HIV and the Bloodborne Pathogen Regulation: implications for the wastewater industry

Abstract

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires all employers to develop protocols to minimize occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens and, in the case that occupational exposure cannot be eliminated, to inform their employees of any risk that bloodborne pathogens may present. Compared to most bloodborne pathogens, little information is available on the potential for occupational transmission of HIV from wastewater. To assess this potential, current information relative to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) physiology, behavior, and analytical methods are reviewed. Information regarding the concentration of HIV in human waste and the survivability of HIV outside the human body is presented relative to the potential for virus transmission. From this information, it appears that the probability of such transmission approaches zero, but it cannot be ruled out entirely. It is more likely that human contact with wastewater will result in the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms other than HIV. Practices which limit or eliminate the risk of occupational transmission of "conventional" pathogens (namely, those practices prescribed under the Bloodborne Pathogen Regulation and the Universal Precautions of the Centers for Disease Control) will probably be effective in limiting HIV transmission from wastewater. Water Environ.Res., 66, 684 (1994).

An Issue of Environmental Justice: Understanding the Relationship among HIV/AIDS Infection in Women, Water Distribution, and Global Investment in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa

“…To date, only a handful of scholars have explicitly correlated the water crisis in rural sub-Saharan Africa to incidences of HIV/AIDS among rural women. 22 The potential for misinterpretation of the causal link is, perhaps, high, especially given the abundant misinformation about HIV/AIDS's modes of transmission (Johnson et al 1994). In addition, controlling for "considerable variation on the ground, in households, and in communities across space and over time" (Murphy et al 2005, 265) has presented challenges even to the most rigorously conducted field studies of exogenous factors that have been extensively examined in relation to the disease, such as income, education, food production, nutrition, housing, and labor (Benki et al 2005;Clover 2003;De Vogli 2005;De Waal and Tumushabe 2003;Mtika 2001).…”

“…However, in the early years of HIV/AIDS-related research, much critical attention was given to exploring this possibility. See, for example, Johnson et al (1994). In addition, studies have shown that the already-damaged immune systems of HIV/AIDS infected people are further comprised when exposed to toxic water (Obi et al 2006).…”