By: Alexandria Addesso
While much of the world still lacks clean running water, the United States has for a very long time been able to boast about its clean drinking water for all its residents. But how accurate is this claim? In 2015 the contaminated drinking water in the town of Flint, Michigan made international news, and the government’s extremely slow response time to do anything about it brought about epic scandal.
A few months later schools throughout the Newark and Elizabeth school districts in the state of New Jersey were found to have high concentrations of lead in the water supply due to old plumbing, putting thousands of students and faculty in danger. Ten other school districts in the state immediately started testing their water and the ripple effect extended throughout the country. From 2013-2014 residents in Doddridge County, West Virginia, one of the poorest counties in the country had unsafe to drink water for months due to fracking. Activists that tried to pass out bottled water to residents were subsequently arrested.
“Why are you putting lead in my neighborhood? Lead affects my thinking capacity,” said Civil Rights activist Dick Gregory at the 2008 State of the Black Union.
With so many people ingesting contaminated water, what exactly are the effects of lead in drinking water on the human body? According to the Center for Disease Control’s official website:
To date, no safe blood lead threshold for the adverse effects of lead on infant or child neurodevelopment has been identified. Recent evidence suggests that the dose-effect relationship might be supraliminal, with a steeper dose response and potential risk for an adverse health effect such as IQ loss at BLLs <10 µg/dL compared with BLLs ≥10 µg/dL. The developing fetus and child are more sensitive to lead exposure than adults because of the immaturity of the blood-brain barrier, increased gastrointestinal absorption, and hand-to-mouth behaviors, all of which increase exposure. Comorbidities such as iron deficiency also can enhance lead absorption.
The effects of lead in drinking water for adults are similar to those in children as well as infertility and negative prenatal effects. The International Agency for Research on Cancer verified that inorganic lead is a likely carcinogen in humans.
Another dangerous substance in the US water supply was and still is, purposely put their; fluoride. Even though fluoride can naturally occur in water, it was first intentionally added to the drinking supply in 1943 to prevent tooth decay.
For sometimes there has been resistance to the use of fluoride in drinking water as well as high doses of it used in toothpaste with verified studies to back up the claims. As stated on fluoridealert.org:
In terms of acute toxicity (i.e., the dose that can cause immediate toxic consequences), fluoride is more toxic than lead, but slightly less toxic than arsenic. This is why fluoride has long been used in rodenticides and pesticides to kill pests like rats and insects. It is also why accidents involving over-ingestion of fluoridated dental products–including fluoride gels, fluoride supplements, and fluoridated water–can cause serious poisoning incidents, including death.
Other than the acute toxicity of fluoride in drinking water, the long-term effects of over a period of extended use are under intense scrutiny. These levels of fluoride have been linked to arthritis, brain effects, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, infertility, endocrine disruptions, skeletal fluorosis, reduced melatonin production in the pineal gland and thyroid disease.
To date 50 documented studies have linked fluoride to lowered IQs in children. Although fluoridation of water has been banned in 97 percent of Western European countries, yet every state in the US has fluorinated varying percentages of its tap water.
While much of the world still lacks clean running water, the United States has for a very long time been able to boast about its clean drinking water for all its residents. But how accurate is this claim? In 2015 the contaminated drinking water in the town of Flint, Michigan made international news, and the government’s extremely slow response time to do anything about it brought about epic scandal.
A few months later schools throughout the Newark and Elizabeth school districts in the state of New Jersey were found to have high concentrations of lead in the water supply due to old plumbing, putting thousands of students and faculty in danger. Ten other school districts in the state immediately started testing their water and the ripple effect extended throughout the country. From 2013-2014 residents in Doddridge County, West Virginia, one of the poorest counties in the country had unsafe to drink water for months due to fracking. Activists that tried to pass out bottled water to residents were subsequently arrested.
“Why are you putting lead in my neighborhood? Lead affects my thinking capacity,” said Civil Rights activist Dick Gregory at the 2008 State of the Black Union.
With so many people ingesting contaminated water, what exactly are the effects of lead in drinking water on the human body? According to the Center for Disease Control’s official website:
To date, no safe blood lead threshold for the adverse effects of lead on infant or child neurodevelopment has been identified. Recent evidence suggests that the dose-effect relationship might be supraliminal, with a steeper dose response and potential risk for an adverse health effect such as IQ loss at BLLs <10 µg/dL compared with BLLs ≥10 µg/dL. The developing fetus and child are more sensitive to lead exposure than adults because of the immaturity of the blood-brain barrier, increased gastrointestinal absorption, and hand-to-mouth behaviors, all of which increase exposure. Comorbidities such as iron deficiency also can enhance lead absorption.
The effects of lead in drinking water for adults are similar to those in children as well as infertility and negative prenatal effects. The International Agency for Research on Cancer verified that inorganic lead is a likely carcinogen in humans.
Another dangerous substance in the US water supply was and still is, purposely put their; fluoride. Even though fluoride can naturally occur in water, it was first intentionally added to the drinking supply in 1943 to prevent tooth decay.
For sometimes there has been resistance to the use of fluoride in drinking water as well as high doses of it used in toothpaste with verified studies to back up the claims. As stated on fluoridealert.org:
In terms of acute toxicity (i.e., the dose that can cause immediate toxic consequences), fluoride is more toxic than lead, but slightly less toxic than arsenic. This is why fluoride has long been used in rodenticides and pesticides to kill pests like rats and insects. It is also why accidents involving over-ingestion of fluoridated dental products–including fluoride gels, fluoride supplements, and fluoridated water–can cause serious poisoning incidents, including death.
Other than the acute toxicity of fluoride in drinking water, the long-term effects of over a period of extended use are under intense scrutiny. These levels of fluoride have been linked to arthritis, brain effects, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, infertility, endocrine disruptions, skeletal fluorosis, reduced melatonin production in the pineal gland and thyroid disease.
To date 50 documented studies have linked fluoride to lowered IQs in children. Although fluoridation of water has been banned in 97 percent of Western European countries, yet every state in the US has fluorinated varying percentages of its tap water.
