News

Extract from The Guardian Wednesday November 4 1998

"WATER WARNING TO PEOPLE WITH WEAK IMMUNE SYSTEMS"

"The Government yesterday warned people with weak immune systems not to drink any water - even bottled water - without boiling it first, because of the health risk.

Advice to be issued through regional public health officials will also tell those with HIV, leukaemia and other conditions treated with immunosuppressive drugs, including transplant patients, not to trust "fountain" soft drinks in bars, restaurants and theatres, or ice made from unboiled water anywhere.

The warning, from an advisory group to environment and health ministers, says water should be allowed to cool after boiling.

It goes far further than previous announcements about danger from cryptosporidium, a microbe that can cause chronic life-threatening gastroenteritis in people in risky groups as well as diarrhoea in less vulnerable people.

Water companies face spot checks on treatment centres and a new criminal charge, accompanied by unlimited fines, against those that allow an average of more than one egg from the organism in each 10 litre water.

The measures, to be brought before Parliament in the next few months, should make prosecution for supplying unfit drinking water easier.

The parasite cryptosporidiosis is believed to spread from the droppings of farm animals washed of pasture land into surface water supplies. 

It seems to have found its way into underground, supplies reached by bore holes.

New controls will be applied at about 400 "high risk" water treatment centres, a quarter of those in Britain."

<< Previous    [1]  2    Next >>