|
Endocrine disrupting chemicals
in our drinking water - Dr Alison Bleaney
Since 2005, atrazine has been found in the Duck River, the
Jordan River, the Rubicon River, the Liffey River, and the Derwent
River. Simazine has been found in the Brid River, the Montague
River, the Prosser River, the Rubicon River, the South Esk River
and Trevallyn Dam, the Macquarie River (contaminated with simazine
from July 2007 until January 2008, with no data available since
that month), Brumbys Creek, and Western Creek. Launceston’s
water supply reported simazine in 2003 and 2004 at above guideline
values and atrazine at above guideline value in 2001.
Better to act late than never.
Dr R Taylor is sounding a bit unsettled.
As Director for Public Health, he has regulatory control over
all reticulated drinking water supplies in Tasmania. However,
he recommended in 2005 (The Tasmanian Drinking Water Guidelines)
that reporting of pesticides by the water bodies was not mandatory.
Water bodies would assess the catchments and decide for themselves
the risk of contamination to raw water. On that basis, they
would decide which pesticides to test, if any, and when.
So which water bodies test what? Jessica Whelan did a PhD on
this very subject across Tasmania, and found the answers to
be really quite shocking ie almost no testing at all.
In Australia the drinking water health guidelines for atrazine
are set at 40ppb, and atrazine is not classified as an endocrine
disruptor by the APVMA.(EPA equivalent) This is despite the
EU and CSIRO classifying the triazines as endocrine disrupting
chemicals.These toxic endocrine disruptors are also immune modulators.
They also have been shown to interfere with human cell signalling
through interference with gene networks at as low a concentration
as 2ppb.
In Tasmania the half life of atrazine is approx 230 days (reported
in 1997 in the APVMA review of atrazine and confirmed recently
by CSIRO) and this may well be longer in groundwater. Some of
the metabolites of atrazine are just as toxic as atrazine itself.
The half life of simazine is between 40 and 130 days.
There is still no recognition of the effects or testing for
chemical mixtures in water, and no long-term monitoring to record
adverse impacts or effects in native flora or fauna, or humans.
There are many rivers in Tasmania in which pesticides have been
found (DPIW quarterly monitoring testing) more than 3 times.
Even Esk water has found simazine in Launceston water supplies
more than three times.
Atrazine has been found 16 times in river waters in Tasmania
over the past 3 years: (5 in 2005, 5 in 2006, 6 in 2007) Since
2005, atrazine has been found in the Duck River, the Jordan
River, the Rubicon River, the Liffey River, and the Derwent
River. Simazine has been found in the Brid River, the Montague
River, the Prosser River, the Rubicon River, the South Esk River
and Trevallyn Dam, the Macquarie River (contaminated with simazine
from July 2007 until January 2008, with no pubically available
data available since that month), Brumbys Creek, and Western
Creek.
Launceston’s water supply reported simazine in 2003 and
2004 at above guideline values and atrazine was found in drinking
water at above guideline value in 2001.
Precaution with pesticides in our raw drinking water?
I should really have expected this to be the case. The law allows
for it.
When should this start?
This should have happened when Tasmania started using pesticides
in a way that could produce water contamination.
What now?
Better to act later than never.
Public Health should now regain control of the quality of drinking
water and have mandatory controls over activities (including
pesticides) in drinking water catchments.
It should have measures in place to prevent use of endocrine
disrupting chemicals - EDS - (CSIRO and the EU list simazine,
atrazine and alpha-cypermethrin as EDS) in any catchments, and
bioassays to look at mixture effects in raw water used for drinking.
(National Water Quality Management Strategy).
There should be “Tasmanian Drinking Water Guidelines”
that have mandatory testing for all toxic substances. Appropriate
filters should be used by water bodies that have high risk of
water contamination, and the general public told of catchment
profiles re the risk of water contamination. This is so that
the raw water users can make informed decisions about what they
need to do to the water they use to protect themselves.
Our Public Health Act states that reticulated drinking water
should be safe, clean and non-toxic. That is the law.
Dr Alison Bleaney
Sec- Break O’Day Catchment Risk Group - an organisation
affiliated to the National Toxic Network
|