Gulf Wracked By Katrina’s
Latest Legacy--Disease, Poisons, Mold A month after
Hurricane Katrina tore through the U.S. Gulf Coast, medical experts are now
struggling with the latest crisis in the region: contamination( 污染 ).
Katrina left New Orleans and other communities tainted with oil, sewage,
and possibly poisons leached from federal toxic waste sites, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says. The pollution,
combined with the lack of regular medical services in the region, has raised
serious questions about the safety of New Orleans and other coastal towns as
people longing for home begin to go back. "I don’t think New
Orleans is safe for people to return to, from a public health and environmental
health standpoint, "said Miriam Aschkenasy, an environmental health expert
working with Oxfam America in the region. Much of the
contamination rests in the brown, filmy sediment( 沉淀物 ) left behind by Katrina’s
polluted floodwaters. Recent EPA tests of the sediment confirmed
high levels of E. coli bacteria, oil and gas chemicals, and lead, as well as
varying quantities of arsenic. The health risks posed by the
sediment are immediate, experts say, because the sludge (淤泥) is nearly
impossible for returning residents to avoid. In New Orleans, it covers every
surface that was flooded, from cars and now-dead lawns to the entire contents of
flooded homes, stores, hospitals, and schools. "When people come
back, they are exposed to the sediment," said Wilma Subra, a chemist from New
Iberia, Louisiana, who is analyzing the sediment. "It’s in their yards and
houses." Old Pollution Resurfacing Plaquemines Parish,
a rural county on the peninsula south of New Orleans, is now covered with even
more toxic sediment than it was two weeks ago, thanks to Hurricane
Rita. "Six inches up to one foot ( 15 to 30 centimeters ) of
sludge," Subra reported. Much of the sludge in Plaquemines is
the product of nearby bayous and bay bottoms, where, sediment was lifted up by
Katrina’s and Rita’s storm surges. The sediment has been
polluted over the years with industrial chemicals and heavy metals, said Suhra,
who tested the sediment for the Southern Mutual Help Association, a nonprofit
organization in New Iberia, Louisiana. "These water bodies have
received industrial wastes for decades," she said. "This material has toxic
chemicals, metals, and organic petrochemicals ( 石化产品 )." Matters
have only been made worse by multiple oil spills caused by Katrina and Rita.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, 11 oil spills have occurred in southern
Louisiana, totaling 7.4 million gallons (28 million liters) of oil, most of
which has been contained. Bacteria levels arc also especially
high in the Plaquemines sludge, said Rodney Mallett, spokesperson for the
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. "The sewage
treatment plants were underwater," he explained. "Between the animal waste and
the human waste, you’ve got a lot of bacteria." Protection
Kits Health and environmental agencies are advising people
to avoid contact with the sludge. They recommend that people wear gloves,
goggles, and dust masks, and that they wash promptly if exposure
occurs. EPA officials are directing people to its Web site
(www.epa.gov) to inform themselves of the contamination risks.
But most people returning to the area don’t have computers to get that
information, said Erik Olson, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense
Council, an environmental advocacy group. "If you [do] read the
Web site," he added, "you practically have to have a degree in chemistry to
understand it." To better inform people of health risks, the
Southern Mutual Help Association and Oxfam America are developing a program to
give every returning resident a protective kit. Each kit would
contain waterproof suits, goggles (风镜), shoe covers, and masks, along with
information about potential hazards. Volunteers would give out the kits at the
security checkpoints that now stand at the major entrances to affected
cities. The groups have made a hundred demonstration kits, which
cost about ＄100 (U.S.) each to produce, and have shown them to state
leaders in Louisiana. "The governor is really in favor of this,"
Subra said. "We just have to determine how we’re going to fund
them." Toxic Mold Blooms In addition to the toxic
sediment, sprawling blooms of mold have now taken hold in many flooded homes.
"The mold is growing everywhere--homes are just coated with it," Subra
said. The problem has become so widespread that federal health
officials warned Wednesday of allergic reactions and toxic responses to the
mold. Professionals should be hired to clean mold that covers more than ten
square feet (one square meter), they urged. "Those [surfaces]
that can’t be cleaned need to be removed," said Steven Redd, chief of the Air
Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC). The effects of the mold are already
surfacing in Mississippi, where respiratory ( 呼吸的 ) problems are among the
illnesses doctors there are reporting. "We’re seeing a lot of
asthma from inhaling the mold," said Richard Paat, team leader of a temporary
East Biloxi clinic. "And month sores from the bad water." Due
to contact with unclean water, 33 people in the flood zone have contracted
Vibrio infections, according to the CDC. The infections are caused by a family
of bacteria that live in contaminated salt water. They can cause serious
illness, especially in people with compromised immune systems.
To date, six people have died from Vibrio infections.
"People had open wounds and walked through floodwater with sewage in it,"
CDC spokesperson Von Roebuck said. "And these folks were having these wounds
infected with Vibrio." Disaster Response Care "This is
a highly contaminated area," said Susan- Briggs, the physician overseeing FEMA’s
disaster-response medical teams in Louisiana and Alabama. Her
teams have been inoculating residents for tetanus and Hepatitis A and B.
Hepatitis is a danger when people are exposed to sewage, through water or food,
Briggs explained. Tetanus can occur when people cut themselves on unclean
materials, as may happen when cleaning debris. The rudimentary
(根本的) living conditions in many Katrina-struck areas make it more likely that
people will get sick and injured, Briggs said. "They have no
electricity, no clean water, no air conditioning," she said. "There are
collapsed structures and stray animals. There are huge amounts of stray dogs,
and people have been bitten." Briggs and other doctors in the
area have been treating many cases of diarrhea, rashes, and upper-respiratory
illnesses. All of these conditions are to be expected after
natural disasters, according to the CDC. But it’s too soon to know if these
ailments are related to contamination, the CDC’s Roebuck said.
"We’re looking at that question," he said. "We’d like to know the
answer." The passage gives a description of the contamination in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.