BACKGROUND Previous analyses have suggested that unregulated private drinking water wells carry a higher risk of exposure to microbial contamination than regulated community water systems. In North Carolina, ~35% of the state's population relies on private wells, but the health impact associated with widespread reliance on such unregulated drinking water sources is unknown. OBJECTIVES We esti...

Drinking water must be free from components which may adversely affect the human health. Such components include minerals, organic substances and disease causing microorganisms. A large portion of the population in developing countries suffers from health problems associated with either lack of drinking water or due to the presence of microbiological contamination in water [1]. Poor water quali...

Washing procedures applied to fresh produce have the potential to reduce contamination from the surface of the product. However, the wash water may also serve as a source of contamination or has great potential to result in cross-contamination. The objective of this study was to evaluate process handling cross-contamination potential and pathogen removal of initially low numbers of attached cel...

Dental health care providers and patients are exposed during ongoing work to contamination by the water used in the dental units, due to accidental swallowing or aspiration of the sprays generated by the high-speed handpiece and the threeway syringe. This study evaluated the quality of water in dental units in the public dental care system of Maceio, Alagoas, Brazil, by conducting analyses of c...

Microbial contamination affects a large number of water bodies in the US. Because it is not feasible to directly monitor all pathogens, it is standard practice to monitor fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as total and fecal coliforms, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, and fecal enterococci, in water. Epidemiological studies have established human health standards based on exposure t...

In 2007, diseases caused by Vibrio vulnificus and other Vibrio species became nationally notifiable in the United States because of the potential severity of bloodstream infections. Direct contact of open wound with seawater and the ingestion of contaminated oysters are the principal modes of transmission. Presently, no clear environmental predictors of oyster contamination are known. This stud...

The possible effect of contrails in modifying the weather is reconsidered in the light of information obtained from ground-level contrails in Alaska. It appears likely that inadvertent cloud seeding b y jet aircraft may be of the same order of magnitude as that attained in commercial cloud seeding operations. Further investigation is needed; but in the meantime, the possibility of contrail cont...

OBJECTIVES To estimate exposure to faecal contamination through drinking water as indicated by levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli) or thermotolerant coliform (TTC) in water sources. METHODS We estimated coverage of different types of drinking water source based on household surveys and censuses using multilevel modelling. Coverage data were combined with water quality studies that assessed E...

We evaluated the microbial contamination of 17 types of vegetable and 10 types of fruit after 30-s washing with tap water with and without subsequent disinfection by 10-min immersion in 0.01% (100 ppm) sodium hypochlorite. The mean microbial contamination level of 9 types of leafy vegetable was 2.8 x 10(5) colony-forming units (CFU)/g after washing with water and 3.4 x 10(4) CFU/g after washing...