September 26th marks the 100th anniversary of chlorinated drinking water in the United States. In 1908, Jersey City, New Jersey began operating the first permanent chlorination plant to help supply safe drinking water. Within a decade, this life saving technology spread to approximately 1,000 water systems across the country. By the 1940's 85 percent of American water treatment systems provided chlorinated water and today the majority of Americans are served by water systems that use chlorine-based disinfectants to help provide safe drinking water.

Many of us take clean drinking water for granted. But 100 years ago unsanitary drinking water led to high rates of deadly illnesses including typhoid fever and cholera - diseases that are still common in other parts of the world. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 1900, the average American could expect to live only 47 years, but in just over 100 years, life expectancy has increased 66 percent to 78 years. This dramatic rise can be attributed to a number of public health achievements in the past century, one of which is the treatment of drinking water using chlorination.

To read more about the anniversary, please visit:
The American Chemistry Council's site

Just days after Hurricane Ike hit coastal Texas officials are struggling to fend off a health-care crisis.

In Galveston, water and sewer systems aren't working. The hospital is closed. The city is littered with debris and officials are asking for help against disease-carrying mosquitoes.

At the moment, access to clean water is the most pressing issue. Power failures can idle purification plants for weeks, seawater can make water undrinkable, and pipes have often been contaminated with sewage or chemicals. In addition, sanitation is a problem with generators needed to pump out contaminated water.

Thousands of residents have been lining up for water, food, ice and gasoline. Federal emergency officials are distributing more than 7 million meals and 24 million liters of water in East Texas. Medical clinics are handling emergencies and giving out tetanus shots. Local governments are being asked to start spraying for mosquitoes to try and prevent disease.

To read the full article, please visit:
Bloomberg.com

Researchers at The University of Virginia recently announced the discovery of a technique that reduces drug-resistant staph infection among patients in the surgical intensive care units.

During a six year study at the UVa Medical Center, researchers discovered that by switching the type of antibiotic given to patients every three months to treat bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus, they were able to decrease the infection rate from 1.9 patients per 100 admissions to 1.4 patients. The in-hospital mortality rate for patients who contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections decreased from 3.8 patients a year to none. Researchers said antibiotic cycling seemed to prevent MRSA bacteria from developing resistance and staying around the ICU.

All UVa patients in the surgical ICU unit for trauma or general surgery were part of the study; however, burn patients were excluded. More research needs to be done at other ICUs to make sure the technique is effective. Currently, UVa's surgical ICU has stopped cycling the antibiotics and started monitoring patients to see what happens to the infection rate.

To read the full article, please visit:
The News and Advance

U.S. hospitals, long-term care facilities and correctional centers annually flush over 250 million pounds of expired, spoiled, over-prescribed, unneeded or unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into the country's drinking water affecting at least 46 million Americans.

The Environmental Protection Agency told assembled water experts last year that it believes nursing homes and other long-term care facilities use sewer systems to dispose of most of their unused drugs. A water utility surveyed 45 long-term care facilities in 2006 and calculated that two-thirds of their unused drugs were scrapped this way, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

The EPA is considering whether to impose the first national standard for how much drug waste may be released into waterways by the medical services industry, but the EPA's top water administrator says a decision won't be made until next year, at the earliest.

To read more about this investigation, please visit:
The Associated Press

In The News-is a bi-weekly, online service from the Water Quality & Health Council.  The publication is updated every other Friday and can be viewed by logging onto www.waterandhealth.org.  To receive the publication via e-mail, please click here and enter your e-mail address to join our mailing list.