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TORONTO/640 TORONTO - An outbreak of an unknown respiratory illness at a Scarborough nursing home has killed 4 seniors.

68 residence and 5 employees of the 7 Oaks Home for the Aged have been infected with the virus. 15 people remain in 3 different hospitals across the city.

Toronto Public Health has yet to identify the virus but say they are positive it is not SARS or the Avian Bird Flue.

Health officials say at this point there is no evidence to indicate Torontonians outside of the facility are at risk.

The 4 seniors that died already had severe medical conditions and 2 of them were in their 90's.

All hospitals in Toronto are fully operating.

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Mysterious Odor in Salem Proves Deadly

New developments have surfaced in the case of the mysterious odor that made residents sick in a Salem apartment building Friday. Authorities have confirmed that one of the residents has died, and they're investigating it as a crime.

The woman was taken to a Sioux Falls hospital Friday after she became ill from the strong odor, and died early Saturday morning. Authorities are not releasing the woman's name until her family is notified.

Authorities say they have identified a substance they think produced the odor, but are waiting for test results to come back as to what that substance is. An entire city block was evacuated Friday after someone reported a strong odor that had made them sick. Four residents were taken to a hospital in Sioux Falls after they were nauseated, and vomiting.

One woman died, and the other three have been released from the hospital. The Salem Police Department is treating the apartment building as a crime scene. Authorities say they have been keeping a close eye on the house, but the public is safe.

"We isolated it and as far as the area there's no real threat to anybody surrounding," says McCook County Emergency Management Director Brad Stiefvater, "we have sealed off the apartments nobody's being allowed there."

One more resident was taken to the hospital Saturday. Authorities aren't releasing that person's condition. Residents in three of the four apartment buildings in the area returned home Friday night, but authorities are keeping people out of the fourth building where the substance was found. Authorities say they don't have any suspects, and the investigation continues.

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Odd Gas, Rot, or Suphur Odors




Southland, CALIFORNIA residents from the coast to the Valley reported a rotting garbage-like odor on 9/20. "It was that sort of weird, clinging cloud-of-garbage-like smell that has come to characterize New York in August." Workplaces and weblogs were buzzing, with descriptions comparing the smell to old socks, rotting cabbage soup, kimchi, moldy wet wallboard and the "dampness of the air interacting with my cat's litter box." Environmentalists speculated that the first heavy rain in weeks had flooded storm drains with debris, oil, animal waste and litter. As the material decomposed, it may have created odors. This could explain why the smell was DETECTED IN SOME AREAS AND NOT OTHERS. "It was like a stew of sulfur, sewage and bad omen." Bacteria levels in the coastal waters — which many storm drains run into — were 10 times the acceptable state levels Tuesday and were expected to be even higher Wednesday. In addition, the red tide of algae bloom in the ocean has been particularly heavy in the last few days, which may be responsible for fishy odors that have wafted to areas within about a quarter-mile of the coast. Reddish by day and glowing green at night, the red tide moves with the currents. "It's patchy throughout the bay, so some areas might be more funky than others." After Tuesday's rains, surfers were describing the shoreline as "one big glowing blob."

In WASHINGTON D.C., unexplained odors were reported all across the district. Between midnight and 1 p.m. WEDNESDAY, firefighters received 36 calls and responded to 11 schools, as well as the fifth and sixth district police stations. What the odor is and where it's coming from remains a mystery. It's possible that storm drains could be to blame, since the lack of rain has kept them from being flushed. Most of the complaints came from Northeast Washington, where the ODOR SEEMED TO COME AND GO FOR NO DISCERNIBLE REASON. There was no consensus on what it smelled like, only that it was nasty. "It smelled like skunk, rotten eggs and sulfur."

State and federal environmental officials are trying to determine the cause of a big stink reported along Lake Erie. Hundreds of residents called authorities or the National Weather Service THURSDAY to report the smell, which has been variously described as like gasoline, natural gas or even decaying garbage and rotten eggs. The smell was strongest yesterday morning when a cold front swept through the area, churning up larger than normal waves from Erie to Dunkirk, NEW YORK. Scientists believe the churning waters may have released some naturally occurring gases that are normally trapped beneath the lake's deeper waters. Decaying plants and fish washed ashore by the waves could also be contributing to the stench. The wave-churning theory makes sense because THE SMELL LESSENED WHEN THE WAVES DIMINISHED. "It's like the lake burped, and then the burp passed by us."

(link currently not working) A strange smell was turning up noses and had people in the Southern Tier, Jamestown, NEW YORK, asking questions THURSDAY afternoon.

A mysterious smell has been lingering around numerous neighborhoods in one local community in OHIO, and now residents want to know where that odor is coming from and if it's dangerous. Neighbors living along Hospital Road in Bellaire describe the smell as putrid. They say THE SMELL HAS BEEN FLOATING INTO THE AREA FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS. During the day the air smells fine, but at night neighbors say the odor is nauseating. Neighbors say the strong odor will start on various evenings around 9:00 p.m., and linger there sometimes until morning.

A red tide outbreak detected nearly TWO MONTHS AGO along FLORIDA's west coast has reached Panhandle beaches, killing fish and sea turtles and causing respiratory problems for humans. It's the region's worst in seven years. The toxic algae OUTBREAK IS SPOTTY, AFFECTING SOME BEACHES BUT NOT OTHERS. It has turned the normally blue-green Gulf of Mexico a reddish brown. "I thought the water was weird. It looks like river water." Visitors left after less than 30 minutes because their noses started burning and they couldn't stop coughing. The smell also was rancid.

In SINGAPORE, at Marine Terrace, residents were concerned about a strong smell like gas. 'I noticed the smell at about 6pm and thought there was a gas leak in my house. But it wasn't from my house.' Another resident thought it was fogging. The smell lasted until after 9pm. The police said they received 52 calls from Marine Terrace, Chai Chee, Siglap, Bedok Reservoir and the East Coast area. The first call came at 6.30pm. The police, SCDF and Singapore Power officers responded, but no gas leak was detected.

[SITE NOTE - If these odors of gas are related to methane released from the bottom of seabeds, it could be very serious. A sudden, fatal dose of global warming 180 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs was caused by methane release. Vast amounts of methane gas were released to the atmosphere in three massive ‘methane burps’ or pulses. The addition of methane, a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere had a severe impact on the environment, warming Earth about 10°C, and resulting in the extinction of a large number of species on land and in the oceans. The methane came from gas hydrate, a frozen mixture of water and methane found in huge quantities on the seabed. This hydrate suddenly melted, allowing the methane to escape.]

http://home.att.net/~thehessians/september.html

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The situation: A Tucson resident complained in August about an overwhelming rotten-egg smell that engulfed her and her daughter as they waited for the bus at North Flowing Wells and West Prince roads. The foul odor is from hydrogen sulfide, which vents from a sewer line running under Prince Road. The waste generates yucky-smelling gas as it travels across Tucson on its way to the Roger Road treatment plant.

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I wonder if any of these other cases have anything to do with subterraneous molten activity surfacing in new areas?

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Geologists have now noted that there is a widespread occurrence of a layer of gas hydrate can contain 180 cubic centimeters of methane gas. Geologists have now noted that there is a widespread occurrence of a layer of gas hydrate beneath some hundreds of metres of ocean deposit. [...] It would seem that there is actual potential for release into the atmosphere of large quantities of gas from the ocean floor; all we may need is some tectonic movement as a trigger. [...] [Exodus to Arthur: Catastrophic Encounters With Comets, Mike Baillie, London 1999, p. 150]

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An outbreak of a mysterious illness at a nursing home in Toronto claimed four more lives bringing the death total to ten.

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The outbreak is believed to have started September 25, peaking four days later when 20 new cases were reported.

Doctors have ruled out Influenza, avian flu and SARS and say it's possible they may never be able to identify the exact bug that caused the illnesses.

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Officials have ruled out SARS, avian flu, Legionnaire's disease and influenza A and B.

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Legionnaires' disease has been identified as the likely cause of deadly outbreak at Toronto nursing home, health officials say.
Entrance to the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged in Toronto on Wednesday (Getty Images)

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, said autopsies done on three of the 16 residents of the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged that have died since September 25th showed the presence of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires'.

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A cargo plane carrying small amounts of flu virus crashed on railway tracks near Winnipeg's city center Thursday, killing the pilot but missing buildings and vehicles, authorities said.

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In its cargo were six vials of virus samples being sent to Thunder Bay for research, Cooper said.

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