Private drinking water supplies: challenges for public health

Private drinking water supplies: challenges for public health.

Public perceptions of drinking water: a postal survey of residents with private water supplies

BACKGROUND In Canada, the legal responsibility for the condition of private water supplies, including private wells and cisterns, rests with their owners. However, there are reports that Canadians test these water supplies intermittently and that treatment of such water is uncommon. An estimated 45% of all waterborne outbreaks in Canada involve non-municipal systems. An understanding of the per...

Public perception of drinking water from private water supplies: focus group analyses

BACKGROUND Over four million Canadians receive their drinking water from private water supplies, and numerous studies report that these supplies often exceed the minimal acceptable standards for contamination. Canadians in rural areas test their water intermittently, if at all, and treatment of water from private supplies is not common. Understanding the perceptions of drinking water among resi...

Social deprivation and the public health risks of community drinking water supplies in New Zealand.

STUDY OBJECTIVE Quantitative evidence linking environmental exposures and social status at sub-national scales is surprisingly limited. This study investigated the public health risks associated with community water supplies in relation to social status in New Zealand. DESIGN An ecological study using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to compare the grade of community water supplies with ...

Prolonged exposure to arsenic in UK private water supplies: toenail, hair and drinking water concentrations.

Chronic exposure to arsenic (As) in drinking water is an established cause of cancer and other adverse health effects. Arsenic concentrations >10 μg L(-1) were previously measured in 5% of private water supplies (PWS) in Cornwall, UK. The present study investigated prolongued exposure to As by measuring biomarkers in hair and toenail samples from 212 volunteers and repeated measurements of As i...