May 22, 2009
Little known fact: Sewage treatment plants do not remove all contaminants from sewage. The resulting effluent and sludge contains pathogens, heavy metals, chemicals that mimic estrogen, and more. Worse: many of the pathogens have developed a resistance to antibiotic drugs as a result of the treatment process.
Much worse: Cities and developers are increasingly relying on so-called “recycled” water to make up for diminishing fresh water supplies. Water containing antibiotic resistant pathogens and DNA that is coded for resistance, is being sprayed on school yards, golf courses, public parks and domestic lawns.
The AMA discovered that 19,000 Americans DIED of MRSA infections in 2005. MRSA, or Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, used to be called “hospital Staph”. No longer, MRSA escaped the hospital and is developing even more virulent forms, e.g. MRSA USA300. “Recycled” water should be suspect #1 for how this happened, but it’s not.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is another new disease that resists antibiotics—and the list is growing: Clostridium difficile, Salmonella, E. coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and others are also killing people because drugs fail to stop them.
Edo McGowan, Ph.D. is a medical geohydrologist who says that recycled water and sewage sludge play a huge role in spreading antibiotic resistance because the plants themselves actually CREATE ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT PATHOGENS. The sludge and effluent from sewer plants are being sprayed and spread all over our environment. McGowan has a medical degree, although not a physician, and has done extensive research in wound healing. He also has a doctorate in geohydrology and has built and studied sewage treatment plants for decades. He has worked for both the World Bank and USAID in Africa for 20 years and was the chief environmental officer for 22 countries there supervising sewage treatment plants. McGowan sat on a committee to study how sewage plants could be turned into weapons of mass destruction for the Santa Barbara County Department of Health. McGowan is joined by Maureen Reilly, founder of Sludge Watch in WATERBORNE, a new video from Mabian Productions, 46 minutes.
See the video at: http://www.mabian.biz/