{"podcast":{"title":"Scaling UP! H2O","slug":"scaling-up-h2o-7746","podcast_index_feed_id":7746,"rss_url":"https://scalingup.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://scalinguph2o.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/b/0/0/f/b00f6cb167c1837a/ScalingUP-Logo-Color-2019-square.jpg","author":"R. Trace Blackmore, CWT, LEED AP: Water Treatment Enthusiast, Trainer and Consultant","episode_count":491,"summary":"The podcast where we scale up on knowledge so we don't scale up our systems. Find out why working in Industrial Water Treatment is the best job in the world. Hear industry experts share their knowledge and stories. Learn about technologies, methods, and career journeys. Join podcast host Trace Blackmore, former AWT President, LEED, and CWT every Friday for a new episode.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scaling-up-h2o-7746"},"episode":{"title":"452 UV Innovation and Whole-Building Water Safety with Ron Blutrich","slug":"452-uv-innovation-and-whole-building-water-safety-with-ron-blutrich","published_at":"2025-12-01T15:18:01+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scaling-up-h2o-7746/452-uv-innovation-and-whole-building-water-safety-with-ron-blutrich","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scaling-up-h2o-7746","url":"https://scalinguph2o.com/2025/12/01/452-whole-building-uv-water-treatment/","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scalingup/Scaling_Up_H2O_-_452_-_Ron_Blutrich_v2.mp3?dest-id=797464","summary":"Entamoeba histolytica nearly ended Ron Blutrich's scientific career. Instead, it pushed him to rethink how we protect people in multi-family buildings, senior facilities, and dense urban centers from invisible microbiological risks in their drinking water. In this episode, he joins host Trace Blackmore to unpack what whole-building UV can (and can't) do for Legionella, biofilm, and real-world water safety. When One Bad Cup of Water Redefines a Career In the middle of his PhD in molecular genetics, Ron drank from an under-sink reverse osmosis tap at an Airbnb and contracted Entamoeba histolytica. The infection triggered more than three years of severe gastrointestinal symptoms and a 100-pound weight loss, despite being \"clinically cured.\" That experience—and the lack of clear answers—led him to dig into how governments, utilities, and buildings actually manage microbiological risk in water. He discovered that even in urban centers, there is \"a lot left to be desired\" in monitoring, guidelines, and the epidemiology of waterborne disease. UV at the Point of Entry: Why Medium Pressure Matters Ron explains why he chose UV as the primary disinfection tool for CLEAR's whole-building solutions. He contrasts conventional filters (carbon, RO, media) that remove contaminants but do not kill biology with UV systems that directly target DNA and other cellular structures. He walks through the differences between low-pressure and medium-pressure UV, including temperature independence for hot water recirculation and the broader wavelength spectrum that can damage DNA, proteins, membranes, and even DNA repair enzymes. That same technology is being used for multicellular control in marine environments, ballast water, and mollusk control, and Ron argues it is uniquely suited to domestic…","meta_description":"Entamoeba histolytica nearly ended Ron Blutrich's scientific career. Instead, it pushed him to rethink how we protect people in multi-family buildings, se…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3820,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/scaling-up-h2o-7746/episodes/452-uv-innovation-and-whole-building-water-safety-with-ron-blutrich/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/scaling-up-h2o-7746/452-uv-innovation-and-whole-building-water-safety-with-ron-blutrich.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}