Washington – NY Times Report: Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy

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    Joe Corrick, an environmental scientist with Sullivan International Group, working under contract with the Environmental Protection Agency, took water samples from a well on a residential street outside the Pemaco Superfund site in Maywood.  Photo: Monica Almeida/The New York TimesWashington – The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.

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    Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.

    But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.

    Other recent studies have found that even some chemicals regulated by that law pose risks at much smaller concentrations than previously known. However, many of the act’s standards for those chemicals have not been updated since the 1980s, and some remain essentially unchanged since the law was passed in 1974.

    All told, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed since 2004 to drinking water that did not meet at least one commonly used government health guideline intended to help protect people from cancer or serious disease, according to an analysis by The Times of more than 19 million drinking-water test results from the District of Columbia and the 45 states that made data available.

    In some cases, people have been exposed for years to water that did not meet those guidelines.

    Read the full story at The NY Times


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    9 Comments
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    Babishka
    Member
    Babishka
    14 years ago

    Tap water is better for you (and for the environment) than bottled water.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    So Does A Filter Work

    SimchaB
    SimchaB
    14 years ago

    Reply to #1 : Thanks for the Baba Maaseh!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Thank you Paterson for the 5 cent bottle tax, that makes it easier for me to stay away from tap, not!

    formelly
    formelly
    14 years ago

    their needs to be more regulations and higher fines for companies that dump hazard chemicals in our steams and land.

    Oh, lets remember Bush relaxed and did away with many of those regulations.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Tap water does have a lot less bacteria then bottled water. Most bottled water is made out of tap water and the plastics are generally not healthy. There have been issues in the recent past with chemical solvents released from the bottles. A good quality home filter is the best option.

    bolla
    bolla
    14 years ago

    unfortunately nobody will listen to this until they get sick, and when they do, they will blame it on something else. I’m in the water treatment business and my banker said yesterday that the article should really help your business. I said not really, and she said, really why ? Because everybody believes the gov. is protecting and keeping our water clean. She responed that she dosen’t believe the article and thinks our water if fine. So I said thats the exact reason that article won’t help us. But little does she know that our water is the 5th worst water in the country. The problem is that if they changed the epa levels no one would pass. They have (mcl) maximuim contaminate level and (mclg) thats the goal and level of no known health risk. It would cost to much to reach that quality. Its in each individuals views of how important clean healthy water is and what to do about it. What about chlorine its a cancer causing chemical, we consume three ways, breath, digest, absorb. Anyway just keep on drinking it, you will be ok, its legal. not me!