InfoTrac Web: Health Reference Center-Academic.

Source: Women's Health Weekly, Jan 31, 2002 p16.

Title: New Study Warns Pregnant Women Millions Drink Contaminated Water.

Subjects: Drinking water - Contamination
Pregnant women - Health aspects
Locations: United States

Electronic Collection: A82125311
RN: A82125311
 

Full Text COPYRIGHT 2002 NewsRX

2002 JAN 31 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Millions of Americans have been drinking tap water contaminated with chemical chlorine byproducts that are far more than what studies suggest may be safe for pregnant women, two environmental groups say in a new study.

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 study released January 8, 2002, by the Environmental Working Group 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.

"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," the report says.

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.

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, Massachusetts.

"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."

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 from 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, Houlihan said.

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.

The Environmental Protection Agency already has decided that some chlorination byproducts pose health risks and instituted stricter standards on January 1, 2002, 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 2332 fewer cases of bladder cancer per year, down from its estimate of up to 9300 annual cases caused by trihalomethanes.

While the environmental groups said the majority of water suppliers were
meeting the current and future drinking water health standards, they also
found that since 1995 more than 11 million people in 1044 communities were being served water contaminated with chlorination byproducts for 12 months in a row at levels above the new legal limit.

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.

This article was prepared by Women's Health Weekly editors from staff and
other reports.