Sewage damage poses serious health threats to Placentia residents and business owners. Understanding these risks helps you protect your family and take quick action when sewage problems occur. This comprehensive guide covers the major health hazards, prevention strategies, and when to call professionals.

What Makes Sewage So Dangerous?

Raw sewage contains harmful bacteria, viruses, and parasites that cause serious illnesses. Dangerous pathogens include enteric bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasitic worms, and their eggs. These disease-causing organisms thrive in sewage and pose immediate risks to human health.

Millions of human pathogenic viral particles are shed from infected individuals and introduce into wastewater, subsequently causing waterborne diseases worldwide. The contaminated water spreads through direct contact, ingestion, or breathing contaminated air particles.

Placentia’s Sewage Infrastructure Challenges

Placentia operates over one mile of developed sewer pipeline and maintains gravity sanitary sewer pipelines throughout the city. The City’s aging sewer system requires regular maintenance and capital projects to fix deteriorating infrastructure. Older systems face higher risks of backups and overflows that threaten public health.

Heavy rainfall can overwhelm Placentia’s storm sewer system, causing waste to back up into connected sewer lines and putting homes and businesses at risk of backflow problems. Regional flooding from rising rivers and hurricanes compounds these risks.

Top Health Risks from Sewage Exposure

Bacterial Infections

Bacterial diseases from sewage include typhoid, paratyphoid, bacillary dysentery, gastroenteritis, and cholera. These infections attack the stomach and intestinal tract, causing severe symptoms.

Campylobacter: Campylobacteriosis is the most common diarrheal illness in the United States, causing bloody diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and fever within 2 to 5 days after exposure.

Salmonella: Symptoms include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days. Young children, elderly people, and immunocompromised individuals face higher risks of severe complications.

E. coli: Most people experience watery or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and fever. In 2-7% of those who acquire E. coli O157:H7 infection, hemolytic uremic syndrome may develop, causing kidney failure and sometimes death.

Viral Diseases

Five groups of pathogenic excreted viruses are particularly important: adenoviruses, enteroviruses (including polioviruses), hepatitis A virus, reoviruses and diarrhoea-causing viruses (especially rotavirus).

Hepatitis A: Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea, and fever. About 15% of those infected will have prolonged or relapsing symptoms over a 6-9 month period.

Norovirus: Known as the winter vomiting bug, this is one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis around the world. Elderly people are particularly at risk from norovirus.

Rotavirus: Another potentially fatal virus found in raw sewage. It is the most common cause of diarrhea in small children. The World Health Organization estimated that, globally, 453,000 child deaths occurred during 2008 due to rotavirus infection.

Parasitic Infections

Many species of protozoa can infect humans and cause diarrhea and dysentery. Only three species are considered to be pathogenic: Giardia lamblia, Balantidium coli and Entamoeba histolytica.

Cryptosporidium: A protozoan parasite which causes Cryptosporidiosis. Cryptosporidium can cause diarrhea in healthy people but can be fatal for people who are already frail or unwell.

Leptospirosis: Clinical manifestations include high fever, severe headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, jaundice, red eyes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or a rash. Left untreated, Leptospirosis will cause kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress, and in rare cases, death.

Secondary Health Complications

Direct contact with sewage or surfaces contaminated by sewage can result in illnesses such as gastroenteritis. Beyond immediate infections, sewage exposure creates additional health risks:

Skin Infections: Cuts and grazes on our skin allow bacteria and viruses from sewage pollution to enter the body, which can then result in an infection. A painful and itchy rash can develop, with the skin becoming hot and swollen.

Respiratory Problems: Wastewater treatment plants are the major source for the production of aerosols with bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The population around the vicinity has been reported infected with hypersensitivity, allergies, gastrointestinal, and respiratory tract infections due to ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact with the wastewater aerosols.

Blue Baby Syndrome: Methaemoglobinaemia (also known as “blue-baby syndrome”) is a poisoning that can occur in infants during the first few months of life due to ingestion of well water high in nitrates. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blueness of the skin, and death can occur within a few days.

High-Risk Groups in Placentia

Certain populations face greater dangers from sewage exposure:

1. Children under 5 years old – Higher risk of severe E. coli complications and rotavirus deaths
2. Adults over 65 – More susceptible to severe symptoms from most sewage-related diseases
3. Pregnant women – Risk of complications affecting fetal development
4. Immunocompromised individuals – Including people with cancer, AIDS, or chronic illnesses
5. People with open wounds – Higher risk of bacterial skin infections

Prevention Strategies for Placentia Properties

Regular Maintenance Steps

Inspect Your Sewer Lines: Tree roots can grow under property lines and damage your sewer pipes, causing a sewage problem. Be aware of all tree roots that could affect your mainline sewer pipes.

Professional Inspections: A registered plumber may be able to advise if your sewage system is working correctly. Schedule annual inspections for older Placentia homes built before 1980.

Proper Disposal Practices: Never flush feminine hygiene products, diapers, grease, or chemicals down toilets or drains. These items cause blockages that lead to backups.

Storm Preparedness

Heavy rainfall can overwhelm your local storm sewer lines promptly, causing water to backup into connected sewer lines. Install backflow prevention devices and sump pumps in vulnerable areas.

Keep sandbags ready during storm season. Clear gutters and storm drains around your property to prevent overflow issues.

Emergency Action Plans

Know Your Shutoff Locations: Locate your main water shutoff valve and learn how to operate it quickly.

Emergency Contacts: Report sewer overflows during regular City Hall hours at (714) 993-8131, and 911 after hours.

Safety Equipment: Keep rubber gloves, boots, eye protection, and N95 masks accessible for sewage emergencies.

What to Do During Sewage Exposure

Immediate Safety Steps

Wear protective clothing (such as rubber gloves, boots and eye protection) when cleaning. Never enter sewage-contaminated areas without proper protection.

Do not use your water supply until you know it is safe. Contact local health authorities to test water quality after sewage incidents.

Health Monitoring

Practice good hygiene and wash your hands frequently, especially after touching contaminated surfaces and before preparing food.

Watch for these warning signs after sewage exposure:

• Persistent diarrhea or vomiting
• High fever above 101°F
• Severe abdominal cramps
• Blood in stool
• Signs of dehydration
• Skin rashes or infections
• Difficulty breathing

Seek immediate medical attention if you experience any of these symptoms. Tell healthcare providers about sewage exposure for proper diagnosis and treatment.

Property Safety Measures

Clean and disinfect all contaminated areas. Keep children and pets away from contaminated objects and areas until they have been disinfected.

Remove and dispose of porous materials like carpets, drywall, and insulation that touched sewage water. These materials harbor dangerous bacteria even after cleaning.

Why Homeowners Trust Water Damage Restoration Placentia

Water Damage Restoration Placentia provides expert sewage cleanup services that protect your health and restore your property safely. Our certified technicians follow strict health protocols during every cleanup project.

Professional Equipment: We use hospital-grade disinfectants and specialized extraction equipment to remove contaminated water and eliminate health hazards completely.

Proper Training: Our process for cleaning and restoration of Category 3 water follows IICRC industry standards with proper personal protection equipment and engineering controls to prevent cross-contamination.

Health Focus: We recommend using a third-party Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) to perform clearance testing to ensure the property is returned to a sanitary pre-loss condition for health and safety.

Local Expertise: We understand Placentia’s aging sewer infrastructure challenges and respond quickly to minimize health risks and property damage.

Insurance Coordination: We work directly with insurance companies to streamline claims and reduce stress during sewage emergencies.

Professional vs DIY Cleanup

Even the advanced wastewater treatment technologies are unable to remove pathogenic viruses from wastewater completely, posing a serious health risk. DIY sewage cleanup puts your family at unnecessary risk.

Professional restoration companies have specialized training, equipment, and disinfectants needed to eliminate dangerous pathogens. We follow EPA guidelines and OSHA safety standards that protect workers and occupants.

Improper cleanup leaves invisible contamination that causes long-term health problems. Professional testing ensures your property becomes truly safe for occupancy again.

Take Action Now

Sewage damage requires immediate professional attention to prevent serious health consequences. Disease prevention programmes have centred upon four groups of pathogens potentially present in such wastes: bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminths. Don’t risk your family’s health with inadequate cleanup.

Contact Water Damage Restoration Placentia at (714) 464-6809 for immediate sewage cleanup services. Our 24/7 emergency response team reaches Placentia properties quickly with professional-grade equipment and expertise.

Protect your loved ones from sewage-related diseases. Call now for safe, thorough sewage remediation that restores your property to healthy conditions. Your family’s health depends on professional cleanup – don’t wait.