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 | | The safe clean up of storm and rebuilding debris is a concern for Tulane graduate Caroline Whitehead, who has been part of a team that has distributed millions of flyers in the region about debris collection. |  | Rebuilding New Orleans has a well-known side effect: piles of debris. While some of those piles strike an emotional chord for residents, environmental health professionals see them differently. For Tulane University graduate Caroline Whitehead, separating debris into piles according to type is a crucial environmental health issue. This summer, she became one of the 1,600 Environmental Protection Agency workers helping New Orleans residents clean up safely and effectively.
"We were trying to help those people who were gutting their homes with proper protection, knowing who to call when things were beyond their ability, such as whether or not to clean up mold on their own. Most importantly, we were teaching them how to segregate any of their waste so it would go to the appropriate landfills," explains Whitehead, a May graduate of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Batteries, pesticides, paints, oil and cleaning supplies are among those items that fall into the category of household hazardous waste. Whitehead's team worked to give information about separating those kinds of items from other types of debris, such as vegetation, construction debris, garbage and electronics. Ideally, she says, the different kinds of debris would be in their own piles for pickup. Whitehead and her colleagues have distributed 3.65 million flyers in the region about safe debris collection.
An estimated 9,456 tons of hazardous debris have been collected, including more than 583,000 electronic components containing mercury, cadmium and other hazardous materials; freon from more than 388,000 household appliances; 97,418 drums and cylinders; more than 3,300 vehicle tanks; and 50,135 pounds of ammunition, guns and other explosives. She estimates that EPA workers and contractors handled from 6,000 to 6,500 household hazardous materials daily.
"It was a really good opportunity for me to go down and do some outreach," Whitehead explains. But, she says, there is a lot left to do. "It's something I am trying to get across here, to people in Washington--how much work still needs to be done."
In her current position, Whitehead does outreach for the EPA's Office of Water with the water quality standards program on the East and West coasts.
Directions for disposing of household hazardous waste and other materials are posted here in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.
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