Report: Tap water contains “probable human carcinogens” in all tests

 

The Environmental Working Group has released a report analyzing water samples from 43 states and 201 municipal water systems. In every single test, the EWG found “probable human carcinogens.” This means your tap water is probably contaminated with carcinogens that can be absorbed through the skin, lungs or stomach.

Water Treatment Actually Creating New Contaminants

According to the report, the primary danger in the municipal water systems tested isn’t contaminants from animals or bacteria. Instead, it is that chlorine and other chemicals used for water treatment react with particles already in the water, producing dangerous byproducts. Frighteningly, these byproducts aren’t regulated at all by the FDA. Like mercury and ionizing radiation, the safe amount of these toxic disinfection byproducts is NONE.

One of the most dangerous of these disinfection byproducts is chloramine, made by combining chlorine and ammonia. Unlike chlorine, chloramine is very difficult to remove. It also stays in water systems longer than chlorine (more on chloramine later in this article).

Additional dangerous disinfection byproducts include:

• Trihalomethanes, found to cause cancer and release free radicals into the body.
• Volatile Organic Compounds, which can lead to central nervous system damage as well as skin irritation.
• Haloacetic Acids, which can cause liver disease and is a probable human carcinogen.

Contamination Risks Especially Dangerous During Pregnancy

The report also contains a section detailing the dangers of contaminated water as it relates to pregnant women. Several studies in the past year have shown the danger to pregnant women and their fetuses created by water with excessive contaminants. Some of these studies cited include:

• A study in 2012 where Australian scientists found that women who consumed water contaminated with only 25 parts per billion of chloromine put their newborns at risk to be at the bottom 10% of birth weights. The newborns were also at risk for other health problems.
• Another 2012 study, this time in Canada, showed that exposure to more than 100 parts per billion of trihalomethanes in water was also associated with underweight newborns.
• Researchers in Taiwan conducted a study that linked stillbirths to trihalomethane levels as low as 20 parts per billion.
• A 2008 study from the University of North Carolina, where researchers found that exposure to 80 parts per billion of trihalomethane during the third trimester of pregnancy doubled the risk of delivering a child small for gestational age.
• A British study from 2005 where a link was found between stillbirths and 60 parts per billion of trihalomethane.

Trihalomethane isn’t the only hazardous chemical highlighted in the report. Other chemicals, including the family of haloacetic acids, are identified as causing birth defects, brain damage, liver damage, kidney failure, blindness, and reproductive issues in lab tests.

A More Dangerous Chlorine Substitute

In an attempt to decrease contamination, many water utilities have switched from using chlorine to chloramines (compounds made from ammonia gases and chlorine) for water treatment. Unfortunately, making this switch has only shifted the problem (and possibly made it worse). Chloramines are extremely toxic to fish and also toxic to kidney dialysis patients. they have also found to have numerous dangerous chemical byproducts created when chloramine interacts with other water contaminants. From the report:

“Nitrosamines, which are currently unregulated, form when water is disinfected with chloramine. The U.S. government says some chemicals in the nitrosamine family are “reasonably anticipated” to be human carcinogens.

According to professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley David Sedlak, “[Nitrosamines are] about a thousand times more carcinogenic than the disinfection byproducts that we’d been worried about with regular old chlorine.”

By switching to chloramination, we’ve reduced trihalomethane levels, but we have also exposed millions of people to unregulated carcinogenic byproducts.

How to Protect Your Water

Much like protecting your home from the dangers of fluoridated water, you can take steps to avoid dangerous water contaminants.

• If possible, find a spring near you. The Find a Spring database can help you locate one in your area where you can gather spring water. Simply load up your car with 10 gallon jugs, drive to the spring, and fill up (often for free).
• If you can afford it, install a whole house water filtration system. If possible, find one that has three separate stages of purification (removing sediment, heavy metals/chlorine, and other contaminants like pesticides, hormones, drug residues and more).
• If you don’t have the funds for a whole house filtration system, at least install a filter on your shower, as that is the most significant source of contamination (due to absorption in both skin and lungs).

Based on this report, it’s very unlikely the water in your area is safe. The chemicals used to make you water safer are actually much more dangerous than what they’re attempted to protect you from.