Document RJ0r0YNYM5wN60YYO0GLaMaoV

FILE NAME: Newspaper & Magazine Articles (NMA) DATE: 1938 Nov 12 DOC#: NMA094 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: NYT - Studies of US Drinking Water to Focus on Chemical and Mineral Contaminants Studies of U.S. Drinking Water to Focus on Chemical Land Mineral Contaminants By JANE E. BRODY New York Times (1857-Currentfile); Nov 12, 1974; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2002) pg. 29 Studies of U.S. Drinking W ater to Focus on Chemical n Mineral Gontaiftt^iits By JANE E.-BRODY For more than half a century, making water safe for drinking has consisttepripjtarily of con trolling a varietyribf diseaseproducing bacteria that can cause epidemics if^hey contam inate public water'-Supplies. Now, however; w ith such or ganism s fairly w ell under con trol, attention has turned "to a long list o f potentially^ danger ous chem icals and minerals that are finding their way into the drinking water o f millions of Americans, in fact, the very method used for controlling bacteria -- chlorination -- ap pears to contaminate drinking Water With . chemicals that could be hazardous to health. Many o f the substances being found in water- supplies around the country are known 1st sus pected cancer-causing agents;] som e may cause birth defects; others m ay act as insldioiis poi* sons affecting the hearty liver, kidneys or other organs.,Since these! substances probably would not produce any discern-, ibfe health effects until - dec- ades- after exposure to thorn began, any ``mademics'' they may cause ebuid. easily go un detected. *r ' The presence o f these, con taminants :neftects the increas ing com plexity o f our society, permeated 'as it is w ith a. w ide array o f.industrial and agricul tural hinicals and manufac tured materials that can seep, often undetected, into public odprivafo-w ater supplies. The very pipes through which m ost water supplies flow m ay be a source o f contamination w ith dangerous substances. Potential drinking w ater con taminants' .under study b y Govemment, ifoiversity and in dustrial -scientists include such known, hazards as asbestos, pesticides], ', n itrates, arsen ic, mercury, jutd lead. Two new stu d ied ; municipal-, drinking wters jiist released by the En- yj - - aental Protection Agency - to th list 60-odd organic chem icals, including chloro form, carbon tetrachloride and other known or suspected can cer-causing agents. . Several o f these chem icals are apparently . form ed. during chlorination in a reaction of chlorine w ith organic chemicals that are already contaminating the water. ' h i response to these findings, R ussell E. Train, administrator o f the environmental agency, said that he w as ordering an immediate nationwide study to determine the concentration and potential effects o f certain Organic chem icals in drinking water. ' " Problems W ith Lead But the problem o f chemical and mineral contamination o f drinking w ater is hardly a new issue. One theory o f the decline and fall of Rome holds that the Romans m ay have been suffer ing from chronic lead poisoning from their lead-lined water pipes. Lead poisoning from wa ter was not unusual in th is cen tury. A few old cities, including Boston, still have lead service pipes in water system s that serve m illions o f Am ericans.' ... The replacements, ta r, lead pipes have also been seen as creating possible hazards. Gal vanized pipe -- iron covered w ith a protective layer o f zinc -- contains a contaminant; cad mium,' w hich .-can b e leached into the w ater. Cadmium, as w ell as other inorganic chem i cals. is now -under study b y th e National Heart and Lung Insti tute and others as a possible cause o f heart disease. Dr, Gordon Robeck, director of the E,P.A.'s N ational Envir onmental Research Center in Cincinnati, said , "W e are trying to ' And out how inorganic chem icals increase in quantity as they are-pum ped through m etal, plastic ana lead pipes, where and w hy it's happening and how to engineer our w ay out o f the problem." A sbestos Cem ent Pipes substitute for iron, sbstos cem ent pipe,' h as a lso co m e under . suspicion. -O ver. 200,000 m iles of asbestos-containing pipe carry w ater to American consumers, . and : preliminary studies-by tfie largest manufac turer of th is -pipe, the JohnsM anville Company, indicate that sm all Ampunts o f to e can cer-causing mineral m ay enter ndt&h s 40.000 com m unity wa* the w ater from the pipe. ter supplies, and even less'-is- A lso, substitutes for asbestos known about' w hat, risk th ese cem ent, polyvinyl chloride and levels m ay present to hun}tn other plastic pipes, are being health. Studies by E& A . and. studied to see how much' of the scien tists it sponsors ara various chem icals-- including seeking answers to su eb ou es* the cancer-causing vinyl' chlor tiotos, although som e environ* ide and toxic pi m entalists have called the $5* may enter the w ater that flow s m illion a year now deVoted to through than. this, effort a "piddling" am ount Leaching from w ater pipes is Dr. Robeck iS optim istes th^C probably far le ss senous a o n cea ll th focts are in .p artti* ' 'em, however; than leach- oal w ays w ill be found t o con o f hazardous chem jcais troi those substances th at ap from the general environm ent pear to b e public healtftprob --from fields sprayed w ith in terns. Among possible,: Ap secticides and herbicides and proaches h e suggested^ w ere treated w ith nitrate fertilizers changing th e acidity to the that seep into ground w ater hardness o f the W atertoigM bit and run off in to waterw ays, leaching from pipes, using from industrial w astes dumped m ethods other than chlpriha* into the waterw ays that even tion for disinfeotion,-and^pass* tually become the sources of ing w ater supplies through drinking water. activated carbon fQ tersrto 're .Invarious studies, potentially m ove organic contam inants. . dangerous levels o f tech chem i Many such inexpensiveitet hcals--^including arsenic, mercu niques are' already': available ry. and : nitratqs--have been-and have beenprom oted-by th e found favdrinldngw ater. ; environmental agen cy .-j for A ll 'toWL, though, teht years, to no avail; Cum entiy, little is known abouthdw mu< the agency can do -little#) en* o f which chem icals are in to e force n s recommendatimt^ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. 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