Tag Archives: Sewage

Sewage leak and mouse droppings at takeaway in south London

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Tristan Kirk of MSN writes a south London takeaway has been shut down after inspectors discovered a mouse infestation and raw sewage on the kitchen floor (that’s late 1980s great hair, right).

Chicken wings were being defrosted in the filthy kitchen at Dallas Chicken & Ribs despite sewage leaking from broken drain pipes, Wimbledon magistrates’ court heard.

A routine inspection by Wands­worth council uncovered used toilet paper on the floor, mouse droppings at the back of the kitchen and on a chopping board and ­“visible faecal matter” coming from the drains.

Environmental health official David Stupples, who served a prohibition notice on the business last week, told the court: “We found that there was an imminent risk to public health. It was flooded with raw sewage, including visible faecal matter.

“The drain pipes could be seen emanating with raw sewage, there was also evidence of mice droppings in the rear section of the kitchen.”

He supplied photos of the filth, including a dirty mop bucket containing sewage next to the sink where the chicken wings were being defrosted.

Referring to the photos shown to magistrates, Mr Stupples said: “Faecal matter was visible in the sewage and there was faecal matter around the working area.”

 

Pennsylvania restaurant trying to repair sewage pipe leak with duct tape

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Department of Agriculture inspectors this week found a restaurant trying to repair a sewage pipe leak with duct tape.

A complaint was filed at U.S. 30 Diner on West Market Street in York and the inspector found 24 violations. The inspector found a sewage back-up in the basement piping system. One of the pipes was leaking and the facility was using duct tape as a repair. The inspector also says food employees were wearing soiled garments, and personal medication was found on a shelf with food. They say the entire food facility was extremely dirty with old food, trash, and dirt. The inspector also found a dog leash. The person in charge acknowledged that he brings his dog into the rear of the food facility, according to the report.

Night soil: Kenyans feeding on Sukuma wiki grown in raw sewage

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While some city residents have become farmers either by design or default depending on the residential area one resides in, cheap is proving to be life threatening as farmers are now using raw sewage for farming. This means much of the vegetables especially sukuma wiki (kales) on sale in Nairobi are highly contaminated and pose a serious health risk to consumers.

A visit to the sewage collection point in Njiru, Nairobi by Linda Shiundu of TUKO.co.ke revealed the effluence deposited there is always tapped and used for farming by farmers living. The farmers who wished to remain anonymous said instead of waiting for the rains, they would rather take advantage of the 75,000 liters of untreated sewage disposed daily to water their crops. They do so by digging trenches from the deposit site channeling the semi solid human waste into their farms which they use to water the crops and as manure. They mainly grow vegetables like sukuma wiki, spinach and other crops like bananas. Sewage deposited at the sewage collection point around Njiru area is always trapped by farmers living around the collection center and use for planting. The vegetables later on find their way into the market and in to the plates and stomachs of many unsuspecting residents. The vegetables later on find their way into the market.

Despite the health risks posed by the exposed raw sewage including, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting and even death, open food kiosks are also run next to the disposal site. The kiosks are normally flooded with drivers who bring in the hundreds of lorries daily to deposit the sewage.

Poop and food don’t mix- KFC edition

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Always a bad idea to prepare and serve food when there is a sewage back-up and no surprise it was caught on video.
Public health takes a back seat to monetary gains I guess. I’ve seen this before when I was in the field. When I was in the field as an inspector, the City informed me that there was a sewage break in the south end. I went to visit the affected food establishments to ensure they were closed and following proper protocols. Three restaurants were involved, 2 shut down but 1 continued to operate in sewage. I shut down the third and when I asked why they continued to operate, the manager played the ignorance card. Meanwhile, his staff were sloshing around in sewage back of house, no excuse for that.

Vanessa Vasconcelos of ABC 30 reports

Cell phone video shows the conditions Kentucky Fried Chicken employees say they were forced to work in last Tuesday. The fast-food restaurant at Kings Canyon and Willow took on several inches of dirty water in the kitchen area.
According to the Fresno County Health Department, it all started with a sewer line blockage. “They brought in a hydro-flush unit that uses high-pressure water to (clean) it and that caused the backed up water in the building as they were trying to get it unclogged,” said Health Department division manager Wayne Fox.
The worker who captured the images didn’t want to be identified, but says their daily operations continued; including serving customers. By Wednesday, health inspectors received a complaint and investigated.
Fox says, “staff was working to clean the place up. Our environmental health staff determined the place needed to be closed while they were doing that cleaning.” He added the site manager should have been trained enough to understand the severity of the violation.
They held an office hearing with senior management then conducted a re-inspection that determined they could resume business, “We wouldn’t take any chances. We take this very seriously we want all the food that anyone gets at a restaurant to be pure and wholesome.
Site supervisors at KFC and JEM restaurant management corporation — which manages the KFC — declined our requests for comment.
Health Department officials say this is only the third complaint in the last decade this particular KFC has received and the previous ones weren’t as severe. They include food temperature violations, pests and improper handling of food.
The KFC at Kings Canyon and Willow is back up and running, but management and all employees will be undergoing mandatory training and will develop an emergency plan so employees know what to do should this ever happen again.
If this does become a recurring problem, the restaurant will have its health permit revoked.

400 sick: Now the water is chlorinated in Nousis, Finland

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(Something may be lost in translation; thanks to our Scandanavian correspondent for passing along these stories.)

About 400 people in Nousis, Finland — a town of 4,800 — fell as a result of contaminated drinking water.

The municipality’s health authorities state that the situation was worst 23-27 January when more than 50 cases were recorded every day. The number of new cases has decreased steadily.

Last weekend, a ban on drinking water was introduced.

A leakage has been found to be behind the epidemic; the leak caused sewage and drinking water to mix.

Last night, chlorination of the water pipeline began. Day care centers, schools, retirement homes and health centers are in the first place in a hurry for redevelopment, and on Tuesday the chlorination of the water to households begins.

In tests taken by people who have fallen ill after drinking the municipality’s water pipeline, at least noro, sapo and astroviruses have been found.

Some of the patients had had two different viruses.

Individual cases of ETEC and EHEC bacteria and of the bacterium Plesiomonas shigelloides were also found in the patient samples.

In water analyzes only sapovirus has been found, and therefore it has not been possible to confirm that the other disease have come from the water.

“I contacted the municipality when the water was grayed out, but they then certified me that it was safe to drink,” said resident Jutta Holmevaara.

“Then it started coming out ‘from both ends.’ It continued as long as I drank the water.

“It took five days before I noticed that they had announced that it was worth boiling the water. I had fever for several days. I still do not feel completely healthy.”

‘No effluent on streets for several days’ 34 sick in Barbados gastro outbreak blamed on foodborne disease at business

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The Jamaica Observer reports the Ministry of Health said it had conducted an epidemiological investigation into “a localised, food-borne disease outbreak at a specific food business” and that it was continuing to focus its resources on the south coast as it sought to contain any threat to public health as a result of the sewage spills in the area.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health reported that no new cases of gastroenteritis had been reported since January 3 this year, and that following the epidemiological investigation, 34 cases met the criteria for the gastroenteritis outbreak investigation.

“No other clusters of similar illness were reported from elsewhere in the area of the sewage spill. No organisms were identified through laboratory testing. Therefore, the outbreak has not been linked to any particular food or beverage, or the sewage spill,” the statement noted.

The authorities say they have been dealing with the sewage spill that has severely affected the island’s south coast and restaurants and other food outlets impacted by the more than year-long sewage crisis are being told they should not feel pressured to shut down, as the temporary fixes implemented by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) seem to be holding for the time being.

Poop and food don’t mix: Irish edition

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Niamh Towey of The Irish Times writes that an Indian restaurant in Co Donegal was served a food closure order last month after a pond of human excrement was found in an area where staff were preparing food.

An overflowing manhole had resulted in the pond of human excrement gathering beside a shed where the potato peeler was stored at Saffron restaurant and takeaway in Creeslough.

A report from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said “human excrement was overflowing and ponding in an area beside the shed in which the potato peeler was located due to an overflowing manhole”.

It goes on to say staff “would be standing in the excrement” while using the potato peeler and thereby “carrying it into the food premises on their shoes”.

The report also found “dirt, mould and encrusted food” on windows, in sinks and on floors and doors throughout the premesis, while “food storage containers in the fridge were covered with black mould”.

Gross: Malaysian factories found making ice from waste water

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A local Malay daily has revealed the absolutely disgusting conditions in which ice cubes are made, rendering our thirst-quenching chilled drinks, the most unhygienic ever.

dirty-iceIn an investigative piece today, Sinar Harian reported on the existence of several “rogue” ice factories in the Klang Valley that use waste water to produce ice cubes and ice slabs.

Besides using obviously filthy water unfit for human consumption, the ice is manufactured in extremely unhygienic surroundings as well.

According to the report, one factory that allegedly “recycled” waste water into ice, even channelled this water to the ice-producing machine via pipes that had moss growing on the inside.

It was learned that waste water was preferred as it was already in a cold state and hence froze faster.

This short cut also invariably translated into more products in a shorter time span, and higher profits for the manufacturers.

And the horror does not stop there. If the sight of stray animals scavenging around in the ice processing area at some factories was not enough to make you gag, how about ice cubes stored on rusty trays?

The report said the toilets at these premises were also in a filthy state, and pools of stagnant water in other parts of the factory due to clogged drainage systems only made the manufacture of ice cubes and ice slabs all the more unhygienic.

Sewage forces Ireland Starbucks to close for a week

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Tim O’Brien of The Irish Times reports a Starbucks outlet was among 10 food businesses to receive temporary closure orders during September from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

starbucks-sewageThe agency ordered the outlet at 21 Great Georges Street in Waterford to close its doors on September 27th. It remained shut for more than a week, reopening on October 5th.

The FSAI declines to give details of why closure orders are served on any outlet, but its chief executive, Dr Pamela Byrne, said they are only issued for serious risks or regular breaches of hygiene regulations.

“Enforcement orders and most especially closure orders and prohibition orders are never served for minor food safety breaches,” she said.

“They are served on food businesses only when a serious risk to consumer health has been identified or where there are a number of ongoing breaches of food legislation and that largely tends to relate to a grave hygiene or operational issue.”

A spokeswoman for Entertainment Enterprises Group, which operates the Starbucks chain in Ireland, said the Waterford closure was a result of contaminated water flowing into the shop.

“The problem was with the main drainage pipes,” she said.

“There was a rupture of the main pipe in the middle of the road outside our store. Water then seeped under the road and pavement into our basement.

“The pipes were repaired and the store is restored to its proper condition. The store reopened yesterday afternoon.”

UK: Toilet waste from older trains risks workers health, union claims

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Rail workers’ health is being risked by sewage flushed from older coaches a union has said, with one-in-10 coaches in the UK still released toilet waste on to the tracks

THE-SHIT-TRAIN-300x168Ken Usher, from the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT),

said train workers were at risk of contracting infections and illnesses such as hepatitis and E. coli from being in contact with sewage.

“Working trackside is a dirty job at the best of times – if you are sprayed with effluent it makes it even worse.

“If you can imagine a toilet being flushed at between 40 and 70 mph alongside you, you can get sprayed with just about any liquid and solids… not very nice at all,” he said.

Susan Lea, from Shotton in Flintshire, has a railway line at the bottom of her property, and has had toilet waste from a train blown into her garden.

“[It was] all over my washing, all over the garden, all over the fence, all over the chairs, all over the floor, it was everywhere.

“They wrote to me and told me that they’re allowed to drop this sewerage – it’s not fair on people older, like me, who have to clear it up if it does come in their garden.”

Seb Gordon, from RDG, told the BBC’s Inside Out West Midlands: “The rail safety board, the rail safety organization, has looked into [waste from trains] and has found that it’s a relatively low risk.”