Dr Alison Bleaney
Since 2005, atrazine has been found in the Duck River, the Jordan River, the Rubicon River, the Liffey River, and the Derwent River. Simazine has been found in the Brid River, the Montague River, the Prosser River, the Rubicon River, the South Esk River and Trevallyn Dam, the Macquarie River (contaminated with simazine from July 2007 until January 2008, with no data available since that month), Brumbys Creek, and Western Creek. Launceston’s water supply reported simazine in 2003 and 2004 at above guideline values and atrazine at above guideline value in 2001. Better to act late than never.
Dr R Taylor is sounding a bit unsettled.
As Director for Public Health, he has regulatory control over all reticulated drinking water supplies in Tasmaia. However, he recommended in 2005 (The Tasmanian Drinking Water Guidelines) that reporting of pesticides by the water bodies was not mandatory. Water bodies would assess the catchments and decide for themselves the risk of contamination to raw water. On that basis, they would decide which pesticides to test, if any, and when.
So which water bodies test what? Jessica Whelan did a PhD on this very subject across Tasmania, and found the answers to be really quite shocking ie almost no testing at all.
In Australia the drinking water health guidelines for atrazine are set at 40ppb, and atrazine is not classified as an endocrine disruptor by the APVMA.(EPA equivalent) This is despite the EU and CSIRO classifying the triazines as endocrine disrupting chemicals.These toxic endocrine disruptors are also immune modulators. They also have been shown to interfere with human cell signalling through interference with gene networks at as low a concentration as 2ppb.
In Tasmania the half life of atrazine is approx 230 days (reported in 1997 in the APVMA review of atrazine and confirmed recently by CSIRO) and this may well be longer in groundwater. Some of the metabolites of atrazine are just as toxic as atrazine itself. The half life of simazine is between 40 and 130 days.
There is still no recognition of the effects or testing for chemical mixtures in water, and no long-term monitoring to record adverse impacts or effects in native flora or fauna, or humans.
There are many rivers in Tasmania in which pesticides have been found (DPIW quarterly monitoring testing) more than 3 times. Even Esk water has found simazine in Launceston water supplies more than three times.
Atrazine has been found 16 times in river waters in Tasmania over the past 3 years: (5 in 2005, 5 in 2006, 6 in 2007) Since 2005, atrazine has been found in the Duck River, the Jordan River, the Rubicon River, the Liffey River, and the Derwent River. Simazine has been found in the Brid River, the Montague River, the Prosser River, the Rubicon River, the South Esk River and Trevallyn Dam, the Macquarie River (contaminated with simazine from July 2007 until January 2008, with no pubically available data available since that month), Brumbys Creek, and Western Creek.
Launceston’s water supply reported simazine in 2003 and 2004 at above guideline values and atrazine was found in drinking water at above guideline value in 2001.
Precaution with pesticides in our raw drinking water?
I should really have expected this to be the case. The law allows for it.
When should this start?
This should have happened when Tasmania started using pesticides in a way that could produce water contamination.
What now?
Better to act later than never.
Public Health should now regain control of the quality of drinking water and have mandatory controls over activities (including pesticides) in drinking water catchments.
It should have measures in place to prevent use of endocrine disrupting chemicals – EDS – (CSIRO and the EU list simazine, atrazine and alpha-cypermethrin as EDS) in any catchments, and bioassays to look at mixture effects in raw water used for drinking. (National Water Quality Management Strategy).
There should be “Tasmanian Drinking Water Guidelines” that have mandatory testing for all toxic substances. Appropriate filters should be used by water bodies that have high risk of water contamination, and the general public told of catchment profiles re the risk of water contamination. This is so that the raw water users can make informed decisions about what they need to do to the water they use to protect themselves.
Our Public Health Act states that reticulated drinking water should be safe, clean and non-toxic. That is the law.
Dr Alison Bleaney
Sec- Break O’Day Catchment Risk Group – an organisation affiliated to the National Toxic Network
in reply to
MICHELLE PAINE
May 18, 2008 12:00am
DROUGHT could be worsening the effect of herbicides found in drinking water, Tasmania’s director of public health Roscoe Taylor says.
Dr Taylor said he had warned forestry giant Gunns Ltd not to use simazine and atrazine in the Macquarie River catchment.
He said the residents of Ross and surrounding areas had not been drinking the water anyway because of the toxic algal bloom caused by ongoing drought.
Simazine had been found in the Macquarie River and also was found three years ago in the Prosser River water catchment.
Dr Taylor said he had written to Gunns telling the company not to use the chemicals in that area.
The chemicals, part of the triazine family, are used to kill weeds in forestry plantations and farming.
“I have written to them purely on a precautionary basis, rather than about a public health risk,” Dr Taylor said. He said two cases in drinking-water supplies were enough to trigger his warning.
“It’s three strikes and you’re out,” he said.
Dr Taylor said drought could worsen the effect of any toxin.
“If there’ s a rainfall event after a long period of dry, than that causes run-off into the waterway and then it is not flushed away very quickly,”
he
said
The chemicals have been found repeatedly in the state but Dr Taylor said that was not in his control.
“The others haven’t affected public drinking-water supplies. That is my jurisdiction,” he said.
Recent tests did not show simazine in the Macquarie River. But Dr Taylor said the chemicals were staying for long periods.
Dr Taylor said Gunns had told him it was reviewing the use of chemicals in plantations in Tasmania.
On Thursday, the Tasmanian Greens pointed to a US study showing atrazine could cause damage to human cells at levels half the Australian drinking-water guideline limits. Yesterday Greens water spokesman Tim Morris called on Primary Industries and Water Minister David Llewellyn to ban the use of atrazine and simazine.
“We reiterate our call that while there are state investigations and industry reviews of atrazine and simazine, there is no excuse for those chemicals to be used in any catchments,” he said.
He urged Dr Taylor to look at simazine reports in the South Esk River in
2005-6 and the Rubicon River in 2006.
Gunns Ltd could not be contacted for comment.
