At
the end of July in 1986 after six and one half years of being there, the health
director died suddenly. Dr. Gofstein
was brilliant, speaking 6 dialects of Chinese just so he could communicate with
the owners of Chinese restaurants about food safety. He was the one who applied for the grants and on his desk were
incomplete applications for a large number of them. He did not share much with any one; he did most of the work that
directed the path the health department took.
He had taken findings from our lab, most of it my own work and initiated
a lawsuit against the privately owned water company in Stamford to force them
to put ultra fine filters on the water coming out of the reservoir. His budget proposals were always an honest
assessment of the health department's needs.
The governing boards did not believe him because everyone padded the
budgets.
He
had a temper, but was just. He had more
compassion for the people of Stamford than I think anyone realized. He was a tough man and now he was gone.
For
a time, the director of Environmental Health took over as interim director.
I
did not like her personally, but she supported the lab in very, very strong
ways.
The
interim director gave us the one computer in the health department and I
immediately began using it to generate lab reports. This did not save the data in a way that could be used, but money
came from the forensic account and my very rusty skills with computers came to
life.
Though
the first machine was an Apple, the next were PC's and again with moneys from
the forensic account we purchased a DOS based database.
This
was extremely important to me because as we were analyzing more samples from
the general public, I was seeing a pattern.
To quantify that pattern would take more computational skill than my
little programmable Texas Instrument calculator could give me.
We
were able to hire a clerk/typist, previously we had to type everything by hand
or write it on a form. The clerk was
hired using the forensic money and she was very, very good. She and I became life long friends.
A
new mayor, who wanted to consolidate all the separated pieces of city
government into one new building had to be convinced that the lab should be
moved. The interim director did that.
We
moved into a new laboratory on the eighth floor of this new government
center. The lab was spacious, but the
building was not designed to have a lab with smells and odors. There was no ventilation.
A
new director came and there were new challenges and opportunities.
Building a Reputation
The
first health director had used the information that came to him from the lab to
further his own ideas; the new health director relied on the information and
the results of our test to make policy, at least most of the time.
My
skills with databases were becoming very strong and I ended building databases
for at least three other departments and there was evening work because of it.
I
also used our own database to understand what was happening with well water,
what were issues, what were not issues.
The new health director had me go to the American Public Health
Associations (APHA) annual meeting in New York and present. I also went to the annual American
Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) in Washington DC to present
the same information.
Both
presentations were well received and I began to be contacted nationally
regarding the information.
Unlike
a private company, any information I garnered was already public information
and I was open about sharing it, to the surprise of many.
The
more testing we did, the more people noticed and I was featured in the local
paper, along with pictures several times in the papers. When people would compliment me on making
the paper, I would make light of it saying that it was so beach goers could
have a face to throw darts at when the beaches were closed.
This
created a reputation for me and people would come in with problem samples. Some times they came in with a specific
thought in their mind and some times they were correct, often times it was
something else.
With
each person, each sample, I tried to learn something. I did not know everything and would read and listen to anything
that I could, and then I would test to see if it were true.
A
fun example would address mineral build up in dishwashers; I had heard that
Tang was an effective cure for the problem.
Intuitively, I understood that the citric acid in Tang would dissolve
minerals, so I devised an experiment, drying calcium carbonate in a glass
breaker. I added a teaspoon of the
orange powder and it dissolved the minerals in warm water. Not content with the lab experiment, I went
to the home of friends who had very hard water and added the powder to a
regular run of the dishwasher, not only did it clean the dishwasher, the dishes
were also sparkling for the first time in years. Doing the "what if" thing was working nicely for me and
I passed on the info.
The
Environmental Health division was changing and more persons from that
department were looking for help with problems they were finding.
They
began to ask for my help in designing the surveys.
One
particular survey challenged someone with money and influence and used tracer
dyes. I had to prepare the entire
procedure because everyone was sure it would be challenged. The orders coming from the results of the
test were challenged and then appealed at the state level. Our orders stood. My results stood.
I
now had the respect of the state.
Somewhere
in this series of events, I became disliked by the one IT person the city
employed for I used my skills and built a LAN system in the lab, connecting all
three of our computers and I did this before anyone else was
"networked" and with out the IT person's help. Later, before the one person was replaced by
a dozen, he refused to allow the lab into the city network. The others who replaced him had no such
issues and treated me as a power user with a lot of latitude.
Some
times doing what was right, got me into trouble. I tried to do hat was right anyway.
At
this point the lab workers were paid significantly less than the Environmental
Health personnel with a "RS" behind their names. I thought that if I were ever to challenge
that structure, I needed a "RS" or Registered Sanitarian
certification.
I
took the test, without studying, finished first in the group taking the test
and received the highest score that had been.
More
insects came to the lab for identification, some so strange, they would baffle
even the experts at the State agricultural Experiment Station.
We
used them a great deal, even using them for bizarre, experimental methods to
help identify unknown items that were brought to the lab and now they knew us
on a first name basis.
Several
nearby (and some not so nearby) health departments sought our, okay in reality;
it was my help in testing recreational beach water. There were several
non-profit environmental agencies looking at the Long Island Sound and they
began asking for help with some of the water quality questions they had. Knowledge with them was a one-way street, I
gave and they kept, but here I met an environmental activist, but realist, who
volunteered at one of them. Art Glowka and
I would become good friends and he would share whatever information he could,
but he was best at asking questions and I was best trying to find answers for
him. This was a symbiotic relationship.
Lyme
disease began making news and we were sending the ticks to the Agricultural
Experiment Station (Ag Station) for testing.
While one of the environmental health persons did the bulk of the work,
we took it over after only a few years and it became a lab function. The Ag Station appreciated our screening of
things that were not ticks and our reputation increased.
Of
course working in lab, we wore protective clothing, that is white lab
coats. It was obvious for persons
coming into the lab that there was a great deal of medical work going on. The white lab coat generated an unusual
response from the general public, they thought we were doctors. This was understandable for we did much
clinical testing for the health department programs and for the medical
community in Stamford. Sometimes even
our secretary had people open up to her on the phone concerning medical issues
because we were the health department lab, but as we became known as a tick
testing center, people would come in and ask any one of us if such and such was
a tick bite and an article of clothing would be removed. While for a short time one of the
technicians was an MD waiting for his internship, we mostly had to calmly and
carefully explain that we were not doctors and they needed to put what ever
they took off, back on.
While
this was a bit humorous to us, we all took the time we had advising the public
very seriously, they trusted us and with Lyme disease and other issues this was
very serious.
We
tried to follow the Centers for Disease Control's guidelines and we told the
persons coming into the lab for advice exactly what was recommended. This brought me into some conflict with the
lab director since he felt I was giving out medical advice and challenging
doctors who were not treating people who had obvious symptoms, including the
bull's eye rash, but rather waiting for a blood test that was at best
unreliable. I had no problem with it,
but both us agreed that there were real reasons for "chronic Lyme"
that went beyond an infection.
I
wanted an educational seminar to educate doctors, but that was not going to
happen.
Rabies
crossed the Hudson River and began killing the large, urban raccoon and skunk
population. Again, we were the primary
source of current information for the public, doctors and veterinarians and our
reputation grew. The reduction of the
raccoon population by 95% actually affected the water quality at the beaches,
improving it because the storm drain system was where they lived.
I
wrote more informational papers.
Outside
of the lab, I volunteered for a non-profit organization, setting up a lab that
could test for chlorophyll. All I asked
was that the data collected be shared and it was.
New
organisms were being recommended as the indicators of polluted recreational
water by the US EPA. In previous years,
I was looking for this new indicator organism (enterococcus) along with the
previous one (fecal coliforms), well because.
I continued, trying to link old information with the new, but then I
noticed something interesting. Using
fecal coliforms, I was never able to predict when they would be elevated. Part of the reason is that in warm water,
they would grow if there were algae in the water, and there always were. Now fecal coliforms and even E. coli are
defined as being from warm blood mammals, but they exist just fine in a normal
environment without any source. In fact
they live just fine in soil so not all of then affect health. The enterococcus was a pathogen and more the
levels would increase in the bathing waters after a heavy rain and then
disappear after a day. I did not know
why the organisms seemed to dissipate after 24 hours, but with a lot of
testing, the evidence was there.
The
health director embraced this and made it policy.
I
wrote a presentation, which reached the ears of the State of Connecticut policy
makers, who passed to on the US Environmental Protection agency, which passed
it on to the US Geological Survey agency.
For
Connecticut, the state recommended all coastal towns to find ways to enact the
concept of preemptive closure based on the Stamford model.
On the Top
My
reputation was growing, things were happening and it seemed as if I was being
pulled in all directions, but unknown samples would come to the lab and all the
curiosity that I had would be applied.
Taking something apart to find out what it might mean was at my core.
Such
it was when white Styrofoam like material washed up at the beaches. There was no information on what they might
be, but when they showed up, the bacteria levels in the water would increase
dramatically.
Viewing
them microscopically, they look like something made of a melted wax; they had a
briny sewage type odor so I took them apart.
First checking for bacteria, I found all the indicator organisms for
sewage in large quantities. I used one of the machines purchased for forensic
analysis and found it to be an oleic acid or a kind of cooking oil. We reported this as sewage grease and these
dirty white Styrofoam-like objects became known as "floatables",
something the health director would use when talking about a beach closure. He was laughed at professionally when he
would present the issue at conferences.
I brought a sample to a conference of State and Federal officials with
my findings and no one laughed any more.
A
reported sewage spill had me working with a person from one of the non-profit
environmental groups who had been very involved in water quality and sewage in
her own country. She taught me a great
deal about organisms which would eat the bacteria from sewage and were, in her
country and much of the rest of the world, true indicators of sewage
contamination. For me, I had found a
reason that the bacteria that was present after a heavy rain, vanished in 24
hours. It was eaten.
As
my reputation grew, people from other states, would bring me water to test,
then two persons, who lived in Stamford, but had connections in other countries,
brought me water for bacterial testing.
We had strict guidelines on how to bring the water; it had to be kept
cold, almost freezing, it had to be brought to the lab within 24 hours of
collection and it could not be brought in on a Friday, because the test took 24
hours to complete. One sample came from
Greece, the other from Antigua, both met our guidelines and were tested, but it
felt strange to be so trusted, I was honored.
I
became certified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a forensic chemist
during this busy time and even testified in court once or twice, my boss
testified most of the time.
With
so much going on in what was my area of expertise, the lab was becoming busier
in other areas where I also became involved in.
The
first was screening for blood lead and while we had been screening using
several indirect methods, now we were collecting blood for lead testing
directly. We could not analyze them in
our lab so they were sent to the state.
Elevated levels in the screening using a finger stick were followed with
venous samples and those still elevated were followed up by a housing inspector
checking for lead where the child lived and were followed by the lab until
things either improved or became worse, in which case they were sent to the
hospital. One lab technician performed
most of this. We began to go out into
the neighborhoods and do mass screening and at the peak of our screening, we
tested over 5000 children. Where did I
fit in? I learned to perform finger
sticks and went out with the other lab person collecting blood; I created a
database so we could track children and the multiple places they lived and
results of their blood tests. It was
difficult, but rewarding work and the other lab person impressed me with her
commitment to help children.
As
the health department became more active with the lead issue, the number of
elevated lead levels dropped significantly from a high of almost 25% of
children tested having elevated leads to less than 0.05% in five years. I presented this at a national environmental
conference, but more importantly, we were having a tremendous impact on
children's lives.
The
person who did most of the clinical testing retired and a series of other
persons came and left, not because they did not like the job, but because they
were on the track to become medical doctors and we were just a short stop along
the way.
Data,
data and more data with all of this information, I became very aware that it
was very easy to manipulate it to ones own ideas, if one started with an
agenda. So I became very suspicious of
any claim by any organization that claimed they had found evidence for their
own cause. I found this with the studies
concerning Long Island Sound and hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen in the water),
while the EPA and other private environmental groups were proclaiming nitrogen
as the great evil, creating algae blooms which in turn created hypoxia, I could
not find the evidence in the samples brought to me and worse, I saw
contradictions in the data presented by the US EPA claiming to support such
things. There was a joke that used
statistics to prove speaking English caused heart disease. While this was a joke, it showed just how
manipulative statistics could be.
My
curiosity needed to approach everything I tested with an open mind and that
brought me to first conflict I had with the health director.
