The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink.THE BLUE DEATH: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink ROBERT D. MORRIS Many people in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. take clean drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. for granted. Such complacency, Morris argues, could mean trouble down the road, as the water supply is threatened by ever-evolving microbes, bioterrorism, and environmental toxins. Waterborne illness still occurs, and drinking water may sicken millions of people every year in the United States. Morris, an environmental epidemiologist, looks at the history of waterborne disease, including the cholera cholera (kŏl`ərə) or Asiatic cholera, acute infectious disease caused by strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae that have been infected by bacteriophages. outbreaks in London that led to John Snow's discovery of the disease's source in drinking water and the typhoid typhoid or typhoid fever Acute infectious disease resembling typhus (and distinguished from it only in the 19th century). Salmonella typhi, usually ingested in food or water, multiplies in the intestinal wall and then enters the bloodstream, causing outbreaks of 19th-century Chicago. He describes early engineering efforts to guarantee clean water, including expensive and treacherous dam construction as well as environmental regulations. Morris contends that despite such efforts, the U.S. water system remains at risk from pollution, leaking water mains, and resistant microbes. Finally, Morris offers suggestions for ensuring a safe water supply, including using more-advanced water-treatment technology and making filters an integral part of the water-supply system water-supply system Facilities for the collection, treatment, storage, and distribution of water. Ancient systems included wells, storage reservoirs, canals and aqueducts, and water-distribution systems. Highly advanced systems appeared c. . HarperCollins, 2007, 310 p., hardcover, $24.95. |
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