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Show Header expresses views concerning chlorination of water ' Following is a letter submit-l submit-l 5! by Dr. Paul K. Edmunds of tapleton giving his views on y 10 chlorination controversy: ( Over one hnudred years ago righam Young said, "It is ifflcult to find anything salthier to drink than the d, cold water, such as flows 3vn to us from springs and 10ws of our mountains." To-V To-V we might well add, "Such 5 is piped to our peoule in Pringville and Mapleton from lese mountain springs." Both ties are noted for their na-lrally na-lrally cold, fresh, palatable ater; and many an out-of-especially those from le eastern and midwestern U. who must drink "recondi-oned" "recondi-oned" (previously grossly J)' contaminated) water, of necessity neces-sity heavily chlorinated, as the writer has had to do in earlier ear-lier years. One can smell the chlorine in the water as it comes from the taps of such water supplies. And one gladly tolerates such water, knowing that it is truly necessary to protect against water-borne infections, in-fections, notably typhoid fever fev-er and the dysenteries, so common com-mon a few1 generations ago. Not so today in our communities! com-munities! Quoting from Dr. Morrell's book, "Utah's Health and You" (Dr. Morrell was a member of the Utah State Board of Health for a quarter century, and chairman from 1940 to 1945): "Many of the old dangers of stream and wa ter pollution, so common in pioneer days, are not of such serious concern today. The fundamentals fun-damentals of water protection have been learned, and only through indifference or willful violation is there now . any trouble." This latter arises chiefly from carelessness on the part of campers, picnickers, ect, on our water sheds. Naturally this possible contamination would need take place above the sites of our sources of water supply. Once in the systems, the water is protected by the cemented-in cemented-in springs and the further course of the water through the pipe lines to the cities. It goes without repeating that water supplies originating in areas heavily populated with campers, ect. would need the added protection afforded by the chlorination process, especially espec-ially during the months when camping is at a peak. This would be doubly true of systems sys-tems using open reservoirs for storage of culinary water supplies. sup-plies. In such cases, chlorination chlorina-tion would be mandatory; and surely no one vould intelligently intelli-gently object to it. But ' we live in Springville and Mapleton where these conditions con-ditions do not prevail. The writer had the records of the Utah State Health Department De-partment checked to determine how serious a threat our water wa-ter systems have been to our people "since the fundamentals of water protection have been learned" and used by us. In the past 23 years there has not been a single case of typhoid fever recorded for Mapleton. Ma-pleton. In the past 23 years, there have been recorded but five cases for Springville. And I submit that these might well have come to Springville by tvay of shipped-in fresh produce, pro-duce, for example, handled by a "Typhoid Mary" somewhere, rather than from their water supply per se. (Our grocers are very careful to help protect pro-tect us from this source of possible contamination, by the careful way in which they handle the produce before and after it is placed on their shelves, and this we recognize and appreciate). Should we go to the extreme of ascribing the five cases to the Springville water supply alone (which I maintain we have no right to do), I submit that the incidence (one case in four years, average) is hardly significant. Especially inasmuch inas-much as people who contract typhoid fever in the present day are now able to be treated with the newer drugs. In summary, I ask the question: ques-tion: Do we need to chlorinate the Springville andor Mapleton Maple-ton culinary water supplies? Personally, I look upon it with disfavor. P. K. Edmunds, M. D. Mapleton City Councilman |