Health Stream Issue 55

Health Stream Issue 55 is now available via the web site of Water Quality Research Australia http://www.wqra.com.au


Contents of this Issue:

* Report On Brisbane Fluoride Incident - the expert report on the fluoride overdosing incident which occurred in Brisbane in May this year has highlighted a series of problems with equipment and monitoring systems, as well as inadequate training, communication failures and poor management systems that collectively contributed to the incident. This has many parallels with other water quality incidents and waterborne disease outbreaks around the world where a number of contributory factors, both chronic and short term, combined to permit the incident to occur.


* Water Problems Hit Alpine Resorts - two popular alpine resorts in New South Wales Snowy Mountains region were recently hit by water quality problems at the height of the ski season. Up to 400 people at the village of Smiggin Holes became ill in a waterborne disease outbreak linked to problems with a water storage tank and an interruption in treatment. In a separate incident the nearby town of Jindabyne was issued with a precautionary boil water alert after a sewage spill resulted in an estimated 0.8 ML of raw sewage entering the local water supply dam. Both incidents were characterised by a combination of human error and equipment failures.


* New NDMA Source Identified - Researchers in SA Water Corporation have discovered that rubber seals and other rubber components of water supply pipelines may release substantial quantities of N-nitrosodimethylamine

(NDMA) into the water supply. The discovery was made following commissioning of a new branch main off an existing chlorinated water supply system. Subsequent testing of rubber rings and rubber inserts from gate valves from a number of different manufacturers revealed that all released NDMA, although there was considerable variation in the amounts released.

* From the Literature - summaries in this issue include recent papers on:

Arsenic, Biofilms, Boil Water Notices, Cancer, Cryptosporidium, Endemic Disease, Kashin-Beck Disease, Legionella, Manganese, Norovirus, Outbreaks, Pharmaceuticals, Potable Reuse, POU Systems, Rotavirus, Toxic Elements and Water Disinfection