Limerick Included in Poor Drinking Water Quality Report

Private drinking water supplies including those serving rural schools, hotels and hospitals have some of Ireland’s worst quality water, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency has warned. The new report form the EPA, shows that small private wells, including those in Co Limerick, have the worst E.coli contamination levels – significantly behind group water schemes and public water supplies. Private water wells on or close to dairy farms where animal and cow slurry is stored or spread are particularly vulnerable to contamination from E-coli. As well as slurry seeping into the ground, other sources of contamination include leaky well covers, foul surface water, slurry leaking into rivers and streams and pollution from household septic tanks, chemical or fuel storage.

To protect your family health and ensure safe drinking water from a private water well, a water filtration system is a sound investment. For home owners with their own private water well, a grant of up 75% of the cost subject to a maximum of €2031.58 is available from the Department of Housing Planning Community and Local Government to assist with protecting and maintaining their household water well or installing basic treatment like disinfection or filtration systems. Click here to download or read the full EPA report.

Antibiotics in Tap Water A Growing Concern For Ireland

A new research report from the Irish EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) shows how antibiotics are getting into the environment, particularly water sources and looks at the possible effects of antibiotics in the environment on human health. It is now commonplace for antibiotics to fail or not work as intended, which was unheard of 20 years ago. The immediate public health concern discussed in the report, considers the effect of antibiotics in water and how microbes in water change to become more antibiotic resistant.

The increased use of antibiotics is influenced by an increasing and aging population, longer survival of people with complex illnesses, changes in food production systems, farming practices and other social and economic factors. Effluent from hospitals can be heavily contaminated with antibiotics and pathogens. Modern farming practices rely heavily on antibiotics, used as preventative medication to keep animals alive and healthy in confined spaces such as in intensive dairy farms, piggeries, broiler houses, poultry farms and anywhere animals are confined in close cramped conditions. The antibiotics are usually included in processed animal feed or administered directly into farm animals such as dairy cows in large dairy herds. Animal waste from chickens, cows and pigs in confined conditions includes a number of potentially harmful pollutants including nitrogen, phosphorus, antibiotics, pathogens and hormones. For people living in rural areas such as the Golden Vale and other intensive farming areas, an effective home water filtration system is a great way to protect home drinking water from water borne contamination including antibiotics previously used to treat animals or humans.

The new report from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency is entitled “Hospital Effluent: Impact on the Microbial Environment & Risk to Human Health” and it goes into great detail on the threat to Irish water by antibiotic-resistant bacteria…Read More