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Plenty of health concerns as waters recede

JANESVILLE — Raw sewage, chemicals, bacteria.

All kinds of yucky stuff fill the floodwaters of the Rock River, and the public’s been warned repeatedly to stay away.

As the community begins to clean up the mess those contaminants leave behind, the Rock County Health Department has a few health issues to think about:

Tetanus shots

The Rock County Health Department has given 250 tetanus shots to people involved with the flood, nursing director Karen Cain said.

If you have any opening in your skin and you’ve been in the water, be sure you’ve had a shot within the last 10 years or else get another one.

The health department will be offering a free flood-related tetanus clinic from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at its north office, 3328 Highway 51. Walk-ins will be accepted, or call (608) 757-5440 for an appointment.

Drinking water

- Do not use water from a private well that has been or is flooded. Have your well tested for bacteria contamination.

“Assume you’ve got contaminated water,” said Tim Banwell, environmental health director. “That’s the best way to go.”

- If the water is clear and doesn’t have a smell, you can shower in it, but don’t drink it, Banwell said. If the water is cloudy or smells, don’t use it for anything, he said. Drink bottled water or water from a known, safe source. If necessary, you can make water safe to drink by boiling it for five minutes.

Food safety

- Do not eat any food that might have come into contact with floodwater. Throw away any food that is not in a waterproof container if there’s a chance it touched floodwater.

- Undamaged, commercially canned foods can be saved if you remove the can labels, wash the cans and disinfect them with a solution of six ounces of bleach to one gallon of water. Re-label the cans, including the expiration date.

- Food containers with screw-caps, snap-lids, crimped caps, twist caps, flip tops and home canned foods should be thrown away if they touched floodwater because they cannot be disinfected.

- If your refrigerator or freezer has been without power for a period of time, all items should be checked. Perishable food left at room temperature for more than two hours should be thrown out. Freezer items that still have ice crystals probably can be safely refrozen, Cain said.

Flooded gardens and produce crops

- As a general rule, throw away all produce that was covered or in contact with floodwaters, especially leafy vegetables or crops that have rough surfaces with crevices such as strawberries.

- Do not consume any flood-impacted produce that is eaten raw, such as melons.

- Produce that is cooked can be consumed if properly cleaned with a bleach solution and cooked thoroughly.

Mold

- Young children, the elderly and people with asthma can be affected by mold. Exposure can cause a person’s asthma to flare up, and reactions can be mild to very severe, Banwell said.

- As soon as the water recedes in your home, remove the breeding ground for mold.

“Get it cleaned and sanitized and dried out as soon as possible,” Banwell said.

Soiled carpet and furniture should be removed immediately, even if it means putting it in the front yard, he said.

“You want to get it out of your house. Get your house cleaned with detergent, sanitized with bleach water,” he said. “You don’t want mold to get a start in there.”

Mosquitoes

- Phil Pellitteri, UW Extension entomologist with UW-Madison, has been warning people that just because we’re experiencing a 100-year flood, the correlation doesn’t automatically occur to have a 100-year flood of mosquitoes.

Sometimes heavy water flushes breeding grounds, he said.

But the next month won’t be fun, he said.

- The last few years, the area has seen below normal levels, he said, and we should expect “normal bad mosquitoes.”

“Out of the ordinary? No,” he said. “But ‘normal bad mosquitoes’ is enough to ruin picnics and make it hard to grill outside (or) when it gets bad outside that you have to go inside. It will get like that.”