Special Journal Edition: Drinking Water and Health



Three Potential Sources of Microfungi
in a Treated Municipal Water
Supply System in Sub-Tropical Australia.



A new special edition of papers dealing with a wide range of health issues of drinking water has been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and edited by Professor Nick Gray.

The full reference and online access is:
Gray, N.F. (2012) (editor) Drinking Water and Health. A special issue of the  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8-9, (ISSN 1660-4601).
Link to papers:




List of papers:
• Maxine Burton, Emma Cobb, Peter Donachie, Gaby Judah, Val Curtis and Wolf-Peter Schmidt. Article: The Effect of Handwashing with Water or Soap on Bacterial Contamination of Hands. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8(1), 97-104; doi:10.3390/ijerph801009

• Virgínia M. Siqueira, Helena M. B. Oliveira, Cledir Santos, R. Russell M. Paterson, Norma B. Gusmão and Nelson Lima: Review: Filamentous Fungi in Drinking Water, Particularly in Relation to Biofilm Formation. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8(2), 456-469; doi:10.3390/ijerph8020456

• Zhihua Hu, Lois Wright Morton and Robert L. Mahler. Article: Bottled Water: United States Consumers and Their Perceptions of Water Quality. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8(2), 565-578; doi:10.3390/ijerph8020565

• Noel B. Sammon, Keith M. Harrower, Larelle D. Fabbro and Rob H. Reed. Article: Three Potential Sources of Microfungi in a Treated Municipal Water Supply System in Sub-Tropical Australia. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8(3), 713-732; doi:10.3390/ijerph8030713

• Mark Ibekwe, Shelton E. Murinda and Alexandria K. Graves. Article: Microbiological Evaluation of Water Quality from Urban Watersheds for Domestic Water Supply Improvement. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8(12), 4460-4476; doi:10.3390/ijerph8124460

• Jocelyne K. Mwabi, Bhekie B. Mamba and Maggy N. B. Momba. Article: Removal of Escherichia coli and Faecal Coliforms from Surface Water and Groundwater by Household Water Treatment Devices/Systems: A Sustainable Solution for Improving Water Quality in Rural Communities of the Southern African Development Community Region. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(1), 139-170; doi:10.3390/ijerph9010139

• Kyle Onda, Joe LoBuglio and Jamie Bartram. Article: Global Access to Safe Water: Accounting for Water Quality and the Resulting Impact on MDG Progress. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(3), 880-894; doi:10.3390/ijerph9030880

• Jason Roberge, Mary Kay O’Rourke, Maria Mercedes Meza-Montenegro, Luis Enrique Gutiérrez-Millán, Jefferey L. Burgess and Robin B. Harris. Article: Binational Arsenic Exposure Survey: Methodology and Estimated Arsenic Intake from Drinking Water and Urinary Arsenic Concentrations. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(4), 1051-1067; doi:10.3390/ijerph9041051

• Robert Bain, Jamie Bartram, Mark Elliott, Robert Matthews, Lanakila McMahan, Rosalind Tung, Patty Chuang and Stephen Gundry. Article: A Summary Catalogue of Microbial Drinking Water Tests for Low and Medium Resource Settings. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(5), 1609-1625; doi:10.3390/ijerph9051609

• Jyotsna S. Jagai, Jeffrey K. Griffiths, Paul K. Kirshen, Patrick Webb and Elena N. Naumova. Article: Seasonal Patterns of Gastrointestinal Illness and Streamflow along the Ohio River. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(5), 1771-1790; doi:10.3390/ijerph9051771

• Catherine D. Luyt, Roman Tandlich, Wilhelmine J. Muller and Brendan S. Wilhelmi. Review: Microbial Monitoring of Surface Water in South Africa: An Overview. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(8), 2669-2693; doi:10.3390/ijerph9082669

• Piergiorgio Bolasco, Antonio Contu, Patrizia Meloni, Dorio Vacca and Andrea Galfrè. Article: Microbiological Surveillance and State of the Art Technological Strategies for the Prevention of Dialysis Water Pollution. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9(8), 2758-2771; doi:10.3390/ijerph9082758

September edition of Science Spin now available

The latest edition of Science Spin, Ireland’s own science magazine edited by Tom Kennedy doesn’t have anything specific on water this issue but is well worth a look anyhow.  There is a very interesting article by Tom looking at the levels of metal contamination in Dublin soils, with As, Pb and Hg all showing surprising high concentrations in the topsoil.  This is quite surpsing given the relatively low level of industrialization. The digital version is available via this link.

Septic tank charges and community advisory groups

A letter dropped through my letter box yesterday from Wicklow Council inviting me to register my household wastewater treatment system (if I have one) before February 1st, 2013. By last Friday only 2,500 households had registered their septic tanks. This is a huge disappointment to the Irish Government who had hoped that their €5 early registration fee incentive for early, set to end on the 28th of this month when the normal fee of €50 euro will come into force, would see the majority of systems registered. According to the CSO there are 497,281 septic tanks and household treatment units in the country, but this is probably a huge underestimation when holiday homes and more isolated dwellings are taken into account. Rural people are very concerned that the follow up inspections will force them into huge investments, with the added worry of unscrupulous individuals selling unnecessary upgrades and package systems to the unsuspecting owners, especially elderly who are most vulnerable in rural areas. My advice is to get registered now at the reduced rate and save yourself €45 as it is inevitable that all tanks will eventually be traced through ESB connections etc. The best approach to the inspections is to form community advisory groups to follow up on inspection reports and to help locals get the best advice and price on upgrades where necessary

Septic Tank Inspections Start in Six Months Time

Inspections of septic tanks and small household systems will commence in February 2013. The performance standards, essentially that they do not cause a risk to human health or the environment, are explained in the Water Services Acts 2007 and 2012 (Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems) Regulations 2012. (Link). For the first time regulations have been set for the operation and maintenance of systems including frequency of de-sludging.

There will be some complex issues arising, one will be odours. The problem is that if the tank is properly vented then odours will be released either at the tank level or at the sewer vent at the roof top…so odour generation becomes a complex issue of wind direction, speed and temperature. The crust formation on the tank does reduce odours but with more frequent desludging and less scum developing due to greater detergent use and less use of heavy fats and oils…then crust formation is slower to form and less developed leading to odour release. To quote from the department of the Environment webpage: ‘There is no question of imposing modern standards, for example those set out in the EPA’s 2009 Code of Practice, to older systems. Nor is there any question of householders having to acquire additional land to facilitate remediation work. Where an on-site system fails an inspection, the remediation work required will be based on factors such as the nature of the problem, the extent of risk to public health or the environment, existing site size and the hydrological and geological conditions present’.

Septic Tank Registration Underway

At last it appears that hosueholders are now able to regitsre their septic tanks and household treatment systems which is a requirement under the The Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012. As we are repeatedly told that this is being done to address the European Court of Justice ruling against Ireland in October 2009. Of course it is also a sensible provision to protect public health and the environment.
Registration is covered by Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems (Registration) Regulations 2012 and can be done online via the Protect Our Water website.  Alternatively applications can be made by post using forms available from public libraries and local authorities.

As an incentive the normal registration fee of €50 will be set at €5 until 28 September 2012. Registration must be completed on or before 1 February 2013. There will be no separate inspection charge.

Continuing Rainfall Impacting on Wildlife

I remember quite vividly in May of this year the gentleman from the Environment Agency in the UK stating that it would have to rain every day this summer for water resources to return to normal. Well records apart it has rained every day this summer and yes indeed water resources are looking fairly good. In fact there is water coming from springs I never knew existed where I live. But the rainfall has led to quite extraordinary conditions for wildlife from butterflies to badgers.

Ground nesting birds and wildfowl have been particularly hard hit, especially in and along the River Shannon, Ireland’s largest river, with many of the numerous small islands now under water. Kathryn Finney from Birdwatch Ireland has a fascinating blog and has been recording the problems due to this exceptionally wet summer and has some excellent images of the problems being caused by the high water levels.

PAlaeontological STatistics - Update

Many of you will know how much I like the statistical package PAST (PAlaeontological STatistics ) devised by Øyvind Hammer at the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo. This is a free software package that can be downloaded from the Internet and Øyvind is remarkable in that the package is continuously updated and refined. The latest version (2.16) can be downloaded at http://folk.uio.no/ohammer/past
Among the latest additions are: Box-Cox transformation with max likelihood estimation of lambda; Anderson-Darling normality test; Nearest neighbor point analysis: Plotting of distance histogram vs. expected distribution; Hangle (outline shape analysis) now includes 'Htree' fitting; Coefficient of variation: Now with bootstrapped confidence intervals; Similarity indices: Added Mixed (as available in other modules); Rarefaction: Labels added for multiple-sample plot; User controllable range of color maps, new color maps; User controllable number of lines in spline deformation grids; Bubble plot: Option for 95% confidence ellipses; Rarefaction: Option to not show standard deviations; Improvement on number of decimals in graph axes.