Threat of chlorine-resistant pathogens in tap water

["Pat Costner" <pat.costner@dialb.greenpeace.org>]

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[]   Montreal Gazette
TE      Friday, April 3, 1998
TION    Final
TION    News
E       E7
DLINE   Tap water linked to ailments: study: Even drinkers of
        up-to-code water might suffer flu-like symptoms, doctor says
INE     PAUL CHERRY
 Drinking from the tap might not be safe even if the water
comes from a treatment plant that is up to code, says a doctor who
has studied the water consumption habits of a Montreal suburban
community.

Dr. Pierre Payment, of the Institut Armand-Frappier, says people
who drink tap water run a higher risk of developing stomach
ailments.
 ``The data collected suggest that 14 to 40 per cent of the
gastrointestinal illnesses are attributable to tap water meeting
current standards, and that the water-distribution system appears to
be partly responsible for these illnesses,'' Payment says in the
study he headed.

The researcher suggests children between 2 and 5 years old who
drink tap water are especially more likely to develop stomach
ailments with flu-like symptoms then those who drink purified or
bottled water.

The study was done from September 1993 to December 1994 in an
unnamed ``middle-class suburban community served by a single
water-filtration plant.'' It involved 1,400 families broken down
into four groups. Two groups drank tap water from a standard tap or
taps with a purge valve; the other two drank bottled or purified
water.

Christaine Barthe, a microbiologist with the provincial environment
ministry said Payment's findings are not surprising. ``Even if you
have a state-of-the-art system the percentage of people who develop
gastroenteritis from drinking tap water could be the same.''

Barthe said since outbreaks of parasite-related epidemics have been
linked to water-treatment plants in Milwaukee, Wis., and
Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., in 1993, the province has recommended
municipalities revise water-treatment methods by: adding more
coagulants to water as it sits in a reservoir before it is filtered,
and increasing chlorine exposure.

Barthe said what concerns the provincial government is the risk of
an epidemic caused by chlorine-resistant parasites.

In Milwaukee, more than 400,000 people developed ailments linked to
the parasite cryptosporidium, traced to its modern water-treatment
plant. A number of elderly people died.

More than 15,000 people got sick in the Kitchener-Waterloo region
from the parasite, found in water from the Mannheim water-treatment
plant.

In 1996, an outbreak of cryptosporidium in British Columbia's
Okanagan region left an estimated 15,000 people vomiting or
suffering from diarrhea, fever, cramps or nausea.

Parasites like cryptosporidium and giardia are highly resistant to
chlorine.

Managers of water-treatment plants in municipalities that control
their water are skeptical of Payment's report.

Pierre Dussault, chief attendant of Dorval's water-filtration
plant, said in 15 years at the plant he has never heard of anyone
blaming stomach ailments on Dorval's drinking water.

Pointe Claire's director of engineering, Michael Kusalic, said the
municipality frequently tests its water supply.

The plant serves five other municipalities. Independent
laboratories accredited with the minister of environment test for
bacteria in Pointe Claire's water several times a week.

Lachine, Pierrefonds and Sainte Anne de Bellevue also control their
own water supplies.
                         *** END OF DOCUMENT ***
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Pat Costner
P.O. Box 548, or 512 CR 2663
Eureka Springs, Arkansas 72632 USA
ph:  501-253-8440
fx:  501-253-5540
em:  pat.costner@dialb.greenpeace.org
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