[Hygienic problems at the winning of peloids (peats and sludges of lakes) for balneological therapy (author's transl)].

In Austria there exist no regulations for the quality of peats and sludges of lakes for the external usage in balneotherapy. The results of our examinations showed that peats on the whole (Fig. 1) have much better bacteriological results than sludges of shallow, eutrophic lakes (Fig. 2). Typical intestinal germs appeared only in one of the five examined peats during a rain period down to 0.6 m beneath the surface. Three of the peats showed satisfying local and bacteriological conditions, one of the peats had a critical hygienic topography and high bacterial counts were found. The outcome of the bacteriological examinations of the three sludge-samples of two lakes showed quite a worse result. High levels of intestinal bacteria, E. coli, Enterococci, C. perfringens, were detectable. The averages of the bacterial counts of the peats and the sludges of lakes over the whole drilling length shows Fig. 3. The results of our examinations demonstrate that in most cases peats far away from human settlements may be used under appropriate conditions. To the contrary sludges of shallow, eutrophic lakes are not usable for balneological therapy because of the massive contamination with intestinal germs. There obviously is a danger for the patients to catch an illness when being treated with such sludges. Criteria for the bacteriological status of peloids are set up for discussion and the minimal quality demanded is that 1 g of peloid has to be free of intestinal bacteria.