Drinking water and cancer mortality.

The problem of understanding the possible adverse health effects of organic chemical contaminants in drinking water is not new, but national concern has intensified in recent years. Despite this concern and regulatory efforts, no definitive relationship has been established between organic contamination and human health effects. This paper examines some of the sources of possible organic contamination, current knowledge concerning human health effects and the most current epidemiological data. Historic CCE and CAE data were extracted from STORET and used in regression analyses. Age-adjusted 20-year average cancer mortality rates were regressed against the sum of CAE and CCE for those counties with STORET monitoring data of their drinking water source. Results indicate statistically highly significant relationships particularly for GI-urinary tract cancers.