The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public comment on a recently released list of 104 possible drinking water contaminants that may need to be regulated in the future to ensure the continued protection of drinking water. The EPA Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) includes unregulated contaminants that are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems which may require regulation. The new draft CCL, which is the third such listing, consists of 93 chemical contaminants and 11 microbes, and describes the process and basis for selecting these contaminants.

Established by the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, the CCL process acts as a mechanism to determine if new regulations are needed to protect drinking water. Under this process, EPA conducts extensive research into the occurrence and health effects of the listed contaminants before issuing new regulations or standards. In developing the draft CCL 3, the agency implemented a new approach for selecting contaminants. This approach builds upon evaluations used to compile previous lists and is based on substantial expert input and recommendations from a large number of different groups.

The EPA evaluated 7,500 chemicals used in commerce, pesticides, biological toxins, disinfection byproducts, and waterborne pathogens and selected those that had the greatest potential to pose health risks through drinking water exposure. The comment period will be open for 90 days following publication in the Federal Register.

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EPA Seeks Comments on Possible Drinking Water Contaminants

Researchers at Purdue University are exploring how certain airborne contaminants are created when chlorine reacts with sweat and urine in indoor swimming pools - a step toward learning how to reduce the formation of "volatile disinfection byproducts" that may cause respiratory irritation.

Standard tests for swimming pool water detect inorganic byproducts, or chemical compounds that do not contain carbon-hydrogen bonds. However, the Purdue researchers analyzed swimming pool water for the presence of organic compounds generated when chlorine reacts with creatinine, urea and amino acids, which are contained in human urine and sweat. Researchers used an analytical technique called membrane introduction mass spectrometry to identify and measure the volatile disinfection byproducts. The conventional technique for analyzing swimming pool water uses a test that causes a color change depending on the chemical makeup of the samples. The test, however, fails to distinguish between various types of chemical compounds.

Findings from this research were first published last year in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, with additional findings expected to appear later this year. In a Purdue University press release, Michael Beach, acting associate director for healthy water in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne and Enteric Diseases noted that this research is part of an effort to apply to the aquatics industry the same level of scientific rigor seen in the study of drinking-water chemistry.

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Researchers Explore Airborne Contaminants Formed in Swimming Pools

In findings recently published in the journal Nature, a team of scientists have provided compelling research that the emergence of new infectious diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus and Ebola is on the rise.

The scientists analyzed 335 incidents, dating back to 1940, of previous disease emergence and determined that zoonoses - diseases that originate in animals - are the current and most important threat in causing new diseases to emerge. They determined that some 60 percent of disease outbreaks traveled from animals to humans and the majority of those came from wild creatures, specifically mammals. Authors of the research noted that some pathogens were picked up by hunting or accidental contact; others, such as Malaysia's Nipah virus, goes from wildlife to livestock then to people. Since humans have evolved no resistance to zoonoses, the diseases can be extraordinarily lethal.

To help predict and prevent future attacks, the team used sophisticated computer models to help design a global map of emerging disease hot-spots. Based on this information, the researchers recommend bolstering infectious disease surveillance in "hot-spots" such as tropical Africa, Latin America, and Asia - regions rich in wildlife species and under increasing human pressure.

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Emerging Infectious Diseases on the Rise

According to UNICEF, more than 1 billion people do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation, and more than 5,000 children die every day from water-borne diseases.

To address this situation, UNICEF is launching a nationwide effort during World Water Week (March 16 through March 22) called the Tap Project, a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible tap water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water to children around the world. During this week, participating restaurants across the United States will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.

UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices. Over the past 15 years, more than a billion people gained access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities. UNICEF's goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2015.

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UNICEF Launches Tap Water Project During World Water Week

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