Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston
Globe
February 1, 1999, Monday ,City Edition
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. C8
LENGTH: 392 words
HEADLINE:
ASK THE GLOBE ;
[ A PUBLISHED AMPLIFICATION HAS BEEN ADDED TO THIS STORY.
BODY:
Q. Are there health hazards
to chlorinated water?
K.S., Boston
A. Water experts are
beginning to suspect there are. In Canada the governmental Laboratory Centre for
Disease Control issued a warning last November concluding that chlorinated
drinking water may pose a cancer risk, particularly the risk of bladder cancer,
to humans. In Buffalo, N.Y., Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., in partnership with the
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and city officials, has
opened a pilot project using ozone instead of chlorine to purify municipal
water. And the US Environmental Protection Agency has warned local water
officials throughout the nation that when chlorine breaks down and combines with
organic material in water, a suspected carcinogen called trihalomethane may
form. [ CORRECTION - DATE: Wednesday, February 3, 1999: AMPLIFICATION: Douglas
B. MacDonald, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority,
offers the following comment on yesterday's question about the possibility of
health hazards in chlorinated water: "Some animal studies suggest that certain
compounds formed when chlorine is used to disinfect water may be carcinogenic.
But the Environmental Protection Agency, where this information is being taken
into account into new health protection standards, has said, 'The causal
relationship between exposure to chlorinated surface water and cancer has not
yet been demonstrated. However, several studies have suggested a weak
association in various subgroups. . . . This conclusion does not preclude the
possibility that a causal link may be established at a later date by future
epidemiology and toxicology studies.' Many water suppliers believe caution
dictates a shift away from chlorine as the key bulwark that germs not be
transmitted through drinking water. The MWRA, for example, is building a new
disinfection facility that, like other new facilities in many communities, will
mostly rely on ozonation rather than chlorination. In the meantinme, the level
of the chlorine by-products in MWRA water is well below the
levels set by current federal health standards that have recently been tightened
in response to chlorine concerns."
Detailed information on the testing
parameters and results for the MWRA water system can be obtained by calling
(617) 788-1170.]
LOAD-DATE: February 25, 1999
