The Ebola outbreak has arrived from the other side of the world to the Lone Star State. Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the deadly disease in the USA, died at a Dallas hospital on October 8, according to a report in USA Today. He carried the virus from Liberia to Dallas.

A Texas incinerator has destroyed drums loaded with items believed to have been contaminated by Duncan with Ebola in a report that appeared in The Austin American-Statesman. Veolia North America says the drums taken from a Dallas apartment where Duncan became ill were destroyed Friday at the company’s incinerator in nearby Port Arthur. His health care worker Nina Pham also contracted Ebola even though she wore protective gear while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the deadly disease in the USA.

With Ebola so prominently featured in the news, some Orange County residents may wonder what plans and procedures local emergency personnel have to respond to an outbreak.
Amanda Moore, Orange County Public Health Emergency Preparedness Planner, said the county has plans in place for all infectious diseases including Ebola. Moore said the procedures for infectious disease-like symptoms is to notify and inform emergency and medical personnel, contain the disease, take precautions, protect the public and disseminate vaccines.

There is also personal protective equipment for first responders.

She added she has been communicating with local, regional and state planning officials since the Ebola outbreak. Jeff Kelley, Emergency Management Coordinator for Orange County, said Moore’s job is to respond to public health outbreaks. He said Moore has been speaking with public health officials, hospitals, nursing homes and coordinating through daily conference calls to combat the Ebola threat. “We’re watching this very, very closely,” he said.

Kelley also added hospitals have their own emergency operating procedures. Jarren Garrett, chief administrative office for Baptist Orange Hospital, stated the hospital will follow the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention guidelines for all patients presenting to the hospital with Ebola symptoms. 

The CDC statement reads those who have traveled to West Africa in the last three weeks or who had close contact with someone who has traveled to West Africa and was ill or is known to be infected with Ebola and who have the following signs and symptoms:
Fever greater than 101.5 and at least one of the following:
Severe headache
Muscle or joint pain
Diarrhea and/or vomiting
Abdominal pain
Unexplained bleeding

Lee Anne Brown, assistant chief with the Orange Fire Department and the city’s emergency coordinator, said they are taking universal precautions. “We provide gloves and masks with face shields,” Brown said. “Acadian Ambulance Service carries body suits. We follow decontamination procedures.”

Brown said she’s been keeping up with the latest news on the outbreak.

She also cautioned that it’s the start of flu season and people need to protect themselves by washing their hands well and covering their sneezes and coughs as best one can.

by: http://therecordlive.com/2014/10/14/oc-emergency-officials-have-plans-for-infectious-diseases/

THE SMOKELESS INCINERATOR FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSE, IN LAGOS NIGERIA
WE WANT TO KNOW THE CAPACITY OF THE EQUIPMENT, HOW MUCH LOAD OF WASTE CAN IT BURN AT A PARTICULAR TIME AND FOR HOW LONG, AND THE TYPE OF ENERGY REQUIRED FOR THE OPERATION. PRICE INCLUDING SHIPMENT
for the destruction of the followings:
Polyester, polypropylene, polystyrene, vinyl acetate plastic, synthetic plastics,
natural rubber, synthetic rubber, polyurethane sheet, and bulky films, solids and
– particles that can be easily sorted
– Items that easily degenerate such as paper, wood, leather and garbage
– Chemical waste solids and liquids, waste oil and other difficult-to-handle items

HAI PHONG (VNS) — A seminar to evaluate a medical waste incinerator project built with Japanese technology was held this morning in the northern city of Hai Phong.

The project has been operational since January. The initial test results, collected by the Hai Phong Urban Environment One Member Limited Company, indicated that the incinerator meets all Vietnamese environmental protection standards.

The incinerator has been designed with the latest Japanese technology to process medical waste and harmful industrial waste.

The project is part of the co-operation programme between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Japan International Co-operation Agency. — VNS

by: http://en.baomoi.com/Info/Medical-waste-incinerator-completes-trial-phase/6/496772.epi

incinerators to install on the island of Aruba.
the island does not have medical waste & other waste incinerators.
we are in the process of exploring the feasabilty and setting up an incinerator facility
on the island of Aruba.
this is an island of 120.000 habitants.
we have 2 hospitals,more then 20 dentist offices,and over 50 doctor offices.
would it be possible to give us info on the capacity of incinerator we need
on this island.

A single Ebola patient treated in a U.S. hospital will generate eight 55-gallon barrels of medical waste each day.

Protective gloves, gowns, masks and booties are donned and doffed by all who approach the patient’s bedside and then discarded. Disposable medical instruments, packaging, bed linens, cups, plates, tissues, towels, pillowcases and anything that is used to clean up after the patient must be thrown away.

Even curtains, privacy screens and mattresses eventually must be treated as contaminated medical waste and disposed of.

Dealing with this collection of pathogen-filled debris without triggering new infections is a legal and logistical challenge for every U.S. hospital now preparing for a potential visit by the virus.

In California and other states, it is an even worse waste-management nightmare.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends autoclaving (a form of sterilizing) or incinerating the waste as a surefire means of destroying the microbes, burning infected waste is effectively prohibited in California, and banned in several other states.

“Storage, transportation and disposal of this waste will be a major problem,” California Hospital Association President C. Duane Dauner warned Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in a letter last week.

Even some states that normally permit incineration are throwing up barriers to Ebola waste.

In Missouri, the state attorney general has sought to bar Ebola-contaminated debris from a St. Louis incinerator operated by Stericycle Inc., the nation’s largest medical waste disposal company.

Due to restrictions on burning, California hospital representatives say their only option appears to be trucking the waste over public highways and incinerating it in another state — a prospect that makes some environmental advocates uneasy.

Rules for transport

Under federal transportation guidelines, the material would be designated a Class A infectious substance, or one that is capable of causing death or permanent disability, and would require special approval from the Department of Transportation, hospital representatives say.

“These are some pretty big issues and they need some quick attention,” said Jennifer Bayer, spokeswoman for the Hospital Association of Southern California.

“We fully expect that it’s coming our way,” Bayer said of the virus. “Not to create any sort of scare, but just given the makeup of our population and the hub that we are. It’s very likely.”

The Ebola virus is essentially a string of genetic material wrapped in a protein jacket. It cannot survive a 1,500-degree scorching within an incinerator, or the prolonged, pressurized steam of an autoclave.

“The Ebola virus itself is not particularly hardy,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said under questioning on Capitol Hill recently. “It’s killed by bleach, by autoclaving, by a variety of chemicals.”

However, CDC guidelines note that “chemical inactivation” has yet to be standardized and could trigger worker safety regulations.

Getting ready

California health officials recently tried to reassure residents that the state’s private and public hospitals were up to the task and were actively training for the possible arrival of Ebola.

“Ebola does not pose a significant public health risk to California communities at the present time,” said Dr. Gil Chavez, an epidemiologist and deputy director at the California Department of Public Health. “Let me tell you why: Current scientific evidence specifies that people cannot get Ebola through the air, food or water. … The Ebola virus does not survive more than a few hours on impervious surfaces.”

It was unclear whether California officials viewed the waste issue as a potential problem.

Although one-third of the state’s private hospitals and “a few” of its public hospitals reported to Boxer’s office that there would be problems complying with the CDC’s incineration recommendation, and others, a state public health official told reporters he was not aware of any conflicts.

Dr. David Perrott, chief medical officer for the California Hospital Association, said there was also confusion about whether infected human waste could be flushed down the toilet.

“Here’s what we’ve heard from the CDC: It’s OK,” Perrott said. “But then we’ve heard from some sources, that maybe we need to sterilize it somehow and then flush it down the toilet or you have to check with local authorities. It sounds maybe a little gross, but there is a real question about what to do with that waste.”

Overreaction?

Dr. Thomas Ksiazek, a professor of microbiology and immunology of the University of Texas Medical Branch, has said he believes there’s been a lot of overreaction about Ebola medical waste.

“There are other ways to deal with the waste; autoclaving would be chief among them,” Ksiazek said. “The problem is, most hospitals don’t use it for most disposable items. They’re quite happy to bag them up and send them to a regular medical disposal company.”

But Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said incineration is simple and effective, and should be available to hospitals to help dispose of the mountain of waste.

Hershkowitz said states began to crack down on medical waste incineration years ago because materials that didn’t need to be burned were being sent to combustors and were emitting dangerous pollutants.

In this case of Ebola medical waste, he said California should reconsider its restrictions.

“There’s no pollutant that’s going to come out of a waste incinerator that’s more dangerous than the Ebola virus,” Hershkowitz said. “When you’re dealing with pathogenic and biological hazards, sometimes the safest thing to do is combustion.”

by: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Another-challenge-disposing-of-waste-5909413.php

The first of many public meetings concerning the disposal of more than 15 million pounds of M6 propellant at Camp Minden drew close to 150 concerned citizens and officials to the Minden Civic Center Thursday night.

There, they learned the agreement reached between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army, which will fund the $28.5 million clean up of the illegally stored material left by Explo Systems, Inc., calls strictly for open air burning.

“Local contractors, the Maddens, designed a device,” Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton, who set up the meeting, said. “For some reason, that device is not being considered in this clean up process.”

“We’re disappointed,” James Madden, owner of Madden Contracting, said. Madden’s son, David spent time and money researching and building a prototype that would’ve allowed closed incineration of the product. “We considered we built a better mousetrap.”

However, Madden may not be out of it yet. The Army must first design a bid package and go through a process required by law to find a company to take on the project.

“The Maddens can throw in a bid on the open tray process,” Sexton said. “They certainly have the right to come in and I think they will do that.”

State Sen. Robert Adley said while discussion concerning responsibility was taking place, the Maddens developed a plan to deal with it. Adley, along with others in the local delegation, attended a demonstration of the incinerator at Camp Minden last January.

“It looked good to us,” Adley said. “We’re not professionals, but under law, by their interpretation, the EPA cannot use that process. I regret that, but it’s where we are at this stage of the game.”

Adley said that under existing law, the Louisiana Military Department and Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis are required to take bids from whoever provides one.

“At the end of the day, he (Curtis) can sit down and decide who’s qualified, who has the experience and if they have the financial backing to do it,” Adley said. “All of those things will be taken into consideration. It would be wonderful if it ended up being someone who, when they finish, will be sitting here breathing this air with us.”

David Madden seemed resigned to the EPA’s decision after attending an informal meeting with officials earlier in the day.

“I’ve studied this process and, yes, I did work for an incinerator,” he said. “I met with EPA officials and other experts not associated with the EPA, and they are going down the right path with the open trays.”

Madden said his change of heart hinged on the haste with which the disposal must take place to avoid more degradation of the product, which makes it more dangerous.

“It is important this get started the first quarter of next year,” he said. “I have looked at the air quality plumes (from open tray burning). Only 10 percent of this fallout will go to Doyline. There’s an equal amount going toward Bossier and going north. Our business is about a mile and a half due east. We’re all going to get some of this.”

District 10 State Rep. Gene Reynolds said, going forward, communication is key.

“On my website and in my office, we will keep all of the completely updated materials,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to keep (the public) informed with everything that comes out from this point forward.”

Sexton stressed the importance of the public’s help.

“Help us calm the fears of the people in the community about what we don’t know is going to happen with the destruction of the M6 propellant,” he said. “We may all speculate on things that may happen, but we don’t need to talk about what we have to worry about. The people who are going to be responsible – whoever the contractor is – the people that are going to be disposing of this product, keep them in your prayers because something could happen to the people who are responsible for going out there and opening those bunkers, picking this product up, moving it and destroying it where we can live in a safer community.”

The next public meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 16. Time and location have not been decided.

by: http://press-herald.com/open-tray-burning-wins-out-over-closed-incinerator-for-m6-propellant-at-camp-minden/