Toxic chemicals in American drinking water can cause more than 100,000 cancer cases, a horrible new study suggests.
Researchers from the Environmental Working Group discovered 22 carcinogens in water throughout the country.
Despite the fact that most of the water systems that they tested were within federal limits for each of these toxins, the scientists estimate that their cumulative effects could be serious in the course of American life.
Exposure to arsenic, products from disinfectant chemicals and traces of radioactive chemicals such as uranium and radium had the most substantial effects on cancer risk.
Even when the levels of each fall under federal limits, the collective effects of toxic pollutants in US drinking water can be responsible for more than 100,000 cancer cases per year (dossier)
More than 1.7 million new cancer cases are diagnosed in the US every year.
In the same period, more than 600,000 people die from the disease.
Better prevention strategies, earlier detection and better treatments – such as the immunotherapies revolutionizing the future of the disease – have dramatically reduced cancer mortality.
But the elimination of the disease is nowhere to be seen.
This is partly because its roots are many and difficult to control.
Instead of being activated by anything, genetics, what you eat, where you live, how you eat and of course the water you drink all play a role in increasing or decreasing the risk of cancer.
Some chemicals, such as arsenic, can hardly be kept out of water in certain places.
For example, in some parts of Illinois, the soil is rich in arsenic, a toxic, carcinogenic heavy metal, linked to liver and bladder cancer.
Arsenic seeps into the groundwater and enters our body.
It also leaks into the water supply of many types of factories.
American water systems treat drinking water with chlorine – a non-carcinogenic cleaning agent – in an attempt to reduce or remove the metal.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits the permitted level of arsenic in drinking water to 0.01 parts per million.
It has put similar caps on other toxins such as uranium and a whole range of disinfecting chemicals.
In itself, these levels are safe on a certain day.
But we do not drink those chemicals separately or in isolated cases.
“Drinking water contains complex mixtures of pollutants, but government agencies are currently assessing the health risks of tap water pollutants,” said Sydney Evans, lead author of the article and science analyst at EWG.
& # 39; In the real world, people are exposed to combinations of chemicals, so it is important that we start assessing health effects by looking at the combined effects of multiple pollutants. & # 39;
The EWG used a new model to estimate how much the collective effects of all water pollution would increase the risk of cancer during the life of a person, estimated to be around 70 years.
Because of their mathematics, these pollutants are responsible for 100,000 or more cancer cases in the US.
& # 39; The vast majority of community water systems meet legal standards & # 39 ;, says Dr. Olga Naidenko, vice president of EWG for scientific research.
& # 39; Nevertheless, the latest research shows that contaminants present in those concentrations in the water – completely legally – can still harm human health.
"We must give priority to spring water protection to ensure that these contaminants do not end up in the drinking water supply in the beginning."
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