E. Coli Can Kill You
The Killer Variant of Normal Bacteria
also
E
coli infection is becoming a dangerous new disease which is killing 250
people in America every year. Yet, only a few years ago, the strain of
E. coli doing this was unknown. Here is the story:
A
MODERN MENACE Normally
found in the intestines of people and animals, E. coli can modify itself
into forms which are extremely dangerous.
Five
years ago, four children died and 500 people fell ill after eating E.
coli 157-contaminated hamburgers at a certain West Coast restaurant
chain.
In
the half-decade since, there have been as many as 30 E. Coli outbreaks
each year in the U.S., resulting in thousands of very ill people and
hundreds of deaths.
In
the past seven months, new outbreaks have been reported in Indianapolis,
Milwaukee, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Americans have become sick after
eating ground beef, coleslaw, cheese, and various fruits and fruit
juices.
In
Indiana, 26 became infected from eating coleslaw at a fast-food outlet.
The trail led to an infected cabbage patch in Texas.
A
single dairy plant shipped infected cheese into three counties and 54
were infected.
In
Washington D.C., children at a day-care center handled toys which were
infected with the 0157 bacteria, and seven became ill.
In
Alpine, Wyoming, many became sick in July after drinking the public
drinking water. The infection produced sickness in 13 states yet it
was caused caused by drinking water in Alpine during one weekend in
June. Cows had gotten into the springs which supplied the water.
In
Atlanta, 26 children became sick in June after wading in a children's
pool at a water park; one two-year-old had a kidney breakdown and died
in July. (A leaky diaper or diarrhea was believed to have been the
cause.)
At
the present time, every year about 20,000 people get sick from E. coli
infections, and 250 of them die.
WHAT
IT ISOfficially
known as 0157:H7, the 157 variety is the most dangerous strain. E.
coli is normally in the colon and is beneficial, helping the body to
metabolize food. If some of it gets into your food or water, it can make
you terribly sick. But if it is the 157 type, it can kill you.
The
157 variety, first discovered in 1982 during an Oregon epidemic,
produces a powerful toxin that regular E. coli never does. The bacterial
toxin initially destroys blood vessels in the intestines, which
accounts for the bloody diarrhea that is the signature symptom of the
infection. The toxin then passes into the bloodstream, where it damages
various vessels throughout the body. This produces gummy clots which
clog the kidneys and other organs.
Up
to 5 percent of all people with 0157 infection develop a kidney
condition
known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Up to 5 percent of all HUS
cases are fatal. The clotting can also damage the heart, lungs, and even
the central nervous system.
You
cannot catch E. coli infection from the air; you have to ingest it in
food or drink. Most people who are infected by 0157 survive if they
drink enough fluids even though, in some cases, are hospitalized. Most
of the 1 percent who die are children, elderly, and people with weakened
immune systems.
Antibiotics
are worthless in treating E. coli infection, and are known to actually
intensify the problemby causing the bacteria to rupture and spill
their toxin more widely in the intestines.
Unlike
ordinary E. coli, the strain 0157:H7 has extra genes which permit it to
cling to the walls of the intestine and produce a virulent poison, known
as Shiga toxin.
This
toxin injures cells in the intestinal wall, and, shortly thereafter,
blood vessels in the intestinal wall. This produces bleeding.
As
soon as the toxin enters the bloodstream, it begins damaging other blood
vessels, especially those in the kidneys. This leads to kidney failure.
If a persons kidneys fail, they never again work properly, and he
must use a dialysis machineif he survives at all.
HOW
TO AVOID ITTell
those who eat such things to beware of the following:
Beware
of meat and chicken products, milk and milk products, and raw fruit
juices.
Wash
your hands and all food you are going to eat raw. Handling raw meat can
be dangerous. After handling it, wash hands, cutting boards and any
plates, bowls or utensils in contact with it. Cook meat and poultry
thoroughly. Do not eat rare meat (especially ground meat). Raw fruit,
vegetables, and water can be infected. Do not go to swimming pools. Do
not swallow lake water. Take precautions when changing a babys
diapers.
By The Idaho Observer
KING
5 TV (Seattle) reported Nov. 20, 2000, that thousands of tons of sewage
sludge (processed human waste) that has been renamed 'biosolids' are
being spread on farms across the state and other states throughout the
country.
The
practice is cause for concern in three specific areas with regard to
contamination of the food chain. Last month in The Observer we reported
that traces of unmetabolized synthetic pharmaceutical drugs such as
Prosac, antibiotics and hormones are turning up in the groundwater of
Europe and North America. Levels of these substances are being detected
because as much as 95 percent of synthetic drugs ingested are not
metabolized and leave the body in their original forms through the urine
and the feces. If prescription drugs are being detected in the water
after it has been treated, we can infer that they will also be present
in the biosolids being spread all over the crops of this nation.
The
presence of metals in 'biosolids' is also a concern. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and Washington's Department of Ecology
claim the metal content of biosolids processed at the
state-of-the-art West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle is minimal.
West
Point Manager Dick Finger explains that raw sewage is digested, heated
and spun at his facility until it's just right for shipment to the
fields. "We make sure the products that we produce are of a very
high quality," said Finger.
Government
agencies also claim that the potential for the spread of transmissible
disease is low because the soil upon which it is deposited will kill any
remaining pathogens. "Am I concerned about significant impacts to
human health and the environment? No, not based on the information I've
seen so far," says state Biosolids Coordinator Kyle Dorsey.
It
is well known that fully decomposed material, even if it is human waste,
is beneficial to the soil as organic matter and provides plants with the
nutrients needed to grow healthy and yield abundantly. Treated sewage is
not fully decomposed. For government agencies to claim that
biosolids are safe is to ignore a tremendously important body of
published science.
State
of Washington 'biosolids' policy is likely contributing to the most
ominous food supply disaster looming on the human horizon: Prions.
Prions
are protein crystals that grow in grain fungi. Prions are nearly
indestructible. We are being exposed to prions by eating animals such as
cows that eat prion-contaminated grains. We are also being exposed to
prions when we eat prion-contaminated grains.
Prions
are crystals; crystals are attracted to electromagnetic energy; our
brains produce electromagnetic energy; prions attracted to our brains
cause lesions called encephalopathies; encephalopathies cause swelling
of the brain; swelling of the brain causes dementia. Having prions in
your brain also makes a person more open to suggestions that may be
encoded through the transmission of TV and radio waves.
Prion
disease, which was called 'kuru' when it was discovered in the in New
Guinea in the early 1960s, is called 'mad cow disease' in cattle,
'whirling disease' in fish, 'scrapie' in pigs and sheep, 'wasting
disease' in wild game and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in people (there is
data to show that as many as 200,000 Americans who have been
misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's disease may actually be suffering the
ravages of prion disease).
If
our food supply is already contaminated with prions, which there is
overwhelming evidence to suggest that it is, then 'fertilizing' crops
with human waste is going to exacerbate the situation.
'Every
organism has a food supply that it depends upon for life. If the food
supply is changed or contaminated, the organism must either adapt or
become extinct,' Clyde Reynolds, ND, explained.
Scientists
at Cornell University have serious concerns about the use of 'biosolids'
as fertilizer. A team from Cornell tore apart the EPA's assumptions
about the safety of the sludge.
Cornell
found EPA's Cancer Risk Assessment is 'not protective,' and its
enforcement and oversight is inadequate. It also found that
pathogens may survive in soil, especially in cool, wet conditions.
The
team from Cornell believes that there is no way to protect the public
from leaching and flooding that may spread live pathogens.
Despite
these justifiable concerns, Washington state allows sludge to be dumped
in every county. There are no state-mandated testing procedures for
pathogens once 'biosolids' are dumped.
KING
5 test results
"Bob
Thode spreads 22,000 wet tons of sludge over 600 acres at his Fire
Mountain Farms in Lewis County. For that, he is paid more than $400,000
a year," reported KING 5 News.
Thode's
neighbors are not impressed with his farming practices and equate living
downstream from him to living downstream from a flushing toilet.
KING
5 Investigators decided to compare a sample of the sediment in one of
Thode's ditches taken in 1994 (before 'biosolids') to one taken in the
exact same place after six years of being licensed by the state to
spread the sludge on his crops above the ditch.
Levels
of all metals have increased drastically. KING 5 Investigators
reportedly gave test results to Dorsey, who thought that pure 'biosolids'
-- not ditch sediment was what KING 5 tested. Levels of
pharmaceutical drugs were not tested, nor were the presence of prions
tested.
"While
our test is not conclusive, it has raised serious questions, and the
state says more comprehensive testing may be needed," KING 5
concluded.
Plants
absorb metals and other soil components so long as the particles are
small enough. Therefore we have no idea how much metal may be ingested
upon consumption of food grown in biosolid enriched soil. "The
government does not require food grown in sludge to be labeled,"
KING 5 concluded.
12-31-00
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