent or agents. Trash chutes utilized for the disposing of a vast array of organic and inorganic garbage are expected to become contaminated with various types of 'unhealthy' micro-organisms as related lo human health in general. It is not wise to have individuals exposed to some of these microbial agents especially in concentrated form and methods should be employed to periodically clean and decontaminate these types of garbage chutes on a scheduled maintenance basis."
Building Environment Report
"To what degree trash chute bacteria can affect building occupants during brief exposures depends on ventilation maintenance and pollutant pathways. The risk is great if chutes become clogged tenants improperly dispose certain items such as chemicals or animal waste and trash chute air is allowed to enter the building's ventilation system. Building managers need to recognize that bacteria risks are greater if chutes become clogged tenants improperly dispose of certain items such as chemicals or animal waste, and trash chute air is allowed to enter the building's ventilation system. ...Bacteria found in trash chutes has the potential to cause building wide illness... and steps need to be taken to ensure bacteria is contained and abated in the trash chute."
Environmental Protection Agency Pub. 402-F-95-001
"Asthma, Air Quality, and Environmental Justice: Environmental justice means that all people should have an equal opportunity to live in a healthful environment. Where people are living in unhealthful environments, EPA is working to protect them by trying to reduce or eliminate their exposure to pollution."
Chapter 386.01 - Florida Legislative Code "Sanitary Nuisances"
"A sanitary nuisance is the commission of any act, by an individual, municipality, organization, or corporation, or the keeping, maintaining, propagating, existence, or permission of anything, by an individual, municipality, organization, or corporation, by which the health or life of an individual, or the health or lives of individuals, may be threatened, or impaired, or by which or through which, directly or indirectly, disease may be caused."
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| The Effects of Bacterial Pathogens on Humans |
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Salmonella: Bacterial Diarrheal illness, can cause Typhoid Fever E. Coli 0157: Lethal pneumonia, Diarrheal illness, urinary tract infections. Shigella Dysentery: Infection of large intestine causing ulceration. Legionella: Pneumonia, Pontiac fever, Legionaires' Disease. Listeria Mono Cytogenes: Attacks people with pre-existing conditions (cirrhosislymphomas and solid tumors, AIDS and cancer therapies) also Meningitis. Aeromonas Hydrophilia: Diarrheal illnesses, open wound infections. Clostridium Perfringens: Gas gangrene, food poisoning, open wound infections. Aspergillus Group (3 fungal types found): Hypersensitivity pneumonitus(HP), Asthma and allergies. Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: Urinary tract infections, Septicemia, Pneumonia, Meningitus, post surgical infections resistant to antibiotics. Staphylococci Aureus: Heart murmurs, Myocordial Abscess, high fevers, boils, wound and bone infections. Super infections can be fatal without treatment. |