Nitrate contamination of drinking water implies a genotoxic risk to man due to the endogenous formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds from nitrate-derived nitrite. Thus far, epidemiological studies have presented conflicting results on the relation of drinking water nitrate levels with gastric cancer incidence. This uncertainty becomes of relevance in view of the steadily increasing nitra...

BACKGROUND Questions regarding control over a water fluoridation system in a British Columbia (BC) community led to a drinking water management survey in 1997-98. METHOD A questionnaire was constructed based on published drinking water control and management criteria and was sent to 91 communities. RESULTS 73/91 surveys were returned (80% response rate); 31 reported a protected water supply...

Fluoride is one of the main contaminants in groundwater present naturally in many parts of the globe causing a set of human health symptoms known commonly as Fluorosis. India lies in the geographical belt with 225 districts of 19 States having high fluoride concentrations (> 1.5 mg/l) in groundwater. For many rural as well as urban areas in India, hand-pumps and tube-wells are the only source o...

In-house contamination of drinking-water is a persistent problem in developing countries. This study aimed at identifying critical points of contamination and determining the extent of recontamination after water treatment. In total, 81 households were visited, and 347 water samples from their current sources of water, transport vessels, treated water, and drinking vessels were analyzed. The qu...

Climate change may increase the incidence of waterborne diseases due to extreme rainfall events, and consequent microbiological contamination of the water source and supply. As a result of the complexity of the pathways from the surface to the consumer, it is difficult to detect an association between rainfall and human disease. The water supply of a Hungarian city, Miskolc (174,000 inhabitant)...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of microbiological contamination of water in different water filtration plants in Islamabad. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Water Filtration Plants (WFP) in different sectors of Islamabad, from April to September 2012. METHODOLOGY Water samples were collected in sterilized bottles according to the standard w...

BACKGROUND Urban slums in developing countries that are not recognized by the government often lack legal access to municipal water supplies. This results in the creation of insecure "informal" water distribution systems (i.e., community-run or private systems outside of the government's purview) that may increase water-borne disease risk. We evaluate an informal water distribution system in a ...

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) are compounds with special physical and chemical properties that address the care of animal and human health. PPCP have been detected in surface water and wastewater in the ng/L to µg/L concentration range worldwide. PPCP ecotoxicity has been studied in a variety of organisms, and multiple methods have been used to assess the risk of PPCP in the...

Fascioliasis, a food-borne trematode zoonosis, is a disease primarily in cattle and sheep and occasionally in humans. Water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica), an aquatic perennial herb, is a common second intermediate host of Fasciola, and the fresh stems and leaves are widely used as a seasoning in the Korean diet. However, no information regarding Fasciola species contamination in water dropwort i...