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UK Tap Water Sewage Threat

Author: Jonty Adderley
Monday, August 26, 2002
Clubbers who stick to bottled water in England could be seriously protecting their health according to Britain's top bacteriologist Dr Hugh Pennington.

"The water in London is so bad you're basically drinking diluted sewage," Dr Pennington told the News Of The World last week. Tap water drinkers, the paper explained, risk catching cryptosporidium- parasites spread by rats urinating in the water system.

In more bad water news, scientists from the UN also revealed this week that people swimming in the seas around Britain are at risk of catching hepatitis A and meningitis.

"There is an enormous and hidden burden of disease from bathing in Britain which the Government has played down," Professor Gareth Rees of Askham Bryan College, told the Independent. Amongst the 40% of British beaches currently failing World Health Organisation minimum standards are Brighton, Blackpool and Southend.

http://www2.kenyon.edu/depts/biology/slonc/bio38/hannahs/crypto.htm (cryptosporidium information)
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