X-Message-Number: 32094 From: Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:08:13 EDT Subject: Re: Remains in Sewers There is too much worry about human remains going into sewers. We are surrounded by pathogens and toxic materials. Every day we encounter people with AIDS and other diseases. But we do not drink gasoline or Draino or antifreeze and so we are rarely poisoned. We do not engage in unsafe sex and we are reasonably sanitary in our habits so we do not get much disease. Sewage is dangerous and we should not drink it, but it would be far less dangerous than antifreeze (which is fatal.) It rarely contains toxic chemicals -- mostly it's shower water, clothes washing water etc. But feces does pass cholera and other dangerous pathogens, so sewage is dangerous. (Even so, recall that we are descended directly from chimp-like animals that drank from water holes containing hippos, hippo poo, dead-and rotting hippos etc., and survived. They were soon immune to all the stuff in that crawling mess. So were humans and so are humans. "It was crawlin' and it stunk, but of all the drinks I've drunk, I'm greatfullest for one from Gunga Din.") And the famous London well that was padlocked, stopping the cholera outbreak -- that had been contaminated by a nearby privy and people had drunk from it without ill effect for years. It was only when the cholera epidemic got cholera in that it sickened people. Our immune systems are tough - they are made for water holes!) So sewage is dangerous but not if we don't drink it or get it in an open cut. It goes to treatment plants where all the bad things are digested by bacteria and made innocuous just as in nature, or are otherwise removed. Viruses and especially AIDS die very quickly outside the living human body, so you are *very* unlikely to get AIDS from sewage or a corpse. Living humans are far more dangerous. As for mortuary waste -- yes, it's yucky, but no more dangerous than a rotting racoon in your yard or the spoiled hamburger you just put down the garbage disposal. I have many squirrels in my yard, and they only live two years or so, so I must be around lots of rotting animal corpses and so must everyone else. Human remains are no different. Yes, be careful with corpses and don't plunge a hand with a cut into rotting remains (that killed many anatomists during dissections because rotten meat is crawling with bacteria that live on meat and infect the living too, though with antibiotics I think they'd be OK today.) But aside from such common sense cautions, there is no need to have a superstitious fear of human remains and chemicals from mortuaries and sewage. The bacteria at the treatment plant will handle them the same as any other nutrients. Alan Mole Civil Engineer with a class on water treatment. In a message dated 10/23/2009 3:00:58 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, writes: CryoNet - Fri 23 Oct 2009 #32092: Dangerous Rationalizations [JOSEPH W MORGAN] #32093: Sewers and such [Keith Henson] Rate This Digest: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=32092%2D32093 Administrivia To subscribe to CryoNet, send email to: with the subject line (not message _body_): subscribe To unsubscribe, use the subject line: unsubscribe Message #32092 From: "JOSEPH W MORGAN" <> Subject: Dangerous Rationalizations Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:49:24 -0700 Melody Maxim's Dangerous Rationalizations post is right on target. Larry Johnson's book Frozen raises serious questions about the credibility and competence of Alcor. These issues need to be addressed, not rationalized or ignored. Big changes need to be made. Joseph W. Morgan Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=32094