Information needed

This is an informal poll and is an attempt for me to gain knowledge and change my attitude if necissary.
I recently have had a couple of people tell me they never use bleach or bleach products,
Bleach products would include products that have chlorox in them (laundry bleach, cleaning products with bleach, mildew stain removal products, many disinfecting liquids), most pool disinfecting chemicals (bromine is another), most automatic dishwasher detergents and many other cleaning products.

The question starts with my statement that I do not know anyone who does not use some product with bleach in it.
Do you know anyone WHO DOES NOT USE ANY product with bleach?
Please respond with the location of the world (Provence or state and country)  and what is the alternative used.

scofieldtown dump - the investigation

As meeting progress and people leave and new people come and ideas change hands and people get angry.  I am still waiting for the science.  Yes, I am admitted "Squint" (as coined in the TV show; Bones).
All those homes that were tested (I count 197, plus some that were done by private home owners and then shared), what was the big deal?
The START survey contracted by the US EPA found pesticides in some wells on Hannah's Road.  They found a spot with some Dieldren in the playground are of the dump, but what else was found?
It is not talked about.  The public talks VOCs.SVOCs. Heavy metals, but the things found in the greatest concentrations in the area where the water drains out of the dump, were none of those.
It was old pesticides, DDT and its family (DDE and DDD) and a PCB pesticide Archlor.  Those levels were hundreds to tens of thousands of times greater than dieldren found.  If the dump was a source, they would be in the wells.  They were looked for, they were not found even in a trace amount.
The START testing looked at VOCs.  I was interested in VOCs, which are solvents and components of oil and gasoline.  The START testing found acetone, but in the quality control a "field blank" is carried with the sampler to ensure that any false contamination would not be introduced into the other samples.  The field blank had acetone.  Eliminate that as a VOC.
So out of the 197 homes tested, all for VOCs. what was the outcome?  Mostly chlorination and bromination by-products, all easily attributable to pools and hot tubs in the area and household bleach use.  There were a couple of strange chemicals found in 2 wells in trace amounts (Chlorotoluene), and two wells which had oil or gas residue.  One well with a paint solvent.  All of then very separate from each other.
The big thing about the site is there was a salt dome that was kept there, uncovered for years and some anecdotal evidence that the salt was buried into the dump after each season.  This would mean that thee are tons of water soluble sodium chloride flowing underground.
The wells in the area are very similar, most less than 300 feet in depth and only have 20 feet of casing.  there are many treatment softening systems used most disposing of the regeneration brine into their own septic systems.  Salt levels are varied, mostly along the lines of where the softeners are.  This can be further verified by levels of potassium, where the regeneration brine used was potassium chloride.
There are many other factor, the Villa Maria complex was an old farm house which farmed a large area.  there was a road leading south to what loos like a dump site for the farm, this is where Very Merry Rod ends.
Many wells were dug very close to the homes, there are no regulations and some of them abut the foundation.  Any termite treatment, which digs a hole 3 to 4 feet into the ground and then has an insecticide solution poured into it at intervals around the entire foundation of the home would effect a well that close to the foundation.
The issue is complex, but who fault is it?
All of ours because it is the years of not understanding what these chemicals could do to us and using them so haphazardly.
The dump is not the issue, all of us are the issue.

The anatomy of an outbreak

It starts with a report because somewhere someone was sick enough to either be admitted to a hospital or get their doctor concerned enough to check out why they were so sick.
Then another report. 
The second report should trigger an investigation, sometimes it does, some times not, but the third does.
Interviews are performed and a location that fits the time frame is uncovered.
Workers are then queried:
Is any one sick?  The response is usually a unified no.
More questions about what they do, when they work.
Then general food handling practice.
What do they work with?
Do they use gloves?
Do they wash their hands?
They all know the right answers, but occasionally some one blanches on a question nad we know the truth.
Stool samples are required of every worker.
They do not report all the people who work there, but samples form the workers come back positve.
Some confess they have been sick.  They know that if they are positive they will be out of work for at least 2 weeks.
The owner gets upsets, "we cook our chicken to 550 degrees!", he exclaims.
We look at each other and tell him it is not the chicken.  that it probably was someone who was sick working with out gloves on the salad.  he blanches and asks, gloves?  Salad?
A worker comes in, not on our list. 
They work nights. 
They were not told about the problem.
They have been sick.
They say everyone has been sick.
We know, we say.
More positive stools and now the restaurant is closed because all their workers test positive, even the owners.
We are told of people having been sick who ate there, but it is now a long while and they are okay.
When did it start?  We do not know.
How many people got sick?  A lot, many more than we will ever find.
Why. why don't they wash their hands?

The great Oxygen debate

Lack of oxygen in the Long Island Sound is increasing.  That is bad news, but it gets worse, the algae and nitrogens everyone blamed, are also decreasing.
The EPA had a large research boat in Long Island Sound several months ago, everyone is still waiting for the results.
The results have not been released because they do not know what to make of them.
Things are not what they expected.
Check the iron out guys, check what has happened to the iron.
That horrible black sludge loaded with sulfides, iron sulfides, gobble up oxygen like a hungry Pac man.
The oxidation process uses lots of oxygen.
The anaerobic conditions create the sulfides and the sulfides maintain them.
This is not a good situation.

Conffusion about Global warming

That is what you get if you look at the weather outside on any single day.
Global warming is about a cumulative effect over time.  Yesterdays and today's cold weather here in CT mean nothing because, If I wanted to look at it that way, I was picking parsley for dinner at Thanksgiving.
Neither tell a full story.
We can measure a definite increase in CO2 in the atmosphere that has been happening since the industrial revolution.  That will warm things up, but it will also make the weather even more unpredictable than it already is because things get unstable,
On the other side people want to blame global warming for loss of fidh in the Long Island Sound and that is not so easily proved.
As I have pointed out, man still was a major contributor, but our clean-up efforts have not occurred with our full understanding of what the impact is.
So in the freezing Northeast (Today) or the snowy Mid Eastern seaboard (today) or in warmer Arizona (currently) we will see what tomorrow will bring.
What ever we do, we have to think it through carefully.

Scofield

I said I would not post until things were finished, they are not finished I and will not yet go into details, however, i will explain about my role.
From June 2009 when they gave me the results from the START testing performed under the direction of the EPA, every bit of analysis and result has passed through my hands.  And I have given each piece scrutiny.
Every single local official involved has heard my take on things, every single one has ask me multitude of questions.
Actions do not have to be based on what i say, but what ever i have said, has been heard.
Any resident calling in has heard the same story from me from almost day one.  My story has not changed and the case i have made has had more evidence come in its favor.

On the professional level, i have done this type of thing for 30 years.  I have directed investigations and found answers.  i have been brought before courts and what I have had to say has been borne out.
I have approached this just like any investigation, environmental, forensic or whatever comes into the lab.
I have nothing to lose by making anything up and anyone can be annoyed at me for what i say, but the reality is, I am the expert in this town.
What I have heard in the papers and in the meeting, i do not think anyone really wants to look at the big picture.  No one, not the residents, not the DEP, not the local decision makers want to face what may very well be a national issue.

Enough said on that.

H1N1 Influenza Novel update

We are currently in the second round (from all that I gather), round of the H1N1 influenza virus coming around.
I hear they are expecting it again.
The vaccines have been effective for those who received them and now the clinics are being openned to everyone, not just children or people with children.
The last clinic the Stamford health Department jad in the beginning of January had close to 1,000 people get vaccinated.
People do take this seriously now that the "Hysteria" has died down.
There will be another one at the end of the month, so keep looking at the Health Department Website for more info.