******************************************************** FOOD, WATER & HYGIENE ******************************************************** *************** TYPES OF FOOD *************** __________ QUESTION: What will your Christmas dinner be? ANSWER from April Lloyd on January 12, 1995 Dinner was lobster tails and prime rib! __________ QUESTION: Does the food researchers consume consist of the freeze- dried type as the astronauts eat? ANSWER from Deane Rink This is the case only when researchers are camping out in remote field camps not large enough to warrant their own cook. Usually, in the larger camps and in McMurdo and at South Pole, there are regular cooks and galleys; food is brought in in bulk, mostly frozen, and cooked just like in the USA. At McMurdo, there is even a greenhouse that supplies salad greens for many of the residents. In truth, most Antarctic programs do not eat as well as the USA ones do; but all eat better than the early explorers did. They relied on penguin and seal meat, both of which allegedly taste pretty terrible and are not that nutritious. ___________ QUESTION: What type of food do you eat? Do you get fresh fruit and vegetables? How often do planes come in, and what do the people that live there do for food in the winter? ANSWER from Rafael Pizano Dec.19 Your questions are the same ones that I asked myself before I came. Believe it or not, we have the same food as you eat in the U.S. We have a main cafeteria that serves 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight meal for the night shift workers. It feels odd to say "night shift" because the sun never sets, it just spins around the horizon! The cafeteria would be similar to the one you have at school. The menu changes daily. There are 2 reasons for this; first we'd get tired of the same old food, and second we have a limited food supply here. If we only ate our favorite foods we would run out. For example, everyone's favorite meal here is hamburgers and french fries. We ate so much of the french fries the first 6 months we were here that we ran out and have none until our re-supply ship comes in. Could you go 6 months without eating french fries? As for the fresh fruits and vegetables, during our summer (Oct.-Feb.) we get freshies (this our slang for fresh fruits and vegetables) once a week. They're flown in by a C-130 military transport. They come from Christchurch, New Zealand. We receive about 8500 lb per week of all types of freshies. One problem we sometimes encounter is the weather. If the weather turns for the worse we may not be able to get a plane in for 1-3 weeks. The time of year also is a factor in how many planes we get in. At winfly (end of August to beginning of September) we try to get as many planes in as possible. During this time there is only 4 hours of daylight to land in. As many as 3 a day will land at Willy Field (this is nothing more than snow field on top of the permanent ice pack). From Sept. 1st until Oct. 5th there are no flights. Then from Oct. 5th until Feb. 25th we average 4-7 flights a week. When our winter arrives (March 1st until August 20th) there are no flights at all! For 6 months there is no way in or out of the continent. For the winter there is enough food for us in storage. We get one supply ship a year (in Feb.). This is by far the most hectic time of year. Everything the station will need for an entire year is on that ship. We try to keep a 2-year food supply here at the station just in case the ship sinks on the way down. You really must be prepared for any emergency here in Antarctica. This is why we keep a good but limited stock in the warehouses. One other unique thing we have here at the station is a greenhouse. It was built in 1990. We grow 4 different kinds of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and herbs. During our summer we will "harvest" 1200 lb of vegetables from the greenhouse. During our winter we produce about 600 lb of freshies. It's grown by hydroponics. This means we use water with a high nutrient content to grow the freshies, no soil is used at all. It's nice to have these, especially for winter. Otherwise all the vegetables we ate would come out of a can or would have been frozen. Unfortunately we have no way to grow fruit, so for the winter all the fruit we eat comes out of a can! ******************* HOW MUCH TO EAT ******************* __________ QUESTION: How much food should a person eat per day on average when working there? ANSWER from Terry Trimingham on February 2 How much food a person should eat here depends on what he or she does. Some people work inside a heated building all day, and they don't have to eat any more than you do at home. There are some people that are out in the weather all day long and as I am sure you have learned, it gets very cold and windy here. If someone is outside all the time and very active, he should eat more food to supply himself with the energy he needs. Exactly how much he should eat depends on the individual. Most people at McMurdo complain that they eat too much. We are served 3 big meals a day, and you can take as much food as you like. I think the food is pretty good, and most people say they end up gaining weight in Antarctica. ********** COOKING ********** __________ QUESTION: Who does the cooking at McMurdo? ANSWER by Terry Trimingham on January 3rd, 1995 The cooking at McMurdo is done by a very capable staff of 43 civilians. There are close to 1000 hungry mouths to feed 3 times a day as well as "midrats" (midnight rations, the same as lunch for the people on the night shift). On a typical shift there can be as many as 19 people working to make a meal happen: one first cook, two second cooks, 3 - 4 assistant cooks, 2 bakers, and 8 - 10 galley attendants. (The galley attendants work in the scullery, as well as keep the dining rooms clean and stocked). ************************************ FOOD STORAGE AND PRESERVATION ************************************ __________ QUESTION: Can frozen food be stored outside since the temperatures are below freezing? ANSWER: On February 2, 1995 Craig Mundell answered: Yes, frozen food could probably be stored outside due to the low temperatures. However, during the austral summer in McMurdo, the temperatures do get high enough to melt the snow on the ground, and would therefore be high enough to thaw out the frozen food. Also, for sanitary reasons we keep the bulk frozen food inside in a freezer building and then transfer smaller portions to the freezers in the galley. __________ QUESTION: How do you store your food? ANSWER from Rafael Pizano on Dec. 19, 1994 We store our food in warehouses here at McMurdo station. We have 3 different types. One is our freezer! Yes, believe it or not, we use freezers here. In our summer months, which are Nov. to Feb., our temperature can reach as high as 32 degrees. At temperatures. above 15 degrees, our meats and other products can start to thaw. The coolers in the freezer are only turned on during the summer monthsÑafter that we leave it to mother nature. We also have a heated warehouse for storing canned fruit, beverages and other products we cannot freeze. Our last warehouse is neither frozen or heated. This is used for items such as flour, crackers and pastas to name a few. Storage space is extremely limited here at McMurdo, especially heated storage spaces, so everyone has to know exactly what to keep in there inventory so as not to waste space. ******** WATER ******** __________ QUESTION: How do you keep drinking water from freezing? ANSWER from Rafael Pizano on December 21, 1994 We have 5 storage tanks for fresh water that are inside of buildings to keep them warm. All of our fresh water piping is insulated and has a heat trace wire wrapped around it. Heat trace wire is just a heater coil. All this is done to keep the water above freezing. We use approximately 60,000 gallons of water a day here in McMurdo, or about 60 gallons of water per person. We make our water by reverse osmosis, which means that we actually squeeze the fresh water out of the saltwater by passing it through a permeable membrane (a filter) under extremely high pressure. We also add chlorine to our water to make sure that it stays drinkable and doesn't hold any bad germs. At our South Pole station we use what is called a Rodriques well (after man who pioneered the process). This well is bored about 100 ft down into the ice pack. Then hot water is forced down the well causing the ice to melt. The water is then brought to the surface and run through particulate (particle) filters. At this point the water is dispersed throughout the station. The balance of the water is reheated and sent back down the well. The heat and motion of the water prevents the well water from freezing. It becomes a perpetual (ongoing) process. __________ QUESTION: In the middle of the night if you become dehydrated where do you go to get water if you can't go to the cafeteria? Do you have a water supply near you? ANSWER: From Craig Mundell Yes, we do have a water supply near us. All of the dorms have water fountains in the hallway and sinks in the bathrooms from which we can get water. Also, if you are walking around, most of the buildings have a water supply and you can get water from the galley all of the time. __________ QUESTION: How much water should a person drink a day when working in Antarctica? ANSWER from Tom Stevens on January 7, 1995 Depending on the person's job, one should drink at least four to six liters of water per day. The climate in Antarctica is very dry and often people do not realize they are getting dehydrated, so it is very important to make yourself drink water. I keep a water bottle with me in the helicopter at all times, and whenever I get a break I take a sip, yet I still feel dehydrated sometimes. ******************* SOURCE OF WATER ******************* __________ QUESTION: What is the source of fresh water in Antarctica ANSWER from Guy G. Guthridge on January 13, 1995 The fresh water (that is, the glacial ice of continental Antarctica) is the result of precipitation that has occurred over many thousands of years. It is indeed ironic that, in terms of annual amounts of precipitation, Antarctica is the world's largest desert, yet it contains 70 percent of the world's fresh water. Think of this precipitation as Antarctica's fresh water "income." Most of Antarctica's fresh water "outgo" is in the form of either icebergs calving from the continent or snow blown into the sea by northward- flowing katabatic (that is, gravity-driven) winds. How do these forms of outgo differ from, and how are they similar to, the removal of water from land in most other regions of the world? ************* BATHROOMS ************* __________ QUESTION: Are there bathrooms in the houses there or do the people have to go to that black triangular outhouse to go to the bathroom? ANSWER from Terry Trimingham on December 27, 1994 Yes, there are bathrooms here! We live in dormitories for the most part, and all the dorms either have one bathroom per floor (with more than one toilet, like you have at school), or some of the dorms have a toilet/shower between every two rooms (which is what we call a "suite"). Most of the buildings where people work in McMurdo have toilets, but some of them don't. In some cases you are then obliged to walk to a different building to find one, and in others you might find a small closet containing a "U-barrel." U-barrels are 50 gallon drums that have a funnel and hose attached to them. The "U" stands for urine, which is all that can be accommodated in that instance (for anything else you have to go in search of a toilet). The outhouses (like the black one you saw at Mike Castellinis camp) are only found out in field camps; we don't have any in the "town" of McMurdo itself. __________ QUESTION: How do you use the bathroom with all of your equipment and ECW when you are in the field in Antarctica? ANSWER: On December 29, 1994 Jack Dibb, Glacier Research Group, University of New Hampshire, answered: The interest of America's youth in bodily functions and sewage is apparently boundless. How do you go to the bathroom if you are out hiking in the woods? If you can imagine that, you are pretty close to how one deals with it in Antarctica. The ECW is just like regular clothing, there are just a few more layers to get out of the way. What I think you are really curious about is how the extreme cold effects the "delicate" exposed parts of one's body. The key is staying out of the wind. Outhouses are quite effective even at -40 or below. If the camp is too small to bother with erecting an outhouse (or the stay will be very short) we usually dig a pit to get protection from the wind. Maybe there is room for innovation here, perhaps some kind of ECW diaper. However, the scarcity of showers at remote field sites suggests that these might not be too popular. ********************** SHOWERS AND BATHS ********************** __________ QUESTION: How do you clean yourself in Antarctica? Do you have showers and baths like we do at home? Does the water come from pipes under the ground? Do you melt the snow? If so what to you use to melt it? ANSWER: from Craig Mundell At McMurdo we take showers just like you would at home. However, they are "Navy" showers which means that you turn on the water to get wet, turn it off and soap up, and then turn it back on to rinse off. These showers are only supposed to last two minutes due to the water supply. The water comes from the sea and is run through a process called reverse osmosis to clean it. All of the pipes that carry the water are above ground to keep from disturbing the environment. The station at South Pole, however, uses a different system. Since they can not use sea water, they have to melt snow. They use large containers to melt the snow in and waste heat from the generators to melt it. However, the water supply is very limited and people can only take a couple of showers a week. *********************************** EFFECT OF WEATHER ON PLUMBING *********************************** __________ QUESTION: How does temperature effect plumbing in Antarctica? ANSWER from John Rinkenberger on January 13, 1995: The temperature is a constant concern when designing the buildings and the utility system here in McMurdo. Most of the indoor plumbing is typical of that back in the U.S. Plumbing that is outdoors has to be designed so it will not freeze. The most common design is external insulation with heat trace wrapped around the pipe. Heat trace is a electrical wire that emits heat that keeps the pipe from freezing. The utility system is designed so that the sewer and water lines are above ground. This allows for easy access and detection of leaks and freezing pipes.