WALTHAM FOREST: Smelly water caused by 'unharmful' chemical contamination (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news & views by texting WFNEWS to 80360, or email us
Thames Water confirms smelly tap water is caused by chemical contamination
9:09am Saturday 20th February 2010 in News By Mhairi Macfarlane
Miriam Ni-Udaigh complained to Thames water about the foul smell and taste in her tap water
TRACES of chemicals are responsible for the strange smell and taste in drinking water in the borough, Thames Water has confirmed.
Investigations carried out by the water company following 300 complaints about foul smelling tap water from residents in Walthamstow, Chingford and other parts of north east London, have revealed that “minute traces” of chemicals are present in the company's Walthamstow water works.
But Thames Water says it has no reason to believe there is a "significant risk" to public health.
The River Lea is believed to be the source of the contamination, because it supplies most of the water for north east London.
But Thames Water claim the chemicals are having no environmental impact on the river.
The chemicals are 2-EDD and 2-EMD, which occur as a by-product of manufacturing, but it is unknown how they contaminated the water.
Director of operational management for Thames Water, Bob Collington, said: “We have sought advice on these substances from the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
"Although the levels found in water from our Walthamstow water treatment works have been enough for a small number of customers to notice and report an unusual smell, based on all the information we have seen to date we have no reason to believe that there is a significant risk to public health.
“We’ve made several adjustments to the treatment processes at our Walthamstow water works. Having now found the cause of the problem, we will be further adjusting our treatment processes to remove the substances from customers’ water.”
Thames water stopped sourcing water from the River Lee last week and have instead been taking it from the River Thames.
Mr Collington added: “We are sorry to those who have been affected by this.
"We’re taking it extremely seriously and we’re working to sort this problem out as quickly as possible.”
Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Twitter
Comments(14)
leytonstoner
says...
11:19am Sat 20 Feb 10
Techno2
says...
12:28pm Sat 20 Feb 10
mdj
says...
1:17pm Sat 20 Feb 10
Earle Martin
says...
8:08pm Sat 20 Feb 10
Techno2 wrote:Yes, please tell us, WF Guardian.
Exactly which chemicals are we talking about here?
Walthamstow noob
says...
12:16am Sun 21 Feb 10
What is this, China? Why wouldn't you include the names of the chemicals (2-EDD and 2-EMD) when they're right there on the Thames Water website? The Newham Recorder even mentions that these chemicals are 'used in the manufacture of adhesives'.
I tried googling these chemicals and they seem to crop up in a lot of scientific papers related to funny-tasting tap water. There was a sentence at the website below involving Severn Trent Water in 1994. It says they admitted that by allowing these chemicals to enter the water supply, they had provided water unfit for human consumption (though due to the smell rather than any potential health risks).
http://jel.oxfordjou
rnals.org/cgi/pdf_ex
tract/8/2/389
Kimchi70
says...
1:53pm Sun 21 Feb 10
... That's lovely to hear but it still won't have me drinking water that smells of diarrhoea!
Techno2
says...
4:05pm Sun 21 Feb 10
Walthamstow noob wrote:Thanks for that link. It is interesting that in 1995 Severn Water eventually pleaded guilty for supplying the water, which was accepted as being unfit for human consumption under s70(1) of the 1993 Water Industry Act. Although then, as now, the chemicals were said by everyone to be harmless, significant epidemiological studies were also carried out. These were written up in the British Medical Journal's sister magazine Journal of Epidemiol Community Health 1996;50:18-23 doi:10.1136/jech.50.
"The chemicals occur as a by-product of manufacturing..." What is this, China? Why wouldn't you include the names of the chemicals (2-EDD and 2-EMD) when they're right there on the Thames Water website? The Newham Recorder even mentions that these chemicals are 'used in the manufacture of adhesives'. I tried googling these chemicals and they seem to crop up in a lot of scientific papers related to funny-tasting tap water. There was a sentence at the website below involving Severn Trent Water in 1994. It says they admitted that by allowing these chemicals to enter the water supply, they had provided water unfit for human consumption (though due to the smell rather than any potential health risks). http://jel.oxfordjou rnals.org/cgi/pdf_ex tract/8/2/389
1.18 (S E Fowle, C E Constantine, D Fone, B McCloskey), published under the title, 'An epidemiological study after a water contamination incident near Worcester, England in April 1994'.
The writers discussed instances of diarrhoea, nausea, headache, stomach pains, skin irritation, and itchy eyes, which people said they'd suffered from as a result of these chemicals. Of course, the concentrations could be different now, for all I know, but we have to ask serious questions about how this stuff was allowed to get into the water supply. Bob Collington is quoted saying that Thames Water has now found the cause of the problem, so it would be public spirited of him to identify the exact factory and industrial process involved and what exact steps are being taken to prevent this happening in future?
Sigi from Walthamstow
says...
9:19am Mon 22 Feb 10
Can the Walthamstow Guardian find out about this?
Oggers76
says...
12:44am Tue 23 Feb 10
newyear
says...
11:49am Tue 23 Feb 10
GirlE17
says...
12:08am Wed 24 Feb 10
faro0485
says...
9:39pm Wed 24 Feb 10
-1,3-dioxane - please add it to here:- http://sci-toys.com/
scichem/jqp057/69852
.html ) and 2-EMD ( 2-ethyl-4-methyl-1,3
-dioxolane - more info here: http://www.thegoodsc
entscompany.com/data
/rw1377721.html )
Sounds like a nasty evil experiment upon the towns folk of where it hit:
http://cat.inist.fr/
?aModele=afficheN&cp
sidt=18714441
http://www.springerl
ink.com/content/p26q
h681219h17v1/
http://jech.bmj.com/
content/50/1/18.abst
ract
http://www.iwaponlin
e.com/wst/04006/wst0
40060293.htm
Who ever has been dumping this chemical into the water supply... well I'm sure a mob would be made after them.
My initial suspicions on this would be, either promotion of bottled water, gender bender, public contraceptive... or all three.
faro0485
says...
9:41pm Wed 24 Feb 10
Sigi from Walthamstow wrote:No... but where did you get your baby food? That's probably worse than this water supply.
Is is safe to prepare babyfood with the contaminated tapwater?
Can the Walthamstow Guardian find out about this?
newyear says...
10:20am Sat 20 Feb 10