🚀 go-pugleaf

goddess_kitten@my-deja.com wrote:
> Your community recycles organic wastes?  Interesting.  Do they have a
> composting facility to which these organic wastes are added?  What do
> they do with the resulting compost?

  We have a massive commercial composting facility outside of town,
but I was not talking about that. What I meant was that the same
people who promoted the curbside recycling progam also have promoted
personal recycling of organic materials and personal composting. But
I have never seen any type of health warning along the lines of the 
story I posted.
  If recycling and composting have serious possible health risks
that can be so easily determined, then maybe this should be given
as a warning with any publicity related to organic waste composting.
  You have to admit, the same people most involved in recycling and
composting, are also the same people who are most concerned about
the health effects of the environment. Meanwhile, they may be
seriouisly endangering their children's and or their  own health
with their own practices. 

> In article <8gi0sg$8rq$1@news.sysnet.net.tw>,
>   Michael Adams <adams@nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>>   Here's an interesting one.... recycling and composting can cause
>> serious health problems. I don't recall our local enviornmentalists
>> warning us about this when they started the recycling tax, oh I mean
>> mandated "curbside recycling fee" and forced us to pay it on the
>> water bill.
>>   I recycle every week, but you would think those encouraging
>> recycling and composting would put some kind of warnings in with
>> the water bill.
>>   "Warning  - recycling can be hazardous to your health."
>>
>>    BBC News Online
>>    Wednesday, 1 March, 2000, 19:02 GMT
>>
>>    Recycling health warning
>>
>>    Kitchen Microbes can be released into the kitchen
>>
>>    Recycling household waste could be bad for your health, scientists
>>    have claimed.
>>    Rubbish bins containing organic leftovers such as banana skins,
> potato
>>    peelings and apple cores release far higher numbers of potentially
>>    harmful bacteria and moulds into the kitchen than bins containing
>>    mixed garbage, say Dutch researchers.
>>    These include substances known to aggravate common respiratory
>>    ailments, such as asthma.
>>    A team from Wageningen University analysed household dust from 99
>>    Dutch households.
>>
>>    There were loads of complaints about the smell from organic bins,
> and
>>    some people with respiratory illnesses said their symptoms got
> worse
>>
>>    New Scientist magazine reports that their research followed efforts
> by
>>    the Dutch government to encourage people to separate out their
> organic
>>    waste for composting.
>>    Lead researcher Dick Heederik said: "There were loads of complaints
>>    about the smell from organic bins, and some people with respiratory
>>    illnesses said their symptoms got worse."
>>    Dr Heederik said microorganisms thrive in the humid conditions
> created
>>    by rotting organic waste.
>>    The team tested for cell fragments called endotoxins, which are
>>    released when bacteria die.
>>    If people are exposed to these fragments in sufficiently high
>>    concentrations they can become breathless, cough and develop
> flu-like
>>    symptoms.
>>    The researchers also screened for mould components, including
>>    beta-glucans-sugars found in the coatings of numerous fungi.
>>    Beta-glucans have been shown to cause lung and throat inflammation.
>>    In homes where organic bins regularly remained unemptied for a week
> or
>>    more, levels of the bacterial endotoxins were three times as high
> as
>>    in homes with unseparated waste.
>>    Levels of the mould materials were up to eight times as high.
>>    Dr Heederik said the solution was either to keep the bins outside,
> or
>>    to empty them more regularly.
>>
>>

> --
> Light, Love, & Laughter,
> Kitten

> "Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never
> forgotten this." - Anonymous
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