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© 1981 Oxford University Press

research-article

Methaemoglobin Levels in Young Children Consuming High Nitrate Well Water in the United States

GUNTHER F CRAUN*, DANIEL G GREATHOUSE{dagger} and DAVID H GUNDERSON{dagger}

*Currently a doctoral candidate at Harvard University School of Public Health Boston, Massachusetts
{dagger}Health Effects Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, USA

Craun GF [Health Effects Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45268, USA], Greathouse DG and Gunderson DH. Methaemoglobin levels in young children consuming high nitrate well water in the United States. International Journal of Epidemiology 1981, 10: 309–317.

The EPA limit for nitrate (10 mg/l NO, -N) in drinking water was esteblished to prevent infantile methaemoglo-binemia, an acute condition confined almost exclusively to infants less than three months. This condition is clinically detectable at methaemoglobin levels of approximately 10%. Several studies in the Soviet Union have suggested that elevated methaemoglobin levels from ingested nitrate may not be confined to the young infant and have reported an association between increased methaemoglobin levels of up to 7% in schoolchildren and drinking water with a nitrate concentration of 23–204 mg/l NO,-N. An epidemiologic study of 102 children aged 1–8 conducted in Washington County, Illinois, did not show that ingestion of water with a nitrate concentration of 22–111 mg/l NO, –N was related to increasing methaemoglobin levels nor that the children had high or above normal methaemoglobin levels. The potential for transmission of infectious waterborne disease in this area was demonstrated, however, as a large percentage of the wells used for drinking water contained high numbers of total and faecal conforms.

Received 2 June 1981


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