Ever become sick from black water?

Gary [RVer Emeritus] said:

So what to do? Whatever makes you more comfortable. If you want to wear gloves, boots and a hazmat suit, go ahead. The rest of us will probably chuckle about it, but you should do what you gotta do.

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Bingo. Many of us drank from the garden hose after stomping through the farm. We're still around and our kids don't have three arms and a flesh eating disease. Think about it...did the the last guy who left the public rest room wash his hands before you touched the door handle?
Accidents do happen at the dump station. Clean up is not always what you might expect. You have to deal with that.
I've never read of any member getting sick. Just use common sense. But don't be scared to tackle what you have to do.

The latex/vinyl gloves by the box are really cheap at Walgreens. Get some and you will be fine.

And if I may quote another member, "If you don't know the answer, it's not a dumb question". No need to apologize.

Happy New Year and welcome to the RV Forum.  Yes, I think you are overthinking tank dumping - big time!  We've been RVing for 35+ years and have never encountered anything to fear.  We've never been sickened by anything to do with dumping.

Jerry tried gloves once and now just washes his hands well after dumping.  He always works with the fresh water and its appropriate hoses first.  He also washes the fresh water spigot before attaching our fresh water hose.  Fresh water hoses and fittings are kept in one container.

After filling the fresh water tank he works on dumping the tanks, black first, then a "rinse" with the gray water and flushing if possible.  He has a good supply of Lysol spray which he uses liberally on the hoses and fittings.  Dump hoses also have their own container and never the twain shall meet!  We keep our hoses in OPEN containers because sealing germs into a closed container might make the germs proliferate, especially during the summer when it's hot.  Air usually is their enemy.

RVers usually are pretty careful when using the dump station, but we occasionally rinse it down before using if the previous person didn't clean up after him/herself.

So try to relax and just take normal precautions.  We all did things when we were kids that didn't kill us and neither will this!

ArdraF

I have never gotten sick in over four years of full-timing, and I have a weakened immune system.  And I wash my hands afterward, but don't wear gloves.

If you are worried about your shoes, you can keep a pair just for walking around dump stations.  (Somehow I always get my shoes wet when hooking up or unhooking and rinsing my sewer hose, but it is wet from clean water.)  I don't like to wear shoes inside my motorhome, so I wear one pair when I am driving and dumping tanks.  When I go into the RV from the cab, I take my shoes off and leave them there.  Then when I go out the side door, I have a separate pair there.

Hubby does use gloves and washes hands plus sanitizer. Our son got a degree in microbiology and daughter in law is a registered nurse and have 2 young kids.  They are very cautious at home as well as in public.  I was interested in how he would handle dumping, and kinda expecting the haz-mat suit as mentioned above.  His process was the same as everyone elses, no special protection.  The only thing I think I'd like to have Hubby do is use disposable booties.  You should do what makes you comfortable.  Welcome to the forum!

Nothing like a good black tank discussion to bring out the input!    We talk about that stuff quite often here, obviously.  I agree with what everyone has said.  I generally use latex gloves & keep a box of them in the RV's storage compartment, but really just because it "seems like a good idea at the time" and I'm not sure I've ever really needed that layer of protection.  I use the dump station's NON-potable water supply hose (the water you do not drink) to thoroughly rinse my dump hose and the ground around the dump station.  Antibacterial hand gel is the next step after dumping, since we often don't have a handwashing option immediately available (unless I left water in the RV's fresh water tank to use).

191124x7 said:

I'm told you can catch stomach viruses just from being close to a person's vomit and/or diarrhea...

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I'm not sure if you have little kids around, but (without being too graphic) I've been exposed to a lot of vomit and diarrhea over the years!  It has rarely affected me, in a medical/viral kind of way.  Sure sometimes the entire family ends up eventually "catching" a bad stomach bug that is moving from one person to the next, but that's been pretty rare over the years.  Being exposed to any meaningful degree at an RV dump station seems like it would be even less likely.

denmarc said:

Many of us drank from the garden hose after stomping through the farm. We're still around and our kids don't have three arms and a flesh eating disease.

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So true!  I've heard from some medical personnel (and happen to agree) that we attempt to be SO anti-germ in everything we do these days, that our bodies barely have a chance to build up any natural resistance to common germs around our daily environments.

I stepped in two pools of cat puke this morning in the kitchen at 4am. Got a rag and mopped it up without gloves or washing my hands afterward. After the life I have lived a little bit of cat vomit isn't going to hurt me. Now grits is a different story, that gave me brain damage.

Find a submarine sailor and ask what a "Golden Flapper Award" is.

Thank you so much for all these great replies!  When this site says, "The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing" they are not exaggerating!

I really appreciate all the kind help here, and hope some day I can contribute as well!

kdbgoat said:

Find a submarine sailor and ask what a "Golden Flapper Award" is.

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Haha! Great read! http://www.usscasimirpulaski.com/seastories.htm

I need to avoid any flapper awards going forward for sure!

191124x7 said:

Thank you so much for all these great replies!  When this site says, "The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing" they are not exaggerating!

I really appreciate all the kind help here, and hope some day I can contribute as well!

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You already are contributing. If it wasn't for people asking questions we would just be a bunch of old men telling lies all day long.  ;D

AND WOMEN, Tom!!!  ;D  :

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

AND WOMEN, Tom!!!  ;D  :

ArdraF

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I did not want to offend women by calling them old or liars. ;D

SeilerBird said:

I did not want to offend women by calling them old or liars. ;D

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good comeback Tom

    I always subscribed to the no gloves and a vigorous wash after, and have never had a problem.  However if you stay at campgrounds which have full hook ups you need only set up once.
    Also, there is a system called a macerator that is much cleaner and would likely be to your liking.  Here is a Google link that explains how they work and where available:  https://www.google.com/#q=rv+macerator

  Ed

SeilerBird said:

My black water and grey water pipes mix right behind the fitting where I connect the sewer hose so they definitely cross contaminate. Both use the same sewer hose to get to the sewer. I am still not worried and I don't use gloves.

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I don't think I'm understanding what you're trying to say here.  Cross contamination between black water and grey water isn't much of an issue - they're both carry waste water that should never come in contact with anything associated with the fresh water side of your rig. 

spacenorman said:

I don't think I'm understanding what you're trying to say here.  Cross contamination between black water and grey water isn't much of an issue - they're both carry waste water that should never come in contact with anything associated with the fresh water side of your rig.

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I don't understand what you are saying. I said nothing about my fresh water.

spacenorman said:

I don't think I'm understanding what you're trying to say here.  Cross contamination between black water and grey water isn't much of an issue - they're both carry waste water that should never come in contact with anything associated with the fresh water side of your rig.

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SeilerBird said:

I don't understand what you are saying. I said nothing about my fresh water.

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I'm thinking "over thinking". The FW and waste should never have anything to do with each other. A given.

I never said anything about fresh water and waste mixing. I am talking about the black tank and the grey tank mixing.

In the context of the OP's concern (which was basically one about getting sick from being in the proximity of waste water) - it seems to me that "black" water and "grey" water would BOTH qualify as waste water.  The only real concern would be any sort of cross contamination between waste water (regardless of whether directly from "black" water or "grey" water - or from the portion of the plumbing system that carries both "black" and "grey" water when dumping) - and the fresh water system.  Ensure you keep fresh water and waste water separate (regardless of whether it's "black" or "grey") - and reasonable precautions with regards to keeping it off yourself - and there's not much to worry about. 

I wear disposable gloves and have an old pair of sneakers I slip on that I keep in a plastic tray next to the hose bin.
Those sneakers never get worn inside and don't go beyond the compartment and the dumping station.
Hoses and valve are rinsed out after I'm done dumping and put back in their bin.
When I'm home or get a chance on a long trip, I make sure the hoses are dry and leave the hose bin open in the sun to kill anything that might be lurking around.
If it's dry, it's dead or so the saying goes.