Posted on Wed, Jan. 19, 2005





Contamination of airplane water has worsened, EPA says

BY KATIE FAIRBANK

The Dallas Morning News


DALLAS - (KRT) - Bacteria are still showing up in the running water aboard the nation's airliners, even though carriers promised to flush and disinfect their water systems every few months.

In fact, the results are looking worse.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that coliform showed up in 17.2 percent of 169 randomly tested passenger aircraft, up from 12.7 percent of 158 planes in August and September.

The EPA cautioned passengers with compromised immune systems to drink only canned or bottled beverages when they fly. Travelers also might stay away from tea or coffee, unless they're made with bottled water.

"There have been no results of mass illnesses or any kind of an outbreak," said Cynthia Bergman, an EPA spokeswoman.

But, she said, the "results confirm the presence of bacteria at levels warranting continued EPA scrutiny."

The tests were done on water from galley water taps and lavatory faucets on planes at 12 U.S. airports.

"Total coliform indicates that other disease causing pathogens may be present in the water," Bergman said.

Healthy people probably won't get sick from coliform bacteria, but they shouldn't ingest it.

"It means there is poop contamination of the water," said Jeffrey Griffiths, a specialist in infectious diseases at Tufts University School of Medicine.

"It does come from the intestines of people and animals," he said. "The fact that it is showing up in airline water means it isn't exactly clean."

Griffiths said that if a municipal water utility finds coliform bacteria, it would be required to retest the water quickly and perform additional tests for more specific kinds of bacteria.

"This isn't a good thing," he said. "It's a wake-up call that you've got contamination of the water of a type that's a serious one."

Nancy Young, head of environmental affairs for the Air Transport Association, said the trade group has raised questions about how samples were gathered from the plane galleys and bathrooms.

"If you put the beaker under the spigot in the sink in the lavatory, you may pick up the bacteria of concern from the spigot itself," Young said. "We don't have the quality assurance report on EPA's sampling."

The transport trade group, which represents most major U.S. airlines, also pointed out that much of the sampling was done on airplanes operated by foreign carriers, over which the EPA has no jurisdiction.

"Part of our point has been that the ATA carriers have stepped up to the plate," Young said.

A dozen major U.S. carriers agreed in November to a program to improve sanitation in water systems after tests reported in late September showed one of every eight airliners failing EPA standards.

Under the agreement, planes would be disinfected within 24 hours if coliform bacteria were discovered, unless the agency granted an extension because the plane was outside the United States.

The airlines also promised to flush the drinking water systems on their planes every three months.

Because the agreement was reached late last year, carriers didn't have much time before the latest round of testing.

"The agreements are being implemented on a rolling basis," said Bergman of the EPA. "Each airline is going to test every airplane in every fleet. That will take time."

Most U.S. airlines serve bottled water, but that isn't guaranteed.

"Our standard drink service is bottled water. If we happened to run out of bottled water, we would serve galley water in designated metal pitchers," said Tim Wagner at Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines.

On Southwest Airlines flights, water from galley tanks is regularly used for coffee and tea.

"That water is filtered and, additionally, it is heated to 195 degrees," said Beth Harbin, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southwest. "Anything hotter than that, we get into lawsuit territory for having our coffee too hot."

Ice is provided by caterers and must meet Food and Drug Administration standards on all airlines, Young said.

Lori Bassani, a spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which has 25,000 members, said everyone used to drink water on airplanes and she never heard of anyone getting sick from it.

But today, "flight attendants are notorious for bringing our own bottled water. A lot of it is for international travel."

Griffiths said he also used to drink water whenever he flew, but that's now going to change.

"I'm going to be asking for sparkling water," he said.

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