Wikipedia.org has this to say about vinyl chloride: “This colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). At ambient pressure and temperature, vinyl chloride is a gas with a sickly sweet odor. It is highly toxic, flammable and carcinogenic.” ( source )

More than 300 McCullom Lake residents have signed up to get their wells tested for carcinogenic vinyl chloride at Rohm and Haas’ expense.

Of 515 surveys sent out last month by village government, 325 came back wanting the free test, while only 11 responded no, Village President Terry Counley said. Rohm and Haas offered in August to pay for it, more than four years into a series of lawsuits blaming pollution from its Ringwood plant for causing a brain cancer cluster.

“I’d say it’s a very good sign. We’re all in this boat together over here, and we need the answers,” Counley said.

Counley must select a water testing company from a list of firms accredited by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Only people who signed up will get their wells tested, and Counley said he would like to get it done before winter.

Three former village next-door neighbors diagnosed with brain cancer filed the first lawsuits in April 2006, alleging that decades of seepage from a closed 8-acre waste pit fouled their air and groundwater with vinyl chloride and other chemicals.

Thirty-two lawsuits as of today blame the pollution for brain and pituitary tumors in McCullom Lake and the Lakeland Park subdivision in McHenry. ( source )

Thankfully the residents of that region in Illinois have banded together and taken a stand on the matter of well water pollution. With any hope these folks will find some answers from the testing… and after that we hope other communities will band together and investigate possible sources of suspected well water contamination.

Can the average person test their own water?

While the task of testing well or ground water for the presence of compounds such as vinyl chloride will remain in the hands of certified water testing experts such as National Testing Laboratories, the average person CAN test for other, more common drinking water contaminants.

Companies such as SenSafe and WaterSafe make easy-to-use, accurate at-home water test kits for a number of critical drinking water parameters such as arsenic in water, lead in water, bacteria in water, and heavy metals in water, etc.

Consumers have the option of purchasing drinking water test kits for individual parameters or in multi-parameter test kits such as the Water Quality Test Kit from SenSafe and the City Water Test Kit from WaterSafe.

At one point residents and officials suspected that radon may have played a part in making people ill (Radon a Suspect in Florida Tumor and Cancer Cases). Outcry in the community prompted the State of Florida to launch an investigation (State of Florida Agrees to Environmental Testing in Acreage Homes Area).

Now, after meeting with residents in the area, going over their histories, testing their water and testing their soil… the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida Department of Health has concluded that living in the Acreage has nothing to do with the unusually high number of brain and central nervous system cancer cases in the area.

In a nutshell, the State of Florida can’t find anything to explain the rash of illnesses.

ACREAGE – The State Health Department’s cancer cluster investigation in the Acreage is coming to an end, with no answers for the hundreds of residents desperate to know why their area is experiencing a higher than usual rate of cancer.

A report released today indicates testing on water and soil samples is over.

Following countless hours of review and concurrence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida Department of Health officials say there’s nothing they can definitively point to as a source of the pediatric brain and central nervous system cancers in the community.

They also determined that having a longer residency in the Acreage posed no higher risk for brain tumors among its children.

Health experts analyzed the history and lifestyle of 13 Acreage families, whose children and teenagers have been diagnosed with cancer.

The group formed to keep an eye on the suspected cancer cluster disbanded just last week. ( source )

So what does Water Testing Blog think about the situation in Acreage? Quite frankly it SCARES us in ways we cannot explain.

Not to sound like the Twilight Zone, but imagine, if you will, that your children and your neighbors’ children have all developed serious and potentially life threatening conditions… and no one can figure out why.

Hopefully someone will figure out why those poor people have gotten sick because in all honesty, if such a ‘random and unexplainable’ spike in cancer can occur there, what would stop it from happening where WE or YOU live?

Plan of action for the rest of us?

In all honesty, we can never truly test for every possible contaminant that could find its way into our drinking water. We can only test for the things most likely to show up on a regular or semi-regular basis and have a ‘full’ analysis performed by a certified water testing lab at set intervals.

The average person has a number of options when it comes to testing their own water. The easiest way, aside from having someone else do the testing, usually involves the use of a test kit from companies like SenSafe and WaterSafe.

You will find several examples of popular home water testing kits from each manufacturer below:

Water Quality Test Kit from SenSafe

Water Metals Test Kit from SenSafe

Arsenic Quick Test Mini-Kit from SenSafe

In the end, though, and as we ALWAYS suggest, if you have serious reason to suspect your well water or municipal/public water supply may have become contaminated, seek the expertise of a certified water testing laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories.

Today we have the distinct honor of announcing the recent launch of SenSafe-Test-Kits.Com, a web site featuring convenient links to, and information about, many of the water quality test kits in the SenSafe brand. You will find that this site has categorized the links and information by online distributor.

On SenSafe-Test-Kits.Com you will have the opportunity to choose between three established and dependable merchants: FiltersFast.Com, FilterWater.Com, and TestProducts.Com.

And now, just so we can maintain objectivity, as an alternative to SenSafe Water Test Kits, we also remind you that we announced the launching of WaterSafe-Test-Kits.Com, a web site with detailed information about water test kits in the WaterSafe Brand, about a week ago.

Below you will find links to nine different SenSafe Water Test Kits:

Manganese Check Test Strips

Total Chlorine Test Kit

John’s Copper in Water Test Kit

Iodine in Water Test Kit

Mercury in Water Test Kit

Silver in Water Test Kit

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2010/01/05/sensafe-test-kits-com-new-water-testing-web-site/feed/ 0 http://watertestingblog.com/2008/04/28/home-municipalcity-water-testing/ http://watertestingblog.com/2008/04/28/home-municipalcity-water-testing/#respond Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:25:49 +0000 http://watertestingblog.com/2008/04/28/home-municipalcity-water-testing/ Although municipalities typically keep tight watch over the quality of water they pump out to consumers, sometimes other factors between the water plant and your faucet may affect the end product they drink, bathe in, and cook with.

End users (consumers) of water supplied by the city may want to periodically check the quality of the water they get from their water company.

Testing the water water quality at your home, office, school or other place of interest does NOT have to cost a fortune, though, as some water service professionals would have you believe.  While nothing takes the place of certified laboratory testing, simple, do-it-yourself home water quality test kits offer fast results at a fraction of the cost and can alert consumers to the fact that they may want to consider having their water examined by a certified laboratory.

Examples of Home Water Test Kits

4 in 1 City Water Check

4 in 1 City Water Check The 4-in-1 City Water Check home water test kit gives fast, accurate water test results for four major parameters often looked at in city (or municipally) treated drinking water: pH, Total Alkalinity, Total Chlorine, and Total Hardness. The test takes less than 30 seconds to perform and requires no technical training. more information

COMPLETE Water Test Kit

COMPLETE Water Test Kit The COMPLETE Water Test Kit offers homeowners the ability to quickly and accurately test for Bacteria, Nitrates, Nitrites, Hydrogen Sulfide, Total Hardness, Total Alkalinity, Total Chlorine, Free Chlorine, Chloride, Copper, Sulfate, Iron, and pH. COMPLETE Water Test Kit gives its users rapid, comprehensive water test results at an affordable cost — MSRP of around $25 USD. more information

Water Quality Test Kit

Water Quality Test Kit With a name as simple and easy to understand as Water Quality Test Kit, you know getting accurate water test results won’t take long. This comprehensive, yet affordable, home water test kit contains the following tests: (2) tests for Iron, (2) tests for Copper, (2) tests for Chloride, (2) tests for Nitrate/Nitrite as Nitrogen, (2) tests for Total Chlorine, (2) tests for Total Hardness, (2) tests for Free Chlorine, (2) tests for Sulfate, (2) tests for pH, (2) tests for Total Alkalinity, (2) tests for Hydrogen Sulfide, (1) Pesticide in Water test, (1) Lead in Water test, and (1) 48 Hour Presence/Absence test for Coliform Bacteria. If you’re looking for a do-it-all, do-it-yourself home water test that won’t break the bank, you should definitely take a long look at the perfectly named Water Quality Test Kit — MSRP of around $37 USD. more information

Looking for more water test kits?

If so, then definitely check out the more than 50 water quality tests kits currently available in our Water Test Kit Store. We have simple, easy-to-use water test kits for basic water quality parameters like total chlorine, coliform bacteria, copper, total iron, and, obviously, many more!