Unacceptably high levels of a radioactive gas have been discovered in groundwater supplies in Co Wicklow. The findings could have implications for the safety of water supplies across the State in areas that have high levels of radon gas.
Levels of the naturally occurring gas were so high in one Co Wicklow well that the water gave those who drank it eight times the permitted radiation dose for workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.
While the health effects of radon in water are unknown, exposure to high radon gas levels in the air has been linked to lung cancers.
The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland this morning released details of a pilot study of private water supplies in Co Wicklow. The study involved 166 houses. Four of the houses - or 2.4 per cent - had drinking-water radon levels in excess of the EU maximum. The findings have huge implications, given that parts of 16 counties including Wicklow are already known to have high radon levels.
Large numbers of home-owners in these areas, including parts of Louth, Carlow, Galway, Mayo and Sligo, rely on groundwater supplies for home use.
If just 2.4 per cent of all those householders had similar high radon levels then those drinking the water would be exposed to unacceptable radiation levels, according to Dr Tony Colgan, principal scientific officer at the institute.
"Some of the people were getting quite high radiation doses," he said yesterday. One Co Wicklow well had radon levels almost six times the limit set by the EU and applied here, he said.
The report's authors know of no devices commercially available here that could filter out the radon.
o Gas in Wicklow water poses a health risk: page 7