Health Effects of Human & Animal Waste in Drinking Water

Safe drinking water is essential to everyone, especially families with children. With today's improvements in impurity detections, the water we once thought of as pure is now known to have contaminants. Whether you live in the city or on a farm, we all need clean water to sustain life. Human and animal waste contaminating our drinking water poses a real threat to public health.

Sources of Contamination

• Microbial pathogens in drinking water, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites can pose a health risk. This can occur when human and animal waste from sewage gets into drinking water, or when wells are improperly sealed. Drinking water can also be contaminated near animal production facilities where waste can seep into the ground. If your drinking water comes from surface water, such as a river or lake, it can be susceptible to the liquid waste that gets trapped in shallow earth. If your water comes from groundwater it can take longer to become contaminated, but the natural cleansing process also takes longer. Groundwater can move very slowly and become exposed to more contaminants along the way. Disease-producing pathogens, waste from landfills and septic tanks, agricultural waste and leakage from underground storage tanks can contaminate groundwater. Human and animal waste contains traces of salt and heavy metals which can seep into bodies of water and end up in our drinking water. Animal waste in particular has unhealthy levels of nitrates. Children up to three months of age are susceptible to Blue Baby Syndrome (methemoglobinemia), a blood disorder that can be fatal.

Health Effects

• Drinking contaminated is likely to cause chronic health problems in individuals. The effects can last long after a person has been exposed to small amounts of these contaminants. Chronic health problems can include liver and kidney damage, nervous system disorders, cancer, damage to the immune system, birth defects, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, dysentery, salmonella, reproductive disorders, shigellosis and giardiasis.

Other Contaminants

• Organic chemicals such as pesticides, solvents, fuel additives, de-greasers, and adhesives can also pose health risks. These volatile organic chemicals can cause serious long-term health problems when consumed in drinking water. Inorganic contaminants are also a concern. These include toxic metal like silver, mercury, lead, and arsenic. These substances can get into your drinking water through materials used in plumbing systems. Radioactive elements such as radon can also contaminate your water from the decay of uranium in soil and rocks.

What You Can Do

• All drinking water has some level of contamination, but those levels should always be well below what is considered to be harmful to your health. If you have concerns about your own drinking water, you can contact your local health department and ask for literature regarding the drinking water in your area. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, water suppliers are required to provide water-quality reports to consumers.