How Untreated Water is Making Our Kids Sick

A Florida State University researcher has drawn a link between the impact of climate change and untreated drinking water on the rate of gastrointestinal illness in children.

Assistant Professor of Geography Chris Uejio has published a first-of-its-kind study, “Drinking-water treatment, climate change, and childhood gastrointestinal illness projections for northern Wisconsin (USA) communities drinking untreated groundwater,” in the Hydrogeology Journal.

The study explores the benefits of additional drinking water treatment compared to the risks created by climate change. 

“Most people may not realize this, but there are about 20 million people in the country who access drinking water that isn’t treated,” Uejio said. “These households are particularly vulnerable to rainfall events and contamination events where disease causing pathogens can get in their drinking water sources.” 

Uejio’s study is the first to examine how future rainfall may impact human health. He partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Campus to examine the rate in which children ages 5 and under are at risk for gastrointestinal illness (GI) 30-plus years into the future between 2046 to 2065 compared to the period between 1991 and 2010.

“Wisconsin was chosen partly for its unique geography,” Uejio said. “It has some underlying hydrogeology characteristics that make it a little more susceptible to ground water contamination. We also chose Wisconsin because there are some cities that do treat and do not treat their drinking water. It provided a natural comparison to see if rainfall is related to more people getting sick in these areas.” 

Uejio and the research team considered three different scenarios covering five northern Wisconsin municipalities with minimally treated drinking water.

The first scenario tested the amount of risk of childhood GI if climate change proceeds on its current trajectory. Uejio found that without additional drinking water treatment installation, increased rainfall from climate change could amount to an approximate 1.5 percent increase in childhood GI — with a range as high as 3.6 percent.

The gastrointestinal illnesses studied included a wide swath of sicknesses ranging from minor stomach pains to more severe symptoms that required up to 69 days of hospital care. Of the cases examined between 1991 and 2010, 7 percent of the children were admitted to a hospital. 

The second scenario considered climate change plus background levels of treatment, which is what has been done historically, and projecting that to the future. When those numbers were assessed, Uejio found some continued treatment would help alleviate the impacts of climate change moving forward, but there were still elevated rates of illness among the children in communities with untreated drinking water.

The final scenario looked at a more aggressive rate of drinking water treatment in larger cities throughout the research area. 

“We found, intuitively, that the rate of illness correspondingly dropped dramatically,” Uejio said. 

His results can inform public policy moving forward, he said. 

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2 Comments

1. I agree that a high percentage of the population that drinks untreated water do not have GI problems, but of those that do, I know that there are many possible pathogenic scenarios that could be causative, either additively or synergistically. One such possibility to investigate: contamination of drinking water by the ubiquitous presence of very low levels of glyphosate from Roundup formulations as herbicide. Glyphosate has been touted as being 'safe' for humans because it adversely affects the shikamate pathway in plants, but since human cells do not utilize this pathway toxic effect is avoided. It is correct that 'human cells' do not utilize the affected pathway, however, we have more 'non human' cells in our bodies than we have human cells. Some of the bacteria in our efficient gut microbial assemblages, that process our food, DO have the shipmate pathway, AND may possibly be adversely affected by chronic low doses of residual water contaminant glyphosate levels. If some of these beneficial bacteria are reduced, it just might alter tip the balance of the bacterial assemblage into a less beneficial population... perhaps often resulting in GI tract problems.

   Just saying.... that this is ONE possible research avenue that should be funded to pointedly investigate, especially since higher glyphosate usage by herbicide-ready agricultural crop techniques as 'best management practices' may NOT turn out to be as benign as touted.  

   1 Comment reply

   1. Glyphosate has nothing to do with it.

2. Of course, undisinfected water can make us sick, if it contains pathogens. Is there a meaningful link to 'climate change',  No!  There are contaminated waters in the cooler north as well as the warmer south, and plenty of safe waters in both. This is how a researcher gets  papers cited in the non technical press, and such speculation perhaps increases some grant opportunities.  Millions in the US alone drink undisinfected groundwater, and are safe and  healthy, if the source is protected from contamination sources.