ST-ANFORD L:SI\`EKSITY ;LfEDIC.AL CES?-EK

                                      5I-.\SFORD. C.\LIFORSI.i W&I.;

                        December 16, 1975

Mr. Bob Spit&a
State Solid Waste Management Board
1416 9th Street
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Mr. Spitzka,

   I was most interested to hear from you about studies on the use
of composting to prepare municipal wastes and sludge for landfill operations
on the delta.

   As I mentioned to you over the phone, Dr. Goluecke is certainly one of
the world's experts on this technology. But as he also cautioned you, existing
knowledge on the survival of virus pathogens is very flimsy. In fact I am
impressed that the scientific foundations of sanitary management are in general
remarkably feeble in relation to their enormous publie health implications.
Having been around longer than scientific medicine it is understandable that
we may have been content with a mainly empirical b&is for our management
practices but I am sure we are going to have sone disasters if we do not
attempt a fresh look at these problems. As far as I can tell, we really do not
understand even the basic mechanisms of bacterial disinfection in the course of
traditional treatment practices, not to mention what happens to important
viruses.

   In particular I think it may be necessary to caution that the usual
methods of assaying for infectivity of surviving virus particles may not
cover the whole story since the genetic information of an inactive particle
may still he available in more complex biological interactions with other
widely occurring natural viruses. This point has hardly been considered at all
in scrutinizing the hygienic implications of waste disposal - and I have to
add.may be of equal importance in vaccination programs and in other contexts
in which viruses are going to be widely applied.

   I mention this just to illustrate the complexity of some of these problems
and I realize that this may not accord with the level of analysis that you are
interested in at the present time.

    The one person in this country who has made a life work of concern about
viral hazards in water supplies is Dr. Gerald Berg at the National
Environmental Research Center, EPA, Cincinnati, Ohio. I think you could do
a little better than contact him directly.  In addition I have in hand a brief
review of recent literature "Viruses in Waste, Rennovated, and Other Waters":
EPA - 670/g-75-007, which you should be able to get hold of readily through

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Mr. Bob Spitzka

-2-

12/16/75

EPA channels.

   Some other relevant publications are Public Health Service Publication
No. 1936: "Composting Dewatered Sewage Sludge"; "Cornposting of Municipal
Solid Wastes in the U.S.", EPA SW-47R; "Landfill Disposal of Hazardous
Wastes : a review of literature and known approaches", EPA/530/SW 165.

  And I think you already know Charlie Bourns in San Francisco who may
be able to facilitate getting other EPA material for you on this general
subject. The EPA has an excellent information retrieval system that may
be geared very directly to your requirements.

  There is also a sophisticated WHO international reference center for
wastes disposal at Dtlbendorf, Switzerland, which I would also indicate as a
valuable resource.

  Finally, I am enclosing copies of the two most recent publications
that I have been able to find in the scientific periodical literature that
bear directly on the question of survival of human pathogens after composting.
If nothing else, they may help to show you where active research is
continuing on these problems of disinfection.

  I strongly share Dr. Goluecke's concern that this approach to the
ultimate disposal (as opposed to transportation) of biologically hazardous
wastes be given the most critical consideration. If I can be of any further
help in the designof constructive critical experiments, I would be happy
to do so.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lede?rberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/rr
Enclosures

(l)Savage, Jacob, Theodore Chase, Jr. and James Macmillan,
"Population changes in enteric bacteria and other microorganisms during
  aerobic thermophilic window composting", Appl.Microbiol.26:969-974, 1973.
                                                                  -
(2)Wiley, B. Beauford and Stephen C. Westerberg,
"Survival of human pathogens in composted sewage", Applied Microbial.
18:994-1001, 1969.
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Mr. Bob Spit&a         -3-            12116175

P.S. Bob Cooper of the Departmeut of Public Health at Berkeley is another
  teeource f would urge you to contact. I have been working with him
  recently on a very comprehensive irtudy of problem on waste water
  reclamation and I think he has an excellent grasp of the related
   literature.