Carl Wilson

Obscure Gastro-intestinal Outbreaks Ascribed to Water Supply.

Since the adoption of the Treasury Department standard for bacterial quality of water, and more particularly since chlorination of public supplies is all but universally practiced, the water works official has naturally come to believe that a colon-free water cannot possibly transmit disease. Perhaps he is right, but in view of recent happenings it seems only judicious to investigate carefully the possibility of his confidence being in part misplaced. Apparently there can be no doubt that typhoid fever, Asiatic cholera, and the dysenteries cannot be carried by water which continuously fails to show the presence of colon bacillus, but is this equally true for all the infectious diseases to which human flesh is heir? Is it possible for the germs of diseases not yet recognized as being water-borne to gain access to and persist in our water unaccompanied by colon bacteria and so escape detection by our present methods of testing water? Explosive outbreaks of gastro-intestinal disorders, ill-defined in character, have been reported from many localities in all sections of the United States and there is a strong tendency throughout the laypopulation, only too often shared by health officials in the absence of proof to the contrary, to incriminate the public water supply. All these outbreaks have been short-lived, and recovery of individual patients is so rapid that medical aid is seldom invoked, and little or no laboratory investigation has been possible. The characteristic symptoms have been nausea and violent vomiting, generally without a rise in temperature, and only occasionally accompanied or followed by diarrhea. Weakness approaching exhaustion frequently follows the vomiting, which may continue for several hours, and recovery is usually complete in 48 to 60 hours. Some of the recent California outbreaks may be listed as follows:

Recreational Use of Reservoirs

Among the numerous phases of sanitation in connection with water supplies the question of recreational use of reservoirs impounding water intended for domestic consumption is one of perennial recurrence, seemingly incapable of final solution, at least for certain social elements. Hunters and fishermen are always seeking to have closed lakes opened and one cannot blame them, for the temptation to fish where bass are plentiful, or to shoot into flocks of tame ducks must be great indeed. Sportsmen are voters, and we may need their votes to carry necessary bonds, so a desire to make friends for the Department makes us anxious to please the sportsman. But not all voters are hunters or fishermen, in fact, at least 75 percent of them are not, and we must also consider the wishes of those who do not desire recrea-

Cross-Connections in Los Angeles

We have had no trouble in the form of disease, but awfully bad water, and something had to be done to take care of bad water conditions. We might say in the beginning that our records show the existence of no cross-connection at all. When cross-connections were suspected as the cause of bad water conditions everybody told us there were none. It was very difficult to locate them; so we had to go at things a little differently. Our department is perhaps a little bit more arbitrary than the East Bay people, and sometimes we do things other people might not try. We started on this basis: The State Board of Health, or rather the Public Health Laws of the State of California have very broad powers. It is stated specifically that the burden for all pollution of water shall be laid on the individual who allows it or who causes itr not upon the water purveyor himself. That was fine and danidy; and that enabled us to attack it from that side.