Is there a problem with tap-water ?
Often, at conferences, on this web-site and in my meetings with many
patients, I’m asked, “Isn’t there a problem with tap-water? What kind of water
should you drink if you have cancer?” In order to answer this question, I
gathered a team of toxcicology and environmental scientists, oncologists and
epidemiologists and we’ve been working on it for several months. We’ve reviewed
more than a hundred articles from scientific journals as well as many reports
from governmental bodies; we’ve queried more than forty outside experts and
together with the French branch of the World Wildlife Fund (which has been
particularly active on the question of drinking water) we’ve laid out a common
position and recommendations.
Our conclusions are simple. Just as we should be careful about the kind of
water we give to infant babies, we need to be careful what kind of water we
give to a person whose health is more vulnerable because of an illness such as
cancer that can be sensitive to a variety of contaminants. Although tap-water
is, on average, of high quality in the US as in Europe, too many areas do still
have tap-water that exceeds regulations for nitrates (because of agricultural
fertilizers and manure) and pesticides. Thus, access to contaminant-free tap
water cannot be blindly trusted.
Our water also contains increasing amounts of traces of medications that
shouldn’t be there. The effect of this on human health has not been measured,
but these traces are capable of changing the sex of fish and tadpoles in
rivers, and their presence (to varying degrees) in drinking water is
disturbing.
For people who are concerned about this, we’ve formulated several
recommendations. The main ones are
1. Check the levels of nitrates and pesticides in your tap-water with the local
authorities (in France, these tests are obligatory and their results must be
made public).
2. If they are excessive, drink bottled water if possible (recycling the
plastic bottles) or use a good-quality filter (remembering to change the
filters at appropriate intervals less they release all the contaminants once
they become saturated…)
3. Insist with your local authorities that they should protect the catchment
areas for drinking water, especially through organic farming and by appropriate
treatment of waste from medical treatment centers.
Shortly after we published the recommandations stemming from of our joint study
with the WWF, the Endocrine Society (an international body of scientists and
physicians) published a report reaching very similar conclusions. And the
two-time Pullitzer Prize awardee and New York Times columnist Nick
Kristof published a powerful column on the issue as well. Clearly, this is
a matter than will gather momentum in the coming months. Let’s hope this
attention will put more pressure on our local governments to better protect the
environment, and especially our water supplies, from the unacceptable
contaminations.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
* Pr. David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PHD, Author of Healing without Freud of
Prozac (or The Instinct to Heal) and of Anticancer
* Bernard Cressens, Scientific Director, WWF-France
* Pr. Jean-Claude Lefeuvre, Professor Emeritus, National Museum of Natural
History, Former President of the French Institute of Biodiversity, Author of
three governmental reports on the quality of raw water for distribution through
the national network: 1981, 2000, 2005
* Pr. Luc Montagnier, MD, Nobel Laureate (Medicine, 2008)
* David Carpenter, MD, PHD, Director of the Institute for Health and the
Environment, Unviersity Albany, SUNY, USA
* Pr. Devra Lee Davis, PHD, Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology,
University of Pittsburgh, USA
* Pr. Franco Berrino, MD, PHD, Medical Oncologist, Director of the Preventive
and Predictive Medicine Department of the National Cancer Institute
(Italy)
* Annie Sasco, MD, PHD, Director of the Epidemiology Unit for Cancer
Prevention, French National Institute of Medicine and Medical Research, and
University Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2
* Pr. Jean-Marie Pelt, Biologist, President of the European Institute of
Ecology, Member of the scientific committee of the Rhin-Meuse Water
Agency
* Pr. Gilles-Eric Séralini, PHD, Biologist, President of the Scientific
Committee of the CRIIGEN, co-director of the Risque Assessment Unit, MRSH,
University of Caen
* Jean-Pierre Cravedi, PHD, Biologist, Director of the Xenobiotics Laboratory,
Toulouse, France, Expert with the European Agency for Food Safety
* Benoit Roig, PHD, Biologist, Ecole des mines d'Alès- Coordinator of European
KNAPPE Project on the presence of pharmaceutical agents in the water supply
(Knowledge and Assessment on Pharmaceutical Products in Environmental
Waters)
* Gauthier Chapelle, PHD, Biologist, former Scientific Officer of the Polar
Fondation
* Philippe Desbrosses, PHD, Organic farmer, Expert consultant with the European
Union
* Pr. Lucien Israël, MD, Professor emeritus of Medical Oncology, Member of the
National Institute of Moral and Political Sciences (France)
* Thierry Dorval, MD, Medical Oncologist, Institut Curie, Paris, France
* Jean-Loup Mouysset, MD, PHD, Medical Oncologist, Sub-specialty in
Environmental Sciences as applied to Health, Polyclinique Parc
Rambot-Provencale, Aix en Provence
* Philippe Presles, MD, Director of the Moncey Institute for Prevention, Paris,
France, Author of “Prevention”.
* Pierre Souvet, MD, Cardiologist, President of the Association for Health and
the Environment, France
