Water Quality & Health Council: Drinking WaterLatest Posts
Drinking Water and Chlorine Odor
Superbugs and the Road to Antimicrobial Resistance: A Case Study from Ecuador
Reducing Pharmaceuticals in the Water Supply
Chloroform: A Profile in Risk Management
World Water Week: Planning for Safe Water in an Urbanizing World
How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?
Radiation, Water Quality and the Fukushima Disaster
Water for Cities. Water for Dignity
Topsy-turvy Winter Highlights Water Infrastructure Needs in El Paso
Is Your Well Drinking Water all Well and Good?
Wisconsin Rolling the Dice by Rolling Back Mandatory Disinfection
More Water Chlorination Needed to Take on an Old and Deadly Disease
Disinfection Byproducts and the Wrath of Unintended Consequences
E.Coli – The Canary in Drinking Water Systems
Red Cross Provides Aid to Victims of Cholera Outbreak in Haiti
EPA Seeking Input from the Public on Drinking Water Strategy
Resources
Drinking Water Emergencies
The U. S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers tips on emergency disinfection of drinking water using two general methods, boiling and chemical disinfection. Directions for preparing emergency water for drinking, cooking, making any prepared drink or for brushing teeth are included here.
Although many families choose to store bottled or distilled water as an emergency preparedness measure, storing tap water is another option. The Water Quality and Health Council offers tips on how to store tap water, including estimating how much families need and ways to ensure it remains potable while in storage.
Flooding can cause damage to a home that goes beyond what the eye can see. The American Chemistry Council’s Chlorine Chemistry Division notes the importance of cleaning and disinfecting in the wake of flooding to ensure that homes and belongings are safe.
Approximately 15 percent of the US population draws its drinking water from private wells, which unlike public water systems, are not held to EPA water quality standards. That’s why it is important for private well owners to test their water quality at least annually and after significant flooding, and, if needed, take the necessary steps to disinfect.
Drinking Water Chlorination
Developments and advances in chlorine chemistry have shaped the treatment of drinking water in the US for over 100 years. This drinking water chlorination white paper reviews chlorination technologies used to reduce the risks of waterborne diseases; the challenge of disinfection byproducts; chlorine water system security and the future of chlorine disinfection.
A brief history of U.S. drinking water chlorination begins in 1908 in the Union Stockyards of Chicago and shortly after, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Declining disease rates confirm the value of chlorine disinfectants, and in the following decades the technology spreads like wildfire across the nation, to the great benefit of public health.
CDC data are graphed to show how U.S. typhoid fever incident rates plummeted from 1920 through1960, thanks to improvements in drinking water quality, including widespread chlorination.
Starting in 1680 with the development of a primitive microscope, an interactive timeline of historical events leading to the widespread chlorination of drinking water includes Dr. John Snow’s brilliant detective work in ending a London cholera epidemic in 1854, the 1974 U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act and more.
Water Quality & Health Council member Fred M. Reiff, a former official of the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization describes his first-hand observation of a 1991 cholera epidemic in Peru that spread to other Latin American countries. Reiff traces the cause of the outbreak to a misinterpretation of risks associated with disinfection, and warns against the inappropriate use of the Precautionary Principle.
Wastewater Chlorination
First used in the U.S. in Philadelphia in 1910, municipal wastewater chlorination helps keep rivers and streams healthy, and ultimately improves drinking water quality.
For Kids
Two mighty superheroes–The Chlorin8tor and Little Hector, The Disinfector–are the stars of a downloadable coloring and activity book created by the Chlorine Chemistry Division of the American Chemistry Council. The duo introduce the germ-busting power of chlorine through The Chlorin8tor’s trusty Electron Grabber tool. Students can color enlarged sketches of water germs and, on the same page, examine actual microphotographs of each germ.
