Predicting coliform presence in private wells as a function of well characteristics, parcel size and leachfield soil rating.

Public water systems must be tested frequently for coliform bacteria to determine whether other pathogens may be present, yet no testing or disinfection is required for private wells. In this paper, we identify whether well age, type of well, well depth, parcel size, and soil ratings for a leachfield can predict the probability of detecting coliform bacteria in private wells using a multivariate logistic regression model. Samples from 1163 wells were analyzed for the presence of coliform bacteria between October 2017 and October 2019 across Gaston County, North Carolina, USA. The maximum well age was 30 years, and bored wells (median age = 24 years) were older than drilled wells (median age = 19 years). Bored wells were shallower (mean depth = 18 m) compared to drilled wells (mean depth = 79 m). We found coliform bacteria in 329 samples, including 290 of 1091 drilled wells and 39 of 72 bored wells. The model results showed bored wells were 4.76 times more likely to contain bacteria compared to drilled wells. We found that the likelihood of coliform bacteria significantly increased with well age, suggesting that those constructed before well standards were enforced in 1989 may be at a higher risk. We found no significant association between poorly rated soils for a leachfield, well depth, parcel size and the likelihood of having coliform in wells. These findings can be leveraged to determine areas of concern to encourage well users to take action to reduce their risk of drinking possible pathogens in well water.

The effectiveness of education as a tool to manage onsite septic systems.

Onsite septic systems meet the needs of homes that lack access to municipal services. Although they present an important source of contamination to receiving waters, they are given relatively little regulatory attention. Proper maintenance and use of onsite systems is simple and inexpensive, and can substantially decrease risk of system failure. In this study, information about onsite-system management was provided on a door-to-door basis at homes throughout northwest Ohio. Residents who received the educational program learned more about onsite-septic-system management, but the educational program did not significantly change their personal management practices. More intrusive management practices appear necessary to control pollution from this source.

Skills, knowledge, and abilities of graduates from accredited environmental health science and protection undergraduate programs.

The National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council (EHAC) has the mission of enhancing the education and training of students who intend to become environmental health science and protection practitioners/professionals. Academic programs that demonstrate compliance with EHAC guidelines can become accredited with the expectation that graduates of accredited programs will have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for professional success. The study reported on here reviewed these guidelines in light of results from a survey of program graduates and their supervisors. The survey results were found to establish that the current approach is quite successful, and that graduates of the programs have the potential to make substantial professional contributions in protecting environmental health.

Effect of a manager training and certification program on food safety and hygiene in food service operations.

Food safety is an important public health issue in the U.S. Eating at restaurants and other food service facilities increasingly has been associated with food borne disease outbreaks. Food safety training and certification of food mangers has been used as a method for reducing food safety violations at food service facilities. However, the literature is inconclusive about the effectiveness of such training programs for improving food safety and protecting consumer health. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of food manger training on reducing food safety violations. We examined food inspection reports from the Toledo/Lucas County Health Department (Ohio) from March 2005 through February 2006 and compared food hygiene violations between food service facilities with certified and without certified food managers. We also examined the impact on food safety of a food service facility being part of a larger group of facilities.Restaurants with trained and certified food managers had significantly fewer critical food safety violations but more non-critical violations than restaurants without certified personnel. Institutional food service facilities had significantly fewer violations than restaurants, and the number of violations did not differ as a function of certification. Similarly, restaurants with many outlets had significantly fewer violations than restaurants with fewer outlets, and training was not associated with lower numbers of violations from restaurants with many outlets. The value of having certified personnel was only observed in independent restaurants and those with few branches. This information may be useful in indicating where food safety problems are most likely to occur. Furthermore, we recommend that those characteristics of institutional and chain restaurants that result in fewer violations should be identified in future research, and efforts made to apply this knowledge at the level of individual restaurants.