11 wastewater treatment plants in LA County produce half a million tons of treated sewage sludge from human waste per year. Sludge is sent to a lnadfill in Kern County, the Westlake Facility, and some to Arizona
water pollution from sewage sludge
air pollution from sewage sludge and from trucks hauling the sludge to the farm - 55 trucks per day/20,000 per year at full capacity
LA County: "It's an important investment in long-term, reliable infrastructure that is critical to our ability to provide vital wastewater treatment services"
Westlake Farms: receiving less than they bargained for
Local farmers: it's a way to dispose of green waste (like wood chips)
Environmental groups and residents: concerned about air and water pollution, sued the project but settled after LA agreed to use clean-fuel trucks to haul waste. “It seemed like another deal where the Central Valley gets shafted by Southern California,” she said. “We send them good water to drink, and they send us back their poo. … I can’t say I’ll be really upset if they’re not operating at 100%.”
LA County: bought 14,500 acres of a farm for $27.4 million, used 2,500 acres to construct the $130 million composting plant, leased the remaining land back to the farm. The plant processes less than a 10th of what it was supposed to process, providing the farm with much less fertilizer than they expected.
Westlake Farms: sold the land to LA County, sued to have the sale undone after the plant produced much less fertilizer than expecte
Kings County and other nearby counties: banned application of biosolids (human waste) directly onto land, forcing LA to build a composting plant
WHAT (& WHAT FOR): Lead is a metal often found in pipes, and in old paint (before it was banned in paint in the late 1970s). Before 1996, lead also found in vehicle fuel resulting in soil contamination in many communities from both paint dust and vehicle pollution.
HEALTH IMPACT: Lead is a neurotoxin and is known to have no safe blood lead level in children.
Has been linked to:
Brain swelling, anemia, seizures, renal failure, reduced IQ, and ADHD
Damages brain development in children
Connected to behavioral problems like aggression and bullying, and internalizing problems such as depression and anxiety
LOCAL IMPACT: Recent research in Santa Ana has shown that there is a disproportionately impact of solid lead contamination crisis on lower income, people of color communities.
POSSIBLE RESPONSES: There are many ways to respond to lead contamination:
Providing special health care for children with high blood lead levels, and investigating possible sources of lead exposure in homes, daycares and school, playground, etc.
Implement strict housing policies where landlord and city housing officials are required to have lead inspections of homes for lead paint hazards (especially in low income, people of color communities)
Requiring a minimum reduction standard for lead paint in older homes
Requiring blood lead level test as part of the routine check up for children (extremely important for children in low-income housing)
This study examined the risk of acquiring Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) by healthcare workers in the setting of general hospitals and isolation units. By looking retrospectively at the Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone, the relative levels of risk to healthcare workers were computed and compared. The reasoning for these levels was also examined through interviews of surviving workers and the families/associates/colleagues of the deceased workers. The interviews reviewed common actions (and lack there of) for affected workers. This revealed certain themes that should be visited when reveising/creating hospital infection prevention and control policies.
In the case of this study, the vulnerable population examined was healthcare workers in Sierra Leone during the outbreak. These workers were found to be at a significant level of risk for transmission for a number of reasons. These include proximity to the virus (due to the occupation), lack of training in the area of infection control, and cultural factors (such as prevalence of self-medication and home management of illness). Nurses as a whole were most affected, with over half of the infected members.
The data acquired in this study can be used not only for improvement in policies and training for healthcare workers, but also to examine the risk factors for the disease. One example is the age and gender disparities in those nfected. These could be explained by the typical age and gender of healthcare workers, but could also show a trend in risk when coupled with patient data. The data on the districts and their infection rates can be used to help pinpoint the origin of infection.
The study was published in BMC Infectious Diseases, a peer-reviewed journal on the prevention, diagnoisis, and management of infectious disease. The journal seems to be genrally well respected.
This was a retrospective study. While not the most accurate and well supported way to conduct a study, due to the effects of recall bias, it was really the only way to gain the data that was presented in the report. There isn't really anything new about the style of research.
At least one further study has been conducted using this data. A more focussed paper on the Kenema District in Sierra Leone was written, addressing the staggering number of cases with infected healthcare workers. The paper is titled "Facors Underlying Ebola Virus Infection Among healthcare Workers, Kenema, Sierra Leone, 2014-2015." The paper reached similar conlusions as the original one, with a need for better practices in infection control and prevention.