The Growing Problem of Contaminated Drinking Water

The Growing Problem of Contaminated Drinking Water

Contaminated drinking water is a real threat to your health. Here’s what you need to know about this growing problem.

The quality of drinking water in the United States is steadily declining. Most water treatment plants were built many years ago when the main objective was to remove harmful bacteria from the water. These water treatment plants don’t have the capability to remove all of the different chemicals that are now being used in our society and that are finding their way into our water supply. Unfortunately, many of the chemicals used in our society eventually wind up in our drinking water.

But isn’t it illegal for these contaminants to be present in our drinking water? It’s actually not, because the Safe Drinking Water Act (the federal law regulating tap water) is so out of date. Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the act, but more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the U.S. according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates. Not one chemical has been added to the list of contaminants regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.

Also, recent studies have found that even some chemicals regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act pose health risks at much smaller concentrations than previously thought. However, many of the act’s standards for these chemicals have not been updated since the 1980s, and some remain essentially unchanged since the act was passed in 1974.

The bottom line is that drinking water can still present health risks, even though it’s technically legal.

Here’s an overview of five of the most common drinking water contaminants:

1. Chlorine. This chemical is used in public water systems because it’s an inexpensive way to remove harmful bacteria from the water that can cause water-borne diseases. But chlorine increases the risk for several types of cancer, including bladder, rectal, and breast cancer, it’s been linked to hardening of the arteries, and it’s a known cause and/or irritant of the respiratory conditions asthma and bronchitis.

2. Lead. The EPA estimates that 98% of all homes in the U.S. have pipes, fixtures or solder joints in plumbing that can leach some level of lead into tap water. According to the EPA, there’s no safe level for lead in drinking water and any level poses some degree of adverse health effects, especially to small children, where it can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and reduced IQs. Exposure to lead can also damage the nervous system and cause high blood pressure.

3. Giardia. This is a microorganism found in fecal matter, and it’s one of the most common waterborne parasites. It causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramping.

4. Cryptosporidium. This is a parasitic, waterborne microorganism that’s commonly found in drinking waters sourced from streams, lakes and reservoirs across the U.S. It causes diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting and headache.

5. VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). These are byproducts produced by chlorination in water treatment and the manufacturing of paints, pharmaceuticals, petroleum fuels, hydraulic fluids and dry cleaning agents. VOCs are common ground water contaminants and because of their high vaporizing pressure, are more harmful indoors than outdoors.

These five drinking water contaminants are scary enough, but it gets even more scary when you learn that according to the Ralph Nader Study Group, U.S. drinking water contains more than 2,100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer.

So what can you do to avoid the problem of contaminated drinking water? Should you drink more bottled water?

Bottled water is not the answer, since many of the contaminants found in tap water have also been found in bottled water. There are no government standards that require bottled water to be any better, purer or safer than tap water. Companies that sell bottled water do not have to divulge to consumers the water’s source, how the water has been purified, and what chemical pollutants the water may contain. Bottled water companies are also not required to demonstrate their water’s quality.

A report released in July 2009 by the General Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Food and Drug Administration  (FDA) has little power to regulate the safety of bottled water, and that even states with the power to regulate it concentrate more on tap water.

There’s only one way to ensure that your drinking water is clean and free of contaminants – use a water filter. The home water filtration industry is heavily regulated, and manufacturers of water filtration products must do extensive testing and reporting to prove that their products are effective at providing clean water. Manufacturers are required to supply “Performance Data Sheets,” which list all of the contaminants a product is certified to remove and to what degree.

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