Personal Injury Law

Settlement in the works in cryptosporidia sprayground class action

Posted on October 08, 2009
Craig Fox of the Finger Lake Times reported today that attorneys are ready to begin negotiating an out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit that claims about 2,000 people became sick with a waterborne intestinal illness after visiting the sprayground at Seneca Lake State Park four years ago...

New York Spray Park Class Action Cryptosoridium Update

Posted on October 05, 2009
UPDATE: The discovery process which is the formal means of getting information to support claims in a lawsuit is now complete. We have taken depositions of the key players in the spraypark outbreak and have developed our experts' testimony. The State has taken the depositions of a select group of claimants to better understand the nature of the damages suffered as a result of a Cryptosporidium infection...

South Wales Pool Makes 30 Sick With Crypto; Eight Being Held In Isolation

Posted on September 12, 2009
The British call them the "wet activities," which apparently refers to just about anything that can be done in a swimming pool. In the South Wales town of Merthyr Tydfil the town has a deck level competition size swimming pool complete with electronic score boards for keeping track of those in-water competitive events...

Washington University in St. Louis Provides Tell All On Cryptosporidium

Posted on September 01, 2009
The School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis is the publisher for the "Hospital Medicine Virtual Journal."  It just published "up to date review of the biology, biochemistry and host parasite relationships of Cryptosporidium...

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CDC Advise For Dallas Back Yard Pool Owners Might Be Good For Other Hotspots

Posted on August 24, 2009
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released a bulletin encouraging pool cleaning of Dallas pools on a weekly basis to prevent recreational water illnesses (RWI's). The announcement comes after a study concluded that the number of outbreaks of RWI's has been increasing each year for the past decade...

Wisconsin City Closes And Then Re-Opens Popular Fountain That Is Not Treated and Sanitized To Public With Lot's of Warning Signs

Posted on August 07, 2009
 City officials in Neenah, WS this week restarted a popular fountain in Shattuck Park, but at the same time imposed tougher rules to prohibit kids from playing in it. According to the local Post-Crescent newspaper, here's what happened: The city posted signs July 22 warning people to stay out of the Shattuck fountain for health and safety reasons and then shut down the fountain indefinitely later that day after park visitors defiantly ignored the signs...

Fear By Beer-makers About EPA Forced Change To Portland's Bull Run Waters

Posted on July 27, 2009
Portland's brewmasters say its wrong for the federal Environmental Protection Agency to apply one standard to all open drinking water systems across the entire United States. But forcing all open public water operations  to install filtration systems by 2014 is EPA's answer to the the spring 1993 cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

Virginia's Rye Valley Water Authority Mum For 11 Months About Water Gone Bad

Posted on July 14, 2009
In Virginia, the Rye Valley Water Authority is being accused of going almost a year before telling the public that its water had gone bad. The Bristol Herald Courier reports on how that's got the whole community of Sugar Grove up in arms. Michael Ward stood up at a community meeting to declare he had diarrhea eight times last year – a peculiar public announcement, but one met with gratitude by dozens of his neighbors, who had squeezed into a muggy gymnasium for the June gathering...

Ultraviolet Water Treatment Emerges As Way To Fight Cryptosporidium

Posted on July 05, 2009
New York has a new water safety regulation. It's found in Section 6-3.11 and says: 'Ultraviolet light disinfection is required in addition to approved Chemical disinfectant.' A company in Northwest England ---atg UV Technology—tells how that new NY regulation came about: Following major outbreaks in Northampton, Galway, Utah and New York, Cryptosporidium has become a major concern for the leisure industry...

Heritage Park Fountain Shutting Down Twice Daily, But Does Anyone Tell Swimmers Not To Poop In The Water?

Posted on June 13, 2009
In an editorial that went along way toward explaining to the public what's really going on at Olympia, Washington's Heritage Park Fountain, the Daily Olympian still fell too short of providing the public with a real education about the dangers of "swimming" in such facilities...

"Diapered children frequently sat on top of splash features"---MMWR Gets To The Bottom Of 2007 Crypto Outbreak In Meridian, Idaho .

Posted on June 11, 2009
The 2007 closure of the splash park in Meridian, Idaho's popular Settler's Park after the  chlorine-resistant parasite Cryptosporidium began making people sick gets an autopsy in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for June 12, 2009...

Colorado City Keeps Water Off Until It Can Comply With Swimming Pool Regulations At New Public Fountain

Posted on June 01, 2009
The City of Arvada, the 100,000 plus suburb that fills in much of the space between Denver and Boulder counties in Colorado, boasts an "Olde Town" dating back to 1870.  Its been the subject of an intense urban renewal focus in recent years that has brought office, retail, and housing investment to the area...

Swimming Pools Are Being Closed Once A Week In Name of Water Quality And Fighting Cryptosporidium

Posted on May 19, 2009
<p><img width="200" height="164" vspace="5" hspace="5" align="left" alt="" src="http://www.selbysd.govoffice2.com/vertical/Sites/%7B0CA5042F-8FF0-4759-9108-F192D9DE46A3%7D/uploads/%7BA1A901FB-EAA8-43C6-82E6-CC8DBB835276%7D.JPG" />Last season's cryptosporidium outbreak across North Texas means there are going to be some changes at the local swimming pool this summer...

Swim Diapers Do Not Cut The Crypto From Spreading In Pools And Water Parks

Posted on May 12, 2009
Swim diapers do not prevent the spread of Cryptosporidium (Crypto) in swimming pools and water parks, according to a new University of North Carolina (UNC) - Charlotte study     Researchers found swim diapers may slow the release of disease-causing germs, but the benefits are short-lived...

Parasites In Pennsylvania: Can Summer Be Far Behind?

Posted on May 12, 2009
 Officals in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania have anounced that 3 individuals have beenconfirmed with cryptosporidium.    While public swimming pools are common source of cryptosporidium outbreaks, there is reportedly no evidence of such a connection here...

New Cryptosporidium-Fighting Treatment Plant Comes To Joplin, MO

Posted on May 07, 2009
Joplin, MO just got itself a twofer.  A new water treatment facility will add an extra five million gallons of clean water a day for economic development AND it will inactivate the cryptosporidium bacteria with ultra violet light. Joplin celebrated the new water treatment plant Thursday with a ribbon cutting...

Mayor of Virginia Town Finds Himself "Doing A Little Side-step" As Crypto Brings "Boil Water" Order

Posted on April 14, 2009
The town well in Buchanan, VA is at risk due to Cryptosporidium, which is not killed by the chlorination process. So the town is living with a "boil water" order and city council meetings are getting mean. And instead of talking about the Crypto in the water , Mayor Tom Middlecamp is talking up what's not in the water...

Down-Under University Researchers Find One Person Could Be Responsible For Sydney's Big Crypto Outbreak

Posted on March 30, 2009
Sydney, Australia is undergoing an outbreak of Cryptosporidium that in a little more than a month has made 628 people sick. All of last year, the water rich city saw only 482 cases of Crypto. And now the Star newspaper is reporting that the Sydney's entire cryptosporidium outbreak may be linked to a single infected person...

Portland, Yes Portland, Says George Bush Went Too Far On Water Quality

Posted on March 01, 2009

Lana Turner's Home County Spends $12.5 Million To Insure Against Crypto

Posted on February 02, 2009
Shoshone County, Idaho was the home of Lana Turner (1921-1995). One of the 20th Century's biggest movie stars was discovered, according to the story, at Schwab's Drug Store by the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter. The railroad and mining town of Wallace, Idaho, however was also known for its whorehouses, some of which remained opened throughout much of the 20th Century...

Milwaukee, Site of Largest Cryptosporidium Outbreak In U.S. History, Prefers Bottled Water

Posted on January 05, 2009
Freedom has been under attack for the past decade or so by the so-called "Nanny State."  Most "Nanny State" laws and ordinances are the product of politicians who do not have enough to do or who are totally unable to solve real problems in this society...

Rapid Screening Test To Tell If You Have Cryptosporidium Problem In Just 3 Hours

Posted on December 11, 2008
  We've seen some cities move very quickly when they confirm that their splash, swimming or wave pools are contaminated by Cryptosporidium. Now comes a quicker test to detect the bug, one that moves the typical time for results up to a mere three hours, from today's fifteen hours...

EPA Forces Small Towns And Rural Water Systems To Test For E coli And Crypto

Posted on November 14, 2008
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has brought certain California small towns and rural water systems into compliance for testing of  E. coli, which can indicate the presence of cryptosporidium, a pathogen than can caused intestinal illness...

3rd Highest Foreclosure Rate Means Florida Has Problem Pools All Over The Place--Crypto Risk High

Posted on October 22, 2008
To its growing problem with public and quasi-public swimming pools, Florida must now be concerned about its rising number of abandoned backyard pools.   The Sunshine State is No. 3 in foreclosures, according to recent data, and residential swimming pools are common...

Communitywide Cryptosporidiosis Outbreak--Utah, 2007

Posted on October 14, 2008
The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) received 1,902 case reports of laboratory-confirmed cryptosporidiosis during June-December 2007, compared with an annual median of 16 reports of laboratory-confirmed cases (range: six to 20) during 2002-2006. All 1,902 cases met the outbreak-related case definition...

Health Officials In Texas Want To Extend Pool Regulations To Sprayparks

Posted on October 05, 2008
Health authorities in Texas now say there is a dangerous oversight in state health codes. They have concluded that this summer's outbreak of the cryptosporidium parasite from Burger's Lake spread to sprayparks. Unlike larger public swimming pools, stand-alone fun fountains are not inspected and treated...

Andrews Park Splash Pad Shut Down Due to Crypto

Posted on September 20, 2008
Oklahoma is finding itself in the middle of another food or water borne illness--this time it is an outbreak of Cryptosporidium that's made at least 20 people sick.  KOCO-TV 5 in Oklahoma City reports: Oklahoma health officials are looking into an outbreak of a waterborne disease in McClain and Cleveland counties that may be linked to a Norman water park...

Dallas Spends Summer Fight Crypto: And Crypto Is Winning

Posted on September 02, 2008
Since late June, Dallas has seen 378 reports of laboratory confirmed cases of cryptosporidium connected to the use of recreational water facilities. Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) going into the Labor Day weekend again called on the public to take an active role in halting the spread of cryptosporidiosis (crypto)...

Flags Over Columbus Public Health Flapping Hard As Much Work Goes On Inside

Posted on August 16, 2008
Add Cryposporidium to the list of food and water bugs that are making people in central Ohio ill this summer.   Over on the Shigella blog, we previously reported on central Ohio's bouts with E. coli, Salmonella Saintpaul, and Shigella.   Check out: Cases Of Diarrhea-Causing Bacteria Increase In Ohio Now its Crypto...

How Many Hotel/Motel Swimming Pools Are Cryto Breeding Grounds?

Posted on August 14, 2008
We doubt if many readers are going to be looking for a hotel or motel in Fort Dodge, Iowa.   However, if you are, avoid the check-in line at the Quality Inn.   It does not look like much (see picture), but there is a swimming pool inside for 96 room, 37-year old hotel/motel...

Cleburne, Texas Waits For "An Incident" Before Closing For Crypto

Posted on August 04, 2008
For the past month, much of the country has experienced temperatures in the 90 to 100 degree range.  That's not a time when anyone wants to close swimming pools, but many have been closed when the pesky Cryptosporidium parasite arrives on the scene...

Crypto Closes Popular Texas Lake For Ten Days

Posted on July 26, 2008
Burger's Lake, a popular waterhole in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, was set to re-opened today after being closed since July 16 to clean up  Cryptosporidium contamination. According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram: Workers at the popular swimming hole have completed the hyperchlorination process recommended by health officials, a park worker said...

How Phoenix Delivered The News That All Pools Are Closed!

Posted on July 16, 2008
"Good evening. I’m Phoenix City Manager Frank Fairbanks. Today we learned from Maricopa County officials that two swimmers who had used the city’s Starlight Pool have tested positive for the intestinal illness crypto-spor-i-dio-sis, commonly known as “crypto...

Intestinal parasites found in Pismo Beach waters

Posted on July 08, 2008
April Charlton, Senior Staff Writer for the Santa Maria Times, had some bad news for California's central coast over the 4th of July weekend. She reported: Intestinal parasites were found south of Pismo Pier and in the Cypress Street lagoon at the mouth of Pismo Creek, according to an ongoing water quality study by Pismo Beach...

Small Town In Iowa Gets Ready To Fight Crypto

Posted on May 21, 2008
Cresco, Iowa, population 3,905, located in Howard County on the border with Minnesota is one of those picture post card sort of small towns.   The Times Plain Dealer is a weekly newspaper that publishes on Wednesdays with a solid site on the web...

Upcoming Week Used To Fight "Crypto" In Recreational Waters

Posted on May 10, 2008
State and local health departments and the Centers for Disease Control investigated a historic high number of illnesses involving recreational waters last year.  The upsurge is being driven by  Cryptosporidium ("Crypto").   Its a chlorine resistant parasite found in recreational waters including swimming pools and parks...

Provo Fights Crypto With High Tech Equipment

Posted on April 28, 2008
As regular readers will know, we've been following the reaction of local and state governments in Utah the likelihood that last summer's Crytosporidium outbreak will return this year.   Latest to do something is the City of Provo.  The Salt Lake Tribune reports:Provo will spend $200,000 to add high-tech equipment to fight cryptosporidium at swimming pools...

Common Misspellings of Cryptosporidium - cryptosporidium, cryptosperideum, cryptosporidium, cryptosporidia, cryptospordia

Posted on April 18, 2008
Cryptosporidium parvum (also known as "Crypto") is a parasite that is too small to be seen with the naked eye. It is found in water and food sources contaminated with the feces of infected humans, cattle, and other mammals. The infectious form of the parasite, known as an ìoocyst, it is highly resistant to the levels of chlorine normally found in drinking water and swimming pools.

44 Percent Increase In Crypto, FoodNet Data Shows

Posted on April 17, 2008
After the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention released the 2007 FoodNet data, most of the stories that were written focused on the fact that there was little change in the incidents of food-borne illnesses in 45-million person study area.There was, however,  one exception...

Giardia & Cryptosporidium Found In Alamosa's Water

Posted on April 09, 2008
KOAA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, tonight (4/9/08) is reporting that parasites have been found in Alamosa's water.  KOAA reports that:Residents of Alamosa hoped that this was the day they'd get the all-clear on their municipal water supply...

Nevada Town Plans To Zap Cyptosporidium In Pool

Posted on March 26, 2008
We've written much about last summer's outbreak of Cryptosporidium in Utah.   Next door, in Nevada, the town of Fernley is making parasite control a big part of its pool upgrades.The municipality  of 19,700 is spending $731,368 on its "pool deck improvement project...

Spanish Fork Did Not Warn About Crypto

Posted on March 15, 2008
Last summer's Cryptosporidium outbreak in Utah's public swimming pools continues to get attention.   First,  public health officials have been warned such large outbreaks are usually followed by a continued presence of the parasite the following year...

A New Device To Combat Cryto In Water

Posted on March 04, 2008
Did you ever wish you had a magic wand that you could just wave at bacteria, viruses and protozoa in water that would prevent nasty bugs like giardia and cryptosporidium from reproducing and spreading havoc?Well, its now available at outdoor stores like REI for just $130...

A New Device To Combat Crypto In Water

Posted on March 04, 2008
Did you ever wish you had a magic wand that you could just wave at bacteria, viruses and protozoa in water that would prevent nasty bugs like giardia and cryptosporidium from reproducing and spreading havoc?Well, its now available at outdoor stores like REI for just $130...

Brandeis Researcher Fights Cypto Parasite

Posted on February 10, 2008
There is no vaccine for it and only a few medicines work well against without making the person with it even more sick.  The cryptosporidium parasite is truly a nasty, nasty bug.  The water-borne parasite makes thousands upon thousands of children in the third world sick with diarrhea...

They've Got A Cryptosporidium Outbreak Down Under

Posted on January 23, 2008
  Folks  in cold climates this time of year start thinking about places where its summer now.   You are probably not thinking about the bad things that can happen when temperatures warm up.   Australia's Victoria, for example, is right now suffering from  a cryptosporidium outbreak that is being blamed on the increase use of public swimming pools that comes with hot weather...

Big Payout Coming Over Scottish Outbreak

Posted on January 16, 2008
Almost five years ago, there was an outbreak of Crptosporidium in a public pool in suburban Glasgow that made 30 swimmers sick.   Only now are officials about to pay up, according to the Evening Times. Scotland's  Jonathan Paisley reports that:LEISURE chiefs face a £100,000 compensation bill after admitting full responsibility for a cryptosporidium outbreak in a public swimming pool...

FDA Was First To Act Against Baby's Bliss

Posted on January 08, 2008
The United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection moved against Baby's Bliss apple flavor gripe water last September.  On 9/21, FDA said:FDA is warning consumers not to consume Baby's Bliss Gripe Water, apple flavor, with a code of 26952V and expiration date of October 2008 (shown as '10/08' on the label)...

Health Canada Warns Parents About Baby's Bliss

Posted on January 07, 2008
A product for ill children is found to carry the dangerous parasite cryptosporidium and Health Canada is warning parents about it.   Where does the product come from?  China?  Nope.How about California?  Yep and the product is natural too...

Salt Lake Tribune Says Diapers and Pool Waters Do Not Mix

Posted on January 05, 2008
Utah health officials like Lewis Garrett who want to ban diaper-wearing tots from pools now have the backing of the editorial page at the Salt Lake Tribune.   The editorial writers really got into the subject:"Don't take this the wrong way...

Utah's Davis County considers diaper ban

Posted on December 28, 2007
Utah last summer recorded 1,963 cases of cryptosporidiosis. There were just 14 cases during the previous summer. Lewis Garrett, who was named 2007’s Health Officer of the Year by the Utah Association of Local Boards of Health, favors a permanent ban on diapers in public pools...

Cryptosporidium parasite restrictions entirely lifted in Utah

Posted on November 18, 2007
The final pool restrictions imposed last summer to curb an outbreak of the cryptosporidiosis parasite have been lifted in Davis County and statewide.  The Utah Department of Health announced Wednesday that the restrictions have been lifted. Pool operators are no longer required to hyperchlorinate pools and maintain higher levels of chlorine...

Day Care worker diagnosed with Cryptosporidiosis

Posted on October 09, 2007
A Wisconsin day care worker has been diagnosed with Cryptosporidiosis, the infection caused by the ingestion of Cryptosporidium, a parasite.  As reported by the Lake County Reporter: At All About Learning in Oconomowoc, the staff member with Cryptosporidium is being treated with antibiotics and has already been allowed to return to work under physician approval...

Cryptosporidiosis Outbreaks Associated With Recreational Water Use -- Five States, 2006

Posted on October 02, 2007
Cryptosporidiosis is a gastrointestinal illness caused by parasitic protozoa of the genus Cryptosporidium and can produce watery diarrhea lasting 1-3 weeks1; one or two cases per 100,000 population are reported annually in the United States.2-3 Fecal-oral transmission of Cryptosporidium oocysts occurs through ingestion of contaminated drinking or recreational water, consumption of contaminated food, and contact with infected persons or animals (e...

Baby's Bliss Gripe Water Warning

Posted on October 02, 2007
MOM Enterprises, in cooperation with an FDA investigation, is recalling apple-flavored Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water (code number 26952V, expiration date October 2008) after laboratory analysis confirmed the presence of the Cryptosporidium pathogen keep reading here

State health department warns about illness

Posted on September 17, 2007
PIERRE - The state health department is warning South Dakotans to protect themselves from cryptosporidiosis, an intestinal illness that is increasing across the nation. The disease is caused by a microscopic parasite called Cryptosporidium, and outbreaks in the past have been linked to contaminated recreational water such as swimming pools and waterparks...

Crypto diarrhea illness in Shelby County

Posted on September 17, 2007
Cryptosporidium, also known as crypto is a germ that causes diarrhea. An individual becomes infected with crypto by accidentally swallowing feces-contaminated food or water or having contact with other feces-contaminated objects. Crypto is easily spread person-to-person...

Ban on tots in pools extended for 2 more weeks

Posted on September 17, 2007
State and local health departments Tuesday extended for at least two more weeks the swimming restrictions that bar children under 5 from public pools. Restrictions were announced in late August to deal with a statewide outbreak of illness caused by the parasite cryptosporidium, most often spread by swimming pools...

Water Parasite Affects 7 Valley Residents

Posted on September 17, 2007
A mysterious parasite is somewhere in Southern Nevada's water supply. The water-borne illness has already affected seven people in the valley. The Southern Nevada Health District has few answers about where the parasite, cryptosporidium, came from. This mystery has few common threads...

Cryptosporidiosis Surveillance --- United States, 2003--2005

Posted on September 07, 2007
Problem/Condition: Cryptosporidiosis, a gastrointestinal illness, is caused by protozoa of the genus Cryptosporidium. Reporting Period: 2003--2005. System Description: State and two metropolitan health departments voluntarily reported cases of cryptosporidiosis through CDC's National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System...

Eight people sick from cryptosporidium in Marathon County

Posted on August 27, 2007
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) - The Marathon County health department is investigating an outbreak of cryptosporidium (krip-toh-spor-RID'-ium). The disease is a single-celled parasite that causes watery diarrhea and abdominal cramps. So far eight people have been sickened since August 6th...

Campbell County reports 18 cryptosporidium cases

Posted on August 21, 2007
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) - Eighteen cases of cryptosporidium linked to two pools have been documented in Gillette since mid-July. A few other cases have originated at Keyhole Reservoir in Crook County. Kelly Weidenbach, a state surveillance epidemiologist, says it's difficult to say whether the parasite source is the Gillette city pool or the Campbell County pool...

Cases of water-linked diarrhea continue to rise across state

Posted on August 21, 2007
The number of people reporting cases of severe diarrhea continues to rise, and exposure will likely not decline until people who are sick - or who have recently been sick - avoid pools and recreational waters, the Utah Department of Health warns. To date, more than 150 cases of cryptosporidium - a parasite that is chlorine resistant at normal levels used in pools and can be difficult to eliminate - have been reported to the Davis County, Salt Lake Valley, Utah County and Weber/Morgan health departments...

Cryptosporidium outbreak closes Garner Aquatic Center for season

Posted on August 21, 2007
GARNER — The Garner Aquatic Center will close for the season effective immediately due to a recent outbreak of the cryptosporidium parasite. On August 17, the city of Garner was notified that at least one person with cryptosporidiosis was known to have recently visited the Aquatic Center and that the pool would have to close for the day to super-chlorinate the water...

County logs six pool parasite cases

Posted on August 21, 2007
FARMINGTON — Davis County health officials are asking that people abide by good hygiene practices as they make use of area pools. Over the past few weeks, there have been six cases of the parasite cryptosporidium reported in area pools, causing gastrointestinal illnesses, like diarrhea...