WVa Pregnant Women Worry About Late CDC Water Warning After Chemical Spill

Jan. 16, 2014— -- Four days after a chemical spill contaminated drinking water with 4-methylcyclohexane methanol in Charleston, W.Va., Jennifer Kayrouz, who is 38 weeks pregnant, was given the go-ahead, as were others in Charleston, to resume drinking out of the tap.

Residents were told the water was safe to drink on Jan. 13, but late on Jan. 15, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources issued an advisory for pregnant women based on the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines that recommended "out of an abundance of caution" that "pregnant women drink bottled water until there are no longer detectable levels of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCHM, in the water distribution system."

"It's very upsetting," said Kayrouz, 38, who lives in Kanawha City, one of the first neighborhoods to see the water ban lifted. "I am not ingesting it, but I felt safe enough to shower in it ... and was still washing dishes by hand. ... I have a master's in public health, and I know people are very polarized on this issue, but I put my faith in our local health department that said the water was safe. I feel like it wasn't right."

Kayrouz, who has a 6-year-old daughter, and other pregnant women, along with some health care providers, wondered why the CDC delayed its warning and whether pregnant women living in affected counties had been lured in to a false sense of security that the tap water was safe.

"If it is not safe for me to drink pregnant, is it safe for my 55-pound daughter to drink or our pets?" Kayrouz asked. "It's very misleading. We got the green light, and three days later were told this one population really shouldn't drink it. It kind of flies in the face of my training. What are we supposed to believe?'"

Brandy Russell, community director for the West Virginia March of Dimes, which fights against birth defects, said, "Everyone is freaking out," and not just pregnant women.

She said there had been an uptick of calls to its Charleston office over the past weekend. And since the ban was lifted, residents continue to express worry.

"People are bringing private testing facilities into their homes," she said. "There was a gal in Zone 1 who tested, and they were still showing levels [of the chemical] in her water, although it was below the recommendations."

"It's kind of scary," she said. "A few years back there was a leak at Dupont in the Ohio Valley, and they said the same thing: 'Everything is back to normal. And a few years later there were multiple issues."

The West Virginia American Water spill has affected 300,000 people in nine counties in the southern part of the state. But this week, 200,000 started to drink the water again.

Not much is known about the chemical -- 4-methylcyclohexane methanol or crude MCHM – and how it might affect people, particularly a developing fetus. Because MCHM was grandfathered in to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, there are no laws requiring industry to prove it is safe.

But the CDC has said it believes water with levels of one part per million was safe to drink.

Film explores potential danger of toxic chemicals in the home.

A triage nurse at the Family Care health and birth center in Charleston, said, "Our phone rang off the hook" on the first day of the spill.

"At the time, we told [pregnant women] to use bottled water and not take in any more [tap water]," she said. "Several had had a glass of tea or maybe ice in a drink the day before. But we told them to just avoid everything until it was cleared."