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Safe Drinking Water

2008-09-24 16:46:27

While drinking plenty of water is critical to your baby's healthy development, it is also important to protect your unborn child from potentially harmful water contaminants.

Drinking enough water during pregnancy is vital to ensuring the health of you and your baby. Most importantly, water acts as the body’s transportation system, carrying nutrients through your blood to the baby. However, water can also help prevent or alleviate many of the side effects of pregnancy. By drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day (or more depending on your level of activity or exercise), you can keep yourself hydrated while reducing your risk of developing a urinary tract infection or hypertension, the chances of which increase due to physical changes during pregnancy.

Yet while drinking plenty of water is critical to your baby’s healthy development, it is also important to protect your unborn child from potentially harmful drinking water contaminants. Exposure to drinking water contaminants such as lead, nitrates, pesticides and even the byproducts of processes that disinfect water supplies can harm your baby by retarding growth, stunting mental development and causing birth defects. Maternal exposure to drinking water contaminants can even lead to spontaneous abortion of the developing fetus.

Contaminants to Be Concerned About

Disinfection Byproducts: Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are drinking water contaminants that are actually formed when chlorine or other disinfectants are used to eliminate microbial contaminants that can cause waterborne infectious diseases. DBPs have been linked to a range of health effects, including cancers of the colon, rectum and bladder. DBPs can also cause significant harm to baby development. Maternal exposure to DBPs during pregnancy may result in: intrauterine growth retardation – a condition in which growth of the baby is slowed; birth defects that affect the brain and nervous system; spontaneous abortion (miscarriage); and stillbirth.

Lead: Your drinking water is likely to be contaminated with lead if your house contains lead piping. Smaller amounts of lead in brass faucets and copper piping can also contribute to lead contamination in drinking water. While lead exposure can harm anyone at high exposure levels, fetuses and children are most vulnerable to the effects of lead. Not only do their growing bodies absorb more lead, but their developing organ systems are also more sensitive to lead’s toxic effects. Slowed growth and development, damage to the brain and nervous system and lowered IQ are among the harmful effects caused by exposure to lead while in the womb.

Pesticides: Drinking water can also be a significant source of chronic pesticide exposure, especially in agricultural regions where large quantities of pesticides are used. Because pesticides can cross the placenta from mother to child, maternal exposure during pregnancy can significantly harm fetal development. Babies exposed to pesticides in the womb have a greater risk of birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, malformations of the circulatory and respiratory system, childhood leukemia, and miscarriage.

Nitrates: Nitrates are most commonly found in the drinking water of rural and agricultural regions where the heavy use of nitrogen-based fertilizers on crops leads to contamination of underground water supplies. One of the primary risks associated with exposure to nitrates is methemoglobinemia, also known as “blue baby syndrome,” a condition in which the body’s ability to transport oxygen is diminished, causing the skin to turn a blue-gray color. Maternal exposure to nitrates during pregnancy can also raise the risk of birth defects of the central nervous system and miscarriage.

How Can I Protect My Baby?

Despite the dangers posed by drinking water contaminants, you don’t have to risk dehydration to protect your baby from their harmful effects. By taking a few simple precautions, you can reduce your contaminant exposure while drinking enough water to ensure a healthy pregnancy.

Consumer Confidence Reports: Each year, you should receive an annual water quality report from your water supplier. Any community water system that serves over 100,000 customers is required by law to make its consumer confidence report (CCR) available on a publicly accessible website. Many water suppliers choose to link their CCR’s to the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and are available at: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html. By reviewing your water supplier’s annual CCR, you can find out where your drinking water comes from and what contaminants it may contain.

Have Your Water Tested: While your CCR gives you a good indication of system-wide water quality, it does not reflect conditions at specific household faucets. You may want to have your water tested for levels of contaminants like lead, which can vary significantly from house to house depending on the contribution from in-home plumbing. You also should have your water tested if your water does not come from a public water system or if you get your water from a household well because you alone are responsible for assuring that it is safe. The cost of water testing will depend on the number of contaminants you test for. Contact your State Certification Officer (http://www.epa.gov/safewater/labs/index.html) to get a list of certified water testing labs in your state.

Let Your Water Sit: The simple step of letting your tap water sit in an open container can help to reduce levels of disinfection byproducts. DBPs evaporate at room temperature, so leaving a filled pot or pitcher on the counter for an hour or more will help protect you and your baby from high levels of exposure.

Flush Your Pipes: Lead levels in your water can be reduced by flushing your pipes before using water from the tap. Running your faucet with cold water for 30 seconds or more will flush out lead that has built up in your water as a result of contact with lead pipes. You can also reduce your lead exposure by using only cold water for drinking and cooking.

Filters: You can also use a filter to reduce contaminant levels in your drinking water. If you plan on using a filter, be sure to read the label to see what contaminants the filter will capture. Activated charcoal filters are effective at reducing DBPs. If you are using a filter to remove lead, be sure that it is certified by NSF International.

Thank you to Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), www.psr.org, for helping to compile this information.

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