Free Republic

A mysterious byproduct of a chemical used to disinfect the tap water of about one-third of Americans has finally been identified, and the international research team behind the discovery is advocating rapid assessment of its potential toxicity. The research, reported Thursday in the journal Science, does not claim that tap water containing the byproduct is unsafe to drink or that the finding represents any kind of emergency. All water, including bottled water, contains contaminants. But the discovery of a new and previously unknown chemical, called chloronitramide anion, could have implications for municipal water systems that use a class of chlorine-based...

An herbicide that contaminates the tap water consumed by millions of Americans has been found to produce gender-bending effects in male frogs, "chemically castrating" some and turning others into females, a study shows. Frogs in the experiment were exposed to amounts of the weedkiller atrazine that are comparable to the levels allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency, says lead researcher Tyrone Hayes of the University of California-Berkeley. The study was released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In Hayes' earlier studies, atrazine caused male frogs to begin growing eggs in their testes. In...

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Nine people have died and 1,600 have been sickened after drinking contaminated water from a state-operated reservoir in southern Pakistan, officials and witnesses said Tuesday. Dr. Hadi Bakhsh from the main hospital in the city of Hyderabad, 60 miles northeast of the port city Karachi, said people suffering from diarrhea began streaming in more than two weeks ago. The contaminated water is supplied by a state-run water agency from Manchar Lake, outside Hyderabad in Pakistan's southern Sindh province. The source of contamination is unknown, and authorities have ordered an investigation. Angry crowds gathered outside government offices...