FECAL DUST

 

Fecal dust

Do you know that the air we breathe in can sometimes contain tiny particles of feaces?

When the buttocks is wiped with tissue after defecation, little quantity of the feaces would be left on the tissue or paper, on drying it acquires a light weight so that it easily be carried about by the winds. Another situation is that this dust through friction will adhere to surfaces as it moves about contaminating thereby causing different disease like UTI,

It comes from fecal residue, left after incomplete wiping. Through drying and friction it turns out to dust, going to all surfaces, at first stage the urogenital organs, causing UTI, and later to all house, causing food contamination. Other times it can be spread through the activity of dust mites in the soil.

Dust mites

 

That phenomenon is more intense in hospitals, because the patients are usually debilitated, weak, with mobility restriction etc, particularly if there are hemorrhoids or anus hair and are unable to wipe properly (if there is such a thing).So the dust flying reaches to all ward surfaces, dispersing its pathogenic microbes and being the cause of the known HAI. It is obvious that the known hygiene measures, as is hand washing etc is not enough.

Up to now not a scientific study have ever doubted FECAL DUST's existence and its role on microbe dispersion, however no hygiene measures are imposed or any relative medical explanation or advice is given, particularly to women, or any guiding to hospital hygiene managers.

 

Fecal dusts being carried by wind

 

In West Africa districts and the surrounding area, has long been afflicted by pollutions from fecal dust caused by open defecations that environmental health officers or regulators have chosen to ignore or cannot control properly due to shortage of manpower. While it may seem a quaint issue, fecal dust from concentrated animal feeding operations has a huge impact on the respiratory health of those living in the region. Imagine villages where there is no proper toilet facilities, these people practice open defecation which in turn have a way of affecting their health without then knowing. Again because their economy is centered around the cattle rearing, with seemingly endless cattle pastures, they stand a higher risk of being infected by the microorganisms being transported in fecal dust. When these villagers go on open defecation, the aridity of the region has dried the fecal matter from their feaces and sent it airborne, into neighboring communities and residents’ lungs. This cloud settles over towns in the afternoon, permeating the air with a strong odor and thick haze that strains breathing.

The true danger of this haze is often less visible: the inhalation of ammonia and small particulates, which has been proven to have serious health outcomes. Some of the possible health impacts are asthma, heart conditions, difficulty breathing, and premature death in citizens with heart or lung disease. In Nigeria, there has been a serious lack of data and study on the link between fecal dust and asthma, because fecal dust levels are not being monitored. Epidemiological studies have been conducted in different part of the country have shown that the levels of asthma, heart conditions, and premature deaths are disproportionately large, and that airborne disease is the predominant cause of asthma in many state. One study found that doubling livestock production in an area caused a 7.4% increase in infant mortality due to respiratory disease. Another found that children living in the villages were at a far higher risk of developing asthma.

 

Microorganisms commonly found in fecal dust leading respiratory tract infections

 

While ammonia and small particulates are generally regulated; animal dung commonly used by farmers as manure is not seen as a pollutant to these farmers. This allows cattle breeders to pollute freely and indiscriminately, without facing the consequences other industries are subject to. Even worse, the level of fecal dust is the air is not monitored so doctors and health experts have no way of knowing the amount of ammonia and other dangerous particulates that people are inhaling. Despite repeated complaints from residents and the government, the Environmental health officers of State Health still does not monitor or test the impact of living near these contaminated areas or collect data on fecal dust output. The agency’s monitors are conspicuously absent from the area’s most affected by fecal dust, and studies have had to rely on independently collected data.

 

I propose that ammonia and particulates originating from animal and human excretal should be classified as a pollutant, and ammonia should be regulated as a criteria pollutant under the Clean Air Act, this will allow Environmental health officers to enforce the laws/ regulations banning open defecations, monitoring stations should be set up in each district and surrounding regions to collect data on levels of ammonia from fecal dust. This data should be made freely available for researchers and doctors and should also be used to enforce regulations on open defecators and cattle breeders. Given the density of the urban towns and cities, cattle grazing and the region’s dry environment, so any solution would be unprecedented. I propose that a cap-and-trade program on waste production would be the best option to limit the fecal dust in the air, with the initial permits being allocated according to historic pollution levels through a grandfathering system. Cap-and-Trade programs can approximate the most economically efficient solution while avoiding the label of “tax”. Cattle ranchers are able to abate airborne fecal dust through manure watering, conversion to fertilizer, and more frequent raking of the fields. The cap-and-trade program would incentivize ranchers to abate more of their pollution, as long as the abatement cost is lower than the market rate of a permit.

The major obstacle of this solution is measuring how much fecal dust each farm is outputting, as ranches are often adjacent and fecal dust is airborne. We should calculate their waste level by multiplying the number of cows by a coefficient that is determined by the conditions of their ranch and the abatement efforts they undertake. One major problem that would be encountered is the fact that Nigeria does not have or practice ranching. Cap-and-Trade is not perfectly suited for this issue, but a command-and-control regulation or tax on cattle is not politically possible in Nigeria. No solution to this issue is easy, but it is necessary to find one as the land is only becoming drier and the clouds of dust heavier as droughts increase due to climate change. Cap-and-Trade is the most feasible and efficient solution to provide the relief. By controlling the amounts of ammonia and small particulates in the air, we can help protect the health of rural citizens across the country.