Sludge Watch ==> National Animal Disease Lab - failure to treat prion wastes into sewers

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:


Here we have it again...prion risk wastes being released into the public 
sewers.  In Canada the National Animal Lab were releasing scrapie (sheep 
version of BSE) tissues into the sewers after inadequate lab autoclave 
temperatures.

Now we have problems with the US Animal Disease Lab...javex will not 
disinfect prions!

These lab wastes need ultra high temperature incineration....and if sewage 
sludge contains prionic wastes, there is a good argument for a thermal 
sludge solution to ensure disinfection.

Here are the containment standards...and don't forget mortuary standards 
where people have Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/sci/bio/consult/prionse.shtml

If you want to read about the Ottawa Canada release of prion wastes into the 
sewers read
Natural Life Magazine:
http://www.life.ca/nl/77/scrapie.html

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http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060519/NEWS03/605190382/1030/BUSINESS01

DesMoines Register

Concerns at Ames lab delay mad cow study
Workers at the National Animal Disease Laboratory object to how sewage is 
being treated before it's released.

PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


May 19, 2006



The National Animal Disease Laboratory in Ames has halted a study of how mad 
cow disease is transmitted because of questions about the lab's 
sewage-treatment practices.

The research - now postponed until the fall - would include inserting 
protein linked to the disease into the brains of calves to study how bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called "mad cow disease," is 
transmitted.

"We decided to wait until everyone is comfortable with our processes before 
starting that work," lab spokeswoman Sandy Miller Hays said Thursday.

Lab workers recently accused the facility of failing to properly treat 
infectious wastes before the sewage is sent to the city's treatment plant, 
which empties into the Skunk River.

Mad cow is linked to an altered protein called a prion that would be 
expected to stick to sludge, which is spread on land at the city treatment 
plant.

Officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the lab, said 
the heat treatment used in Ames is an approved method that deactivates the 
protein that causes the disease. The workers maintain that other labs use a 
safer system - bleaching, then cooking.

Ames city officials last week called for an independent task force of 
scientists to review the procedures. Miller Hays said the panel would be 
named by Memorial Day and could complete its work by the end of August.

If the expert panel suggests a different protocol that will improve the 
sewage treatment, the agency will consider a change, she said.

The lab gained international fame as the facility that confirms cases of mad 
cow. There are different forms of the disease, including one that affects 
humans. Scientists are still trying to figure out if mad cow can be passed 
from cattle to humans, a prospect that drew more attention after an outbreak 
in Great Britain.

Scientists at the Ames facility also study other diseases carried by prions 
- including chronic wasting disease and sheep scrapie - but scientists say 
those can't be passed on to humans.

The lab has been under fire for a variety of environmental problems. The 
Iowa Department of Natural Resources has proposed a $10,000 fine as part of 
an agreement with the lab involving nearly two dozen violations that began 
in 2001 and intensified the past two years. The lab disputes 15 of the 
charges.

Under pressure from environmental officials, the lab has also changed a 
policy in which it sent non-diseased animals to rendering plants to prevent 
overloading its incinerators. For several months, the containers that 
carried the dead animals were wheeled outside, where they were rinsed out. 
No blood got in the city's storm sewer, Miller Hays said, but environmental 
officials objected and the lab has returned to incinerating all animals.

The facility has also cut in half the weight of wastes fed into the 
incinerators.

An incident in February in which a sewer backed up resulted in 5 to 10 
gallons of water from an area that included diseased animals being dumped 
onto the lab's yard as plumbers fixed a pipe.

Workers bleached the area, and the workers said the water did not get near 
the storm sewer.