Health Effects of Heliobacter Pylori in Water Supplies.

Research has shown that Heliobacter pylori bacteria cause at least 75 percent of stomach ulcers and two types of stomach cancer, writes Morgan Powell, P.E., water quality engineer at Kansas State University Research and Extension Service, Biological and Agricultural Engineering. About five million people in the United States have peptic-ulcer disease, and 2.5 million new cases of H. pylori infections occur each year. The health risk for people infected with H. pylori is very high: About one in five people get peptic-ulcer disease, about one in 200 people get gastric adinocarcinoma, and about 16,000 people die each year in the United States as a result of complications from peptic-ulcer disease. Each year, nearly 23,000 new cases of gastric adinocarcinoma are diagnosed in the United States, and about 13,500 people die from this disease. Gastric cancer has a five-year survival rate of only about 12 percent.

Recent research at Penn State University-Harrisburg (PSU) has shown a statistically significant link between people who have peptic-ulcer disease and H. pylori contamination of their private wells. The PSU researchers have found that a large percentage (85 percent) of wells that have coliform bacteria also are contaminated with H. pylori bacteria. In addition, four wells that did not have coliform bacteria tested positive for H. pylori. The researchers also found that 65 percent of water samples taken from private wells and 75 percent of samples taken from surface water contained H. pylori bacteria.

People always want to know: If unsafe drinking water poses such a risk, where are all the individuals afflicted from drinking such water? In the past, researchers have not been able to show data conclusively linking health problems to contaminated water. Mr. Powell believes, however, that the PSU findings are significant and that drinking unsafe water from private wells is in fact a significant health risk. He also points out that safe wells are for the most part going to produce safe water.