Health Effects of Rainwater Consumption

Funded by: NHMRC

This project will use methodology previously developed for a study of tap water in Melbourne to determine whether microorganisms in untreated rainwater contribute to gastroenteritis in consumers of the water. The study will be carried out in Adelaide where more than 12% of households use rainwater as their usual source of drinking water. 300 households who already drink untreated rainwater will be recruited and randomly allocated to receive either a real or sham water treatment unit for treating rainwater. The real units will remove microorganisms from water while the sham units will not. Neither the households nor the researchers will know which type of unit has been allocated (double blind design). The health of household members will be followed for 12 months, then rates of gastroenteritis in the two groups will be compared to determine whether removal of microorganisms from water was associated with a detectable change in illness rates.