Health Board Says No Reason for Tap Water Panic
Commenting on the December 14 news about excessive concentration of radioactive particles in water derived from northern Estonian bore wells, the Health Board's press spokeswoman Iiris Saluri said it takes 70 years of drinking two liters per day for the water to constitute a health risk.
Saluri said that the Health Board has been drawing attention to the problem since 2005.
Radioactive isotopes of natural origin are found in the Vend-Cambrian aquifer that is tapped for drinking water in the three northern counties. In Estonia, the Vend-Cambrian aquifer, containing radium-226 and radium-228, began to be exploited in the 1950s because it was free of chemical contamination and also complied with all drinking water standards of the time.
The concentration of radionuclides as a quality indicator of drinking water has been monitored in Estonia since 1994, and levels of safe consumption calculated since 2001.
In 2005, the Radiation Safety Department conducted the first country-wide risk analysis of drinking water based on extensive sampling, finding that most north Estonian bore wells supplied from the Vend-Cambrian aquifer do not meet the radioactivity limit set for drinking water by the European Union and the World Health Organization.
The Health Board has called the health hazard "low" but said it does endorse the application of new and effective water treatment technologies that would significantly reduce the concentration of radionuclides.
