Think twice before turning on the tap
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, May 18, 2008
(http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/may/20080509comm003.asp)
Toxic sludge is good for you.

And, the Columbia water utility folks say, trihalomethanes are not harmful. This was reported in this newspaper and in a letter that was sent to all Columbia water customers.

Being somewhat suspicious of this claim and placing it in the same category as statements by disgraced politicians - "I am resigning to spend more time with my family" - I did a bit of searching.

What I found wasn’t too comforting and left me scratching my head as to why public officials would try to tell us that everything is OK.

Because everything is not OK. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after reviewing scientific data, lowered the allowable amount of total trihalomethanes, or TTHMs, allowed in drinking water from 100 to 80 parts per billion. This was somewhat curious because the EPA is more inclined to allow more stuff in our environment, not less, but it turns out that the EPA did this because of scientific studies that documented the harms to human health.

Now, our water exceeds this standard, and the potential short-term health effects are dire. Not only that, but the level of TTHMs in our water has been steadily rising for several years - but apparently no action was taken to prevent these harmful compounds from being present in increasing amounts. Now our drinking water - by EPA standards - is not safe and healthy. Rather than preventing a crisis, our water department is reacting to one.

The fact is that TTHMs are a category of chemicals created when chlorine reacts with bacteria and organic matter. TTHMs are composed of many compounds, but four are most common: chloroform, dibromochloromethane, bromodichloromethane and tribromomethane. Interestingly, carbon tetrachloride is produced when chlorine combines with chloroform, and the EPA allows no carbon tetrachloride in drinking water. Zero. Nothing. Nada.

My basic rule is that anything with five or more syllables is harmful. Of these trihalomethanes, it appears that chloroform with only three syllables is the one we best know and that we know is not good. But a bit of research revealed the scientific appellation for chloroform is trichloromethane or methyl trichloride, thereby meeting my syllabic standard.

Chloroform has several positive uses: it is an anesthetic, an industrial solvent and a reagent in chemical/organic synthesis. But when we swallow it, even in extremely small amounts (100 parts per billion), the effects on the human body are not beneficial ones. It causes all sorts of problems - ranging from hindering infant development to damaging liver and kidney functions.

It also seems that - contrary to assertions by our water department folks - it doesn’t take years and years of drinking water laced with TTHMs to cause ill effects in human consumers. No doubt, cancers don’t develop quickly, so it might take years and years before cancerous symptoms show up. Not so with low birth weight, lowered sperm quality, liver and kidney dysfunctions or poor fetal development. Those effects are caused by one or more of the TTHMs. Years? Nope. Days, perhaps.

I hasten to add that the focus of the letter from the Columbia water utility folks was absolutely correct. It does take a long time - decades - and ingesting a lot water with TTHMs for cancerous symptoms to develop.

Although that much was true, the letter only mentioned in passing other health effects. There are many other health problems resulting from TTHMs that were not fully addressed. These health effects are immediate and potentially devastating. To quote the letter from the city of Columbia, "… people drinking water exceeding the standards for Trihalomethanes might also experience problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system." That’s it. No indication of what those "problems" might be or how much water with TTHMs needs to be ingested to cause those "problems."

The bad news is that we have TTHMs in our drinking water at above the federal health standard. The good news is that there are lots of ways to disinfect water without using chlorine and creating TTHMS. There is also at least one way - nanofiltration - to remove TTHMs from drinking water.

Maybe we should come up with a new slogan: Chloroform is not good for you.