O
onengrace
Guest
Yuck,
I was in Melbourne in January....good thing I only drank purified bottled water.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ALGAL TOXIN, POTABLE WATER - USA (FLORIDA)
******************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail, a program of the
International Society of Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
[see also:
Food poisoning, shell fish, algal toxin - Chile 19971210.2456]
Date: 29 May 2001
From: M. Cosgriff <mcosgriff@hotmail.com>
Source: Miami Herald, 28 May 2001 [edited]
<http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/florida/digdocs/009424.htmMiami>
ORLANDO: Algae have left cancer-causing toxins in drinking water [that
supplies] nearly 185 000 people in West Palm Beach and 3 south west Florida
counties. Biologists do not know how to get the poisons out. Tests on
treated water from a plant on the Peace River serving people in Charlotte,
Sarasota, and DeSoto counties showed it to have 5 times the World Health
Organization's (WHO) safe level for microcystin. Water supplying 80 000
residents in West Palm Beach had nearly twice [WHO's] safe level of
microcystin. The tumor-promoting toxin damages chromosomes and causes
abnormally small brains in laboratory tests on mice. It killed 50 dialysis
patients in Brazil in 1996 when they were unknowingly injected with
contaminated water.
[Other] algae-produced toxins [have been found] in Florida drinking water.
It was found that treated water from 3 plants on Lake Okeechobee providing
water for 34 000 residents on its shores had higher levels of
cylindrospermopsin than in the lake itself. Scientists presumed [that]
treating the water killed the slime and its poisons, but now they know that
filters and chemicals vanquish the algae but not always the toxins.
Are small amounts of algal toxins -- like those found in the Florida study
-- dangerous or fatal to humans over time? Data from a St Johns River Water
Management District study last year have yet to be made public. All these
water plants had one thing in common: they draw from surface waters -- all
plagued by algae blooms that usually come and go.
Some Florida residents who drink from surface water -- people in Tampa,
Melbourne and Bay County -- might never learn whether there is poison from
algae in their water. Their treatment plants refused to be tested. St Johns
biologists tested for algae and their toxins at 15 of the 20 water
treatment plants [that] use surface water to satisfy the thirst of 2.2
million Florida residents. Of the 422 samples scrutinized between February
and October 2000, 2 plants emerged with particularly high levels of toxins
-- the one on the Peace River and the plant in West Palm Beach.
The Peace River plant meets all federal standards for drinking water, said
Pat Leaman, executive director of the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water
Supply Authority. The United States [sets no] limits for toxic algae in
drinking water. Leaman said Florida treatment plants, including his plant,
use the latest technology to clean surface water. Florida's Department of
Health has been quick to say it has no reported illnesses involving algae.
"Nobody has been sick," said Leaman, who runs the Peace River plant. But
other scientists said people could be sick and not connect their illness to
toxin from algae.
I was in Melbourne in January....good thing I only drank purified bottled water.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ALGAL TOXIN, POTABLE WATER - USA (FLORIDA)
******************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail, a program of the
International Society of Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
[see also:
Food poisoning, shell fish, algal toxin - Chile 19971210.2456]
Date: 29 May 2001
From: M. Cosgriff <mcosgriff@hotmail.com>
Source: Miami Herald, 28 May 2001 [edited]
<http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/florida/digdocs/009424.htmMiami>
ORLANDO: Algae have left cancer-causing toxins in drinking water [that
supplies] nearly 185 000 people in West Palm Beach and 3 south west Florida
counties. Biologists do not know how to get the poisons out. Tests on
treated water from a plant on the Peace River serving people in Charlotte,
Sarasota, and DeSoto counties showed it to have 5 times the World Health
Organization's (WHO) safe level for microcystin. Water supplying 80 000
residents in West Palm Beach had nearly twice [WHO's] safe level of
microcystin. The tumor-promoting toxin damages chromosomes and causes
abnormally small brains in laboratory tests on mice. It killed 50 dialysis
patients in Brazil in 1996 when they were unknowingly injected with
contaminated water.
[Other] algae-produced toxins [have been found] in Florida drinking water.
It was found that treated water from 3 plants on Lake Okeechobee providing
water for 34 000 residents on its shores had higher levels of
cylindrospermopsin than in the lake itself. Scientists presumed [that]
treating the water killed the slime and its poisons, but now they know that
filters and chemicals vanquish the algae but not always the toxins.
Are small amounts of algal toxins -- like those found in the Florida study
-- dangerous or fatal to humans over time? Data from a St Johns River Water
Management District study last year have yet to be made public. All these
water plants had one thing in common: they draw from surface waters -- all
plagued by algae blooms that usually come and go.
Some Florida residents who drink from surface water -- people in Tampa,
Melbourne and Bay County -- might never learn whether there is poison from
algae in their water. Their treatment plants refused to be tested. St Johns
biologists tested for algae and their toxins at 15 of the 20 water
treatment plants [that] use surface water to satisfy the thirst of 2.2
million Florida residents. Of the 422 samples scrutinized between February
and October 2000, 2 plants emerged with particularly high levels of toxins
-- the one on the Peace River and the plant in West Palm Beach.
The Peace River plant meets all federal standards for drinking water, said
Pat Leaman, executive director of the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water
Supply Authority. The United States [sets no] limits for toxic algae in
drinking water. Leaman said Florida treatment plants, including his plant,
use the latest technology to clean surface water. Florida's Department of
Health has been quick to say it has no reported illnesses involving algae.
"Nobody has been sick," said Leaman, who runs the Peace River plant. But
other scientists said people could be sick and not connect their illness to
toxin from algae.