Health organisations call for stricter who drinking water guidelines amid cancer concerns
GENEVA: Dozens of global health and environmental organisations called on the World Health Organization to revise decades-old standards for nitrate levels in drinking water, arguing they do not reflect recent scientific evidence about potential health risks.
In an open letter, 85 organisations, including Greenpeace International and the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), called on the United Nations health agency to include nitrate in an upcoming review of its drinking water guidelines.
But the current WHO guidelines — which set the maximum acceptable nitrate level in drinking water at 50 milligrammes per litre as nitrate or 11.3 milligrammes per litre as nitrate-nitrogen — date back to 1958 and are “outdated”, the organisations warned.
