May 6, 2001

Spirit of Napoleon Watches Arsenic Controversy

The spirit of Napoleon Bonaparte must be watching with wry humor as the Congress, White House and Environmental Protection Agency dither over arsenic in drinking water.

Conspiracy buffs allege that France’s great general died of arsenic poisoning in 1821 – whether by accident or murder -- while in exile on the island of St. Helena. The official autopsy report by eight doctors gave the cause of death as stomach cancer.

The murder theory rests on the ability of arsenic to kill from minute doses administered over a long period of time. Accused are fumes from arsenic-laced pigment on moldy wallpaper known to decorate Napoleon’s sitting room, or from pure poison in his wine.

The FBI in 1955 found lethal amounts of arsenic, 20 to 50 parts per million, in four hairs said to have come from Napoleon at the time of his death.  

Today, the legal amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water is 50 parts per billion. Sen. Barbara Boxer, California’s Democrat environmental activist, says 13 million Americans live in communities whose water is over the maximum now considered safe.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the largest city having high arsenic levels. Its water supply comes from streams and wells flowing on volcanic soil. No one is claiming the cancer rate there is any different from the national average – but it should be, say befuddled greenies.

Distilled water is detrimental to human health if ingested solely, according to nutritionists. The deadly poison sodium is the basic ingredient of table salt, and we could not long exist without it in small amounts. Until antibiotics, dilute arsenic pills were prescribed for a variety of diseases.

Punta Gorda’s "fountain of youth" at the northeast corner of Marion Ave. and Taylor St. discharges water chockfull of minerals. Old-timers believe the water wards off colds and other ailments.

The well artesian was tapped in 1886 to serve the town’s horse trough. The water smells like rotten eggs, but the odor dissipates overnight and makes great coffee. Punta Gorda would like to close the well, but devotees of mineral water kick up a ruckus when such a thing is suggested.  

Dale Holcomb, environmental supervisor with the county health department in 1987, tested the well water. He found it to contain twice as much radium than is permitted in public water supplies.

However, he said, a person drinking three quarts of that water every day for a lifetime would have three chances in a million of developing a cancer he or she would not have had otherwise.

Despite nature and folklore, reasonable people acknowledge there should be parameters for healthful drinking water. Mineral-free water is both harmful and unattainable without expensive purification. A cup of half-water and half-arsenic is a one-way ticket to that bourn from which no traveler returns.

Congress adopted the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974. It was amended in 1996 to order the EPA promulgate an arsenic regulation of not more than 10 ppb by June l, 2001 -- to be effective not later than 2006.

This would keep environmental heat off the Democrat mayor of Albuquerque during the 2000 presidential campaign. Boxer tried during the closing month of the campaign to move the June 1 deadline up to Jan. 1 – perhaps to have the lower standard in place should Bush win and take office Jan. 20.  

Minority leaderTom Daschle, confident of an Al Gore victory, voted against Boxer’s amendment. He said it was "dangerous" to rush the EPA. After Bush did win, Daschle and Bill Clinton flip-flopped and embraced the Jan. 1, 2001, date but to no avail. Congress closed shop until after Bush’s inauguration. The June date remained in place.

Clinton attempted to impose a 10 ppb standard by executive order as he backed out of the White House with stolen furniture.

Bush stopped all of Clinton’s last-day orders until they could be reviewed. Christine Whitman, new EPA head, called for a study of arsenic standards by the National Academy of Sciences. A report deadline was set for Feb. 22 next year.

Effective date for completing enforcement of whatever standard is established is still the same as Clinton’s 2006.

Daschle’s diatribe of doom this week is that the administration’s delay is "an outrageous and indefensible decision" that would result in health-warning labels  posted on bottles of water.

Thus, obstructionism has been refined to a dark art. Fortunately, science and common sense trump petty politics.

PARTING SHOTS

President Bush invited Congress to a White House lunch marking his first 100 days in office. No Democrat leaders showed up – setting a new low for party pooping.

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Bill Clinton is globe trotting these days. When last seen, he was in India atop an elephant. There is something Freudian in choosing the Republican symbol for a joy ride. Look, no spurs.

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How come we choose from just two people for president and 50 for Miss America?

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers