What Do You KKnow About Trichloroethylene (TCE) Water Contamination?

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a world-wide contaminant. TCE, being tasteless, cannot be detected by physically drinking water. The only way to detect TCE is through well water analysis. TCE also degrades over time producing by-products, such as vinyl chloride, that may have more cancer causing potential than just TCE. TCE can be detected in the blood and urine soon after exposure, but when people are exposed to TCE repeatedly, it will accumulate in body fat. We also learned, however, that numerous epidemiological studies have been carried out on the potential effects of TCE, but they established no specific link between cause and effects. Rats and mice show adverse health effects when exposed to TCE, but only when they are subjected to greatly higher dosages than human populations ever find.

In the United States (Sterling,Virginia) and in Canada (Shannon, Quebec), people have been exposed by ingestion, inhalation and or dermal contact. The residents of Shannon and Sterling were exposed specifically via ingestion and inhalation. Although we do not know exactly how long residents of Shannon have been drinking contaminated water, we know that in Sterling, residents were exposed from 1971 until three years ago when carbon filtration systems were installed. We now know that in Shannon at least 240 residents were diagnosed with cancer and the residents blame TCE. Here, however, the cancers do not meet the characteristics of cancer clusters. In Sterling, because carbon filtration was installed on affected wells, no health follow-ups were deemed necessary.

There is a possibility that, thanks to molecular toxicology, specific chromosome signatures in cancerous tissues may identify the culprit agent, similar to TCE’s specific signature on chromosome 3. If chromosomal signatures can be identified, conclusions as to cause and effect could potentially be reached more quickly. Read the full story here.