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.
This information personally shocked and surprised me, a bit. I myself choose not to drink tap water, but I had no idea that it could be flowing with carcinogens and chemicals that are used to make gasoline. Additionally, I found the statistic that the EPA only has to regulate 90 substances within our water to be extremely unsettling. Is the EPA too lazy to monitor our water more thoroughly to ensure that it is fully clean and un-polluted before leaving an aquifer, or are these unchecked pollutants and substances not worth checking for because they do not threaten our health? I am curious to see what these many more unchecked substances may be, and if they really are/can be detrimental to our health. In general, I feel that the responsibility for the cleanliness of tap water is split evenly between the person drinking it, as well as the EPA. Though the consumer should be conscientious about the purity of the water that comes through their own faucet and make the extra effort to ensure that the pipe work of their homes is not polluting it, I feel that the EPA should also ensure that this water is as clean as they can possibly make it before leaves an aquifer.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, if these contaminants are already flowing in our water that we drink regularly, could more and more people become sick due to this, or are we possibly immune to these possible contaminants? Could the carcinogens within drinking water be a possible reason for the boom in the population of those with cancer?
Here is what I emailed Charles Duhigg, an expert on the dangers and effects of unsafe drinking water!
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Duhigg,
In my tenth grade environmental science class, we have a blog group and each person is assigned a task. My job is to find and invite a professional to join our groups discussion. I have researched some of your published work as well as awards. As an expert on the topic of safe drinking water and tap water, I was wondering if we could have some input that we could share with the rest of our class. You can find our blog at www.blogspot.goldengirls.com. We would love to hear from you! Thank you.
-Katie and the Golden Girls Blog Group
Expanding With a New Link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/willow_grove/horsham-residents-with-contaminated-wells-to-be-hooked-to-public/article_547b6423-5ece-5110-928f-3b9c96b3c90f.html
Prompted by Becca's startling information about our drinking water, I investigated if anything similar occurred in Horsham recently. I found an article on "phillyBurbs.com" which told a frightening story about the water in our area. The article explained that forty homeowners in Horsham were advised to temporarily stop drinking their tap water. This is because their attached wells tested positive for contaminants, one called perchloroethylene, or PCE. Furthering my research I found that the chemical PCE is used in dry cleaning and as a degreaser. However, I also found it also may be linked to cancer. With this in mind I continued to read about Horsham's water and learned the residents affected we given bottled water and advised to receive a connection to a more public water source.
1. Do you think that there is anything we can do to make our water cleaner? Explain.
ReplyDeleteWe could make our water cleaner by finding other ways to dispose of toxic or harmful substances other than dumping them.
2. Do you think that the EPA has strict enough guidelines for keeping tap water safe to drink? Explain.
Yes I believe they do. They can't control everything like the pipes in peoples houses or if everyone is going to dispose of toxic materials properly.
3. Do you think that water was cleaner 20 years ago, or now? Why do you think so?
I think it would probably be cleaner now that we realize all the harmful things that have been in the water for years and the EPA has set better regulations and standers on the water since.
4. What do you personally feel is the safest water to drink? Why do think so?
I still feel tap water is the safest to drink because even though it has some contaminates it is still full of other things that helps the body.
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.
Advertising affects the way people choose their water by showing them how clean the water from those pure springs are when in reality it is almost the exactly the same as tap water but they are just paying more for it and creating more waste. being the person I am which is someone who is very concerned about my health I would probably feel more comfortable drinking bottled water if I were updated about all the contaminates in my tap water. I'm sure others would do the same if confronted with what was really in the water they were drinking.