Doctors, nurses, local health officials, and other health professionals play an important role in preventing waterborne illness. EPA and its partners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), present a video that demonstrates how health care providers can help recognize, report, and prevent waterborne illness in their communities.
"Tap Into Prevention: Drinking Water Information for Health Care Providers" is a continuing education video featuring interviews with doctors, nurses, and local health officials who discuss the connection between drinking water and health in their own communities: Milwaukee, where cryptosporidiosis claimed the lives of more than 50 people and sickened more than 400,000 in 1993; Philadelphia, where high levels of lead in school drinking water, in an area where many children already have high blood lead levels, prompted a city-wide testing program; and rural Minnesota, where public health nurses in three counties educate new parents on the risks of nitrates and bacteria in well water. The video was co-authored and narrated by John M. Balbus, MD, an internist specializing in environmental medicine.
After watching, viewers will be able to name four health problems related to contaminants in drinking water; identify the types of patients who are most sensitive to each of these health problems; describe how contaminants that cause these health problems enter water supplies; identify the treatment methods that remove the contaminants that cause these health problems; list the clinical findings that prompt reporting to the local health department suspicion of waterborne disease; describe how patients who receive water from public water systems or private wells can learn about their drinking water quality; and describe the role of the health care provider in the public health network that identifies and responds to waterborne illness in their communities.
Continuing education credit is available to physicians, nurses, certified health education specialists, and others who watch the video and then complete an online post test and evaluation through the CDC/ATSDR website, "Training and Continuing Education OnLine," www.phppo.cdc.gov/phtnonline , hosted by the Public Health Training Network.
For a free copy in DVD or VHS format, visit www.epa.gov/safewater/healthcare or call EPA's toll-free Safe Drinking Water Hotline, (800) 426-4791.
