MISCARRIAGE: Water Quality Study Rouses Calls For Change
"A new state study linking miscarriages to chlorinated tap water brought new urgency Tuesday -- throughout California and in Washington -- to efforts to ensure the safety of drinking water," the Sacramento Bee reports. Water districts in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles "considered speeding up plans to change the way they disinfect water supplies." The news also spurred the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to champion "new rules it has proposed to improve drinking water quality." However, "[h]ealth officials and physicians cautioned against overreaction in the absence of corroborating studies and stressed that pregnant women should continue to drink plenty of water" (Griffith, 2/11).
Tapping Solutions
An editorial in today's Los Angeles Times says the Los Angeles area "should react quickly" to the study by upgrading "protections for 'source water,' so less chlorine is needed"; developing "alternatives to chlorine," such as ozonation-carbon systems, and regulating "tap-water alternatives." The editorial notes that "[w]hile the federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires the Food and Drug Administration to develop bottled water labeling laws, almost nothing has been done yet." The editorial concludes that "solutions exist and it is time ... to embrace them" (2/11).