We’re often told that from an environmental angle drinking water from the tap is far superior to drinking bottled water, and that in many cases you’re getting pretty much the same thing if you drink from the tap versus from the bottle.
But the law that regulates drinking water in the United States, known as the Safe Drinking Water Act, hasn’t been updated in years and is so far behind the times in terms of potential contamination that drinking the water can cause real harm — even though it’s not in violation of the law.
New chemicals go unregulated
The law only speaks to 91 different contaminants, but more than 60,000 chemicals are currently used in the United States that could potentially get into drinking water. Hundreds of those chemicals have been associated with increased risks of cancer and other diseases but still remain unregulated in the act, and the 35-year-old law hasn’t had a new chemical added to it at all since 2000.
What’s more, some of the substances that are regulated have since been found to affect human health in smaller concentrations than originally thought, but many of the standards for those chemicals haven’t been changed since the 1980s, the New York Times has found.
Many don’t see the danger
While it’s estimated that more than 62 million Americans have been exposed — often for years — to water that didn’t meet guidelines meant to protect people from cancer and other diseases, most of that water was probably perfectly legal under Safe Drinking Water Act guidelines.
That makes it difficult to convince people that stricter standards are needed, as the head of water quality for Los Angeles found when he covered water sources to protect people from a chemical in the water that could produce cancer-causing compounds when exposed to sunlight. Neighbors argued that if the water wasn’t in violation of a law it must be safe.
Scottsdale, Ariz., El Paso, Tex., and Reno, Nev., all have had drinking water with levels of arsenic high enough to increase cancer risks but not technically in violation of the law, while water in Millville, N.J., Pleasantville, N.J., and Edmond, Okla., had traces of uranium, which could cause kidney damage, according to the paper’s analysis. The current standard for arsenic is so high that people could be drinking legally acceptable water but one in 600 members of the community could develop bladder cancer over their lifetime from consuming it.
While it’s true that drinking contaminated water doesn’t always make people sick, it’s not always clear what the danger is if such water is consumed long term over the course of years. Still, research suggests millions of Americans get sick from contaminated water every year, with problems ranging from stomach upset to birth defects.
The Environmental Protection Agency said in 2003 that though it would be possible to make regulation of some chemicals more stringent, that wouldn’t provide a significant reduction in health risks. The agency says it’s conducting another review of the Safe Drinking Water Act standards now.
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)
Tap water’s free, but not always healthy
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