Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] poop risk

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Thomas Gorman <tom@honeychrome.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] poop risk
  • Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 18:42:02 -0400

<<My oldest daughter contracted typhoid fever while traveling in India when she was 20. It is fecal-oral transmission. Gets in the soil and then in the water and then you drink it. She was being very careful, always using a water bottle with a filter, but on her last day there accepted a glass of Gatorade that she thought came out of a bottle and then to her great dismany, saw the family mixing up some more for her with a powder and their own water. We almost lost her. Very very close call. Not much typhoid in the US but I don't know what else is transmitted that way. Kathy>>

That is a terrible and scary story and thankfully it did not have a tragic outcome, but it is just that kind of story, which when presented in an unqualified manner generates irrational fear about humanure composting. The key word here is COMPOSTING, which is a process. What made your daughter sick was not humanure composting, but unsanitary conditions. With proper composting, humanure is safe.



  • [permaculture] poop risk, Thomas Gorman, 10/15/2006

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page