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 -2- LT. J. 1'. lifSSfD)-, JR. L.4RORITORIES FOR .\IOLfCULAR MfDICISf, DEDDXTED TO RbFn\RCH IS \If.`TxL KET.IRD.\TIOS JIOLECL'LAR HIOLOC5. HERfDITt HfUROBIOLOC~- DEVELOPUESTU VEDICISE 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. - 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.