| |
 |
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
The Environmental Health Division is responsible for enforcing various State and County public health laws regarding trash/garbage, vector control, unfit housing, lead, public pools, and tattoo/piercing facilities. This division also provides guidance to the public regarding water quality, indoor/outdoor air quality, private wells, lead safety, and conducts lead risk assessments for dwellings where children with elevated blood lead levels reside.
The Wells County Health Department can be contacted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with public health emergencies or concerns at 260-224-4811.
|
|
|
Heath Butz
Environmental Health Specialist
Phone: 260-824-6491
Fax: 260-824-8803
Email: hbutz@wellscounty.org |
Jennifer Coleman
Environmental Health Specialist
Phone: 260-824-6492
Fax: 260-824-8803
Email: jcoleman@wellscounty.org
|
|
Childhood Lead Poisoning
Childood lead poisoning is one of the most serious environmental health problems that young children face, but it is also completely preventable. Exposure to even low levels of lead can have devastating and irreversible effects in children, including reduced learning abilities, speech and developmental delays, hearing disorders, and anemia. It is very important to not only be aware of the effects of lead, but also to be certain your child is safe by knowing the risk factors.
What is lead?
Lead is a highly toxic metal that was an ingredient used in many household products, such as lead-based paints manufactured before 1978.
How are children poisoned?
Typically, very young children are more susceptible to lead poisoning because they crawl on the floor where lead dust may have settled, and also have a tendency to put their fingers and other objects in their mouth. Children are also more at risk because they absorb lead more readily than adults. While most lead poisoning cases are due to dust from lead based paint in the home and lead contaminated soil, lead can be found in water, jewelry, key chains, toys, cosmetics, pottery, and food as well.
What are the symptoms of lead poisoning?
Most commonly, there are no distinct signs that a child has an elevated blood lead level. Some symptoms may include fatigue, crankiness, and stomach aches.
Where is the greatest risk?
Lead paint in homes build prior to 1978. The older the home the higher the risk of lead hazards. 90% of the pre-1950 housing where the poisoned children lived had lead based paint hazards.
Where do hazards appear?
-Friction and impact surfaces such as window sills and doors
-Surfaces with chipped peeling or deteriorated paint, and alligator textures
-Bare soil, particularly around the house or in the play area
-Floors where dust from lead paint can settle
How can lead poisoning be prevented?
1. See that your child gets a blood test to see if they have lead in their system.
2. Keeping dust off of floors and window sills by cleaning the areas with a wet cloth and powder detergent. Opening and closing windows and every day traffic kick up lead dust, and it can be breathed in or ingested by children.
3. Wash your children's hands, face, and toys often.
4. Clean up paint chips and dust on the floor and/or window sills.
5. Keep children away from peeling paint
6. Do not try to remove old paint by dry scraping, sanding or heating
7. If you believe lead based paint is a problem in your home, have your home tested for lead hazards.
Further prevention includes:
- Avoid using traditional home remedies and cosmetics that may contain lead
- Avoid eating candy imported from Mexico
- Avoid using tableware, cookware, or containers that are not shown to be lead free
- Check for recalls due to lead hazards, and remove those items from your home. The Consumer Product Safety Commission lists lead recall online at http://www.cpsc.gov/
- Shower and change clothes after finishing a task that involves working with lead-based products such as stain glass work, bullet making, or using a firing range
|
 West Nile Virus 
The Wells County Health Department treats storm drains in outlying towns within the County for mosquito larva to help control the mosquito population. Mosquitoes are vectors that can carry and spread diseases such as West Nile Virus and LaCrosse Virus. Dead blue jays, robins, cardinals, crows or raptors may be indicative that West Nile Virus is present in the area. These birds are the only types of birds that can be sent in for West Nile testing. If you come across dead birds on your property, be sure to handle them with gloves or with a bag over your hand, bag them, and dispose of them properly. If you find a bird of the species listed above and wish to have it tested for WNV, please call the Wells County Health Department as soon as possible. Only recently dead (less than 24 hours old) birds with no insect infestation will be accepted.
Mosquito populations are also tested for West Nile throughout the mosquito season. Positive mosquito populations, birds, and human cases are monitored throughout the state. For current Indiana State Department of Health data on West Nile findings, visit http://www.in.gov/isdh/23592.htm
What can you do to help?
-
Keep grass and shrubbery cut and well maintained
-
Eliminate areas of standing water
-
Dispose of old tires on property
-
Clean out clogged gutter
-
Turn over wheelbarrows, pots, buckets, kiddie pools, etc. when not in use
-
Repair failing septic tanks
-
Chlorinate swimming pools and aerate ornamental ponds
Avoid being outdoors for extended periods of time between dusk and dawn without the proper protection. If you must be outdoors, wear protective clothing, and use an insect repellant containing DEET or picaridin. Products with 25%-35% DEET usually provide adequate protection for adults. Do not allow children to apply DEET to themselves, and do not use on infants.
|
Rabies
What is rabies and how do people get it?
Rabies is a viral disease that affects the nervous system of humans and other mammals. People get infected by rabies virus when a rabid animal comes into contact with a human by breaking the skin, as in bite wounds or scratches. Although rare, it is also possible to get rabies if saliva or other infectious material from a rabid animal gets into a person's eyes, nose, mouth or open wounds. Wild animals such as opossums, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, and bats, as well as unvaccinated dogs and cats, may carry the disease and transmit it to humans and domestic animals.
How can I tell if an animal has rabies?
The only way to determine if an animal has rabies or not is through laboratory testing of the brain tissue. However, some of the visible signs that an animal might be rabid include: aggressive behavior, confusion, lethargy, attacking for no reason (unprovoked attack), excessive drooling from the mouth, partial paralysis and walking in circles. The strange behavior of rabid animals is due to the virus's action on the animal's nervous system. By the time an animal or human is showing obvious symptoms, the disease progresses very quickly, resulting in death.
Why is this important information for Wells County residents?
Although rabies has become much less common due to vaccination requirements and animal control programs, it is an infectious disease that still poses a threat to public health. Very few people die from rabies in the U.S., but cases of animal rabies are continually occurring throughout the country, and many people are vaccinated every year for having been exposed to a potentially rabid animal. In the recent instance of the rabid bat found in a home in Wells County, those who were possibly exposed to the bat received rabies vaccinations as a precautionary measure. In 2007, team players at a softball tournament in South Carolina handled a stray kitten found at a nearby dumpster. The kitten was later determined to have rabies, leading to post-exposure vaccination of 27 of the players. In 2006, a ten year old girl from Bourbon, Indiana died of rabies several months after being bitten by an infected bat.
These incidents stress the importance of public awareness about rabies, and rabies prevention efforts within the community. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wild animals account for roughly 90 percent of the human rabies cases in the United States. Only mammals can get the disease, with some of the more commonly affected animals being raccoons, bats, skunks, coyotes, foxes, dogs, and cats. Cats are the most common domesticated animal infected by rabies. This is mostly due to owners allowing their unvaccinated cats to roam outdoors, or failing to keep their cats up to date on vaccinations.
What can you do to help control the spread of rabies?
- It is extremely important to keep your pets and certain livestock up to date on vaccinations for the safety of your animals and your family.
- If you have been bitten by either a wild animal or domesticated pet, seek medical attention immediately and contact the Wells County Health Department at 260-824-6489. If you encounter a wild animal displaying extremely unusual behavior, such as severe aggression, excessive drooling, staggering, or seizures, contact a pest control company or wildlife removal service to safely capture the animal and remove it. For questions about wildlife or nuisance animals, contact the Department of Natural Resources at 317-232-4010, or the Wildlife Conflict Information Hotline at 800-893-4116.NEVER handle unfamiliar animals, even if they appear to be friendly, since rabid wild animals may appear to be tame. In situations in which you find a bat in your home, and you cannot reasonably rule out the possibility of having been bitten (such as waking up to a bat in your bedroom or finding a bat in the room of an unattended child), have a pest control service capture the bat so that it can be submitted for rabies testing, and contact the Health Department to pick up the animal. “Bat-proof” your home to prevent bats from entering and coming into contact with people, especially if you live in an older home with any holes or openings that would allow bats access to the inside of your house.
- Do not leave exposed garbage, food, or litter outside, as it is likely to attract stray or wild animals.
For more information about rabies, visit http://www.cdc.gov/rabies. To learn more about bats and bat-proofing your home, contact Bat Conservation International, Inc. at http://www.batcon.org. The Wells County Health Department, located at 223 West Washington Street in Bluffton, also has free brochures and information packets on rabies.
|
Water Testing
Residents with concerns about the safety of their well water are encouraged to come to the Health Department to pick up a water sample bottle to have the water tested. Water can be tested for bacteria, heavy metals, sulfites, sulfates, nitrates, nitrites, pesticides, fertilizers, and more. The Wells County Health Department uses Hoosier Micro Laboratory in Muncie for all water testing. Bottles can be picked up any time from 8am-4:30pm, Monday-Friday. Water samples must be dropped off on a Tuesday morning before 9:30am, as the HML courier comes weekly at this time to pick up the samples. HML, Inc. performs a wide variety of water testing, as well as air testing and monitoring. For more information about testing, visit http://www.hml.com/hml_index.php.
|
More Coming Soon... |
|
|
