Asbestos in drinking water: a status report

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos in drinking water: a status report, by J.A. Cotruvo (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1983).

The study

• Author: J.A. Cotruvo
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 1983;53:181-3
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

The conference is briefly reviewed in the light of its impact on future regulatory decisions regarding the possible control of asbestos fiber in drinking water. The results of animal feeding studies indicate that asbestos fails to demonstrate toxicity in whole-animal lifetime exposures. The epidemiologic evidence of risk from ingestion of water containing asbestos fibers is not convincing, and in view of the lack of confirmation by animal studies, the existence of a risk has not been proven; however occupational gastrointestinal cancer may indicate ingestion risk. Whether or not there is a risk from asbestos in drinking water, however, common sense tells us to deal with an undesirable situation by employing means that are commonly and economically available. Well-known methods can minimize the presence of asbestos fibers in finished drinking water. In the case of natural fiber in raw water, standard or augmented filtration practices are extremely effective. If the source of asbestos fiber is asbestos-cement pipe that is being attacked by corrosive water, then, there is more than sufficient economic reason to correct the corrosivity of the water.

In plain English

This was a commentary, not an original study. The author, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Drinking Water, reviewed a conference on asbestos in drinking water and its meaning for future EPA decisions. Describing other researchers' work, the author wrote that animal feeding studies, including the National Toxicology Program study, indicated essentially that no toxicity was demonstrated in whole-animal lifetime exposures. The author also judged human epidemiologic evidence of risk from drinking such water not convincing, though gastrointestinal cancer in occupational studies remained an open question. The author cited a 1980 analysis, which included fairly tenuous conservative assumptions. One of its estimates indicated an approximate upper excess lifetime gastrointestinal cancer risk of one in 100,000 at 300,000 fibers per liter, drinking 2 liters daily for 70 years. The author noted that about 5 to 10% of the U.S. population may drink water at that level. The author concluded that a risk had not been proven. The author wrote that filtration was extremely effective against natural fiber in raw water, and that there was ample economic reason to correct corrosive water attacking asbestos-cement pipe.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Commentary (status report) reviewing a conference on asbestos in drinking water and its regulatory implications; no original data
• Who was studied: No study population; the commentary concerns drinking water regulation in the United States under the Safe Drinking Water Act
• Exposure: Asbestos fibers in drinking water, from natural fiber in raw water or from asbestos-cement pipe attacked by corrosive water
• Main results:
  • Animal feeding studies presented at the conference, including the National Toxicology Program study (other researchers' work), indicated essentially that no toxicity was demonstrated in whole-animal lifetime exposures, in the author's reading
  • In the author's assessment of other studies, the epidemiologic evidence of risk from ingesting water containing asbestos fiber was not convincing
  • The one ecological study (San Francisco Bay Area) that showed some apparent correlation between fiber concentration and cancer risk had confounding factors that were not or could not be considered, according to the author
  • A case-control study in the Pacific Northwest (another research group) apparently did not detect a measurable risk at fiber levels much higher than in the Bay Area study
  • One of the estimates in a 1980 analysis cited by the author indicated an approximate upper excess risk of one in 100,000 per lifetime for gastrointestinal cancer at 300,000 fibers/L, for 2 L water per day for 70 years
  • The author stated that approximately 5 to 10% of the U.S. population may be consuming asbestos-containing water at that level (300,000 fibers/L)
  • In vitro mutagenicity studies (other researchers' work) appeared mostly negative, in the author's reading
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the existence of a risk from asbestos in drinking water had not been proven. For natural fiber in raw water, the author wrote that standard or augmented filtration was extremely effective. Where fibers came from asbestos-cement pipe attacked by corrosive water, the author wrote that there was more than sufficient economic reason to correct the water's corrosivity.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted that the 1980 upper-limit risk estimate rested on several fairly tenuous conservative assumptions

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos-Cement Pipe.

Related studies

• Engineering and operating approaches for controlling asbestos fibers in drinking water — G.S. Logsdon (1983)
• Comparing epidemiologic studies of ingested asbestos for use in risk assessment — L.S. Erdreich (1983)
• Cancer incidence following exposure to drinking water with asbestos leachate — H.L. Howe, P.E. Wolfgang, et al. (1989)
• An assessment of the Environmental Protection Agency's asbestos hazard evaluation algorithm — M.E. Findley, V.E. Rose, et al. (1983)
• Asbestos-contaminated drinking water: its impact on household air — J.S. Webber, S. Syrotynski, et al. (1988)
• Use of quantitative analysis of urine to assess exposure to asbestos fibers in drinking water in the Puget Sound region — E.S. Boatman, T. Merrill, et al. (1983)

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