Free Republic

Ty Brann likes the neighborly feel of his local hardware store. The fourth-generation Ventura County resident and small business owner has been going to the B & B Do it Center on Mobile Avenue in Camarillo for many years. His company, Kastle Kare, does pest control, landscaping and plant care, and he’s a B & B regular. So when he learned the county had told B & B it could no longer put out its usual box of doughnuts and coffee pot for the morning customers, Brann was taken aback. Poll Should coffee and doughnuts be considered food service? Yes...

5/18/2009 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- As soon as the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team arrived in the Panjshir Valley in November 2008, they noticed a need for a more sanitary way of disposing of contaminated needles. "We saw that they were using cardboard boxes and buckets for [sharps] disposal. We also observed needles laying all over the ground," said Tech. Sgt. James Bailey, a PRT medic from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. To solve this problem, Sergeant Bailey and Tech. Sgt. Alfred Greene, a medic deployed from Shaw AFB, S.C., met with the Panjshir director of Public Health to...

An Eastern Baghdad local leader answers questions from the Iraqi media about 20 waste sanitation trucks turned over to the government of Iraq during a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Loyalty, Feb. 25. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. FOB LOYALTY — Twenty waste sanitation trucks were turned over to the Government of Iraq during a ceremony here, Feb. 25.The new trucks, used for sewage maintenance and repair, give the Iraqis additional capacity to work out sanitation problems in eastern Baghdad, said Conrad Tribble, the chief of the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team with the 3rd Brigade...

HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought. The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output. CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country. "It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,''Professor Young...

The political tug-of-war over New Orleans' 2009 budget continued Monday as Mayor Ray Nagin announced he will make cuts in the level of sanitation services in the French Quarter next week despite steps taken by the City Council to preserve the "Disneylike" cleaning that has won raves from locals and visitors since it debuted two years ago. To head off what he said would be a $7.5 million budget shortfall, Nagin said he has ordered SDT Waste & Debris Services to stop providing mechanical street and sidewalk sweeping and flushing in the city's premier tourist district beginning Feb. 1. At...

The Sab al Bour City Surface Developer explains to a market owner his obligation while maintaining the Government of Iraq issued trash can outside of his establishment in Sab al Bour, northwest of Baghdad, Jan. 13, 2009. Photo by Sgt. Robert Marin, 25th Infantry Division. SAB AL BOUR — Cleaning up the streets here is a priority for the city. To help get the mission done, local Iraqi Police, along with Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers, helped sanitation workers distribute trash cans along two of the busiest market streets here, Jan. 13 - 14. A total of 500 trash cans were signed...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Wash your hands, folks, especially you ladies. A new study found that women have a greater variety of bacteria on their hands than men do. And everybody has more types of bacteria than the researchers expected to find. "One thing that really is astonishing is the variability between individuals, and also between hands on the same individual," said University of Colorado biochemistry assistant professor Rob Knight, a co-author of the paper. "The sheer number of bacteria species detected on the hands of the study participants was a big surprise, and so was the greater diversity of bacteria...

In what's been referred to as a black hat and bearded version of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Bobby Sands political prisoner movements, Old Order Amish activists are rallying behind Andy Swartzentruber, who is facing persecution from Pennsylvania's extreme sanitation police.Swartzentruber was asked by the sewage enforcers not to deposit human sewage near his home and farm.Proper human waste disposal, according to Jacob Crapzengruber, chairman of the Free-eth Swartzentruber Committee Agin' Sewage Imperialism and Poop Hubris, is contrary to the Old Amish sect's strict religious practice of self-denial and annoying neighbors.

Simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure, according to an analysis released by the United Nations University. The analysis says better water and sanitation reduces poverty in three ways. + New service business opportunities are created for local entrepreneurs; + Significant savings are achieved in the public health sector; and + Individual productivity is greater in contributing to local and national economies. UNU also calls on the world's research community to help fill major knowledge gaps that impede...

View the video at this link, and be prepared to get very angry: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1329217643?bctid=1329232712 This is a public health issue. Send this link to everyone you know.

Soldiers from 703rd BSB, 4th BCT, teach villagers the importance of purifying water during a cooperative medical engagement in the village of Samrah, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Capt. K.C. Woody. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Coalition forces are trying to increase Iraqis life expectancy by teaching basic hygiene, and reinforcing the importance of drinking clean water.Under the auspice of a cooperative medical engagement, Soldiers from 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, taught classes on water purification and handed out 150 water purification systems to families in Samrah, Iraq.The engagement allowed villagers to learn about...

Researchers from the UN University found out which business can bring a lot of profit to an investor. It is a construction business, although it does not go about the construction of large shopping malls or grocery stores. It goes about the construction of toilets. Every dollar invested in this business can bring the staggering 900-percent profit. For example, if an entrepreneur builds a 100-dollar bathroom, he or she may have the return of $900 in a certain period of time. Experts studied statistics on the issue and conducted their own research before they came to such a surprising conclusion....

You know those hotel workers who are supposedly “doing the jobs Americans won’t do?” Looks like one of the jobs the hotel workers won’t do is wash dirty glasses properly. MyFoxAtlanta, a local news station in Georgia, went undercover earlier this month to investigate housekeeping sanitary practices at several hotels–and once you watch the results of their hidden-camera probe, I guarantee you’ll never want to drink out of hotel cups or mugs again (via Duane at The Black Informant with a hat tip to Ace of Spades). Make sure to stick through ’til the end and find out where the...

A steel and glass toilet-shaped house is under construction in Suwon, 40 kilometers south of Seoul, on 10 October. The house owned by South Korean sanitation activist Sim Jae-Duck will be open on November 11 to mark the launch of the World Toilet Association.(AFP/Jung Yeon-Je) South Korea's leading sanitaton activist Sim Jae-Duck poses at his office in Seoul, on 10 October. Sim, head of the Korea Toilet Association, is building a toilet-shaped house to mark the launch of the World Toilet Association in November.(AFP/Jung Yeon-Je) This handout computer graphic image by designer Koki-woong shows a toilet-shaped house in Suwon, 40...

Alexandria’s sanitation authority is trying to take more than 10 acres of property through an eminent domain seizure, offering nearly $10 million less than it bid on the land in 2005. The authority needs to expand its wastewater treatment plant, according to a condemnation petition filed in Alexandria Circuit Court in June. But it is not willing to pay the $51 million value of the property located between Eisenhower Avenue and the Beltway, said the property’s owner, Charles Hooff III. The sewer authority has made several offers on the property over more than two years, according to the authority’s petition....

VIENNA, Austria -- Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog droppings urged residents Thursday to record how many turds they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census. The Vienna Dog-Dropping Initiative said it would compile the figures and present them to city officials on Monday as part of its stepped-up effort to pressure the Austrian capital to deal with the problem.

MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan, March 30, 2006 – Afghan and coalition troops provided medical care to 1,500 people in Laghman and Nuristan provinces in recent operations. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Kimberly M. Kauffman administers deworming medication to a child in Nangaresh, Afghanistan. Kauffman was part of an Afghan and coalition medical team that provided medical care and sanitation classes to men, women and children in seven villages in Laghman and Nuristan provinces March 19-24. Photo by Staff Sgt. Marti D. Ribeiro, USAF   At seven remote villages, men, women and children received treatment for ailments ranging from headaches to heartburn March 19-24....

ABOARD USS AUSTIN, Jan. 24, 2006 - Crew members of the amphibious transport ship USS Austin (LPD 4) received a late Christmas surprise Jan. 20 when several pallets of care packages were delivered by helicopter. The care packages were sent by the New York City Sanitation Department, a project that was spearheaded by Gloria Coletti, the mother of Austin Sailor Ensign John Holzer. “I am a mom on a mission,” said Coletti. She said she wanted to ensure that everyone on board received something. The care packages included numerous items, such as DVD movies, snacks, toiletries and more. “I'm very...

The Flimsy Wall of China It may be the epicenter of an epidemic, and its health-care system is in tatters. That's a recipe for disaster. By Melinda Liu Newsweek International .../snip... Zhang may be closer to getting her apocalyptic wish. Bird-flu jitters are spreading worldwide, as the tempo of new cases continues to escalate. Last Wednesday, in China's first reported H5N1 outbreak in months, mainland authorities revealed bird flu had killed 2,600 birds on a poultry farm in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, less than a day's drive from Zhang's home. Taiwanese authorities discovered the H5N1 virus among exotic...

Sanitation problems plague mountaineers in Alaska Wed Jun 15, 2005 03:54 PM ET By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Mountaineers who ascend North America's loftiest peak are often brought down to earth by "virus-laden poo" left behind by previous climbers, a medical report says. The unsanitary conditions created by piles of human feces on Mount McKinley can cause diarrhea among climbers, which can lead to widespread problems when combined with the physical stress of a mountain expedition, according to the report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. Of 132 climbers interviewed on the 20,320-foot (6,200-meter) peak in the...