Jersey monitors threat from toxic sea lettuce fumes

Authorities in the Channel Islands are looking at ways to protect residents and visitors from toxic beach gases after the death of a jogger in France that has been linked to the fumes from rotting seaweed.

The government of Jersey said on Monday it was considering the installation of devices to check gas levels from deposits of sea lettuce. Warning signs could also be erected on affected coastlines to tell people of the potential danger posed by rotting green algae.

Jean-René Auffray collapsed while jogging at a river estuary in Brittany, about 50 miles south-west of Jersey. French authorities concluded he died of a heart attack. But they are exploring the theory that he may have been overcome by sea lettuce fumes, following pressure from environment experts.

Sea lettuce exposed at low tide in Swanage, Dorset. Photograph: FLPA/Alamy

Gas from decomposing sea lettuce in northern France has been linked to the deaths of wild boars in 2011 and a horse in 2009.

St Aubin’s Bay in Jersey often has sea lettuce infestations. The island’s government, the States of Jersey, said it would monitor the situation and could introduce safety measures, but does not believe people are currently at risk.

The infrastructure minister, Eddie Noel, said the quantity of sea lettuce on Jersey were not at the same level as in France and elsewhere in the world.

“The levels are monitored and if there were to be any buildup, action would be taken to protect public safety,” he said, adding that heavy deposits of rotting sea lettuce – Ulva lactuca – may produce gases, including hydrogen sulphide.

Noel said contractors removed the algae for the Jersey government last summer and trialled the use of gas monitors, which were not activated.

But he said: “A review of operations for the 2017 summer season will include considering greater use of these monitors and possible public safety signage in extreme conditions to warn of the risk, however small, of walking, jogging or exercising dogs in heavily affected areas.”

Noel said it was unreasonable to connect Auffray’s death with the sea lettuce at St Aubin’s Bay and doing so could harm tourism on the island.

Auffray’s death has focused attention on what causes Jersey’s sea lettuce growth, which Noel said was owing to “several elements”. It tends to proliferate in warm, clear, calm, nitrate-rich waters. St Aubin’s Bay is a perfect breeding ground because of its position– it is sheltered and sandy – and because it is rich in nitrates washed from farms in Jersey and northern France, and from the Bellozanne sewage treatment works.

Jersey’s government stressed that the sea lettuce problem was not unique to the island: there have been blooms in Kent, Ireland, Portugal and Italy, commonly in bays with similar features to St Aubin’s.

Possible solutions for the problem include towing it out to sea and dumping it, and the introduction of oysters that feed on nitrates.

The campaign group Save Our Shoreline Jersey (SOSJ) said there was no doubt that sea lettuce released sulphurous gases. “These ‘rotten egg’ smells mean local residents have to shut their windows in hot weather, tourists and locals complain, and seaside cafes suffer from a marked decrease in custom,” the group said.

“Bouncing on the piles of dried lettuce runs the risk of toxic gas escaping, so we recommend small children and dogs are kept from [doing so because] they are much closer to the ground and could be affected before the wind disperses the gas.”

SOSJ said hundreds of tonnes of fertiliser was being used by farms growing Jersey Royal potatoes, and that the island’s growing population was creating more sewage.

Jacqui Carrel, an environmental scientist for SOSJ, said the group had suggested measures such as ploughing shallow furrows at angles to the sea in these areas, dislodging the weed before it takes root. “[But] successive governments have said there is nothing they can do.”

Jersey monitors threat from toxic sea lettuce fumes

Surgeon struck off in Britain banned from practising and fined in New Jersey

A doctor who fled to the US from Britain after becoming convicted of manslaughter has once more been banned from practising and fined almost $ 500,000, for injuring patients with surgeries he was not competent to execute.

Dr Richard Kaul was stripped of his American licence at a meeting of New Jersey’s board of health-related examiners, which also ordered him to pay $ 300,000 in civil penalties and $ 175,422 to reimburse the state for legal charges and investigation expenses.

John Hoffman, the acting New Jersey lawyer common, explained the board’s selection would defend the public “from a person who place sufferers in harm’s way, and very candidly had no qualms or remorse about repeatedly performing so”.

“Dr Kaul’s sufferers in truth did sustain extra maladies as effectively as uncorrected health-related problems, as a direct end result of Dr Kaul’s improper procedures,” Hoffman mentioned in a statement after the verdict, which confirmed a 3-month skilled prosecution of Kaul last 12 months.

Kaul, 49, became a multimillionaire right after arriving in the US and reinventing himself as a pioneering keyhole spine surgeon, in spite of his only hands-on education getting a two-week course in South Korea. He manufactured errors that left numerous sufferers unable to walk or work.

He had been advised by a London judge in 2001 that his profession was “in ruins”, when he was discovered guilty of creating the death of Isatu Bangura, who suffered a cardiac arrest after he injected her with sedatives and failed to keep track of her issue while she had dental function accomplished.

New Jersey state prosecutors argued that Kaul had performed complicated surgical treatment with “flagrant disregard” for his inadequate qualifications, citing the circumstances of 11 individuals who claimed to have suffered mistreatment at his hands amongst 2005 and 2012.

Judge Howard Solomon agreed in his determination in December that Kaul “never need to have performed any spinal surgeries,” and had engaged in “gross negligence, gross malpractice and gross incompetence” by operating on individuals “without enough training, expertise and competence”.

The case raised fresh considerations about the safety of ambulatory surgical centres (ASCs) like Kaul’s, which supply quicker and much less expensive operations than classic hospitals but are not topic to the identical inspections and checks, and have been criticised by patient watchdogs.

In 2012 New Jersey governor Chris Christie vetoed a bill passed by state legislators that would have ensured all ASCs had been regulated, partly on the grounds that it would value as well a lot for his administration to inspect them.

Kaul presently owed a former patient practically $ 1m following a profitable lawsuit, as properly as hefty unpaid tax payments. He is also becoming sued by Geico, a major insurance coverage organization, which claims he improperly billed it for surgeries. Kaul denies the allegation.

“The state proved its allegations and we’re pleased the Board has enacted the Court’s recommendation of licence revocation,” stated Eric Kanefsky, the director of the New Jersey lawyer general’s division of buyer affairs, said of the board’s selection.

“Dr Kaul’s actions are an affront to medical professionals who commit many years learning and education so they can effectively care for their sufferers.”

Surgeon struck off in Britain banned from practising and fined in New Jersey

New Jersey regulators move to bar British surgeon struck off in Uk

A physician who was banned from practising in Britain following becoming convicted of the manslaughter of a patient fled to the US, reinvented himself as a pioneering spine surgeon and severely injured a quantity of individuals, in accordance to a damning report commissioned by state authorities in New Jersey.

Dr Richard Kaul was advised by a judge in London in 2001 that his profession was “in ruins” when he was identified guilty of causing the death of Isatu Bangura, who suffered cardiac arrest following he injected her with sedatives and failed to keep track of her condition.

Yet he moved to the United States and became a multi-millionaire by restyling himself as an skilled in rewarding keyhole back surgical treatment, regardless of his only hands-on coaching in the specialism being a two-week course in South Korea.

Kaul, 49, was due to be stripped of his licence at a meeting of New Jersey health care regulators on Wednesday following becoming ruled a “danger to the public” by a judge as part of a 3-month specialist prosecution by state authorities.

“He never should have performed any spinal surgeries,” Judge Howard Solomon wrote in a 105-webpage determination, concluding that Kaul engaged in “gross negligence, gross malpractice and gross incompetence” by working on sufferers “without enough instruction, abilities and competence”.

Kaul’s repeated violations of the laws and laws governing physicians in the state “warrant absolutely nothing much less than the revocation of his medical licence”, the judge concluded.

The situation has raised considerations about the security of ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) like Kaul’s, which provide very same-day procedures that are quicker and significantly less costly than in conventional hospitals, but are not topic to the identical regime of inspections and checks.

In 2012, New Jersey governor Chris Christie vetoed a bill accredited by state legislators that would have ensured all such surgeries in the state were regulated, partly on the grounds that it would cost too considerably for his administration to inspect them.

David Knowlton, president of the New Jersey Wellness Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), a non-revenue watchdog group, said that harmful medical doctors such as Kaul “probably would have been caught” under the vetoed regulation regime.

A dossier for the prosecution presented by one particular of Christie’s deputy lawyer generals argued that Kaul had performed complicated surgical treatment with “flagrant disregard” for his inadequate qualifications.

It thorough the instances of 11 individuals who claimed to have suffered mistreatment at his hands among 2005 and 2012. Numerous of them limped to the witness stand to testify towards Kaul and fought back tears during hearings at the office of administrative law in Newark last 12 months.

Kaul had charged them tens of thousands of dollars for operations such as the fusing with each other of troublesome vertebrae. Some did not even need to have the surgeries, the judge ruled, even though other individuals suffered botched procedures that had to be redone right after they caused excruciating soreness.

James Jarrell, a 62-yr-old former development employee at Ground Zero, mentioned he felt “crippled” right after a fusion by Kaul – which was later declared pointless – left him struggling to stroll and unable to operate. “He was terrible,” mentioned Jarrell. “I can barely carry myself to phone him a doctor”.

Study compiled in 2011 by the NJHCQI discovered that a single in 4 ambulatory surgical centers in the state had been cited by the department of wellness for “immediate jeopardy”, meaning that their failure to comply with regulations had induced, or was most likely to trigger, “serious injury, harm, impairment or death to a patient”.

Surgeries had been inadequately sanitised, workers were recorded “walking through the sterile working room in street clothes”, data were not appropriately finished, and single-use healthcare products was utilised “more than as soon as, on far more than one particular patient”, according to the investigation.

“I would not advise any of my close friends or family members to have surgical treatment or procedures accomplished at any unlicensed surgical practice,” Knowlton stated at the time. An energy to tighten the regulations on ASCs collapsed in the state assembly last 12 months.

Kaul was also left free of charge to practise in spite of New Jersey authorities suspending him for 6 months and fining him $ 10,000 in 2003 when they discovered by way of a tipoff that he had failed to declare his English manslaughter case on his application to renew his American health-related licence.

Kaul mounted an elaborate PR campaign to fight off the allegations, claiming to be the victim of a political conspiracy co-ordinated by Christie and mainstream spine surgeons who, he stated, were resentful after shedding enterprise to him. “This just goes to demonstrate that in New Jersey you can not get a fair shake if you are on the wrong side of the political establishment,” he mentioned shortly following the judge’s verdict was published.

Kaul published glossy pamphlets and petitions that purported to show signatures of pleased customers. He wrote a string of information articles or blog posts defending himself, and posted publicity movies, like 1 exhibiting an obvious former patient happily skiing.

He published secret surveillance footage of an additional patient, attempting to demonstrate that her injuries had been faked, in spite of the clip displaying she was bent double. His publicist even posed as a journalist and interviewed a state health-related official in an energy to expose the supposed conspiracy.

In the end, nevertheless, he failed to rebut the allegations. “It has been confirmed, properly past a preponderance of the credible proof, that [Kaul] not only poses a danger to the public, but has violated numerous statutes and regulations governing the practice of medication and surgical treatment in this state,” wrote Solomon.

Now owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, damages and unpaid taxes, and with his surgery in New Jersey bankrupted, a defiant Kaul stated that he planned to concentrate on treating poverty-stricken people in Congo, as portion of The Spine Africa Project, a charity he founded. “I do not see why it must cease me assisting people with my capabilities,” he explained of the judge’s determination.

New Jersey regulators move to bar British surgeon struck off in Uk