Weight on Septic Leach Lines

CurlyDave · Apr 13, 2009

You know, the solution here is to give up on strawberries and try growing corn.

IslandTractor · Apr 13, 2009

bearmtnmartin said:
I was certainly under the impression that bacteria multiplied quite well at any temperature above freezing. This is the same process that makes your milk go bad in the fridge. The process doesn't stop just because it's no longer in the cow, in fact they multiply much faster. I am however willing to be convinced. Why then is contact with sewage and other forms of human waste considered a reliable means of contracting disease?

Mostly, enteric disease is spread by contaminating food which when kept at non refrigerated temperatures permits slow growth of pathgens to significant numbers. Mayonnaise in chicken salad for example when contaminated by salmonella from the cutting board can allow growth. Growth media plus permissive temperature is what increases numbers to clinically significant levels. Souring of milk is a different story as those are not typically enteric pathogens causing that effect (sour milk = sour cream = food) and they do grow steadily even at refrigerated temps. Some bacteria grow very well at room temp or below but most human pathogens don't.

Contact with sewage is mostly an issue when you subsequently contaminate food. I'm not saying that drinking sewage is a good idea just that the numbers of bacterial organisms you would encounter on your contaminated hands for example (when wet) would usually not be enough to cause disease directly even if you touched your lips (viruses like rotavirus or norwalk would however be dangerous in that setting). Your stomach is actually a pretty good barrier for many pathogens so you need to injest tens of thousands before you become ill. That is a number of pathogens that is easy to encounter when the mayonnaise is contaminated but harder when it is just your fingertips.