Sewage and chemicals in floodwaters pose threat of disease

SEWAGE and chemicals are mixed into a potentially toxic bathtub soaking New Orleans, posing the threat of disease for residents forced to wade in Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters.

Health officials said the floodwaters whipped up by the devastating storm carried a potentially lethal cocktail of toxic chemicals, gasoline and human waste.

“Probably the more immediate health risk to the people is that whatever was in the sewer is in the water,” said John Pardue, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

“Whatever bacterial or viral diseases that people put into the system before the flooding is now in the water.”

Consumption, or in some cases simple contact with such highly contaminated water can result in diseases and ailments ranging from severe gastrointestinal illness to skin rashes and allergies.

“The threat is very serious and will only increase as the days go by without the waters receding,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Particularly at risk are older people and children suffering from chronic dehydration as a result of the absence of clean drinking water and the heat and humidity of the affected region.

“And don’t forget, that’s also mosquito country,” Mr Benjamin said. “So before long, you’re going to get large numbers of mosquitoes breeding on the water and spreading mosquito-borne disease.”

Meanwhile, scientists say they’re alarmed by how much of the region’s environmental defences against future hurricanes and other big storms have become seriously compromised.

Officials with the US Geological Survey who flew over the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana said that most of the Chandeleur chain of barrier islands - the first line of storm defence for eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi - appears to be gone. What is usually a continuous line of dunes is now just marshy outcrops, said Ann Tihansky, a hydrologist with the survey. “It’s unbelievable.”

Along with the sewage in the floodwater is a witches’ brew of chemicals including leaking fuels and oils from gas stations and submerged cars, paints and solvents from small businesses and household cleaners.

The biggest chemical plants and refineries to the south and east of the city were spared a direct hit by the hurricane. If that had happened, breaches in large tanks and other industrial facilities might have spewed heavy petroleum, hydrocarbons and chlorine gas.

“From the perspective of chemical or environmental contamination, it could have been much worse.

“One advantage is that we have so much water in the city and that dilutes out the chemicals,” Mr Pardue said.

“People shouldn’t have an irrational fear of chemicals in the water. I’m more concerned about the viral and bacterial things. There’s going to be a lot of gastrointestinal and public health issues.”