Uranium level in well 65 times above safe limit

MORE than 300 people have had blood and urine samples analysed following the discovery last October of very high levels of uranium in a Co Wicklow well.

A statement issued yesterday by the South Western Area Health Board (SWAHB) said 328 people had been screened between July 24 and the start of September. “While the results of the individual tests will be forwarded to the residents’ GPs, the results of the study will be available when the project is completed in early 2004,” the statement said.

The tests were carried out as a precautionary measure, following the discovery by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of uranium levels in a Baltinglass well 65 times above the limit described as safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Yesterday’s health board statement said: “medical research suggests that the level of uranium found in the water supply at the time, which was discontinued, is unlikely to be a cause for any public health concern. However, as a precautionary measure, the South Western Area Health Board is providing a health screening check-up for residents who received their water from this supply.”

It is estimated that up to 200 homes in the Baltinglass area received their water supply from the well. The health board has set up a steering committee, chaired by a public health specialist, to oversee the Baltinglass study. The committee includes specialists from the Department of Public Health; the Eastern Regional Health Authority; members of the South Western Area Health Board management; the project manager; a consultant nephrologist; a consultant chemical pathologist, and a lecturer/epidemiologist from the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at University College Dublin. Consultants from Tallaght Hospital are also assisting in the study, and the blood and urine samples are being analysed at the hospital.

Wicklow County Council was informed of the high level of uranium in early October last year, but it was mid-November by the time the well was shut down.

Householders in parts of Wicklow were provided with water from tankers at the time. Although there is no international or European standard, the WHO guideline for uranium in water is two micrograms per litre. The levels found in Wicklow were on average 130 micrograms per litre.

Uranium 238 is a naturally occurring form of the radioactive metal which decays to release radon gas. It is believed it entered the water supply through dissolved rock. The EPA identified the presence of elevated levels of uranium 238 in groundwater samples at Baltinglass during its national groundwater monitoring programme in October last year.