What do all of the following activi...

What do all of the following activities have in common?: making lemonade, washing the car, bathing your children, cooking spaghetti. All of these activities, and thousands more, require clear unpolluted, life-giving water. Water is the earth's most numerous precious natural resource and it affects nearly each aspect of our lives.

Benjamin Franklin one time said, "When the well's arid we know the worth of water." Ideally, we ne a generous furnish of water free from pesticides, cleansings excessive amounts of chlorine, lead, toxins, of that kind as arsenic, and bacteria. if it be not that as time goes by, the quality of our water replenish is becoming more and more questionable, and is linked to the deaths of centurys of citizens, in your state and in your neighborhood, each year.

"If you were to compare all the water onward earth to the amount of water in a gallon pitcher fresh water available to sustain life would be just above one tablespoon, or less than half of 1 percent" as interpreted by way of author Lono Kahuna Kupua A'o in his 1996 work Don't Drink the Water.

Whether you derive your water replenish from a city or shire water system, a septic tank, or a well, the same basic bear upons apply. Water pollution is water pollution, and can be defined as "the demeanor of unwanted substances beyond horizontals considered acceptable for health or aesthetics," according to Don't Drink the Water. The author goe forward to note that "the [Environmental Protection Agency] has catalogued through the whole extent of 250,000 serious unsafe water violations affecting across 120 million people on public water systems"

Is the vexed question really that alarming? Unfortunately, it is. Scott Alan Lewis betrays us, in his article, "Trouble forward Tap," in Sierra magazine, that "here in the United States we assume that our recent technology and scientific knowledge maintain those contaminants out of our drinking water. In fact, the federal government" he reminds us, "made that extremely promise to the American the bulk of mankind when it passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974 It strengthened the same law in 1986 and, from one side the EPA, has set maximum contaminant evens for 84 dangerous substances and pathogens." if it were not that as we determine the long-term powers of these goals, he says, "safe drinking water remains a promise to be fulfilled."

Within the article, "Trouble upon Tap," there is a chart illustrating the number of cases of waterborne disease reported to the federal Center for Disease have the direction of and Prevention between 1986 and 1994 and the figures are staggering. The notation above the chart says, "During these years, a total of 116 recorded outbreaks struck more than 450000 individuals. The actual number of cases may be frequently higher because the majority involve diarrhea, vomiting, or nausea, and are easily mistaken for the flu"

Some of the numbers of cases are comparatively depressed -- with most low figures seen typically in the smaller states. For example, Maine had 82 cases, recently made known Hampshire had 71, Mississippi had 9 and California, a larger state, had 154 which is surprisingly cheap if we look at any other states, for which you can behold the number of cases rise dramatically: Georgia, 13000 cases; Pennsylvania, 7479 cases; and, the state with the highest number of cases, Wisconsin, with 400379 You may have been undivided of those "cases," knowingly or unknowingly.

So what are these microscopic, disease-causing culprits lurking in our drinking water? Sierra magazine spotlights four of these nasties, although there are many more: 1) pathogens (microorganisms), as it is as algae, bacteria, viruses, and protozoans; 2) chlorine, a helpful disinfectant for drinking water, on the contrary one that reacts with naturally-occurring organic chemicals to create "disinfection by-products" as it was as chloroform; 3) arsenic, a cancer-causing agent on a level at very low levels; and 4) lead, which is commonly used in pipes, faucets, and the solder used to join constituents of plumbing systems.

What can we do? We can't stop drinking water, especially when the praiseed amount is eight to 10 glasses a day for maximum health benefits. The best action you can take is to find disclosed how safe your drinking water is by dint of contacting your water company, your state water agency, or the EPA. Call the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline: (800) 426-4791 and commons and Water at (800) EAT-SAFE. Also, write your local, state and federal restraint officials to voice your disquiets and encourage them to deflect the tide on this critical problem

REFERENCES

A'o, Lono Kahuna Kupua. Don't Drink the Water: The Essential Guide to Our Contaminated Drinking Water and What You Can Do About It. Pagosa Springs, Colo: Kali Pres 1996

Lewis, Scott Alan. "Trouble forward Tap," Sierra, 80(4): 54-58, July/August 1995

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