Airborne Occupational Hazards in Sewer Systems

Amy Forsgren received her chemical engineering education at the University of Cincinnati (USA) in 1986. She spent several years researching anticorrosion coatings at Ford Motor Company, before returning to Sweden in 1996 to lead the protective coatings program at the Swedish Corrosion Institute. She is now working in the water and wastewater industry at Xylem Water Solutions. Kristina Brinck has worked with product information and safety in CPI at Xylem since 2005. After completing a B.A. in languages at Stockholm University, Kristina worked in publishing for several years, as a journalist, translator, instructor and language consultant, before joining Xylem. Kristina’s greatest area of interest is in translation of information from one discourse to another, for one profession to understand another, or for complex information to make sense for a wide range of audiences.Kristina Brinck is Information Designer at Xylem, where she has been working since 2005. When she received her diploma in Swedish Language Consultancy from Stockholm University back in 1998, Kristina had already been working with publications for ten years, as journalist and translator. She then worked as Information Mapping® instructor and language consultant for five years before she started working at Xylem. Kristina’s greatest area of interest is in translation of information from one discourse to another, for one profession to understand another, or for complex information to make sense for a wide range of audience.

"Science and history (embodied in several case studies) are well paired in Airborne Occupational Hazards in Sewer Systems –and that makes for a very compelling volume for both experts who need to understand and assess the manner in which utilities such as sewers can spread both disaster and disease and historians who need to more fully comprehend the technical background of past tragedies that have had major social implications." — John Grabowski, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA"Accidents and accumulative injuries are unfortunately not uncommon when working in sewers, and there is hence a great need to educate the involved personnel. A major obstacle in this respect has been a lack of readily accessible information. The book Airborne Occupational Hazards in Sewer Systems is a very significant contribution in this respect and a great step forward in ensuring the health of people working in all parts of the sewerage system. The book is an excellent text book and also suited for self-study." — Jes Vollertsen, Aalborg University, Denmark"This fine book by Amy Forsgren and Kristina Brinck is a single-source compendium of information on the hazards of municipal sewage and covers both infectious agents and chemicals. The authors place appropriate emphasis on the signature chemical hazard of hydrogen sulfide, also known as "sewer gas", and the potential for lethal exposure in confined spaces, which often occur as multiple deaths due to ill-fated rescue attempts without self-contained breathing apparatus. This book will be useful to public health professionals and invaluable to civil engineers designing municipal sewerage. It may well save a life." — Tee Guidotti, Editor-in-Chief, Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health

• Introduction; Confined spaces; Hydrogen Sulphide,Part 2: Toxicology; Biomarkers for Hydrogen Sulfide Poisoning; Methane and Natural Gas; Methane Case Study: The Abbeystead Explosion; Case Study, Natural Gas: The East Ohio Gas Co. Explosion; Other Vapors or Gases; Biological Hazards; Viral Hepatitis; Leptospirosis/Weill’s Disease; Exercises; Index