This is not a restaurant review...
When "Sandy" hit, power was down all over.
The little (fill-in-the-blank) ethnic food establishment decided it would provide a service to its neighbors by opening up (or maybe it was just greed).
They had no power, but they cook with gas, no problem, right?
But the hot water is electric, so to wash their hands, it is only in cold water.
Okay i can deal with that, but then there is one more thing...
the refrigerators have no power and the little hole in the wall starts cooking at 11 AM for lunch.
Soon, with items being taken out of the refrigerator and freezer and with the ovens and stove going,
the temperature is no longer cold.
By 12 noon bacteria begin to grow in the food in these former safe zones.
Now, the E coli and Salmonella and camplobacter are not the worry, it is the simpler one, the bacteria that is everywhere normally that is the worry.
Staph, the kind that grows in your nose and in a cut. It is everywhere.
It is also killed by heat, but it has a secret because by 6 PM, the organisms that are growing in the food in the refrigerators and freezers begin to produce a toxin.
The toxin is NOT destroyed by heat and so people begin to get sick.
The illness 's onset is rapid because it is a toxin and can be life threatening depending on how much a Person ingests.
If the power is down - do NOT go to the local food place where the power is also down, it will not end well.
Showing posts with label bacteria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bacteria. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
perigee tide issues
Last year in Sepatember there was a perigee tide that i had not seen previously and the predicted tide hieght was greater than 9.3 feet.
We had samples beaches just as the tide was ebbing and found high bacteria counts.
Now this was something that i had expected with other high tides, but not found in much significants and so this was the first and only perigee tide that i had found what was suspected.
There were no duplications of the tide or of the results.
The high tide this year occured past midnight and sampling was done at incoming tide after the low.
There was nothing, no bacteria.
The situation remains unproven, but it also begs the question on how long such an effect might last?
The rainfall issue (washing bacteria into the Sound) was carefully studied and we discovered that 24 hours was always enough, but 12 hours was not enough.
This tide will not be repeated anytime soon (at least till after 2013 is over) and i will not be the one to find the issues and the particulars.
We had samples beaches just as the tide was ebbing and found high bacteria counts.
Now this was something that i had expected with other high tides, but not found in much significants and so this was the first and only perigee tide that i had found what was suspected.
There were no duplications of the tide or of the results.
The high tide this year occured past midnight and sampling was done at incoming tide after the low.
There was nothing, no bacteria.
The situation remains unproven, but it also begs the question on how long such an effect might last?
The rainfall issue (washing bacteria into the Sound) was carefully studied and we discovered that 24 hours was always enough, but 12 hours was not enough.
This tide will not be repeated anytime soon (at least till after 2013 is over) and i will not be the one to find the issues and the particulars.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Beaches
How long have I studied Stamford water quality at the beaches? 30 years? May be, but I really got down and dirty with it 20 years ago. This is the run off from all the rain cleaning urban streets and storm systems and hopefully providing food for creatures to eat because out there in the Sound a mile out there is nothing!
The unsettled weather, the 3 inch rain and the other thunder storms all around us has cause the water to have a lot of unusual bacteria organisms, none over limit to allow me to close them, but I would tell you to be careful going into the water. Wash off after.
We have not seen that mystical white Styrofoam type stuff, "Sewage grease" that I believed would be there from the 3 inch rain, but the weather has been very unsettled and may have broken it all apart in the near waters.
The next four or five days promise to be nice weather and that maybe enough to settle every thing down.
From the info I get from beach net, the indicator bacteria (and a pathogen in its own right) will come out of wet sand during this unsettled weather. it has not been numbers I worry greatly about and certainly not in numbers that would allow me to shut down bathing on a Fourth of July weekend, but caution is urged.
The unsettled weather, the 3 inch rain and the other thunder storms all around us has cause the water to have a lot of unusual bacteria organisms, none over limit to allow me to close them, but I would tell you to be careful going into the water. Wash off after.
We have not seen that mystical white Styrofoam type stuff, "Sewage grease" that I believed would be there from the 3 inch rain, but the weather has been very unsettled and may have broken it all apart in the near waters.
The next four or five days promise to be nice weather and that maybe enough to settle every thing down.
From the info I get from beach net, the indicator bacteria (and a pathogen in its own right) will come out of wet sand during this unsettled weather. it has not been numbers I worry greatly about and certainly not in numbers that would allow me to shut down bathing on a Fourth of July weekend, but caution is urged.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Predictive closures
Back to items I really know.
After work 20 years perfecting Stamford's policy of closing the beaches when conditions say that there is a good chance that there will be bacteria type problems in the recreational water, I became a bit defensive when I challenged the State's person in regards his take on this.
There is legislation in the US House to increase funding for testing (it will go to state agencies only) and require the development of rapid (2 hour) testing.
The portion I find laughable is that more or faster testing does not mean a great deal to me.
The example is when we were trying to understand problems that occurred at Cummings' beach and did time/tide/location studies.
We took a lot of samples.
They varied tremendously over all of the parameters. the sample sites were only about 10 feet apart.
This taught me a great lesson, bacteria are very different than chemicals and this was in 1988.
They clump together, they grow, they separate, they get eaten, they die.
The best I could do for my little 100 mL samples was get a hint of the activity beneath the waves.
So we began keeping very good records.
We tracked tides, rainfall, wind, temperature, bather load and other issues and slowly over thousands of samples we began to see things.
We established our bathing prohibitions based mostly on what was known from testing shellfish water, that rain will wash bacteria into the water, where it will live for a recordable time.
We knew this was not sewage, just normal bacteria that lives in everyday soil from every animal population that exists.
We figured that it lived in wet sand, but not dry. It seemed to exist in the water for at most 24 hours, then it was gone.
When you go to the beaches in Stamford after a heavy rain, there will be no bathing permitted. Enjoy the sand, the sun, but not the water until the next day.
We spent a lot of time trying to make sure you do not get sick from something that should be enjoyable.
After work 20 years perfecting Stamford's policy of closing the beaches when conditions say that there is a good chance that there will be bacteria type problems in the recreational water, I became a bit defensive when I challenged the State's person in regards his take on this.
There is legislation in the US House to increase funding for testing (it will go to state agencies only) and require the development of rapid (2 hour) testing.
The portion I find laughable is that more or faster testing does not mean a great deal to me.
The example is when we were trying to understand problems that occurred at Cummings' beach and did time/tide/location studies.
We took a lot of samples.
They varied tremendously over all of the parameters. the sample sites were only about 10 feet apart.
This taught me a great lesson, bacteria are very different than chemicals and this was in 1988.
They clump together, they grow, they separate, they get eaten, they die.
The best I could do for my little 100 mL samples was get a hint of the activity beneath the waves.
So we began keeping very good records.
We tracked tides, rainfall, wind, temperature, bather load and other issues and slowly over thousands of samples we began to see things.
We established our bathing prohibitions based mostly on what was known from testing shellfish water, that rain will wash bacteria into the water, where it will live for a recordable time.
We knew this was not sewage, just normal bacteria that lives in everyday soil from every animal population that exists.
We figured that it lived in wet sand, but not dry. It seemed to exist in the water for at most 24 hours, then it was gone.
When you go to the beaches in Stamford after a heavy rain, there will be no bathing permitted. Enjoy the sand, the sun, but not the water until the next day.
We spent a lot of time trying to make sure you do not get sick from something that should be enjoyable.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
MERSA
A little bug that strikes fear in hospitals cause it is so pervasive and can cause trouble in patients who are undergoing severe physical stress.
Funny back in the late winter I ran a few tests, looking at traditional remidies for bacteria problems in the throat. MERSA lives there some times.
I took a sample of MERSA plated it on blood agar plates and then added the following, Salt water, Listerine, garlic, vitamin C, hot pepper extract and vinegar. I also ran a negative control ( my mouth) . MERSA was delayed, but still grew in the Listerine after 24 hours. There was no slow down of grow in any of the others,,,except the vinegar, where there was no growth at all and the negative control.
So vinegar appears to be a very potent ally in the fight against really resistant bacteria.
So here is my boring health post
Funny back in the late winter I ran a few tests, looking at traditional remidies for bacteria problems in the throat. MERSA lives there some times.
I took a sample of MERSA plated it on blood agar plates and then added the following, Salt water, Listerine, garlic, vitamin C, hot pepper extract and vinegar. I also ran a negative control ( my mouth) . MERSA was delayed, but still grew in the Listerine after 24 hours. There was no slow down of grow in any of the others,,,except the vinegar, where there was no growth at all and the negative control.
So vinegar appears to be a very potent ally in the fight against really resistant bacteria.
So here is my boring health post
Friday, July 11, 2008
Another Dose of reality...Geese in the Water
Quick, tell me how many water fowl live on Holly Pond? 100?, 200?, maybe as many as 500?
Counting all the geese, ducks, swan, and other shore birds, I have been given counts that range between 150 to 500, so what does this have to do with a dose of reality?
No one likes geese in their parks, but besides the long green things they lay down in the grass, everyone likes to blame the geese for bad water quality at the beach, but I have not found that to be true. As a matter of fact, one of our esteemed environmental activist (Art Glowka, head of Stamford's shellfish commission, who many people roll their eyes when they hear his name and I won't get into that yet) took samples at Holly Pond. Two from where Smokey Joe's is (before the bird life), two at the little park where everyone feeds the birds (mid pond) and two at the outflow. We both noted that Holly Pond is filled with sea grass. The highest values for bacteria were at Smoky Joe's, this coming from various septic and urban issues up the Noroton River on both sides (Darien and Stamford). pH and phosphate increased at mid pond, but the bacteria levels were way down (we assume that the weeds are doing an excellent job here) and everything goes down to just about nothing a the dam. Of course the bacteria we are looking at tells us the geese don't contribute much of anything, and I can prove that with previous samples from Holly Pond and elsewhere. Of course when it rain for a short time the sea grass can't handle the increased flow and things was out (which is why we close for 24 hours), but it isn't the geese that are the problem.
I will take a short break (again5 days) before getting into some of this wonderful stuff.
Counting all the geese, ducks, swan, and other shore birds, I have been given counts that range between 150 to 500, so what does this have to do with a dose of reality?
No one likes geese in their parks, but besides the long green things they lay down in the grass, everyone likes to blame the geese for bad water quality at the beach, but I have not found that to be true. As a matter of fact, one of our esteemed environmental activist (Art Glowka, head of Stamford's shellfish commission, who many people roll their eyes when they hear his name and I won't get into that yet) took samples at Holly Pond. Two from where Smokey Joe's is (before the bird life), two at the little park where everyone feeds the birds (mid pond) and two at the outflow. We both noted that Holly Pond is filled with sea grass. The highest values for bacteria were at Smoky Joe's, this coming from various septic and urban issues up the Noroton River on both sides (Darien and Stamford). pH and phosphate increased at mid pond, but the bacteria levels were way down (we assume that the weeds are doing an excellent job here) and everything goes down to just about nothing a the dam. Of course the bacteria we are looking at tells us the geese don't contribute much of anything, and I can prove that with previous samples from Holly Pond and elsewhere. Of course when it rain for a short time the sea grass can't handle the increased flow and things was out (which is why we close for 24 hours), but it isn't the geese that are the problem.
I will take a short break (again5 days) before getting into some of this wonderful stuff.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Back to Being Technical - or how nice our beaches are
So I go back to the lab scene, because the weather is so nice and the newspapers are calling because they have to have a distraction from all the oil news. Of course, it isn't proper that I talk to reporters directly without them going through proper channels, which they don't ever seem to want to take the time to do, so here is the simple story in all its technical detail.
The City of Stamford has, since 1989, closed its beaches after heavy rains of 1 or more inches for 24 hours. We did this, not because of sewage come from the treatment plant (which is actually very well run and really hasn't had any significant problems in a very, very, very long time), but because Stamford (surprise, surprise), is very developed along the shore for several miles in and something called urban run-off and we have an intricate and complete set of storm drains which moves all that water from a storm directly to the Sound, without any treatment. Now back in 1989, the storm drains themselves were home to a huge population of raccoons, which added to the problem (this changed in 1991 when rabies crossed the Hudson River and decreased the population by 95%), but the problem is still we are too developed and all the stuff on the concrete and sidewalks gets washed down (I am not talking about dog poo, just everything that has bacteria).
To do this was a lot of work (trust me, I did most of it) and we were not trying to predict how much the bacteria levels would rise, just that the chance that they would be over the safe health limits for swimmers was fairly high after an inch of rain. Additionally, we found out that the natural course of things cleared it all out after 20 hours plus or minus 4 hours, so they stay closed for 24.
Now after 20 years of having this in place, everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon and trying to do this predictive modeling and figure out why it is happening.
They are finding that this bacteria we test for lives in the sand (yeah, we did that also) and the increased wave action from the storm will elevate it.
They described what urban run-off was and all the other things that we did back then are all about, so now its big news.
And what do the papers want to know? How often we have been closed this year.
Twice - we have had 2 heavy rains and the beaches were closed twice.
Having said that, everyone should know that the water for 2 weeks has been beautiful, very clear and so little bacteria that you could almost drink it, but don't.
The City of Stamford has, since 1989, closed its beaches after heavy rains of 1 or more inches for 24 hours. We did this, not because of sewage come from the treatment plant (which is actually very well run and really hasn't had any significant problems in a very, very, very long time), but because Stamford (surprise, surprise), is very developed along the shore for several miles in and something called urban run-off and we have an intricate and complete set of storm drains which moves all that water from a storm directly to the Sound, without any treatment. Now back in 1989, the storm drains themselves were home to a huge population of raccoons, which added to the problem (this changed in 1991 when rabies crossed the Hudson River and decreased the population by 95%), but the problem is still we are too developed and all the stuff on the concrete and sidewalks gets washed down (I am not talking about dog poo, just everything that has bacteria).
To do this was a lot of work (trust me, I did most of it) and we were not trying to predict how much the bacteria levels would rise, just that the chance that they would be over the safe health limits for swimmers was fairly high after an inch of rain. Additionally, we found out that the natural course of things cleared it all out after 20 hours plus or minus 4 hours, so they stay closed for 24.
Now after 20 years of having this in place, everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon and trying to do this predictive modeling and figure out why it is happening.
They are finding that this bacteria we test for lives in the sand (yeah, we did that also) and the increased wave action from the storm will elevate it.
They described what urban run-off was and all the other things that we did back then are all about, so now its big news.
And what do the papers want to know? How often we have been closed this year.
Twice - we have had 2 heavy rains and the beaches were closed twice.
Having said that, everyone should know that the water for 2 weeks has been beautiful, very clear and so little bacteria that you could almost drink it, but don't.
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