ETSystems   
  Specialists for the Home and Small Business In
Air and Water Purification

Call:  908-359-9709 
or 
908-359- 7660

Up ] [ Breathing No Option ] [ Animal Health ] [ Tap Water Risks ]

Some Tap Water Risky in Pregnancy

      CHLORINE is commonly used to disinfect drinking water. When it is added to water that contains organic matter such as runoff from farms or lawns, however, it can form compounds such as chloroform that can cause illness.
       “The bottom line is that dirty source water equals contaminated drinking water,” said Laura Chapin, communications director of the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C. “You cannot chlorinate your way to safe tap water.”
       The study released Tuesday by EWG and Public Interest Research Groups identified areas that may have increased health risks including miscarriage, neural tube defects and reduced fetal growth from women drinking chlorination byproducts.

Among its findings:

CALL FOR CLEAN-UP
       While chlorination is essential, it is no substitute for cleaning up utilities’ water sources, the report says. “By failing to clean up rivers and reservoirs that provide drinking water for hundreds of millions of Americans, EPA and the Congress have forced water utilities to chlorinate water that is contaminated with animal waste, sewage, fertilizer, algae and sediment.”
       Notably, industrial water pollution is not a major contributor to chlorinated byproducts in tap water, the report notes.
       Jane Houlihan, EWG’s research director, said the report also shows how that cleanup failure has “a direct impact on human health.” Pregnant women need to drink plenty of water, she said, but they can reduce their exposure to potential risks through simple measures such as home filters and purchasing bottled water.
       
‘SUGGESTIVE, NOT CONCLUSIVE’
        One expert on environmental health cautioned that the link between the byproducts and pregnancy risks is suggestive, not conclusive.
       Still, if the pregnancy studies are proved, millions could be at risk, said Dr. Robert Morris, an environmental epidemiologist at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

       “That body of literature isn’t necessarily conclusive but people ought to be aware of it,” Morris said. “It’s pretty clear that some of these compounds can be pretty bad actors. The fact that these levels are as high as they are is certainly something to be concerned about.”
       
STUDY DETAILS
       The environmental groups combed water quality records in 29 states and the District of Columbia and matched them with various research into birth defects and miscarriages conducted by state and federal agencies and universities.
       The groups said the places statistically most at risk due to chlorination byproducts were those that are populous, lacked buffers to keep pollution out of the water supply due to urban sprawl and were downstream from agricultural sites.
       But women in small towns generally face twice the risk from drinking high levels of the byproducts, because those areas have gone largely unregulated up to now, Chapin said.
       Among urban areas, the Washington, D.C, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs fared worst, Capin said, while among states, Texas was worst.
Matching high rates doesn’t prove the environmental risk caused the health problems, however. Also, the results are limited because, among other reasons, such health records do not exist in some states.
       
STRICTER STANDARDS INSTITUTED
       The Environmental Protection Agency already has decided that some chlorination byproducts pose health risks and instituted stricter standards on Jan. 1 for seven of them: five haloacetic acids, bromate and chlorite. The agency also began requiring a reduction by one-fifth of the allowable level for trihalomethanes, another chemical produced by adding chlorine to dirty water.
       EPA studies showed that reducing the level of trihalomethanes might mean 2,332 fewer cases of bladder cancer per year, down from its estimate of up to 9,300 annual cases caused by trihalomethanes.
       But Chapin called for stricter standards, noting that the EPA’s were based solely on cancer risks. “When it comes to pregnant women, there is no safe level of chlorinated byproducts,” she said.
       To reduce the risks, the groups said, the federal government should provide billions of dollars more for cleaning up sources of contaminated water and providing more buffer areas that can filter potential contaminants from farmland and urban areas.
       
       The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Up ] [ Breathing No Option ] [ Animal Health ] [ Tap Water Risks ]