jacksonR@batman.moravian.EDU (Ron Ford Jackson) (09/04/89)
if this is a repost, i apologize. it should have been posted on august 10th. on august 11th our /news file system died. it has now been resurrected; however, i have received no response to my questions. perhaps i should be in sci.bio? please, please, satisfy my curiosity. recently i've heard controversy concerning the treated sewage which is disposed of via america's waterways. the complaint centered around the high level of viruses present in the sewage. as i understand the problem, the sewage is treated with chlorine. the chlorine kills the bacteria; but, not the viruses. the viruses create a health hazard for us humans. so, keeping this in mind, i'm watching a news broadcast... they are reporting on an unusually large concentration of viruses in a german lake. i can't remember all the details; however, they did say there was no need for concern since a high concentration of viruses means a low level of bacteria. and, that viruses pose no "significant" threat to the health of humans or wildlife. i've always thought certain viruses caused various _serious_ diseases. thus, how can they not be _significant_? well, i'm confused. perhaps someone could tell me: what (if any) is the correlation between the level of viruses vs. bacteria? does the existence of a high concentration of viruses automatically introduce a health hazard? how predominant is this problem, if a problem exists? thanks in advance, ron jackson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ronald F. Jackson CSNET / INTERNET: jacksonR@moravian.edu 1719 Sullivan Trail BITNET: jacksonR%moravian.edu@relay.cs.net Easton, PA 18042 UUCP: ...!rutgers!liberty!batman!jacksonR ------------------------------------------------------------------------