The Human Health Impacts and Environmental Implications of Floods in Northern Ireland (Poster)

Flooding is now the most frequent type of major disaster globally. During the past 30 years, floods have resulted in 200,000 fatalities and affected more than 2.8 billion others worldwide. It should be recognised that flood events do not necessarily need to be large in scale or be physically destructive to have a detrimental impact on homes and livelihoods, as minor floods can still have potentially large cumulative effects. Estimates suggest that if no preventative measures are taken, flooding will affect 250 000–400 000 additional people annually in Europe by 2080.

Flooding has become a major problem in the United Kingdom, as demonstrated in 2007 in England which resulted in flooding of 55,000 properties, evacuation of approximately 7,000 people and 13 fatalities. The problem extends to Northern Ireland, where climate change is likely to result in higher average temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events, such as floods. In recent years, in Northern Ireland, there have been numerous flooding incidents that have caused devastation to local communities.

The environmental impacts of flooding can be quite wide-ranging, from the dispersion of low-level household wastes into the fluvial system to contamination of community water supplies. The impact of floods on human health is under-researched even though flooding has obvious direct impacts i.e. morbidity, injuries, diseases and also more indirect impacts such as mental health conditions due to the long-term consequences of flooding. This study will undertake measurements and characterisation of water contaminants, after a flooding event, with a view to evaluating the impact on water quality. It will also explore the human health impacts of floods, using surveys and interviews to investigate the physical and psychological health problems inflicted on individuals, subsequent to flooding.

The results will assist agencies to mitigate the long-term health impacts of flooding, provide beneficial information on the risk to water quality from flooding and help agencies response efficiently during the recovery stage of a flooding event, providing the community with an appropriate level of support.

Benefits of Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration for Effective Public Health Messaging (50m Lecture)

This talk would summarize an ongoing initiative by the Water Research Foundation (www.waterrf.org) to broaden the national dialogue on water quality contaminants and public health. Co-authors of this presentation would include the Water Research Foundation, ReInventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt), ARCADIS, and potentially other organizations who participated in the workshop.

Many Water Research Foundation subscribers are drinking water utilities who field requests from the public about their water quality, often driven by media coverage. Water utility staff who respond to these questions may lack the public health knowledge and credentials to provide a satisfactory answer to these questions. Similarly, local county and state public health agencies may get requests from the public and from the news media and may lack the context or knowledge of the local water system to provide complete and relevant information. Both groups can benefit from shared resources, at either a local or national level, resulting in more consistent messaging to the general public, and can benefit from connections with public health researchers on “hot topics” or areas of emerging research.

We propose to describe a few examples of important issues pertaining to water quality and public health that have prompted public concern and questions, to illustrate the benefits of knowledge sharing between different disciplines. Examples include:

1. Media coverage of lead leaching from piping in people’s homes into the drinking water supply due to changes in water chemistry, a result of the local water utility (Washington DC) changing the type of chlorine disinfection used.
2. The detection of compounds that are commonly found in wastewater (e.g., caffeine, pharmaceuticals, personal care products) in drinking water source waters, as a result of direct or indirect wastewater reuse (Multiple locations nationwide, covered by Associated Press several years ago).
3. Concerns about water quality from private wells in rural or remote areas where septic systems may adversely affect shallow groundwater quality (e.g., Cape Cod, Massachusetts)

Next, we would describe the Water Research Foundation initiative to broaden the national dialuge and build collaborations between water and public health groups, summarize discussion topics and key perspectives from different organizations/participants at a recent 2-day workshop, and provide examples of ongoing efforts and intiatives to improve relationships and collaborations among existing programs and generate more effective and consistent messages. (For example, workshop participant Dr. Jerome Paulson described an existing network of Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs) whose mission and efforts could be leveraged to better respond to questions from the public related to the health effects of environmental issues on children).

Identification and Implementation of Effective Educational Campaigns for Private Well Testing (50m Lecture)

 Public health officials report difficulty in raising awareness among private well owners to perform regular testing and maintenance of their private wells. To identify and evaluate effective approaches that promote well testing and maintenance, a survey of local, state, and national well testing programs was conducted, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Effective approaches were evaluated to determine the situational characteristics behind their success to provide a set of parameters for determining which approaches might be more effective in specific situations. In this lecture, the results of the survey will be discussed to describe the issues that should be considered when developing such a program. A number of successful approaches will be discussed to provide the audience with an assessment of the criteria used to evaluate how and when each approach should be used as part of a private well testing educational campaign. For each approach described, examples will be provided of how the approach was successfully used, situational information that affected how successful the approach was will be described, and information on the resources necessary for implementing each approach will be provided. The goal of the lecture is to provide attendees with a roadmap for how they might create a successful private well testing program.

The Proliferation of Blue-Green Algae: Context, Challenges and Innovative Solutions (50m Lecture)

Phosphorous levels contained in discharged treated effluent from wastewater treatment systems directly impacts the eutrophication of lakes and the formation of blue algae blooms, which are toxic to animal and human life.  

Lack of sustainable and technically applicable solutions to an onsite wastewater treatment application for single dwellings has relegated this issue to a lower-priority level.

An approach based on a Self-Cleaning electro-coagulation process for phosphorus removal and disinfection has been tested at full scale on three different testing platforms in cold conditions for over one year. The system is now certified under the new CAN/BNQ 3680-600 Standard. The tested system of a 600 USGpd capacity is composed of a 1450 USG primary reactor followed by the 530 USG Self-Cleaning electro-coagulation unit (EC) followed by tree different combination of systems: a sand filter or an absorbent media-based filter combined or not with a UV disinfection unit.

The standalone Phosphorus Removal Unit removed by itself total phosphorus below 1.0 mg/L, which correspond to B-I and P-I classes (TSS ≤ 100 mg/L, BOD₅ ≤ 150 mg/L and Total P ≤ 1.0 mg/L) under the CAN/BNQ 3680-600 Standard.

When combined to a gravity fed sand filter 1.2 guspd/ft² area, the unit produced a high quality treated effluent with Total P concentration at 0.1 mg/L, BOD₅ and TSS below 5 mg/L and Fecal coliforms below 10 counts/100 mL.

Combination of the Phosphorus Removal Unit with the Ecoflo Biofilter, an organic media biofilter, produced treated effluent with a concentration of below 0.3 mg/L in total P, less than 3 500 fecal counts and < 10 mg/L of TSS and BOD₅  

Based on the CAN/BNQ 3680-600 Standard, the system is certified under B-IV and P-II and D-I classes (TSS and BOD₅ ≤ 10 mg/L, Total P ≤ 0.3 mg/L and Fecal coliforms or E.Coli ≤ 50 000 counts/100 mL). To reach high disinfection levels in fecal coliforms or E.Coli, an auto-cleaning UV unit has been added to the previous system. Results indicated a high level of disinfection reaching a “not detectable” level (D-III) according to the CAN/BNQ Standard (median value below 10 counts/100 mL).

Education to water, an educational mobilization in the French primary school (20m Lecture)

In France, an industrialized country where access to water is easy, it is also important to teach the children and teenagers, the importance of water in the daily life, nowadays and for the future. In this context, since 2001, a multidisciplinary pedagogic action is organized by the “H2O Association” and the Rector of Academy of Clermont-Ferrand (i.e., the main institution representing the Ministry of Education in the administrative parts of France).
At the beginning of the school year, children from primary schools work on different topics about the water (i.e., water and health, water as food, water as a major component of hygiene, water as an element of industrial or energy production, water and ecosystems ...). In April, an exhibition-meeting (called "Les Cours d'Eau d'H2O") is organized over two days by the “H2O Association” and the Rector of Academy. Many partners are showing their specificity with respect to water (i.e., institutions, communities, utilities, companies, associations ...) and they are communicating about water and culture, water and environment, water and health, water sports, water sciences, water and international solidarity, water and sanitation, weather, water and energy, water saving, water and agriculture... Every professionals of water have a stand and welcomes school children. Videos, quizzes, demonstrations, materials ... are used to train children to various aspects of water. For them, it is the opportunity to exchange with professionals about all the aspects of water. A specific educational document is distributed to each children. Moreover, they must complete a questionnaire specially elaborated by the exhibitors to oblige them to visit all the stands of the exhibition. Every year, more than three thousand children participate to "Les Cours d'Eau d'H2O".
Since 2001, an educational stand is animated by the students from the Faculty of Pharmacy (university of Auvergne), to teach the children about all the aspects of water and health. The characteristics of specific tools and the pedagogic approaches (film, quiz, leaflets ...), developed by the students and used during "Les Cours d'Eau d'H2O", will be presented.

Assessment of pharmaceutical residues in watersheds of Auvergne (France) (Poster)

The emerging issue of pharmaceutical products in water environment is getting a growing attention from scientists, agencies in charge of health security and populations. Knowledge is growing fast, but remains still partial and sparse. Consequently, health security institutions (i.e., the French Regional Health Agencies, which represented the Health Ministry in administrative parts of France) may have some difficulties to answer questions on specific local situations.

In this context, a study has been initiated to assess the specific flux of pharmaceuticals in the different territories of Auvergne (France). The first step of this study was to identify the main pharmaceuticals and their origins of emission (by general population, health care facilities, agricultural practices, industries …), their relative importance and the major regional flows arising from these different sources. The second step of this study was to better understand the health issues associated with the detected pharmaceutical residues, and to identify the priorities of actions to be taken (in terms of interest of analytical campaigns, sanitary survey… ).

The assessment of pharmaceuticals in the different watersheds of Auvergne were obtained by modeling the data of pharmaceutical consumption by the population of Auvergne (i.e., assessed by the reimbursement data provided by the French Health Insurance) and the analysis of the quantitative data of pharmaceuticals used in the different hospitals of Auvergne.

In accordance with the French National Plan on Drug Residues, this approach helped to determine the predictable environmental concentrations (PEC) of forty seven molecules in the different watersheds of Auvergne. These PEC can be used to assess exposure indicators and in a second time, the health risk assessment. The worse-case method used for this study (i.e., persistence in the environment, without metabolism), has overestimated the concentrations of pharmaceuticals in watersheds. Furthermore, for each pharmaceutical, calculated concentrations (PEC) were at the nano- or microgramme per liter and the health effects seems poorly probable at these levels.

Tools and Data for Identifying Areas with a High Potential for Private Well Contamination (50m Learning Lab Hands-On Demonstration)

Approximately 15% of the US population relies on private water wells that are not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act or state regulations.  Few of these wells are tested except at the time of completion or at the change of ownership, and this testing is typically limited to bacteriological quality. Based on USGS data, arsenic, nitrate/nitrite and uranium-238 exceeded their respective MCLs in 11%, 8% and 4% of private wells tested, respectively. However in many areas there is little data on the levels of these contaminants, making it difficult to effectively target affected areas.

To meet this need the University of Utah has compiled extensive groundwater quality data from national, state and local sources and developed simple models and tools to identify areas where private wells may have elevated levels of nitrate, arsenic and/or uranium. The results were combined with population data to estimate the number of people potentially impacted by these contaminants in drinking water. These results (maps and data) will be been compiled by state and by local health department, and made accessible via the web. 

 

The purpose of this session is to present an overview of the results, explain the methods used to conduct the assessment, and demonstrate the use of the tools and data.  The session will include a substantial hands-on activity to guide participants in accessing the data and maps for their jurisdiction, interpreting the results, and incorporating new local data into the assessment. The session will conclude with a discussion to identify other uses of the data and strategies that could be used to address private well water quality problems in their area.