Newsletter
EPA DRAFT SAYS MTBE A 'LIKELY' CAUSE OF CANCER
WASHINGTON, July 11 - A EPA draft risk assessment says MTBE, the gasoline additive that has contaminated drinking water in at least 29 states, is a "likely" human carcinogen, according to agency sources.
An EPA official who reviewed an earlier version of the document told Environmental Working Group (EWG) that the risk assessment's most notable finding for the first time links MTBE to cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, with toxicological endpoints similar to known carcinogens such as benzene and butadiene. Previously, EPA had classified MTBE as a "possible" cause of cancer, and concerns about contamination centered on the fact that in small doses its foul stench renders water undrinkable.
The EPA official said the document's authors completed their draft more than a year ago. It has been circulating within the agency for review and has already been approved by the Office of Research and Development's National Center for Environmental Assessment. Once all EPA divisions have signed off on it, it must still go through external review.
"People have been trying to get this out of the agency forever," said the official.
If approved, the finding will rock the current debate in Congress over whether the oil companies who make and use MTBE should be held responsible for cleaning up drinking water contaminated by the chemical leaking from underground gasoline storage tanks. According to state water agencies' records compiled by EWG, MTBE has been detected in more than 1,800 water systems across the country.
The American Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies released studies last month estimating nationwide cleanup costs at between $25 billion and $33 billion, and possibly reaching $85 billion. The finding that MTBE is a likely carcinogen would add urgency to cleanup efforts, causing costs to soar.
(See http://www.ewg.org/reports/oilandwater/execsumm.php .)
The House has passed an energy bill, pushed by Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, that would bar communities and water systems from suing MTBE makers for knowingly manufacturing and distributing a defective product - even though documents from two California lawsuits show the oil industry knew as early as 1979 that the compound was a threat to water supplies but still pushed for its use as a gasoline additive to make fuel burn cleaner.
(See http://www.ewg.org/reports/withknowledge/index.php .)
"We knew the idea to exempt MTBE makers from lawsuits was bad news for taxpayers. Now EPA is learning how dangerous it would be for public health," said EWG President Ken Cook. "No matter how the risk assessment finally comes out, this is clearly not the time to be letting the makers of this chemical off the hook."
(Excerpt from Environmental Working Group Web site EWG.org)
MTBE removal - a double-safe approach
For MTBE removal by filtration, you have two options:
You can use a whole house dechlorination unit, with NSF-certified catalytic carbon, such as the Calgon Centurian catalytic carbon. This dechlorination unit can be used whether or not chlorine has been added to the water. If chlorine has been added, then this unit is also effective for removing chloramines, also used in public water treatment.
NSF reviews catalytic carbon and certifies certain manufacturers for MTBE removal. Centurian catalytic carbon by Calgon, the largest carbon filter manufacturer in the US,is one that was certified early on. This product was placed in the Just Water Inc. whole house carbon filters as soon as possible after the MTBE issue became known.
Or, for MTBE removal you can use Ultra-Micron Drinking water technology, with an upgraded solid block carbon post-filter. However, the EPA has not come out and said that this will definitely remove MTBE, which makes us favor the whole house system until more research results are in.
MTBE is a very small organic molecule, under 200 molecular weight. Under the right conditions, it conceivably could go through an opening in the semipermeable membrane of the RO unit. The post-carbon filter should remove the small MTBE molecules, but until there is official guarantee that this is so, we cannot guarantee it, either.
From our perspective, the best choice for MTBE removal is to go with both systems, that is, the whole house and the reverse osmosis. With the whole house system, you will get removal of the MTBE and chloramines, plus some heavy metals. With the reverse osmosis and attached carbon filters at the kitchen sink, you will get removal of dissolved heavy metals, arsenic, parasites, VOCs, most bacteria. A UV-light is available for additional bacterial protection.
How do you know if your drinking water contains MTBE?Click here for a test for MTBE and 93 other chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, etc., in your drinking water. These 93 items are on the EPA's list and NTL's list (National Testing Laboratories) of drinking water pollutants. Parasites are not on this list, note well. Regarding MTBE, bear in mind that it takes time for this substance to permeate the water supply. Your test could be negative today and positive next year.
MTBE (Methyl tertiary butyl ether) made its debut with the public on "60 Minutes," January 16, 2000. This program described how a gasoline additive, which is supposed to make cars burn cleaner, is contaminating the water supply in many areas.
MTBE and drinking water - This chemical has been found in water supplies of all 50 states. In the South Tahoe Public Utility District, 12 of 34 wells had to be closed. 8 states in the Northeast were petitioning Congress to be permitted to make their own determinations regarding this and similar gasoline-additives.
MTBE is an insidious chemical. One teaspoon can contaminate an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It spreads quickly, in all directions. And it is permanent. You can easily detect its turpentine-like smell when there are only 5 parts in a billion parts of water.
"The stuff moves like wildfire. It increases exponentially. Once you find out you have a problem, you have a big problem. And once it's in, how do you get it out?" said Doug Marsano of the Denver-based American Water Works Association. This consortium of water agencies has urged President Clinton to ban the substance.
He also called it a "diabolical" chemical and said that a key question is "why a chemical that we don't have a lot of information about is being used in such a widespread manner." A European study in the mid-90s linked MTBE to liver and kidney tumors in mice.
MTBE removal from your house air?
As an aside, if you have an attached garage used for car storage and your gasoline contains MTBE, do not be surprised if MTBE infiltrates your home - along with car exhaust fumes and other gasoline and motor oil fumes. The writer of this page just found this chemical in interior air of a Long Island, NY, house with an attached garage used for car storage.
The best approach is NOT to use your garage for car storage if at all possible. Otherwise, you might try putting in an exhaust fan on a timer in the garage to try to evacuate as much of the polluted air as possible after entering or leaving the garage.
Loma Linda University Reveals First Study on Correlation Between High Water Intake and Lowered Coronary Heart Disease
Jacqueline Chan, DrPH and Synnove Knutsen, MD, PhD
In 1999, nearly 530,000 people died from coronary heart disease. More than half of them had no previous symptoms of heart disease. Drinking high levels of water can significantly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, say researchers at Loma Linda University. |
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In a press conference held Thursday, April 25, the results of a study to be published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Vol. 155, No.9) reveal that drinking high amounts of plain water is as important as exercise, diet, or not smoking in preventing coronary heart disease.
“Basically, not drinking enough water can be as harmful to your heart as smoking,” warns Jacqueline Chan, DrPH, principle investigator and lead author of the article.
Dr. Chan and Synnove Knutsen, MD, PhD , second author, chair of epidemiology department, found that California Seventh-day Adventists who drink five or more glasses of plain water a day have a much lower risk of fatal coronary heart disease compared to those who drink less than two glasses per day.
The study, “Water, Other Fluids, and Fatal Coronary Heart Disease,” indicates that whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, hematocrit, and fibrinogen which are considered independent risk factors for coronary heart disease, can be elevated by dehydration.
The water study is part of the original Adventist Health Study, which began in 1973. Both researchers are also coinvestigators for the new Adventist Health Study.
The results from this study show that by drinking more plain water, healthy people—without any history of heart disease, stroke, or diabetes—reduced their risk of dying from a heart attack by half or more. This is as much or more than if they had adopted any other well-known preventive measure, including stopping smoking and lowering cholesterol levels, increasing exercise or maintaining ideal weight.
While not as glamorous, the degree of benefit from drinking plain water surpasses that of drinking a moderate amount of alcohol intake and aspirin with none of the adverse side effects (social or physiological). Because drinking more plain water is a simple lifestyle change that anybody can do, this simple practice has the potential of saving tens of thousands of lives each year with minimal cost.
Neither total fluid intake, nor intake of other fluids combined showed this reduced risk. Instead, for women, high intake (5 or more glasses a day) of other fluids showed a greatly increased risk of coronary heart disease.
“People need to be made aware that there is a difference, at least for heart health, whether they get their fluids from plain water or from sodas,” says Dr. Chan.
According to Dr. Chan, this is the first study to record the association between high water intake and reduced risk of coronary heart disease.
“This study
needs to be replicated, and if similar results are found, then this would
be the cheapest and simplest method of preventing coronary heart disease that
could be imagined,”adds Gary Fraser, MD, PhD, cardiologist at the LLU
Heart Institute, and principal investigator for the new Adventist Health Study.
"As a consumer of water in today’s news environment, I find it difficult to wade through the maze of toxins and microbes threatening my families drinking water. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is the carcinogens found in tri-halomethanes (by-product of chlorine and organic matter), lead, chloroform bacteria, or MTBE. Every day I am bombarded with information designed to enlighten, yet it leaves me unsure of what to do." (Fallston MD resident)
As a Certified Water Specialist and a Licensed Water Conditioner installer here in Maryland, I enjoy an above average understanding of how to solve the problem, but boy are there some problems to solve! The most common issue in Harford-Baltimore-Carroll and Cecil county is pH. pH is the measurement to determine how corrosive your water is to your pipes and appliances. A pH of 6.8-8.0 is considered acceptable. The most common challenge in our local water is a low pH (3.8-6.7). Often this is treated with a traditional Neutralizer which adds calcium minerals to adjust (raise) the pH. Unfortunately this technology also adds hardness (calcium) and often results in a much needed softener. A better solution is today’s Chemical feed systems with utilize a meter technology to operate the pump (Vs the old flow switch which can stick and be dangerous) an injector and a mixing tube. The average cost for a good chemical feed system is $1700.00 which should include installation.
The second most common problem in the local water is iron. Fe (iron) is common in areas with heavy organic soil, woodsy, or wet lands. Often the iron in this area is clear water iron, this is easily removed with a softener as long as the pH is low. If Iron has a color coming from the ground, often this needs to be filtered with a birm filter of other mechanical filter prior to any softening or it will foul the softener bed.
MTBE has been in the new a lot lately, however it is a nation-wide concern not just a local one. MTBE is an additive put in fuels to greatly reduce emissions. Unfortunately it is much more soluble (easily migrating() than other fuel compounds and is therefore often the first to show up in ground water. The good news is carbon filtration is the best and quickest way to treat for MTBE. The contact time for removal should be a minimum of 9 minuets, this means for a drinking water system you need to slow it way down as through an RO (Reverse Osmosis) to allow absorption of the MTBE in the carbon and change the filters often (manufactures recommendation) Also make sure the equipment you are installing is NSF certified, or at least designed to handle VOC contamination’s. A whole house filter will be large, for example: A home with a well that produces 6 gal per minute will need 6x9=54 gal of carbon to remove the MTBE. For safety we will double that figure to 108 gallons of volume to remove the MTBE and place a test port in the middle. This means the minimum of 2 55 gal drums full of carbon. The cost of this type of system is approx. $3000.
It costs to treat the water, however, the price may be much higher not to. The best advise this neighbor can offer you is the following:
- Buy from the company that can offer you the best service
- Buy from the company you trust has your best interest at heart
- Get more than one quote, but don’t only buy on price
- Get references from the company of other folks in your area
- Make sure they are licensed to install your equipment
- Do something other than think the problem will go away
Douglas R Workman
President - Just
Water Inc.
Certified
Installer (WQA)
Certified
Sales Rep (WQA)
Certified
Water Specialist (WQA)
Water Conditioner
Installer (MDE -WC119)
For more information see these sites (www.wqa.org) (www.nsf.org) (www.acleanwater.com)
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