Veolia Environmental Services off Texas 73 will receive and begin destroying a shipment of medical waste from deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan’s apartment within the next eight to 10 hours, Mitch Osborne, Veolia Gulf Coast Branch Environmental Services general manager, said Thursday morning.

“The containers will contain disinfected waste from the apartment the patient was residing in,” Osborne said. “It’s something we can manage, and we know it’s going to draw a lot of attention because of the ‘E’ word. But we’re not bringing Ebola to Southeast Texas. We’re bringing waste products that have been packaged for our workers’ and our community’s safety.”

Osborne said the waste — strictly from the patient’s apartment, not from the hospital — was pre-treated, pre-cleaned and disinfected before it was placed into containers. Those containers were then placed inside 55-gallon drums that will be incinerated along with its cargo.

Port Arthur Mayor Deloris “Bobbie” Prince said the city does not have the authority to decide whether the waste may enter the city, or the surrounding areas, or not.

“We don’t have the authority to stop it,” she said. “Veolia is not in Port Arthur — it’s in an unincorporated area of Jefferson County.

“I wish that none of it would come this way, but since it is coming our direction, it’s comforting to know that the safety of the employees and the citizens has been considered throughout the whole process.

“There will be no emissions, no fumes coming from the incinerator. They have the equipment and the facilities to handle this safely, and Mitch has assured me it poses no risk to our citizens or to his employees.”

Osborne said Veolia was contacted by the Department of State Health Services about managing the disposal because of the capabilities of its on-site incinerator.

“We supplied them with packaging specifications so that we can feed it directly into our incinerator,” he said. “It will be disposed 12 to 18 hours after arrival.

Toxic and dangerous wastes,
Medical pharmaceutical and hospitable liquids  Wastes
Domestic garbage
Electric and electronic wastes
Industrial wastes
In General, all type of wastes and garbages
Capacity 50-60Kg/h

Combustion supporting materials
Coal oil, diesel oil

Temperature inside
800-10000C

1000-12000C

Burning efficiency
＞98%

Power consumption
1.3KW

Noise
＜78dB

Index of let smoke and waste gas
Ringelman’s smoke index＜ level 1

Smoke concentration
Oil
45.5

（mg/m3）
Gas
25.5

（mg/m3）

SO
Oil
0.176
Gas
0.065

NOX
Oil
0.031
Gas
0.038

H2S
Oil
0.016
Gas
0.008

CO
Oil
8.32
Gas
35.64

small scale medical waste incinerator Requirements
Incombustible and explosive materials not allowed in

Process manner
Two combustion cabinets (wetness drying, high temperature dust removal)

Combustion / Burner
Good Quality made in Italy

Blower
Good Quality made in China

Control Electrical
Good Quality made in China

Capacity 50 Kg/h

Working Voltage
220 V

Power
1000 W

Applied For
200 beds

Input Fashion
Manual

Medical Incinerator, 24 kg/hr
Medical Incinerator, 24 kg/hr including panel board, controls and accessories
Furnace gate
Chimney
Blower
Combustion burner

Medical Incinerator, 12 kg/hr
Medical Incinerator, 12 kg/hr including panel board, controls and accessories
Furnace gate
Chimney
Blower
Combustion burner

Medical Incinerator, 6 kg/hr
Medical Incinerator, 6 kg/hr including panel board, controls and accessories
Furnace gate
Chimney
Blower
Combustion burner

Climate Change

We live in a world where people love to have their cake and eat it, too. We want a clean house without having to clean. We want to be, but we don’t want to do. We want to stop global warming and climate change, but we don’t want to change our daily habits. We want to avoid things like climate-change induced natural disasters, but we aren’t willing to put in the work to prevent it.

There is hope, yes, but time is running short. We’re at the point where convincing people to live greener and be nicer to the environment has to come with a dire warning of impending doom. It sounds a bit melodramatic, yes, but it’s true.
And now scientists have one more thing you can add to your dire warning speech: the fact that the occurrence of “super” El Niños is likely to double as our planet continues to warm. El Niño refers to an unusually warm water pattern that stretches across the eastern equatorial Pacific every 3-7 years. And every once in a while, we see a bigger one, such as the super El Niño of 1997-1998 and one in 1982-1983. With these super El Niños often comes a slough of other weather-related debauchery like heavy rains, landslides, wildfires, and more. In 1997-98, there were an estimated 23,000 deaths worldwide and $35-$40 billion in damage attributed to El Niño.

Whereas now the likelihood of a super El Niño is one every twenty years or so, as the planet warms that number will change to one every ten years. El Niños will still occur on about the same schedule, but more of them will be abnormally strong.

The study that predicted these changes was conducted by Wenjun Cai and a team of researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia. The findings were published in Nature Climate Change.

A Mayo Clinic employee is scheduled to make his first appearance in Mower County District Court on Thursday after being charged with killing his two pets and attempting to burn the bodies at the Mayo Clinic incinerator.

Daniel Joseph Carlson, 61, of Grand Meadow, was charged Sept. 10 with two felony counts of overwork/mistreat animals-torture based on an incident that allegedly occurred on Aug. 21.

According to the criminal complaint, an unnamed motorist informed an Olmsted County deputy at 8:18 a.m. Aug. 22 that Carlson, who works at the Mayo Clinic Waste Management Incinerator, had brought in a dog and cat that he’d killed in order to burn the bodies. The motorist claimed that Carlson said he’d “beat the dog to death with a stick and shot the cat” before placing the carcasses in a Mayo Clinic freezer.

Since Carlson lives in Grand Meadow, the incident report was forwarded to the Mower County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 25 for investigation; Sheriff Terese Amazi has expressed frustration that Olmsted County shared the incident with local media prior to sending her office the report in question.

During the ensuing investigation, Carlson told a Mower County deputy that he’d “had enough” with his pets urinating in his house and shot them both outside his home on Aug. 21. The cat had been experiencing “medical issues” for about a year and he’d been unable to house train his 5-year-old poodle, according to the criminal complaint.

Carlson told authorities that he put the dead animals in the incinerator’s freezer storage area. The deputy seized the animal’s bodies, which were stored in a black garbage bag, from the freezer as evidence.

On Aug. 26, the Austin Veterinary Clinic examined the dead animals. According to the criminal complaint, a single bullet wound was observed on each, but there was no other damage. The vet disposed of the bodies.

The Mayo Clinic released the following statement Tuesday on Carlson: “Mayo Clinic is aware of the charges and is fully cooperating with law enforcement. We cannot provide further comment on private, personnel issues, or issues involving legal proceedings in progress.”

If convicted, Carlson faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each charge.