#1 2024-09-19 17:17:49
What doesn't kill you makes you boil.
Aeromonas has been shown to be a significant cause of infections associated with natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes) and has been linked to emerging or new illnesses, including near-drowning events, prostatitis, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome.
'Thousands' infected at Tough Mudder race at Sears Point Sonoma
"hundreds of people flooded local emergency rooms with disturbing symptoms such as boils, fevers, diarrhea, muscle aches and uncontrollable vomiting.
Most of the medical facilities were unable to figure out what was going on with their patients until test results showed they had tested positive for Aeromonas — bacteria that can cause septicemia, a potentially life-threatening infection...
“In their waivers, in tiny writing, they put, ‘There could potentially be bacteria in the mud.’ Well, guess what? They know it’s there. They put it there. I can guarantee you, out of every person that’s contacted me, not a single one of them would have subjected themselves to this if Tough Mudder said, ‘We’re using cheaper, bacteria-filled water.’ Who’s going to get in that?”
Authorities interviewed Tough Mudder staff and vendors, visited several of the race obstacle sites, and took samples from participants’ lesions, as well as from water sources that filtered into the event’s trackways and showers. Samples from the lesions detected the presence of the same bacteria that was in water drawn from a hydrant typically used for dust control and other construction purposes, according to the lawsuit."
"A subsequent survey created by the Sonoma County epidemiology team and disseminated by Tough Mudder to participants, spectators, event staff and volunteers also found that of 1,377 respondents, 776 — or 56% of them — met the case definition for the infection, the lawsuit said."
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#2 2024-09-19 17:41:57
The company’s success has helped take mainstream what was once an obscure pastime: there’s money in mud. One competitor told me, “It’s a gold rush.”
It’s a kind of muddy baptism, Dean explained. “People love mud,” he said. “You see this regression back into childhood.” There were issues, however—in California, the dirt is thin and silty, producing a pebble-filled gruel when mixed with water. The ideal mud, Dean said, holding a handful of the stuff, is on the East Coast: “You want to have a part where it’s like”—he made farting sounds that evoked tromping through sticky gloop—“and also parts where you’re wading in it and really can’t move.”
...Between obstacles, Dean and I spent a fair amount of time talking about money—or, rather, his lack of interest in it, in spite of the fact that he is the majority stakeholder of a privately held and highly lucrative business. “If I wanted to, I could sell the company tomorrow and would never have to work again,” he told me. “But what would I do with my life?”
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