Title: Is
your tap water safe? Hormones, drugs, even pesticides could be flowing from
your faucet. No one can say for sure, because the government doesn't require
testing for them. But in groundbreaking research, Good Housekeeping found
ordinary water pitchers and refrigerator filters that can get rid of these
scary chemicals
Author: Rachael
Moeller Gorman
Publication: Good Housekeeping p130. From Student Resources in Context
Date: April
15, 2013
This picture shows an exaggerated
representation of what could be coming out of you facet.
Summary:
Good Housekeeping partnered
with the Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants at the University of
Arizona in order to find out what really is in our water that the EPA does not
monitor. The question is proposed, will the small traces of antibiotics,
hormones, a cancer drug, a chemical found in gasoline, antiseizure medication
in tap water mixed put into our bodies for years ever ever affect one’s health?
The EPA only has to check for 90 substances in our water, but there are many
substances that they do not have to check for. Sometimes water can be safe
according the EPA, but it cannot be accounted for once it leaves an aquifer.
Copper or lead pipes can affect water quality after it leaves the plant. There
are other substances that can be found in water that it not checked for. There
are no specific cases that water from the tap has harmed people’s health,
however some fish in the United States have been showing signs of gender change
due to hormone pill that people have dumped in their habitat. If this has
happened to our fish, than who is to say it cannot happen to us? Thanks Good
HouseKeeping for further research in keeping our water safe is being done.
Reflection:
I personally believe that it is
a fact of life that there will be problems in our water. The EPA is not at all
to blame from any problems that unsafe water may cause. It should be the
responsibility of the person who chooses to drink that water, tap water should
be “at your own risk.” If we could control pollution, than we could control
water quality, but we cannot. It is really scary to think that hormone drugs,
cancer causing drugs and many other things harmful substances could be in my
water. I do not drink water from the tap because of this, and I just do not
like the taste. However, all this makes me wonder if bottled water is any
safer.
Questions:
1. Do you think that there is anything
we can do to make our water cleaner? Explain.
2. Do you think that the EPA has
strict enough guidelines for keeping tap water safe to drink? Explain.
3. Do you think that water was
cleaner 20 years ago, or now? Why do you think so?
4. What do you personally feel is
the safest water to drink? Why do think so?
5. How does advertising affect your
choice in what water you drink? Do you think that if you were constantly
updated on the amount of contaminates in the type of water you drink you would
still drink it? Explain.