Health Advisories at Lawrence Lake & Lake St. Clair

Update: These health advisories have been lifted.

There are currently health advisories for blue-green algae toxin on Lawrence Lake and Lake St. Clair. 

When there is a toxic algae bloom, people are advised to:

• Avoid recreational contact with the lake.
•   Keep pets out of the water.  
•   If fishing, catch and release is the safest practice.

Warning signs are posted at access points around the lakes and area home owners will be contacted. The Thurston County Health Department will monitor the lakes weekly until the advisory can be lifted. 

There is still a health advisory at Pattison Lake.

Health advisory at Long Lake has been lifted.

If you have questions, contact Cathy Hansen at (360) 867-2645 or Art Starry at (360) 867-2587.

Septic Help Line - for all of your septic system questions!

Did you know Thurston County Environmental Health operates a Septic Help Line?

If you have any questions about septic systems, all you have to do is call and leave a message. A staff member will get back to within a few days. You can choose to remain anonymous as long as you leave a phone number for an expert to get back to you. However, county staff may have to access your records to provide you with the best possible assistance.

 Septic Help Line: (360) 867-2669

For more information, including brochures and videos, visit Thurston County's Septic Systems website. For the Dos and Donts of caring for a septic system, check out our blog post, Septic System Care Begins with You.

Understanding Restaurant Inspections

Many of us enjoy checking out the results of restaurant inspections from The Olympian newspaper. But do we really know what the results mean?

In Thurston County, there are almost one thousand permitted food establishments, with each one getting routine inspections by Food Safety staff from the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department. Scores from restaurant inspections are reported weekly through The Olympian newspaper, as well as through their website. 

Here is a restaurant inspection report from The Olympian’s website this summer:

EAGAN’S 1420 Harrison Ave. W. Olympia. June 12: Routine check (0 red, 0 blue) Comments: Red — None noted. Blue — None noted.

This shows that Eagan’s was inspected on June 12^th and there were no red or blue violations found during the inspection. Violations are scored based on the severity of the problem, from a high of 25 points given for not washing hands properly, to 2 points for needing better lighting.

The food safety concerns we inspect for have not changed much in the last 50 years:

• Keep cold food at the correct cold temperature.
• Keep hot food at the correct hot temperature.
• Wash hands properly and often.
•  Keep a clean kitchen.
•  Keep raw meats from other foods.

Take a look at a restaurant inspection form from 1944 to compare with today’s form. We have made great strides in understanding how food can make us sick but the basic food safety steps have been well known for some time.

Red violations are those most likely to cause food-borne illness and must be corrected immediately if feasible, or according to a compliance schedule. An example: not keeping food hot enough (hot holding). This would be corrected by reheating the food to 165 degrees F in order to make sure that there were no harmful bacteria on the food. Other examples of red violations include: refrigerator not cold enough, not washing hands as needed, or not cleaning and sanitizing cutting boards after being used with raw meat.

Blue violations relate to the overall cleanliness and condition of the restaurant and must be corrected within a given timeframe. Examples include: the floor is worn and needs replacing within 3 months, or the grease hood needs to be cleaned within three days. 

When looking at a restaurant with violations, note the number of problems and severity, especially the red items. Most violations are quickly fixed and good managers/owners are key in making sure their employees are well trained and problems are not repeated. Everyone can make a mistake and one employee can cause several violations so seeing your favorite restaurant have a violation should not turn you away for life. Thurston County’s Food Safety staff becomes concerned when a restaurant’s problems are not corrected and when they are repeated. On the other hand, there are many restaurants that work very hard to earn a clean inspection and they deserve recognition for their efforts.

For more information visit Thurston County’s Food Safety website.

There's a Mouse in my House! A firsthand account of rodent infestation

By: Elisa Sparkman, Education & Outreach Specialist

I want to share my own experience about mice in my home. But first, let me give you tips on how to keep my experience from happening to you.

Tips for Rodent Prevention

• Seal openings larger than one quarter of an inch using rodent-resistant materials such as wire mesh, concrete, sheet metal, brick, or mortar. Some spray expanding foam may work for really small openings.
• Check your home for cracks and openings. These are likely to occur around the foundation, attic, vents, or places where pipes or cables enter the building.
•  Keep the space under doors less than ¼ of an inch and cover the edges of doors to prevent gnawing.
•  Keep food, including pet food and bird seed, in rodent-proof containers. Do not leave pet food out over night.
•  If you have rodent problems, don’t feed the birds.
•  Rodents love insulation for nesting. Cover or remove fiberglass insulation from areas accessible to rodents.
• Keep shrubs and other vegetation two to three feet away from building walls and keep them trimmed.
• Avoid stacking firewood or other materials against building walls. Rodents and insects find them very appealing.

I was never really afraid of mice. That is, until I was traumatized by a complete infestation. Once upon a time, before I worked for Thurston County Public Health, I had come back to Olympia from working a year in the mountains after college. It was late winter and my mother and I started to pick up on the telltale signs that we had mice in the house.

• The scampering sound on the wood floors and in the walls at night.
• My cat would stare at the bottom of the kitchen counters for hours. She was on “mouse watch.” (She never caught any.)
• We started finding mouse droppings in drawers.

And then the worst sign of all: lentils. Yes, lentils. We started finding dried lentils in drawers and closets. This meant they had chewed through a bag of dried lentils in our pantry and were taking them back to their nest… wherever that was.

We knew we had a problem and needed to get some traps. While we debated what type of trap to use, how many to get, and who would do the trapping, our problem got worse. The mice were no longer invisible creatures leaving traces of their existence. One morning I opened the pantry and for a box of cereal, and mouse jumped out at me. Naturally, I screamed and ran. Another morning, while brushing my teeth, one squeezed out from the tiniest hole at the bottom of the bathroom cabinet! My screams forced it right back into the hole.

I came home one day to find the vacuum out on the front porch and I asked my mom why it was left outside. She answered, “I accidentally vacuumed up a live mouse and it’s still in there.” Guess who had to take the vacuum apart to get it out? 

That was it. We really needed traps. But I didn’t want to kill the little creatures. When they’re not jumping out at you from the pantry, they are kind of cute. So I got live traps. The problem was, my mom and I were too wimpy to pick up the traps with our bare hands after mice were trapped. I decided that I could live with myself if we killed a few of them.

Photo of the lentils that the mice had hoarded

We got down to business with real snap traps. And we started going through and cleaning every closet, every drawer… until the nest was found. I wasn’t home (thank goodness) when my mom and her friend found the nest in a box full of old clothes inside a coat closet that we rarely used. About four mice had scampered out of the box. I arrived home to find the box on the back porch and two big piles of dried lentils. I couldn’t believe how many lentils the mice had hoarded! We continued to go through every room, closet and cupboard to clean up after the mice and we continued to find scattered lentils. We got the house sealed up by professionals and they installed more traps to get the last of them. 

Mice can fit through holes as small as ¼ inch! They can spread disease, destroy things in your home, and chew through electrical wires. Although my story may be humorous and I can look back and laugh now… we are lucky to have had minimal damage and that my mom and I remained healthy throughout the ordeal.

It’s been awhile since that dreadful experience. My husband and I live in a new house and we follow the precautions listed above. My old cat that couldn’t catch a mouse if you dangled it in front of her has passed away and now we have three active young cats that keep the outdoor rodent population down. And I have not bought or cooked lentils since.

For more information visit Thurston County Environmental Health's website on Rodents, Bats, Insects, and other Vectors.

Dust - in our Homes, not just the Wind

A microscopic look at dust.

We are surrounded by it – in our homes, cars, and places where we work, worship, play, and relax -  Dust. It’s everywhere, but what is it?

Dust is made up of the particles from the environment  around us.  It can contain:

• Insect parts
•  Pollen
•  Spores
• Dust Mites
•  Skin and Hair Particles (from people and  pets)
• Animal Dander
•  Soot
•  Pesticides (from your lawn or places you’ve visited)
•   Chemicals such as flame retardants and phthalates
•   Bits of auto tires and brake pads

      Metals, such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and copper also linger in our dust. Before lead was removed from gasoline, paint, and other products, it was spread throughout our environment. For almost 100 years, arsenic, lead, and other contaminants were blown into Thurston, Pierce, Kitsap, and King Counties from the now-closed ASARCO copper smelter in Ruston, Washington.

 

The concentration of pollutants in house dust, particularly in older homes with older carpet, may be 2 to 32 times higher than the soil outside the home.   Normal vacuuming removes surface dirt but does not get out deep dust that builds up in carpets. A deep vacuuming (8-25 vacuum passes over each area of carpet) can help reduce this reservoir of deep dust and the associated pollutants.

How can I reduce contact with dust?

• Avoid wearing shoes in the house. Take them off at the door. If you prefer to wear shoes in the house, designate a pair of “house shoes.” Place a commercial door mat at each door to help bring in less of whatever’s outside.
•  Make sure your vacuum is working properly. Change your vacuum bag before it is completely full and check the vacuum belt. Try to vacuum several times a week.
• Use a damp cloth when dusting and try to dust exposed areas (including floors with hard surfaces) weekly.
• Wash children’s toys in warm soapy water often to keep dust from settling on them.
•  Wash your hands and face before eating. We get dust and dirt on our hands and face throughout the day.
•  Keep pets clean and brushed.

Parents with small children or anyone who is “housebound” should especially try to follow these tips. The health risks to babies from pollutants in house dust may be 100 times greater than for adults. In addition to being much smaller than adults, they spend more time on or near the floor and tend to put items in their mouths. Early contact with pollutants among the very young is associated with higher rates of chronic illness such as asthma, lower I.Q., ADHD, and cancer.

Now that you know what is in dust and how to reduce exposure, you can take simple healthy actions to reduce your family’s contact with it.