Don’t drink airline water?
Random tests of 169 US passenger planes found increasingly high levels of water contamination, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Contamination by fecal coliform bacteria was found 17% of the time in a test late last year, almost 5% more than tests done earlier, according to a report in USA Today.
The EPA is investigating the sources of the contamination, which could include local water supplies, unsanitary water-hose nozzles, incorrect tank-filling procedures, or tainted pumping systems.
Airlines can take on water several times a day in different cities, making it more difficult to isolate causes, says the EPA.
EPA officials say coliform bacteria aren’t dangerous but do indicate the presence of possible disease-causing organisms.
Tom Skinner of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance said test results should not cause undue fear. He said:
“People have been flying for 40 years in this country and there haven’t been reports of mass outbreaks of intestinal illness on any given flight. And conditions haven’t changed for the worse in the last 40 years.”
Report by David Wilkening
David
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