http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/sanitation/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Wed, 21 May 2008 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3688/piling_it_high/ Nancy Holt, a retired nurse from Mebane, N.C., is beset by mysterious neurological problems. She blames the cause of her illness on the multiple unknown toxicities of the sewage sludge that has been spread since 1991 on the fields across from her house as "fertilizer." And Holt says she isn't alone. People in her neighborhood have a high incidence of cancer and thyroid problems. Local creeks are no longer safe for kids to play in -- the danger of staph infection is too great. In 2001, Holt began chronicling the health problems in her area of rural Alamance County -- 12 miles north of Chapel Hill. Soon she was tracking reports of sludge-related illnesses and deaths across the country. "I… pollution health care sewage Rachel Jefferson Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:59:52 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3972/toilet_ecology/ Rose George argues in her book The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters (Metropolitan, October) that the "big necessity" is a toilet. For 2.6 billion people, George writes, the lack of access to a hygienic toilet can result in "crippled guts and killed children." Every 20 seconds a child dies because of abysmal sanitation conditions, mostly from exposure to infectious agents, like the Vibrio cholerae bacteria, which move from gut to gut by way of feces. Contain the feces and the pathogens are contained, too. It is a simple and straightforward story that George tells with ease as she crisscrosses the globe profiling efforts to improve sanitation for the world's poor. But the problem… books sanitation Rose George Rachel Jefferson