Sunday, October 29, 2017

Never surrender the idea of "zero emission country."

Waste management for greenhouse gases is essential. I do not believe incineration is an answer for any waste disposal problem. It is that sort of lumping together of solid waste that causes air pollution. I think incineration may have a place in the solid waste stream, but, only a role, not a complete picture.

The more and more I realize the level of methane there is in land fills, the more I believe the land fills have to be rethought. Methane is a far worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Methane leaks anywhere they occur should never be tolerated.

Most of the years when fighting the climate crisis counting carbon dioxide was the focus. It was right to do so, because it moved the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards to a point whereby hybrids are getting 50 plus miles per gallon. It is a vast improvement in where we were not long ago. But, the electric car is still the future.

Kindly remember for every step forward society takes to end the climate crisis, much of the greenhouse gas emissions is due to consumerism and is a drag on a greener economy. There are more consumers born than dying and Americans simply need to remember there is a future to plan for and it might very much mean we need to anticipate what a citizen's "carbon footprint" is in 20 years to ensure the emissions are less per person and not more.

The issues of waste management need to be assessed and measured and improved. There is no status quo currently that resolves the picture of the climate crisis for me. The crisis is real and palpable and it needs to be a national priority among the people, especially, since the government can't and won't deal with reality. I remind, Earth experienced a major species die off last year with corals. With the die off of the corals there was a drop in atmospheric oxygen. This is not a frivolous tree hugging issue. It is real and it is dangerous.

I hope everyone is thinking about how, as a single person, each and everyone of us can improve on ending the climate crisis. Our children are counting on it.

No back sliding. There is no easy fix. We can do this.

This study was not limited to just medical waste. It was printed in 2006,

14th North American Waste to Energy Conference
May 1-3, 2006, Tampa, Florida USA
NAWTEC14-3187

Comparison of Air Emissions from  Waste-to-Energy Facilities to Fossil Fuel Power Plants (click here)
By Jeremy K. O'Brien, P.E. SWANA 1100 Wayne Avenue - Suite 700 Silver Spring, MD 20910
 (704) 906-7269 
jobrien@swana.org 

The SWANA Applied Research Foundation's FY2005 Waste-to-Energy Group identified the need for a public information document that compares the air emissions from waste-to-energy facilities to those of conventional fossil fuel power plants. This paper is based on a research report that was prepared by SW ANA in the course of developing the public information document.... 

CONCLUSIONS Based on a review of recent literature as well as data from ongoing projects, the following conclusions are offered with respect to the comparison of air emissions from WTE facilities compared to fossilfuel power plants. 

• Air emissions from WTE facilities have been dramatically reduced over the last ten years, due to the requirements for "Maximum Achievable Control Technology" contained in a 1995 EPA rule issued pursuant to the Clean Air Act. 

• With respect to criteria air pollutants, WTE facilities emit significantly less carbon dioxide than any of the fossilfuel power plants. They emit significantly less sulfur dioxide than coal-fired or oilfired power plants but more than power plants using natural gas. Finally, they are comparable to coal- and oil-fired power plants with respect to nitrogen oxide emissions, but somewhat higher than natural gas-fired power plants. Based on this data, the EPA has concluded that WTE power plants produce electricity with less environmental impact than almost any other source of electricity."

 • When compared to the total amount of mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants, WTE facilities represent a minor source of anthropogenic mercury emissions to the environment. 

• Dioxin emissions from WTE facilities have been reduced by over 99 percent since 1990. WTE facilities are now considered minor sources of dioxins. 
October 27, 2017
By Carson Frame

For years, (click here) veterans say they’ve been getting sick. They believe the culprit is open burn pits used in Iraq and Afghanistan. A class-action lawsuit against Houston-based military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root was thrown out this summer, and many of those affected don’t know where to turn.

Army Reserve Captain LeRoy Torres will never forget the 10-acre plot of land, full of burning garbage, located about a mile from his sleeping quarters at Balad Air Base in Iraq. The year was 2008.

All the military’s waste was thrown into the pit, doused with a jet fuel known as JP-8, and set on fire.

“You’d see tires, plastics, batteries. Large bottles and containers of fluid, no telling what it was,” Torres said. “Solvents. Medical waste. You’d see those red medical bags from the hospital just being tossed in the fire.”

Staff Sergeant Jeremy Daniels arrived at Balad in 2005. He remembers seeing items destined for the flames.

“It doesn’t matter if it comes out your room, if it comes off your body, if it comes out your body. Go down there and light it ablaze.”

At the height of its activity, the Balad pit burned about 200 tons of trash each day.

The smoke it gave off was overwhelming, especially when the wind blew a certain way. It stuck to people’s clothes, filled their lungs, and got in their eyes.

“It was a cloud. You wore it,” he said. “If you walked around on that post, you smelled like it. It is the most horrid sulfuric smell you have ever frickin' smelled.”

LeRoy Torres agrees. “There were times—I remember one time clearly—I couldn’t even see the road 6 feet in front of me,” he said.

Soon after they arrived at Balad, both Torres and Daniels got sick. Torres started coughing up a black mucus that military doctors called ‘Iraqi Crud.’ It was the result, they said, of his body getting used to the environment in-country.

Daniels developed a weeping rash on his lower extremities that didn’t resolve for months. The skin sloughed off and bled. Doctors suggested that he was allergic to his laundry soap. Then he developed fourth nerve palsy, a neurological disorder that affects vision.

“While I’m walking to work, my left eye goes up and to the right while I'm still trying to look forward. I end up with the worst drunken double vision I've ever seen.”

After they returned home, the issues got worse. Torres’ respiratory problems were given a name: constrictive bronchiolitis, an untreatable and often fatal lung injury. Daniels' neurological problems were labeled ‘relapsing multiple sclerosis’ with an ‘extremely aggressive onset.' He now uses a wheelchair.

Both men were medically retired from their jobs. They both blame the burn pits for their health problems....

I realize a gas mask has a particular application, but, if the US military can come up with a gas mask that is good for three to four hours, they can come up with a gas mask for soldiers to wear while disposing of trash. The US military needs to find a responsible way of handling their trash other than burning.

War on the fly is one thing, an encampment is quite another.

Medical Waste Incinerators are some of the nastiest incinerators invented.

States that care about the health, well being and longevity of their people need to assess each such incinerator on a regular basis and offer research grants to develop a better method to capture and contain any Greenhouse Gas Emissions, but, more importantly emissions that cause harm or potential down wind infections. Not all medical waste, including bacteria or viruses, are killed in an incinerator.

3.2 Emissions And Controls 2,4,7-43 (click here)

Medical waste incinerators can emit significant quantities of pollutants to the atmosphere. These pollutants include: (1) particulate matter (PM), (2) metals, (3) acid gases, (4) oxides of nitrogen (NOx), (5) carbon monoxide (CO), (6) organics, and (7) various other materials present in medical wastes, such as pathogens, cytotoxins, and radioactive diagnostic materials. 

Particulate matter is emitted as a result of incomplete combustion of organics (i. e., soot) and by the entrainment of noncombustible ash due to the turbulent movement of combustion gases. Particulate matter may exit as a solid or an aerosol, and may contain heavy metals, acids, and/or trace organics. 

Uncontrolled particulate emission rates vary widely, depending on the type of incinerator, composition of the waste, and the operating practices employed. Entrainment of PM in the incinerator exhaust is primarily a function of the gas velocity within the combustion chamber containing the solid waste. Controlled air incinerators have the lowest turbulence and, consequently, the lowest PM emissions; rotary kiln incinerators have highly turbulent combustion, and thus have the highest PM emissions.

The type and amount of trace metals in the flue gas are directly related to the metals contained in the waste. Metal emissions are affected by the level of PM control and the flue gas temperature. Most metals (except mercury) exhibit fine-particle enrichment and are removed by maximizing small particle collection. Mercury, due to its high vapor pressure, does not show significant particle enrichment, and removal is not a function of small particle collection in gas streams at temperatures greater than 150°C (300°F). 

Acid gas concentrations of hydrogen chloride (HCl) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in MWI flue gases are directly related to the chlorine and sulfur content of the waste. Most of the chlorine, which is chemically bound within the waste in the form of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other chlorinated compounds, will be converted to HCl. Sulfur is also chemically bound within the materials making up medical waste and is oxidized during combustion to form SO2

Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) represent a mixture of mainly nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). They are formed during combustion by: (1) oxidation of nitrogen chemically bound in the waste, and (2) reaction between molecular nitrogen and oxygen in the combustion air. The formation of NOx is dependent on the quantity of fuel-bound nitrogen compounds, flame temperature, and air/fuel ratio.

Carbon monoxide is a product of incomplete combustion. Its presence can be related to insufficient oxygen, combustion (residence) time, temperature, and turbulence (fuel/air mixing) in the combustion zone.

Failure to achieve complete combustion of organic materials evolved from the waste can result in emissions of a variety of organic compounds. The products of incomplete combustion (PICs) range from low molecular weight hydrocarbon (e. g., methane or ethane) to high molecular weight compounds (e. g., polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans [CDD/CDF]). In general, combustion conditions required for control of CO (i. e., adequate oxygen, temperature, residence time, and turbulence) will also minimize emissions of most organics.

Emissions of CDDs/CDFs from MWIs may occur as either a vapor or as a fine particulate. Many factors are believed to be involved in the formation of CDDs/CDFs and many theories exist concerning the formation of these compounds. In brief, the best supported theories involve four mechanisms of formation.2 The first theory states that trace quantities of CDDs/CDFs present in the refuse feed are carried over, unburned, to the exhaust. The second theory involves formation of CDDs/CDFs from chlorinated precursors with similar structures. Conversion of precursor material to CDDs/CDFs can potentially occur either in the combustor at relatively high temperatures or at lower temperatures such as are present in wet scrubbing systems. The third theory involves synthesis of CDDs/CDFs compounds from a variety of organics and a chlorine donor. The fourth mechanism involves catalyzed reactions on fly ash particles at low temperatures....
Medical waste incinerator (click here) is mainly used for burning wastes produced by medical research facilities, veterinary facilities and hospitals. These wastes generally include both infectious medical wastes as well as non-infectious, general housekeeping wastes. Three types of incinerators are used for burning wastes: controlled air incinerators, excess air incinerators, and rotary kiln incinerators. Controlled air incinerators are dominantly used medical waste technology, and controls the market for new technology systems at numerous hospitals. This type of technology is also referred to as starved-air incineration or two-stage incineration.

Combustion of waste in controlled air incinerators takes place in two stages. In first stage, waste is injected into the primary combustion chamber, which is then operated with substantial amount of air required to carry out combustion process. Combustion air enters through the primary chamber from below the incinerator hearth. This air is known as primary air. Primary chamber, the low air fuel ratio facilitates the volatilization of the waste, and large percentage of the residual carbon in the ash burns.

In second stage, excess air is then added to volatile gases produced in the primary chamber to complete the combustion process. Secondary chamber temperature is generally higher than primary chamber temperature. Depending on the moisture content and heating value of the waste, extra amount of heat may be required. This can be achieved by auxiliary burners located at the entrance of the secondary chamber to maintain the desired temperature....

  

Only 10 to 25 percent is considered regulated.

The non-medical and hazardous waste is anything not contaminated with some kind of body fluids.

Sharpes are only one aspect of medical waste. They are the ones most frequently thought about.

Sharps disposal (click here) by self-injectors is not typically regulated, and self-injectors do not always know the safest disposal methods. This situation could lead to haphazard disposal habits and increased community exposure to sharps. People at the greatest risk of being stuck by used sharps include sanitation and sewage treatment workers, janitors and housekeepers, and children. This document suggests safe options states and local governments can provide citizens for safe needle disposal.

There was a policy developed in 1987 by the CDC called "Universal Precautions"(click here). It was a higher standard of setting a barrier between patients and healthcare practitioners which increased the volume of medical waste.

There is also a term for medical waste that is not "sharps" called OPIM, Other Potentially Infectious Materials. OPIM also increased the volume of medical waste:


OPIM is defined in 29 CFR 1910.1030(b) as:
  • The following human body fluids: semen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, pleural fluid, pericardial fluid, peritoneal fluid, amniotic fluid, saliva in dental procedures, any body fluid that is visibly contaminated with blood, and all body fluids in situations where it is difficult or impossible to differentiate between body fluids;

  • Any unfixed tissue or organ (other than intact skin) from a human (living or dead); and

  • HIV-containing cell or tissue cultures, organ cultures, and HIV- or HBV-containing culture medium or other solutions; and blood, organs, or other tissues from experimental animals infected with HIV or HBV.
The Bloodborne Pathogens Standard allows for hospitals to use acceptable alternatives [OSHA Directive CPL 02-02-069, (2001, November 27)] to universal precautions:
  • Alternative concepts in infection control are called Body Substance Isolation (BSI) and Standard Precautions. These methods define all body fluids and substances as infectious. These methods incorporate not only the fluids and materials covered by the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard but expands coverage to include all body fluids and substances.

  • These concepts are acceptable alternatives to universal precautions, provided that facilities utilizing them adhere to all other provisions of the standard.

  • For compliance with OSHA Standards, the use of either Universal Precautions or Standard Precautions are acceptable.
The CDC recommends Standard Precautions for the care of all patients, regardless of their diagnosis or presumed infection status.
  • Standard Precautions apply to 1) blood; 2) all body fluids, secretions, and excretions,except sweat, regardless of whether or not they contain visible blood; 3) non-intact skin; and 4) mucous membranes. Standard precautions are designed to reduce the risk of transmission of microorganisms from both recognized and unrecognized sources of infection in hospitals.
    • Standard precautions includes the use of: hand washing, appropriate personal protective equipment such as gloves, gowns, masks, whenever touching or exposure to patients' body fluids is anticipated....

Concentrated efforts to control medical waste began in the 1980s with the discovery of HIV/

1981 (click here)

On June 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) publish a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), describing cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), in five young, previously healthy, gay men in Los Angeles. All the men have other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems are not working; two have already died by the time the report is published. This edition of the MMWR marks the first official reporting of what will become known as the AIDS epidemic....
Concern for the potential health hazards of medical wastes grew in the 1980s after medical wastes were washing up on several east coast beaches. This prompted Congress to enact The MWTA of 1988. The MWTA was a two-year federal program in which EPA was required to promulgate regulations on management of medical waste. The Agency did so on March 24, 1989. The regulations for this two year program went into effect on June 24, 1989 in four states - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. It expired in 1991.
EPA concluded from the information gathered during this period that the disease-causing potential of medical waste is greatest at the point of generation and naturally tapers off after that point. Thus, risk to the general public of disease caused by exposure to medical waste is likely to be much lower than risk for the healthcare workers. 
When I started to look at the way medical waste was handled, I was pleasantly surprised to realize medical waste is heavily regulated. Not just a little bit regulated, but, heavily regulated.

Go figure.

Except, of course, unless it is regard to a dead body. It is absolutely ghoulish.

October 24, 2017
By Brian Grow and John Schiffman

Las Vegas – The company stacked brochures in funeral parlors (click here) around Sin City. On the cover: a couple clasping hands. Above the image, a promise: “Providing Options in Your Time of Need.”

The company, Southern Nevada Donor Services, offered grieving families a way to eliminate expensive funeral costs: free cremation in exchange for donating a loved one’s body to “advance medical studies.”

Outside Southern Nevada’s suburban warehouse, the circumstances were far from comforting. In the fall of 2015, neighboring tenants began complaining about a mysterious stench and bloody boxes in a Dumpster. That December, local health records show, someone contacted authorities to report odd activity in the courtyard.

Health inspectors found a man in medical scrubs holding a garden hose. He was thawing a frozen human torso in the midday sun.

As the man sprayed the remains, “bits of tissue and blood were washed into the gutters,” a state health report said. The stream weaved past storefronts and pooled across the street near a technical school....

Regulated Medical Waste. That was REGULATED Medical Waste. REGULATED.

In 1991, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated the Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens Standard . This standard is designed to protect approximately 5.6 million workers in the healthcare and related occupations from the risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens, such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).

The Bloodborne Pathogens Standard has numerous requirements, including the development of an Exposure Control Plan.  The Standard also includes rules specific to certain types of wastes generated at healthcare facilities, termed “regulated waste.”  Regulated waste includes blood and items contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM).  This section of the HERC Center contains a summary of OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standards relating to regulated waste.

It is Sunday Night
Medical Love Song by Monty Python (click here for official website - thank you)

Inflammation of the foreskin
Reminds me of your smile
I've had ballanital chancroids
For quite a little while

I gave my heart to NSU
That lovely night in June
I ache for you, my darling
And I hope you get well soon

My penile warts, your herpes
My syphilitic sores
Your moenelial infection
How I miss you more and more

Your dobie's itch, my scrumpox
Our lovely gonorrhea
At least we both were lying
When we said that we were clear

Our syphilitic kisses
Sealed the secret of our tryst
You gave me scrotal pustules
With a quick flick of your wrist

Your trichovaginitis
Sent shivers down my spine;
I got snail tracks in my anus
When your spirochetes met mine

Gonococcal urethritis
Streptococcal balanitis
Meningomyelitis
Diplococcal cephalitis
Epididymitis
Interstitial keratitis
Syphilitic choroiditis
And anterior u-ve-i-tis

My clapped out genitalia
Is not so bad for me
As the complete and utter failure
Every time I try to pee

My doctor says my buboes
Are the worst he's ever seen
My scrotum's painted orange
And my balls are turning green

My heart is very tender
Though my parts are awful raw
You might have been infected
But you never were a bore

I'm dying of your love, my love
I'm your spirochaetal clown
I've left my body to science
But I'm afraid they've turned it down

Gonococcal urethritis
Streptococcal balanitis
Meningomyelitis
Diplococcal cephalitis
Epididymitis
Interstitial keratitis
Syphilitic choroiditis
And anterior u-ve-i-tis

The US House certified the nuclear agreement, but, drew up new sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program. I have a few comments.

I thank the US House for certifying Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement. However, it is going to be difficult to enforce UNILATERAL sanctions on anything. There are other countries that will accept from Iran for requests that might be under USA sanctions.

October 27, 2017
By Zeesham Aleem

The House of Representatives (click here) overwhelmingly passed a bill that would hit Iran with a fresh batch of sanctions for its ballistic missile program in a vote held Thursday morning. The bill now moves to the Senate for its approval; if it becomes law, it would further strain already tenuous US-Iran relations but not outright violate the terms of the nuclear deal with Iran.

The House bill would require the Trump administration to identify companies and individuals, Iranian and non-Iranian alike, who are supplying the ballistic program. The sanctions options would include, among other things, freezing the US assets of suppliers, restricting their travel to the US, and banning imports from them.

Iran’s ballistic missile program isn’t covered by the Iran nuclear deal, which means these sanctions don’t violate the terms of the deal. But along with other recent sanctions on Iran’s foreign policy operations, they represent an escalation of pressure that could cause the country to try to retaliate against the US....

No one wants to hear over and over how much the Iraq invasion was in the way the world perceives the USA.

October 29, 2017

Dubai (Reuters) - Iran will continue to produce missiles (click here) for its defense and does not consider that a violation of international accords, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday in a speech broadcast on state television.

Rouhani spoke days after the U.S. House of Representatives voted for new sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program, part of an effort to clamp down on Tehran without immediately moving to undermine an international nuclear agreement.

He also meet the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Tehran, who again vouched for Iran’s compliance with the 2015 accord that curbed its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, which has drawn fire from U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We have built, are building and will continue to build missiles, and this violates no international agreements,” Rouhani said in a speech in parliament....

Just as a reminder, when the USA invaded Iraq it was in compliance with UN Resolutions. The talk in the USA by FOX News and Conservative Talk Radio is that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military helped and harbored al Qaeda. That was proven to be false, even by David Kay, and other than the political engine of the GOP no other country every thought Iraq was harboring or assisting al Qaeda. I am not saying Saddam was a benign entity in the Middle East, but, he was not involved with the attacks on the USA on September 11, 2017.

There were also UN Inspectors in Iraq to investigate ANY possibility of Iraq having violated sanctions as well, including chemical and biological weapons. When the USA decided because Saddam could not produce paperwork that was grounds enough to invade.

So, the inspectors did not finish their work and the work they concluded proved Saddam and Iraq were in compliance with sanctions.

Now, in the year 2017, the USA has a President that doesn't like the work of his predecessors and rather than seeking proper channels to reengage talks, he simply steams forward as if he is a dictator and cannot be questioned. Does anyone actually believe after the invasion into Iraq and Trump at the helm, Iran is going to roll over and capitulate to all kinds of demands by a USA STILL operating unilaterally (which the invasion into Iraq was)?

Of course, not. 

I am pleased to see the US State Department is taking a more reasonable stance to all this. There may be hope some dignity is left in the USA. But, Congress acting unilaterally does not instill international confidence.