Pipeline to disease

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, May, 2007 by Thomas Rooney

When E. coli in spinach makes hundreds of people sick, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is all over it. But when millions of people every year get sick from the same bacteria from broken sewer pipes, the CDC has nothing to say.

This has to change.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that in Los Angeles alone last year, 1.5 million people fell sick from exposure to E. coli and other toxins at the beach--most from faulty sewer systems and storm water runoff. The Environmental Protection Agency says 3.5 million people get sick from E. coli sickness each year for the same reason. Last year, there were 73,000 sewer spills in the US, and it is getting worse. This is America's most widespread and preventable public health care emergency. And it is time the CDC started talking about it.

I am the President and CEO of Insituform Technologies, a publicly traded company (INSU) that repairs more sewer, water, and oil pipes than any company in the world--from sewer pipes beneath the White House to oil pipes above the Canadian tundra to Asia and Europe. So I see firsthand what bad pipes are doing all over the country. But no one is connecting the dots. The CDC should start.

Thomas Rooney

702 Spirit 40 Park Drive

Chesterfield, Missouri 63005

636-530-8011

tomrooney@insituform.com