Can Sewage Spread Ebola? And Other City Worker Questions

The de Blasio administration is reaching out to the city's labor force to discuss Ebola, and how officials are preparing for it.

Dozens of union officials met with city commissioners and other City Hall leaders on Monday to answer questions about protocols and precautions the city has been formulating, as the virus has spread in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. For weeks, the mayor, Governor Andrew Cuomo and various public health leaders have spoken about training and other local efforts.

"There's concern, let's face it, " said Harry Nespoli, head of the Muncipal Labor Committee.

He said the city so far has been appropriately focusing on informing and training first responders and healthcare personnel, but now it's time to get others, such as sanitation workers, up to speed.

"I want to get out to all the municipal workers what they're dealing with," Nespoli said.

Jim Tucciarelli, President of Local 1320, the union shop representing wastewater treatment plant workers, said he has had a hard time getting answers from different agencies about what Ebola could mean for the sewage system.

"One of the means of transmission is through bodily fluids. How are they handling the bodily fluids in these contamination hospitals that will be set up?" he said. "We need to know what the experts have to feel from around the world on this thing and get all of the answers together."

Tucciarelli said he got reassurances from the city that protocols will be issued soon.

One expert told WNYC that Tucciarelli's workers have relatively little to fear from Ebola.

"This virus is much less hardy than the viruses that typically cause diarrhea, like rotaviruses and caliciviruses," said Dr. Kartik Chandran, a virologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

He said typical wastewater treatment agents such as chlorine, UV radiation and ozone are effective at neutralizing Ebola.

"If I were working in waste treatment, I would be more worried about exposure to E. coli or the more common diarrheal viruses than I would the miniscule (theoretical) risk of being exposed to Ebola," Chandran said, via email.