When water travels through soil and bedrock to the water table, it carries minerals, nutrients or chemicals from the surface with it. Environmental research is increasingly concerned with preferential flow, or the movement of water through pores and cracks at a faster rate and bypassing most of the surrounding material, either soil or fractured rock.

Researchers conducted a population-based prevalence survey in Araihazar, Bangladesh, to describe the distribution of arsenic exposure in a rural Bangladeshi population and to assess the population’s awareness to this problem as well as to possible remediation options. Water samples from 5,967 contiguous tube wells in a defined geographic area were tested using laboratory-based methods.

Additionally, for each well, the owner/caretaker (or a close relative) was interviewed regarding his or her awareness of the health consequences of as exposure. Arsenic exposure data and demographic characteristics for the 65,876 users of these wells were also collected from the 5,967 respondents. Continue Reading →

Concern about microbial contamination of groundwater from foraging dairy cows has increased as spray irrigation practices in New Zealand have increased over the years. Bacteria capable of living in both animals and humans are commonly found in cow manure. Addressing the lack of research on the topic, a team of New Zealand researchers studied the transport of microbes from two spray irrigated dairy pastures into groundwater supplies.

A new discoveries that are of uncertain significance is that the quality of drinking water may affect the risk of developing type 1 diabetes. We found that having acidic drinking water in the tap was associated with higher risk for type 1 diabetes. This discovery was made in Western College, and has its source in local hypotheses that well water may be significant because it contains lots of iron. Iron, however, was excluded as a risk factor in this study (Stene et al. Diabetes Care 2002). Researchers from other countries approached us and expressed interest in this discovery, but we believe the results must be interpreted with caution because the known sources of error may have played a role, and it is currently difficult to give a good explanation of the discovery. We therefore believe that there is no reason to go to measures to change the drinking water quality, justified in the risk for type 1 diabetes alone. Continue Reading →