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Since 1981 hundreds of drug addicts have been "treated" with methadone in the midst of the largest garbage dump in Israel. This paper details how this "treatment" program came into being and suggests the term "institutional violence" as the appropriate analytical concept to interpret this phenomenon.
Due to the large number of steps and the number of persons involved in the preparation of a radiation treatment, the transfer of information from one step to the next is a very critical point. Errors due to inadequate transfer of information will be reflected in every next step and can seriously affect the final result of the treatment. We studied the frequency and the sources of the transfer errors. A total number of 464 new treatments has been checked over a period of 9 months (January to October 1990). Erroneous data transfer has been detected in 139/24,128 (less than 1%) of the transferred parameters; they affected 26% (119/464) of the checked treatments. Twenty-five of these deviations could have led to large geographical miss or important over- or underdosage (much more than 5%) of the organs in the irradiated volume, thus increasing the complications or decreasing the tumour control probability, if not corrected. Such major deviations, only occurring in 0.1% of the transferred parameters, affected 5% (25/464) of the new treatments. The sources of these large deviations were nearly always human mistakes, whereas a considerable number of the smaller deviations were, in fact, consciously taken decisions to deviate from the intended treatment. Nearly half of the major deviations were introduced during input of the data in the check-and-confirm system, demonstrating that a system aimed to prevent accidental errors, can lead to a considerable number of systematic errors if used as an uncontrolled set-up system. The results of this study show that human mistakes can seriously affect the outcome of patient treatments.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Diets of similar proximate analysis formulated with a base of sorghum forage and primarily supplemented with equivalent dry matter of 18.4% of aerobically digested municipal garbage (garbage diet) or 17.5% of cottonseed hulls (control diet) were ensiled for 52 days and then individually and group fed to 16 dairy heifers for 56 and 35 days. Apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, crude fiber, and nitrogen-free extract in garbage and control diets averaged 54.2 and 47.4, 50.0 and 41.3, 62.0 and 65.1, 53.1 and 42.3, and 61.8 and 54.5% as determined by chromium oxide technique. Potential advantages from digestibility of the garbage diet appeared to be nullified by a 12% depression of dry matter intake and a consequent deterioration of feed efficiency. Dry matter intakes of garbage and control diets during the 56-day comparison were 1.98 and 2.25% of body weight and daily gains of .42 and .57 kg required 13.9 and 11.8 kg dry matter per kilogram of gain. Over the 91 days of combined comparison feeding, the .62 kg of average daily gain from control diet was 32% above the .47 kg from the garbage diet.
A study of 80 children from 6th and 7th grades was conducted to determine their beliefs and behaviours about drinking-water and garbage management. The children come, in their totality, from a poor suburban population of the north of Buenos Aires. The survey showed that most of the children kept some drinking-water provision at home. Therefore, they had to collect, treat, and store the water. The pupils had correct knowledge about the process of contamination and some adequate behaviours concerning the hygiene of collection containers, but also showed inadequate conceptions about the protection of such containers and water treatment. The children reported inadequate behaviours and incorrect beliefs about the elimination of garbage. These results establish the need for teaching-learning experiences designed to reinforce correct knowledge and behaviours and modify the incorrect ones.
Sewage sludge-garbage composts which are used as soil conditioners usually contain high concentrations of PAH. A risk for human health could arise if the use of such composts leads to high concentrations of PAH in the soil and these are taken up by plants for human consumption. We investigated the fate of PAH introduced into the soil with sewage sludge-garbage compost and the possible association with the microbial flora. Field investigations in wineyards during more than 18 months showed no reduction of PAH in the soil. There was no seasonal variation and no correlation between microbial data and PAH concentrations in the wineyards treated with compost or untreated. From these findings it must be concluded that under natural conditions PAH persist in the soil for a long time and are not taken up by plants to an appreciable extent.
The possible destruction in the soil of PAH present in sewage sludge-garbage composts in considerable amounts has been studied under various conditions. Sandy and loamy soil were mixed with the compost and kept in a climate chamber at 20 degrees C, 25 degrees C and 28 degrees C with 30% and 80% relative moisture. One part of the samples was illuminated the other kept in the dark. Control samples with and without compost were sterilized. PAH determinations, bacterial counts on Moutonagar and counts of the actinomycetes were carried out in regular intervals. No influence of temperature, moisture or light could be demonstrated under the experimental conditions. No difference in the behaviour of PAH concentrations in sterilized and nonsterilized soil samples during the periods of experiment, no increase or decrease of PAH were found. There was no correlation between bacterial counts and PAH concentrations. The laboratory experiments confirmed the results of the field investigations.
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Medical consulting room wastes of 7 disciplines were investigated quantitatively and qualitatively for nosocomial infective agents. 20-25 samples from each consulting room were examined for 3 months. The results were compared with those of household refuse and hospital wastes. The whole content of a waste bag was suspended without a preceding sorting and the eluate was microbiologically examined. The results of the investigations proved, that the germ concentration of the medical consulting room wastes was less than that of household refuse. The median for all investigated germ groups was less than 1 log(10)-step compared-to household refuse. The statistical analyses confirmed highly significant differences (p less than 0.001) for total germ concentration, thermoresistant obligate aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria and bacteria spores. Exceptionally the paediatric consulting room wastes show smaller differences (p less than 0.01) between the household refuse for obligate and facultative anaerobic bacteria, thermoresistant obligate and facultative anaerobic bacteria and bacteria spores and D-streptococci. From the comparison of total germ concentration for medical wastes from conservative disciplines and household refuse resulted that wastes from medical consulting rooms are less contaminated with nosocomial infective agents than household refuse and hospital wastes. In conclusion wastes from medical consulting rooms can, similar to hospital wastes, be disposed together with household refuse.
More than 50 arthropod species were found at two dumping-grounds with dwelling-places (Mokattam and Ezbet el Nakhl) in Cairo. Their importance was evaluated from the epidemiological and epizootological points of view. Of primary importance is the great prevalence of the fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) on brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), since the rats are in a close contact with people. They are often simultaneously parasitized with another flea species, Ctenocephalides felis felis, which is very frequent in the studied localities, occurring not only on people and dogs, but also freely in the whole area inhabited by people. Significant is also the large number of ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) and synantropic flies of epidemiological importance. There is a mass occurrence particularly of the species Musca domestica vicina, Musca sorbens and Piophila casei. Attention is paid also to natural reducers of these flies.
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