Low Flying Plane Creates Concern Over Tulsa's Water Supply

KTUL Channel 8, Tulsa, OK ^ | 1 October 2001

[Vigilant1]

Low Flying Plane Creates Concern Over Tulsa's Water Supply

A low flying plane created a concern in Tulsa after witnesses say it dropped something into Tulsa's water supply. The small plane flew over Lake Yahola near Mohawk Park around 3:45 Monday afternoon.

A plane has been detained at Jones Riverside Airport and the FBI is investigating. The instructor and student in the plane that was stopped say they were nowhere near the area.

As a precautionary measure, officials switched Tulsa's water supply to a flow line that runs from Lake Spavinaw. Samples have been taken from the reservoir and sent to a lab for testing to determine if any contaminants may have been introduced into the supply.

[chantal7]

Thought this might interest you.

[chantal7]

OOOps. It'd help if I spelled your nick right. :))

Thought this thread might interest you. :)

[nunya bidness]

Indeed.

I'd be more worried about my food. Or a football/baseball game on an overcast night with no wind.

But that's just me.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Doxycycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic synthetically derived from oxytetracycline and is available as doxycycline monohydrate; doxycycline hyclate; doxycycline hydrochloride hemiethanolate hemihydrate; and doxycycline calcium for oral administration.

BRAND NAMES: Asidoxyn; Azudoxat; Bactidox; Banndoclin; Basedillin; Bassado; Biocolyn; Biodoxi; Bronmycin; Cendox; Cloran; Cyclidox; Dagracycline; Deoxymykoin; Doinmycin; Doryx; Dosil; Dotur; Doxaciclin; Doxalin; Doxat; Doximed; Doximycin; Doxin; Doxine; Doxi-Sergo; Doxt; Doxy; Doxy-1; Doxy-100; Doxychel; Doxyclin; Doxycline; Doxycycline; Doxycycline Hyclate; Doxycycline Monohydrate; Doxylag; Doxylin; Doxymycin; Dumoxin; Duracyclin; Esdoxin; Gewacyclin; Granudoxy; Ibimycin; Idocyklin; Interdoxin; Lexcycline; Lydox; Magdrin; Medomycin; Miraclin; Monocin; Monodox; Paldomycin; Probracin; Radox; Remycin; Roximycin; Servidoxyne; Siadocin; Siclidon; Sigadoxin; Supracyclin; Tenutan; Tetradox; Texomycin; Tolexine; Torymycin; Tsurupioxin; Unidox; Unidoxy; Vibrabiotic; Vibradox; Vibracina; Vibramicina; Vibramycin; Vibramycin Calcium; Vibramycin Hyclate; Vibramycin Monohydrate; Vibramycin-N; Vibramycine; Vibra-S; Vibra-Tabs; Vibraveineuse; Vibravends; Vibravenos; Vibravenos SF; Viradoxyl-N; Vivocycline; Wanmycin; Withamycin; Xidox; Zadorin
(Foreign brand names outside U.S. in italics)

(Copyright 2001 Mosby, Inc. www.mosby.com)

When not to take doxycycline

Do not take doxycycline on an empty stomach, it may cause a stomach upset.

Doxycycline interferes with the formation of the teeth in children (it colours them), so expectant and nursing mothers must not take doxycycline.

Children cannot take doxycycline before their adult teeth have come out. Once they have formed and have grown, the risk disappears.

Do not take doxycycline if you are going to be exposed to strong sunlight, such as on the beach or ski-ing. Doxycycline increases the sensitivity of the skin to the sun's rays. If you must take doxycycline, because no other treatment is available, be sure to protect yourself from the sun.

There has been anedoctal evidence (this means that it does not come from a well controlled clinical study, but from isolated cases) that after prolonged use of 10 years or more, [this must be an incredibly safe drug if patients take it 10 years or more!---proud2brc] doxycycline therapy can cause the lower lip to swell and become black and blue. After stopping doxycycline, the lip becomes normal. It is speculated that this sensitivity may be caused or aggravated by exposure to sunlight.

[ChemistCat]

Proud, I have a 4 year old. Wouldn't it be better to risk the teeth being stained than to watch her die? Her 9 year old brother and 7 year old sister do not have all their adult teeth in. I'll ask my doc for a 'script. Who knows. Maybe he'll cooperate, though I think he thinks I'm one of those weird conspiracy-minded rightwingers. (Why would he think that?)

[Brian Kopp DPM]

I just copied and pasted the warnings. I'm not going to have any second thoughts about giving it to my three young children. However, it would be a tough call with Cipro. Cipro can also be used prophylactically like Doxy in this scenario. But Cipro can cause premature growth plate closure in kids (i.e., their long bones stop growing.)

There would have to be definite proof of an attack to justify its use in pediatric patients, given the serious risk.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I'm stocking up on Doxy.

How are you managing that? With script or no script?

[SmartBlonde]

You contaminate the source, then bottle the water. My company sells Reverse Osmosis water machines. We do seminars all over the country for Physicians. We take a local water sample, then use a precipitator that heats the water. You wouldn't believe the gunk that floats on the top and then settles to the bottom.

NASA uses RO machines to recycle the urine of astronauts so they can drink it. Good enough for NASA, good enough for me.

[Vigilant1]

The fatal dose of botulism toxin is one-onehundredbillionth of a gram. Chlorine won't 'kill the toxin', as it's a toxin, not a live baceria. It's easy to produce. If a couple dozen pounds of it were dropped in a reservoir right at the point where the intake pipes are, it would be sucked right in with the current and go into the water system, instead of being diluted throughout the entire reservoir. We can't just bythely dismiss such an attack.

Another botulism toxin article:

Botulism article

[HiTech RedNeck]

All we need is something that will destroy the chemical. Chlorination MIGHT do that; hypoclorite ion (bleach) doesn't oxidize directly but causes the formation of free oxygen radicals which in turn oxidize many organic substances. Another possibility though more expensive is ozonation. ChemistCat?

[stlnative]

Thanks for the answer... but they do make dumps in mid-air. I am a native of St. Louis, MO and grew up right next to Lambert Airport (I don't live there now). There were many mid-air dumps that happened over the area several times. Houses and Cars were covered with it and people called in the health department and they tested it. The always said it was human waste and only could have came from an airplane flying over. I can't count all the times it has happened and reported in the St. Louis County Area around the Airport. I know it is not normal for them to make a mid-air dump over populated areas. But I do know they do it over the ocean on long flights.

[WyldKard]

The only thing that worries me in this rush to take antibiotics 24/7 is that we'll end up turning our bodies into breeding grounds for stronger and stronger antibiotic-resistant bugs. The Russians used to sell penacillin on the street corner, and that screwed a lot of the world over....

[WyldKard]

Actually, botulism toxin is one of the most toxic substances known to man. If several pounds of pure toxin was dropped in the reservoir right near the water supply intakes, the concentration could be more than adequate. The thing I don't know is if botulism toxin (the toxin, not the bacteria) could survive the normal clorination done with city water supplies.

Well, how many ppm concentration are we talking to make it deadly? Over here in MA, we have a huge resevoir (half a trillion gallons or so.) Somehow, I think a small package of the stuff dumped into it wouldn't do jack...

[ChemistCat]

I don't know enough yet. Three years ago I was just another liberal arts major/mom. I took this name to reserve it for the day when I will know more. Will OBL give me that chance? Will FR? ;-)

I'm for boiling water, when in doubt. Thermophiles in the ocean trenches aren't much of a threat to me, I think. Botulism toxin might survive a mere 212 F though. We're all in for a bad time if he gets us with that.

[HiTech RedNeck]

IIRC many food safety authorities recommend boiling low-acid home canned foods for eight or more minutes to deactivate any botulinum poison.

What would be scary (though sloooooow acting) would be mad cow prions. Those are pretty much boilproof.

[IGNATIUS]

How effective is colloidal silver in killing some of these potential biological (especially bacterial)agents?Fwiw,had awesome results with it when wife ate a "bad" sandwich enroute on a recent camping trip.Horrible continuous vomiting(like fifty times) for three hours in middle of the night---ready to drive into civilization for emergency room when remembered had a small bottle of the stuff(first aid for small cuts and infections).Gave her half teaspoon in a glass of water and vomiting stopped right now!No diarrhea,nor any after-effects--almost miraculous.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Fortunately that just won't happen with doxycycline. Dr. Gabe Mirkin prescribes Doxycycline for many ailments. Some of his ideas have merit, some just aren't accepted in main stream medicine (yet?). Here are his comments on chronic use of the tetracycline class of antibiotics (which include Doxycycline):

Shouldn’t We Be Concerned About Resistant Bacteria?

The argument that giving antibiotics causes bacteria to be resistant to that antibiotic is reasonable, but it has no place in discouraging people with these diseases from taking them. First, these people have serious diseases that cause permanent damage life and death. Second, the treatments that are available are toxic, shorten life, cause cancer, and have to be followed by frequent blood tests. On the other hand, I prescribe derivatives of tetracycline and erythromycin. These are extraordinarily safe and do not require drawing frequent blood tests. If you were to become infected subsequently with bacteria that are resistant to these antibiotics, you would have lost nothing. No reasonable doctor would prescribe erythromycin or tetracycline for acute serious diseases, such as meningitis, pneumonia, or an abscess, because tetracyclines and erythromycins do not kill germs, they only stop them from multiplying. Instead, doctors prescribe far more bacteriocidal antibiotics that kill bacteria.

Many doctors criticize my use of antibiotics, but many antibiotics are far safer than conventional treatment, cost less, can be administered by a general practitioner, and often cure the condition, rather that just suppressing symptoms. I know that most physicians who develop these conditions will treat themselves with antibiotics because they know that conventional treatments with prednisone, chloroquine, azathioprine, and methotrexate are toxic and my treatments with erythromycins and tetracyclines are safe.

[dglang]

Several years ago, a suburban town west of chicago was plaged with daily bombings of blue ice that was identified as containing human waste, and chemicals used in treating it but there were no planes seen while the bombing was occuring.

It turns out that migratory geese were resting in a local sanitary pond, drinking the water, and experiencing bouts of you know what while flying over the town.

[Solson]

Doing a search of the Airman database for Tulsa, OK, you will find many many names. Among them you will find many with Arab names as pilots, instructors and A&P mechanics. For example...

Name	Marwan Abdulrahman El-Kaissi
Street	Po Box 702452
City	Tulsa, OK 74170-2452
FAA Region	Southwest Region
Medical	First Class (05/2001)
Certificates	Airline Transport Pilot
&	Flight Instructor
&	Ground Instructor
Ratings	Airplane Multiengine Land
&	Airplane Single Engine Land
&	Airplane Single and Multiengine
&	Instrument Airplane
&	advanced
&	Instrument

Not that I imply anything by posting this gentleman's name. It is only an example.

[CAPPSMADNESS]

I have an allergy to doxy and cipro. What would you reccommend?

Also, my doc informed me that prolonged antibiotic therepy actually decreases the drugs ability to fight infection. In some cases, patients can form a sort of resistance to antibiotic therepy.