Month: September 2022

WELL-FUNDED STAKEHOLDERS hold the microphone on issues of water chlorination, and selectively choose convenient facts. The misinformation war is alive and well in this hot topic. View in LinkedIn

IS CHLORINE RESISTANCE THE NEXT ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE? We all know about the antibiotic resistance crisis. But the same evolutionary pressures to survive are inevitably playing out with chlorine treatment of pathogens in drinking water. The high mutation rate of microbes, and their ability to live in all extreme habitats on earth (extremophiles) make it a certainty a sub-population is thriving. View in LinkedIn

RECENT WATER-BOURNE DISEASE OUTBREAKS. "From 1991 to 2000, there were 155 outbreaks and 431,846 cases of illness in public and individual water systems in the U.S. By far, the largest outbreak of this period occurred in 1993 with the emerging pathogen Cryptosporidium in Milwaukee." What follow-up analysis of the cause ensued? http://www.waterandhealth.org/drinkingwater/wp.html View in LinkedIn

CHLORINE-RESISTANT PATHOGENS. "Some pathogens found in surface water are resistant to normal doses of chlorine but they are likely to be removed if appropriate treatment (e.g. fine filtration) is provided prior to chlorination." Methods are slow to change. This is less about developing new resistance than the known variation in basal susceptibility to chlorine toxicity. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/well/resources/fact-sheets/fact-sheets-htm/chlorination.htm View in LinkedIn

CHLORINE RESISTANCE IS EMERGING. "Pathogens such as Cryptosporidium are resistant to chlorination and can appear even in high quality water supplies. Cryptosporidium was the cause of the largest reported drinking water outbreak in U.S. history, affecting over 400,000 people in Milwaukee in April 1993. More than 100 deaths are attributed to this outbreak." http://www.waterandhealth.org/drinkingwater/wp.html View in LinkedIn

CDC DATA ON BASAL CHLORINE-RESISTANT PATHOGENS. "Enteroviruses have moderate chlorine tolerance, while Protozoa have high tolerance to chlorine. Notably, those with higher resistance, particularly toxoplasma and cryptosporidium, need long (1440 and 90 minute) chlorine exposures to achieve a 99% kill rate." http://www.cdc.gov/safewater/effectiveness-on-pathogens.html View in LinkedIn

WE ARE SELECTING FOR CHLORINE RESISTANCE. "Bacteria from the chlorinated system were more resistant to both the combined and free forms of chlorine than those from the unchlorinated system, suggesting that there may be selection for more chlorine-tolerant microorganisms in chlorinated waters." http://lnkd.in/dwi67PR View in LinkedIn

PATHOGENS IMMUNE TO CHLORINE. "Lakay et al. obtained only a partial elimination of Microthrix parvicella bacteria at a high chlorine dose. Hwang and Tanaka found in batch tests that M. parvicella remained intact at very high chlorine doses. More recently, Madoni et al. reported in a survey in Italy that use of chlorination was successful in only 63% of the cases." http://lnkd.in/dtNDtbi View in LinkedIn

MICROBIAL RESISTANCE TO CHLORINATION. A study of the mechanisms of chlorine resistance. Also noted that when chlorine reacts with organic contaminants, it has lower potency for microbial activity. http://lnkd.in/dzZb4WY View in LinkedIn

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE. "Cities with unfiltered surface reservoirs are now mandated by the EPA to treat their water with UV light which kills everything, even the superbugs ... there is a large difference between the quality of water leaving the treatment facility and quality of the water coming out of the tap ... because the problem is in the pipes." http://lnkd.in/dbPBiwK View in LinkedIn