EPA Takes Steps To Regulate Strontium

UPDATE: According to the 1/4/16 Federal Register, the U.S. EPA "is delaying the final regulatory determination on strontium in order to consider additional data and decide whether there is a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction by regulating strontium in drinking water."

The EPA is taking steps to regulate strontium, a naturally-occurring chemical found in drinking water.

The agency issued a "preliminary determination" to regulate the chemical, according to The Hill.

Such a determination "is a formal decision on whether EPA should initiate a rulemaking process to regulate a specific contaminant. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires that every five years, EPA develop a contaminant candidate list and then make a regulatory determination for at least five contaminants on the list," the agency explained.

Why strontium?

"At elevated levels strontium can impact bone strength in people who don’t consume enough calcium, the EPA said," according to The Hill. "After an initial analysis the agency found that the chemical can have adverse health effects, hindering skeletal development."


Water providers say that high levels of strontium are a concern. According to the American Water Works Association, "Exposure to high levels of naturally-occurring strontium during infancy and childhood can affect bone growth and cause dental changes, and there is some evidence that strontium increases bone density in adults. The isotope strontium-90 has been linked to bone cancers and leukemia."

The next step is a 60-day public comment period. The EPA will decide whether to regulate the chemical, and hopes to make its determination in 2015, according to the agency.

How common are high strontium levels?

"Out of the 93.1 million people served by 40,106 groundwater community water systems in the nation, the national extrapolation indicates that 10 million may be exposed to concentrations greater than the new health reference level, and 15.4 million may be exposed to concentrations greater than half the health reference level, according to the EPA’s report," the Denton Record-Chronicle reported.

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