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"Forever chemicals" are widespread in the environment, and new research finds they can be detected in about 45% of U.S. tap water samples. The chemicals are per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, and their spread through drinking water—both tap and well—may be even higher because researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) were unable to test for all of them, CNN reported. These synthetic substances have been linked to a variety of health issues, including cancer, liver damage, hormone suppression, decreased fertility, obesity, high cholesterol and thyroid disease. To gauge the impact on drinking water, a team used water...

The person was infected with Naegleria fowleri after rinsing their nose with tap water, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Fox 4. The patient died on Feb. 20. “The adult patient reportedly performed nasal rinsing daily with unboiled tap water, which is thought to be the source of the infection,” the CDC said in a statement to the station. The CDC additionally said this was the first case of the deadly infection this year and the first ever reported in the winter months in the US, according to the station. The CDC did not detail where the person...

A Navy investigation released Thursday revealed that shoddy management and human error caused fuel to leak into Pearl Harbor's tap water last year, poisoning thousands of people and forcing military families to evacuate their homes for hotels. The investigation is the first detailed account of how jet fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, a massive World War II-era military-run tank farm in the hills above Pearl Harbor, leaked into a well that supplied water to housing and offices in and around the sprawling base. Some 6,000 people suffered nausea, headaches, rashes and other symptoms. SNIP The investigation...

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has updated its database on tap water in the United States, revealing where testing has detected potentially deadly pollutants in the nation’s water systems. First published in 2005, the database was most recently updated in 2018. “We’re collecting testing data from almost 50,000 water utilities nationwide,” said Sydney Evans, a science analyst with EWG, in an interview with The Epoch Times. In just one state—Illinois—EWG’s database shows that many water utilities exceeded the legal limits of arsenic, radium, and total trihalomethanes (TTHMS), among other chemicals. In its entry for the City of Chicago’s water system,...

Microscopic pieces of plastic have infiltrated tap water systems around the world, according to new research on worldwide water systems. According to Orb Media, a non-profit data journalism newsroom in Washington, 83 percent of the tap water sampled globally was contained with microscopic plastic particles. The U.S. had the highest contamination rate at 94 percent, and water sampled from Europe to India and in parts of the Middle East had plastic contamination above 70 percent, according to the Orb study. Sites sampled in the U.S. included “Congress buildings, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters and Trump Towers,” the Guardian reported....

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen compared dementia rates to the natural quantities of lithium in water for more than 800,000 people in Denmark, from areas occupied by nearly half of the population. They found that in places where lithium was highest, the dementia rate fell by 17 per cent compared to those with the lowest levels. Although researchers warn that the link could be due to other environmental factors, they say that it is worth investigating whether adding lithium to tap water could be a cheap way of protecting large numbers of people from dementia. Lithium is a metallic...

The federal government says filtered tap water is safe for everyone in Flint, Michigan, lifting a recommendation that pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 6 drink only bottled water to avoid lead exposure. The announcement Thursday is based on tests of filters that have been distributed for months for free by the state of Michigan and the federal government. The Environmental Protection Agency says the filters remove or reduce lead to well below the action level of 15 parts per billion. …

Top Medical Journal Labels Fluoride a Neurotoxin The New American 22 May 2014 Most Americans drink fluoride every day as part of what critics refer to as an involuntary mass-medication program. Organized dentistry argues that it is good for children’s teeth. However, according to a recent report in one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, the industrial chemical added to water supplies across much of the United States is actually a dangerous developmental neurotoxicant. Echoing the recent findings of another Harvard study suggesting that fluoride is associated with drastic reductions in the IQ of children, The Lancet journal...

Nate May's Prius is loaded down with water. The back is filled with boxes, each holding three one-gallon jugs that he just bought at Walmart. He and other volunteers are driving around Charleston, W.V., dropping off the jugs to people who have contacted his ad hoc group, the West Virginia Clean Water Hub. It's paid for with donations. "There are a lot of people this has put in a difficult bind. Some of them can't get out, some of them are elderly, some of them — it's just too much of a financial burden," May says. "We just take them...

We have a tendency in our society to take our drinking water for granted and assume that water contamination will be taken care of by our local authorities. We need to change the way we think in this regard because budgets for water treatment are drying up and the use of recycled water is now becoming more common. We can no longer just think of water as a gift from Mother Nature that will always be there when we need it, but rather as an industry and commodity which needs investment! Here is one way how the contamination in drinking...

How safe is your tap drinking water? it’s possible pesticides or contaminants could be flowing from your faucet. Public water systems, tap waters are tested and regulated by the government. By law, municipalities have to test the water and report to consumers once a year. They can test once a year, four times a year, sometimes less. They test for 90 contaminants like copper, arsenic, lead. There is a report that tells you what’s in the water and if it’s dangerous. But they average the results. So if you live in an agricultural area, pesticides in the water spike in...

The next time you go to the vending machine for a bottle of water (costing 6 cents an ounce) or, instead, sip from the drinking fountain (free), you will be taking part in another debate that touches on the fate of humankind. Because the next time you grab a bottle from a case in the fridge (costing a penny an ounce) or fill a glass from the tap (a penny for 5 gallons) you will be choosing between dollars and cents, essential hydration and environmental waste, and personal health and public health. Let your wallet be your first guide, opponents...

BEIJING - Avoid drinking tap water during the 2008 Olympics — unless you're living in the Olympic Village. That was the advice from a high-ranking Beijing official on Wednesday, explaining the city's attempt to "guarantee water safety" for the Olympics. He acknowledged the billions spent to clean and modernize the Chinese capital haven't been enough to provide potable tap water. "The quality of the water provided by the water plants is safe enough," said Bi Xiaogang, vice director general of the Beijing Water Management Bureau. "The water is contaminated during the secondary supply process, in the transfer of water. Therefore...

Lunatic Conspiracy Targets -- Tap Water? Posted On June 24, 2003 If you thought that a loony obsession with malevolent forces spiking our drinking water was limited to fictional characters from "Dr. Strangelove," think again. Such characters are very real -- and they belong to the extreme environmentalist movement. National Review reports that the same crowd who brought you the entirely unfounded hysteria over Alar on apples and falsely accused biotech corn of mass-murdering monarch butterflies is now warning of a deadly substance that nameless, faceless government officials are purposely putting in your tap water: fluoride. An enviro-coalition called the...

Ivan Illich, the sociologist and former priest who died on Monday aged 76, was a resolute opponent of institutionalisation; his controversial views on education, society, the law, medicine, and over-consumption brought him into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church and “experts” in almost every discipline.Experts were, in fact, precisely the target of Illich’s wrath, especially in his two most influential books, Deschooling Society (1971) and Medical Nemesis (1975). The hideously-titled Celebration of Awareness took a dim view of progress. Gender (1982) pointed out that drains were not an unqualified benefit to the Third World’s women. “Tap water put an end...