Dans le petit village de Fawcett, en Alberta, un enfant malade a motivé les autorités sanitaires à émettre un avertissement d'eau d'aqueduc contaminé: les femmes enceintes ou qui allaitent et les enfants de moins de 6 ans ne doivent pas boire l'eau du robinet dans cette ville. Un enfant intoxiqué aux nitrates a des problèmes à respirer et a les lèvres et la peau bleues. Les nitrites et les nitrates s'attachent à l'hémoglobine dans le sang et empêchent les tissus du corps humain de s'oxygéner.
On a trouvé des nitrates à une concentration trop élevée dans 3 maisons de Fawcett, mais pas à l'usine de filtration ni dans le puits municipal qui alimente la ville. Il pourrait s'agir d'un bris dans l'aqueduc: quelque chose permet aux contaminants de s'infiltrer dans le système d'eau potable.
Les 150 personnes qui vivent dans ce petit village à 140 kilomètres d'Edmonton peuvent aller chercher de l'eau en bouteille tous les jours à la caserne des pompiers. Les autorités du comté travaillent avec le provincial pour tenter de trouver la source du problème: les nitrites et les nitrates viennent souvent des engrais et des excréments d'animaux ou d'humains.
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"Nitrate poisoning suspected -
Child shows symptoms linked to tainted water
A child showing symptoms that could be associated with nitrate poisoning set off a round of testing that led this week to the water advisory in Fawcett. Dr. Gerry Predy, chief medical officer with Alberta Health Services, would not give more details about the child, but said ingesting nitrites can cause serious illness in children. Nitrates bind to hemoglobin in the blood and prevent the body from getting oxygen to the tissues.
Infants can seem short of breath and develop a bluish tinge on their lips and skin when they ingest nitrates, so-called blue baby syndrome. Children are more at risk from nitrates than adults because of their smaller size. The advisory says pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants under six should stop drinking the water. The water advisory was issued Wednesday afternoon.
Officials flushed the pipes and took more water samples in homes in Fawcett on Friday to try to pinpoint how the contamination is getting into the system.
The initial testing found higher than normal levels of nitrates in three homes, but not at the treatment plant or in the source water, the hamlet's well. That could indicate a break in the distribution system or that something is allowing water and contaminates to backwash into the system, Alberta Environment spokeswoman Cara Tobin said.
The 150 people who live in the hamlet about 140 kilometres northwest of Edmonton are able to pick up bottled water at the firehall daily, Westlock County official Peggy Hardinge said. County officials area working with the province to find the source of the problem. "They'll pick some spots to do more sampling from and try to nail down the sources that way," she said. Nitrates are commonly found in fertilizer and animal or human waste."
Excerpts of article written by Elise Stolte, edmontonjournal.com published here: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Nitrate%20poisoning%20suspected/3229880/story.html
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