Legionella and general thoughts on poverty housing et al
We think we've been exposed to legionella "twice." Both were most likely due to legionella in a water heater in a rental.
We also think that probably at least some of the dumpsters in Aberdeen, Washington were a reservoir of legionella thanks in part to the constant rain (75 to 80 inches annually) and generally temperate weather.
This is an opinion and no actual tests confirming it were ever performed, so there is certainly room for error.
The first time was years ago in Columbus, Georgia in our last apartment before being homeless for years. It took a long, long time to recover and my son who is only a carrier had a chainsaw cough for a really long time.
It seemed to impact him more than the two of us who have CF, so we think it's likely CF is protective against legionella.
The second time was in our time in Aberdeen in a series of three apartments between two buildings owned by the same people and generally poorly maintained. We left just a few weeks ago and already seem mostly recovered.
Hypothesis: If you live in Aberdeen, Washington or anywhere wet and temperate and have mystery health issues, you might consider getting tested for it.
If you are a housing authority or health authority person trying to address stuff in Aberdeen or someplace with a similar climate, you might consider testing the dumpsters to see if that's actually an issue.
This is a BLOG full of personal opinions and anecdotes. I support my statements to the best of my ability but I don't always have complete information.
I'm posting this to say:
1. I am probably better off having left Aberdeen. It's possible the health issues we had there were due to being in that area generally and wouldn't have been resolved by moving to a different apartment locally even if money were no object.
2. I am very frustrated by the fact that poverty housing keeps people poor and one of the more insidious ways it does that is by harming their health in ways that undermine their productivity and may not readily clear up simply because you move. (The connection between health and housing is one of the reasons I work on housing issues as one of my areas of interest.)
3. IF you live in Aberdeen or someplace with similar weather and are in some way responsible for the area, please consider bulldozing old, mold-filled buildings, testing the dumpsters for infectious disease and generally trying to upgrade the physical environment with regards to issues that can negatively impact the health of locals.
4. This absolutely should NOT be seen as reason to not invest in Aberdeen. Mold, disease etc. are everywhere and in many cases you don't have any idea what you are facing. Instead, consider it to be one more detail to investigate and if you confirm with actual tests that the dumpsters are, in fact, serving as reservoirs of legionella or some other disease, try to come up with reasonable procedures for addressing it.
Footnote
To be clear, dumpsters are generally disgusting and people should probably generally have stricter protocols for how to safely interact with them. My concern is that they are a greater risk of disease transmission in wet, temperate places than is typical.
I imagine ALL dumpsters are cesspits of disease and probably somewhere someone reading this is laughing their ass off at the idea that you would even test for that.
