Brooks
Registered User
posts: 64
(10/29/00 3:59:53 pm)

ENV/Solvent leaking from vinyl-coated water mains

Cape Cod is a "sole source aquifer". In other words, there is one, connected aquifer that serves the entire Cape. At the source of this aquifer happensn to be Otis Air Force Base, which is already slowly poisoning the aquifer from uncontrolled, and perhaps uncontrollable, toxins stored and buried on the military base for decades. Problems from the water mains would simply be one other insult.

PCE is better known as dry cleaning solvent. It is what killed off Senator Paul Tsongas.

Fair Use/Education and research purposes only

Link

BU study examines Cape water's effects on reproduction and development

By Associated Press,
10/29/2000 14:36

FALMOUTH (AP) A new study is examining whether a solvent in plastic-covered water pipes linked in prior studies to an elevated risk for some cancers could also have caused miscarriages, infertility and birth defects in nine Cape Cod towns.

The $1.7 million study involves 2,200 children born between 1968 and 1983 and their families, who were exposed to tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, according to the Cape Cod Times.

The chemical leached from vinyl-coated water mains in Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Falmouth, Harwich, Mashpee, Provincetown and Sandwich.

The problem was discovered in 1980, and flushing and other practices were started to keep PCE levels below federal drinking water standards.

The study includes children exposed to PCE both before and after birth. Starting this summer, interviews will be conducted with parents and other family members. The medical histories of another 2,200 Cape families whose drinking water was uncontaminated by PCE will be used for comparison.

The study is funded by Boston University's Superfund Basic Research Program by the National Institute of Health Sciences. A companion study on animals is being conducted at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2001