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Tapping Out: Influence of Organoleptic and Perceived Health Risks on Bottled Versus Municipal Tap Water Consumption Among Obese, Low Socioeconomic Status Pediatric Patients

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Abstract

A variety of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), including some known to be obesogenic, can be found in household wastewater. Many are only partially treated by wastewater treatment and drinking water purification systems and can enter municipal drinking water supplies. We evaluated drinking water consumption habits in a cohort of obese pediatric patients to determine the percentage that might avoid exposure to EDCs from drinking municipal tap water. Obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile) children presenting to an obesity clinic serving a largely poor and rural population were studied. Self-reported race/ethnicity, insurance status, and details concerning type and volume of water consumed were obtained from their medical records. Most homes were supplied with municipal, rather than private well water (90.6% vs. 9.4%, respectively). A majority (76.4%) of patients with municipal water as their water supply only drank bottled water. “Taste” and “Health Concerns” were the most commonly endorsed reasons for eschewing tap water. Bottled water consumption among low socioeconomic status patients may reduce their risk for exposure to EDCs in municipal tap water. Further studies are needed to confirm the generalizability of this observation.

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Funding

This research was supported in part via a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to North Carolina State University’s Center for Human Health and the Environment (P30ES025128, R. Smart PI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, 180 Warren Life Sciences Building, 600 Moye Boulevard, Greenville, NC, USA

    David N. Collier, Natalie Taft & Suzanne Lazorick

  2. Pediatric Healthy Weight Research and Treatment Center, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    David N. Collier, Aaron Robinson, Natalie Taft, Alice Raad & Suzanne Lazorick

  3. Center for Health Disparities, East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    David N. Collier

  4. Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core, Center for Human Health and the Environment, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    David N. Collier & Siddhartha Mitra

  5. Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Siddhartha Mitra

  6. Department of Biostatistics, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Suzanne Hudson

  7. Department of Pediatrics, Levine Children’s Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Jessica Webb Young

Authors
  1. David N. Collier
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  2. Aaron Robinson
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  3. Siddhartha Mitra
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  4. Natalie Taft
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  5. Alice Raad
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  6. Suzanne Hudson
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  7. Jessica Webb Young
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  8. Suzanne Lazorick
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Correspondence to David N. Collier.

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Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the University Medical Center Institutional Review Board (protocol 11-0422). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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Collier, D.N., Robinson, A., Mitra, S. et al. Tapping Out: Influence of Organoleptic and Perceived Health Risks on Bottled Versus Municipal Tap Water Consumption Among Obese, Low Socioeconomic Status Pediatric Patients. Expo Health 12, 179–186 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-019-00302-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-019-00302-2

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