The NY Times is reporting that an outbreak of Shigellosis in Flint may be connected to the water crisis there (in that people’s changes in their hand cleaning and other washing behaviors due to the water may have contributed to the outbreak). See the story (linked below) for more details. If true this is yet …
You’ve probably heard that the ocean is full of plastic. Here is a guest post about a current crowdfunding campaign to explore the microbes that colonize plastic. Professor Ana Maria Barral from National University (http://www.nu.edu/), a private non-profit in California has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support a recently started project to explore the microbes …
Here’s the report from Day 1 of the 5th annual Microbiology of the Built Environment meeting in Boulder, CO. Following my summary of the talks is a Storify of all the tweets from the day. The first talk of the day was by Ulla Haverinen-Shaughnessy from the University of Eastern Finland whose talk was entitled …
Just a quick update on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The NY Times has this article out on the impending legal battle to deal with how the situation was mishandled. 13 felonies and 5 misdemeanors were lodged against state officials Busch, Prysby, and Glasgow. Gov. Snyder also faces an effort to recall him from …
As communities grow and pump more groundwater, radium from deep bedrock is contaminating dozens of water systems. The city of Waukesha wants to tap into Lake Michigan to solve its radium problem. Just was pointed to this piece by Deborah Blum: As wells go deeper, radium levels rise in state tap water | WisconsinWatch.org. It …
Just got done reading this article from the Guardian and it is distressing Guardian analysis reveals millions of customers were asked to used testing method condemned by the EPA which may flush out detectable lead content Source: Water utilities serving American cities use tests that downplay contamination | Environment | The Guardian by Jessica Glenza and Oliver Milman. The …
Over the past few months, the Flint water crisis has been covered at length by various media outlets, including here on microBEnet. Here is an update on the situation from NY Times. The Legionnaire’s cases started popping up around June 2014. This article discusses the poor water management in Flint, as well as the inadequate response …
A recent paper Dzieciol et al uses 16S pyrosequencing to characterize the bacterial biofilms on floor drains. Listeria monocytogenes was also tested for using both cuture-independent and -dependent techniques. Here is the abstract: Sanitation protocols are applied on a daily basis in food processing facilities to prevent the risk of cross-contamination with spoilage organisms. Floor drain water …
This seems like an incredibly worthy cause: Source: FlintWaterStudy Research Fundraiser by Siddhartha Roy – GoFundMe In addition it is directly connected to the mission of microBEnet in that this is a fundraiser for the work of Marc Edwards, He is a professor at Virginia Tech and one of the heroes of the Flint Water …
2013-5-19MBPF Source: Sources of airborne microorganisms in the built environment | Microbiome | Full Text Really nice new review paper by Aaron Prissin and Linsey Marr. It covers research on sources of airborne microbes including Humans Pets Plants Plumbing HVACs Water damage Dust Outdoor air Really thorough with tons of references and discussion of the …