Drug Medical Information

CLEANING UP YOUR ACT: WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP SAFE TO DRINK

There's trouble at the water tap. Turning on the faucet may be dangerous to your health.
Who says so? All those health-conscious consumers so alarmed they spent $2 billion last year on bottled water.
Are people spending money foolishly? Not when you consider the evidence that your tap water is probably contaminated. Every day brings new and worrisome reports of high lead levels in drinking water. Equally troubling - municipal water is also treated with chlorine to kill bacteria. While many experts considered chlorine safe in small quantities several decades ago, recent research suggests it tends to combine with the organic matter often present in water to form dangerous chemicals known as trihalomethanes (THM's). The most familiar THM is chloroform. If it's breathed or ingested, it triggers free radical activity.
The outlook is gloomy. The very EPA officials charged with insuring the safety of the nation's drinking water are the first to admit that water pollution is among the top four environmental threats to health. As if this weren't bad enough, no one knows for sure what's really in the water or which of the thousands of the contaminants spewed into the environment each year are turning the nation's water supply carcinogenic.

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