Are we overstressing water quality in urinary stone disease?

A door to door survey of 38,805 persons from urban (9527) and rural (nontribal--19,716; tribal--9562) areas was carried out from 59 localities of Udaipur region to find out the prevalence of urinary stone disease. Simultaneously 118 water samples were also collected. The three sources of drinking water in these localities were tap, handpump and well and the prevalence of urinary stone disease in relation with the source of drinking water was 548.3, 303.4 and 189.9/1,00,000 population, respectively. All the samples were analysed for total hardness, Ca, Mg, Na, K, iP, SiO3, SO4, Cl, F, Cu, Zn and Mn. The tap water was softest with highest prevalence. The chi-square test revealed that prevalence was unassociated with any of these constituents. We feel that overstress should not be given to quality of drinking water in the management of stone disease.