Here’s a quote from the March 19 Lancet paper:
Prolonged presence of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in faecal samples
"Our data suggest the possibility of extended duration of viral shedding in faeces, for nearly 5 weeks after the patients' respiratory samples tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Although knowledge about the viability of SARS-CoV-2 is limited, 1 the virus could remain viable in the environment for days, which could lead to faecal–oral transmission, as seen with severe acute respiratory virus CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome CoV.2 Therefore, routine stool sample testing with real-time RT-PCR is highly recommended after the clearance of viral RNA in a patient's respiratory samples. Strict precautions to prevent transmission should be taken for patients who are in hospital or self-quarantined if their faecal samples test positive."
www.thelancet.com/…
This paper poses many questions. The implications for facility staff, plumbers, municipal sewer workers, wastewater plant operators, and our health are profound. For example, most sewer plants aerate sewage, to provide additional oxygen for microbes to digest sewage solids. Aerosol exposure is talked about. No one is talking about sewage. I will, here.
Sewage may pose a very real risk of Covid 19 exposure. I’ll start with the tail end of sewage handling, the sewage plant, and how we treat it, near the end of the line.
Sewage flows into the “plant”, through the plant’s “grit chamber”and the “bar screen”. Then it is aerated—that’s usually why these facilities smell. Aerosols linger or move with the winds. Visit one in the morning and see the fog.
After aeration at most sewer plants, solids not digested are pumped off. Then the sewage sludge is dewatered, to reduce it’s volume, and lower transport cost. Some facilities then cart the sludge to landfills, where workers don’t wear biohazard level PPE. Other facilities ship the treated “biosolids” to farmland for fertilizer, often on pastures and food crops—for our consumption. Or it’s sold as “organic” soil, blended or neat, in plastic bags.
Does Covid-19 survive on to farm and crop land, or to sewer plant “spray fields” or effluents outflow into our waterways? I could take the CDC answer method—stinking with “evidence-based data” and say “I’ve not seen any evidence.” Yet. But we know some things about coronaviruses, like the previous SARS.
Or, following reasonable concerns for public health, we could look to the other dangerous coronavirus, SARS-1. Follow the Precautionary Principle, err on the side of safety. Even CDC has to say:
“SARS, a similar coronavirus, has been detected in untreated sewage for up to 2 to 14 days. In the 2003 SARS outbreak, there was documented transmission associated with sewage aerosols. Data suggest that standard municipal wastewater system chlorination practices may be sufficient to inactivate coronaviruses, as long as utilities monitor free available chlorine during treatment to ensure it has not been depleted.”
Sewage spills, upstream of sewage plants, have no ‘free chlorine’. Flooded sewer plants have little, if any, disinfectant. This has serious and grave implications, and poses another exposure risk, leading to cases with “no known link to a known infected person”. Asia had one case that made the news, with the newly patient infected 10 stories below a known patient in isolation. Lack of an air trap, bad plumbing.
As that case suggested, near the end of the sewer line, the sewer plant, is just part of this potential risk pathway. All the leaks and spills upstream are into the environs. That waste isn’t going to be disinfected with chlorine. Spills from plugged sewer lines will go up—for sure—and not just from flooding. More “flushable” wipes have been plugging municipal sewer lines for some time, along with “fatbergs”. That will become way too common now. One Chinese had a six-fold increase as a result of this crisis.
These blocked sewer lines are often unplugged with vacuum machines—big truck-mounted vacuums, and they certainly aerosolize expelled air and vapors as they try to pull the blockage from the sewer lines. This pathogen can infect through the air.
Backing up to the building’s plumbing system, are plumbers being told their exposure risk when they are called on to “unplug” the sewer pipes in the building, home, or hospital can present grave risks? Not yet, and they may not be, if we don’t all help get the word out. Now.
Please spread this information, virrally if possible, or at least faster than this virus. To everyone. The risk isn’t just asymptomatic people anymore, or those touch surfaces. Or being too close to others. I could go on with more implications... please share your insights.
More testing is a necessity to slow and stop this. Not just airways:
The Lancet paper suggests that “recovered” patients should not be released until a fecal sample also is “clear”. Are any families being told that? Any of this? We can’t even test the sick, or our heroic healthcare workers, or our first responders.
We just had our FEMA training center for responders—funded to train even for the worst, bioterrorism events—choose to close, March 13th. We will desperately need trained responders from FEMA’s program, and others. This Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) is in Anniston, AL. “donning and doffing” of PPE for a biohazard environment is procedural, and requires training. Sewer repair crews will need this training. And PPE.
The Anniston community denied the Americans brought home from one of the first cruise ships the use of the purpose built facility when these Americans needed quarantine housing. Congressman Mike Rogers (R) told the town he had spoken to President Trump. Later, he said, “heads will roll” over this shunted plan. Can we have the closed facilities unused PPE, to give to the street crews who deal with sewer leaks?
The only path out of this crisis is more testing. More and more testing. Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s interview on Face the Nation today is a must-see. He makes it clear that universal testing and tracking of all infected is the only path.
www.cbsnews.com/…
“the scenes out of New York are going to be shocking. I think that the hospitals in the next two weeks are going to be at the brink of being overwhelmed...The time to hospitalization is nine to 12 days. I think there's other cities that are at extreme risk.”
This whole crisis continues to be mishandled. At the federal level it doesn’t look like anything is getting better.
Please help get this new information out. Now. The “touch surfaces” research papers were published long before that fundamental advice and data got wide media attention. (posted in commens here, February 20th). The probable risk posed by wastewater and sewage and sludge handling needs media attention. Now.
If our President can tell us all his “hunch”—with little evidence—that an existing drug can be used to treat Covid-19, can we not hide behind the “no evidence exists yet” showing Covid-19 is a very probable threat in our sewage systems and “biosolids”? We will find out. Soon.
We’ll likely learn our sewage is a threat, with pathogens and toxic chemicals. It has been all along. This one is novel. We won’t forget how it is handled.
“In this study, we found that the virus can survive for 14 days in sewage at 4 degrees C, 2 days at 20 degrees C, and its RNA can be detected for 8 days though the virus had been inactivated. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the RNA of SARS-CoV could be detected from the concentrates of sewage of both hospitals receiving SARS patients before disinfection and occasionally after disinfection though there was no live SARS-CoV; thus much attention should be paid to the treatment of stools of patients and the sewage of hospitals receiving SARS patients.” (2005, SARS 1)
(note: I know SARS-1 isn’t SARS-2, aka Covid-19. This study, along with the Lancet paper, is disturbing enough to motivate me to stop commenting and post. I’ll still keep emailing those ‘news tips’ to local and national outlets, in hopes this gets attention. I figure, with some evidence, they are swamped, likely witht hoax stories, and refuting Mr. Trumps claims. And soon, stories of many people who have died. Let’s see if this evidenced-based science paper makes the news, and how long it will take. Thank you for reading this. And tell a plumber. Every plumber. Everyone. Their life may depend on it. Be safe everyone.)
See also: Coronavirus leaves China with mountains of medical waste ...