抄録
A composting toilet, using sawdust as a matrix, has the potential to trap pathogens that might occasionally be contained in human feces. Therefore, care must be taken when handling the sawdust. High temperature and low water content conditions are effective for reducing pathogen content. However, it is not clear whether these effective conditions can cause lethal damage to these pathogens or not. Therefore, the present study investigates the inactivation mechanisms of pathogens in a composting toilet, using E. coli as a model of pathogenic bacteria and Qβ as a model of pathogenic viruses. Escherichia coli was rapidly and lethally inactivated under high pH conditions. In dry conditions, they were inactivated lethally but not rapidly. High temperature treatment was unable to inactivate them lethally. For Qβ, the capsid was mainly damaged under high temperature and dry conditions, whereas high pH conditions primarily damaged nucleic acids. Therefore, raising the pH was an effective way to rapidly and lethally reduce both pathogenic bacteria and viruses.
