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News Beat Continued from page 43 ers, faucets, humidifiers, and other water use equipment and appliances. "We're also concerned that people contracting Legionnaires' disease from their water systems may be misdiagnosed as COVID-19 patients, which makes prevention efforts in our community water systems even more critical," added Cline.
Current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations do not require community water systems to test directly for Legionella in their systems. Because it’s not an enforceable require ment, water systems do not have to monitor for or take action to minimize Legionella. Treatments that virtually eliminate many microbes are expected to also remove or neutralize Legionella, but key research indicates that it does not happen. "Typically, after Legionnaires' disease outbreaks, water suppliers state that the water 'meets all EPA regulations.' This may be true, but that does not mean that the water is Legionella-free," authors Cline and Sarah Ferrari write. They point to three key studies in the United States of hundreds of water samples from water storage tanks, tap water, and cooling towers—all along the water pipeline after leaving the community facility to reaching the end user. The studies found collectively that one-third of drinking water samples tested positive for L. pneumophila, including more than one-quarter of them posi
tive for the most lethal strain of bacteria responsible for 90 percent of Legionnaires' cases.
The authors recommendation that water systems monitor and test for Legionella bacteria at the water plant and along the distribution system will complement the work of states like Illinois, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania that have improved state regulations to require stronger antimicrobial treatment throughout the water sys tem, from source to tap. "A focus on efforts to better control pathogens in the public water supply upstream by strengthening EPA requirements is the rational approach to addressing the increased threat of waterborne pathogenic bacteria-related disease cases in the future," they write.
The authors' full article, along with many other important re sources on Legionnaires' disease, is available at the APLD website at https://preventlegionnaires.org/category/pdf-report/ and is the first report listed.
The APLD is a national nonprofit organization formed to educate public officials about the science and investments needed to promote a more comprehensive, proactive approach to fighting waterborne disease.
Legionnaires' disease draws national headlines with each outbreak, causing concern in communities with each case that results in death or serious illness. R Researchers at Vanderbilt University have discovered that perchlorate inhibits the uptake of iodide, an essential component of thyroid hormones, in a more pronounced and fundamental way than commonly considered.
This discovery was recently published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, just as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its decision to not regulate the levels of perchlorate in drinking water.
Nancy Carrasco, professor and chair of the university’s department of molecular physiology and biophysics, and the paper’s lead author, believes it’s a decision that may endanger public health in many communities across the United States.
“The end effect of perchlorate exposure on thyroid hormones is that the transport of iodide is impaired,” Carrasco says. “Much less iodide will be transported. Now that we understand exactly what perchlorate does, we can clearly see that contamination of drinking water with this chemical is more worrisome than previously thought.”
Thyroid hormones, which are crucial to human development, deliver the signals needed to promote healthy growth beginning at the earliest stage: uterine life. Its production relies on the sodium/ iodide symporter (NIS), a key protein present in thyroid cells that ac tively transports iodide from the bloodstream into the thyroid gland. Humans receive iodide through their diet.
The new study demonstrates that perchlorate exposure fundamentally alters the mechanism by which NIS transports iodide into the thyroid, making it less efficient. This work builds on Carrasco’s groundbreaking cloning of NIS, which revealed how the protein ushers iodide from the bloodstream into the thyroid.
Even what would be considered low concentrations of perchlorate significantly decrease iodide transport and the resulting production of thyroid hormones. Because of the outsize influence of thyroid hormones on human cognitive and physical development, the populations most vulnerable to perchlorate-contaminated drinking water are pregnant and nursing women, developing fetuses, and newborn babies. Continued on page 49
