We Need a New Method of Purifying Drinking Water Essay

Between 2002 and 2005 alone, the amount of chemical substances produced or imported in the United States increased from 42 billion pounds per day to 74 billion pounds per day. The amount of chemicals in commerce in the United States has increased from 62,000 grandfathered chemicals in 1976, to almost 83,000 in 2008, a difference of more than 20,000. Of this 83,000, the EPA has only been able to ban or restrict five chemicals under TSCA: PCBs, dioxin, CFCs, hexavalent chromium, and asbestos. Additionally, the EPA has independently tested only 250 of the 83,000 registered chemicals in commerce in the United States. Richard Denison, a Senior Scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund explained these incredibly low numbers by stating, “TSCA places an impossibly high burden on EPA before it can act to control a chemical.” In fact, under TSCA, “the EPA can’t even require testing to determine whether a risk exists without first showing a risk is likely.” For that reason, a large majority of chemicals used in the United States have never been tested for health and environmental effects. Studies have shown that due to the proliferation of these chemicals into homes, workplaces, and schools, the average American has a detectable concentration of 300 environmental chemicals. Among other issues, many of these chemicals can affect brain and organ function and cause cancer. Consequently, it is clear that

Pollution is a term that recently in the last sixty years became widely known in the United States. The idea was first introduced in the United States by Rachel Carson’s book, titled Silent Spring. Rachel Carson developed a clear thesis inside Silent Spring where every claim made in the book is supported with enormous substantial factual evidence. The overall theme of the book is calling for awareness and addressing issues with excessive usage of man-made and natural chemicals implemented into daily human life. Although Rachel Carson focuses predominately on concerns surrounding the topic of DDT, the author also gives her perspectives on other chemicals that are harmful to the environment. The research Rachel Carson has done to make the world well-informed on pollution was a great start to placing the topic on people’s mind. Nonetheless, in today’s world, humans must continue to enrich themselves on current pollution issues by understanding which chemicals contribute to pollution and how large in concentration. Human error must also be taken into account because chemicals humans thought could not be harmful can at times. An example of chemicals people thought could not be harmful was asbestos.

The environmental issue of interest is clean drinking water and the abuse of our water sources. The interest in this discipline is because clean water and water abuse have been an issue for many years. Many countries around the world and in our own back yard lack clean drinking water. The cause of unclean water can be caused by bad agriculture practices and industrialization. The cause of these unhealthy practices may cause waters to be contaminated with a mineral called Chromium; this mineral exposes a high risk of cancer. The county of Gwinnett is full of lakes, rivers, streams, creeks and ponds but the only source of drinking water that is disposed to residents comes from a man-made lake called Lake Lanier. The lake provides clean drinking

A half-mile neighborhood, in the town of Woburn, has a staggering 8 cases of Leukemia amongst children -- a rate that is three times the national average. These cases were discovered following the construction of local Wells G and H, both of which received complaints of water quality. Upon investigation, we discovered that the contamination of both of the wells is likely a significant factor in the health of Woburn residents. Pollutants used by companies in the area, trichloroethylene, are known to cause Leukemia. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering discovered high amounts of trichloroethylene in wells G and well H. This chemical is commonly as a cleaning fluid -- the most efficient way to dispose of it being to simply discard the waste into a secluded body of water. In the case of Woburn, trichloroethylene seeped into soil which would later contaminate the water in both wells after they were built. Following the infrastructure of the water supply, the contaminated drinking water made its way to the neighborhood that would later experience the tragic loss of two children, and the following diagnosis of Leukemia in 6 others. We are hereby setting out to prove that the

After the list of chemicals was composed, individual chronic indices (CIs) were calculated for each emission. To narrow the scope of the study, carcinogenic chemicals disposed only in water and air are considered.

Adverse effects can occur if there is too much residual chlorine in water. The use of chlorine can possibly cause carcinogenic compounds such as chloroform. There is still an ongoing debate if chlorine is the best way to disinfect a

"These days, there are up to 500 chemicals in an average human body that were not found in humans before 1920."1 Several forms of environmental pollution have the ability to intoxicate human bodies with unwanted chemicals. Pollution exists when the environment cannot break down or eliminate an object without creating negative effects. Intoxicating bodies is just one of the several harmful effects that pollution has, specifically, in North America. Pollution causes other problems such as: methane production, health issues, acid rain harmful to ecosystems, and water and soil contamination. Environmental pollution harmfully

amount equal to the number of jobs in the state of Oregon. Wages and salaries

All around the world, countries are fighting to keep their drinking water clean. Whether it’s streams, rivers, or lakes, countries have taken great measures to maintain high quality drinking water for both human consumption and animal consumption. Countries must first understand the sources of the polltion, then determine the best methods to eliminate the pollution. Clean drinking water is a valuable resource and a the key to human survival. Plants and animals also depend on water for their growth, so all water must be kept clean. The major contributors to water pollution can be classified in three categories, industrial, agricultural and municipal.

The water we drink straight out of the tap contains chlorine. The municipal water supply companies have to add the chlorine to kill bacteria and make our water safe. However, chlorine is a known carcinogen. In addition the EPA estimates that one-fifth of our public water supplies contain VOC's (volatile organic chemicals) which can create a wide variety of health problems.

Higher concentration of chlorinated water was found can cause miscarriage in pregnant women due to the formation of cancer-causing byproducts which is trihalomethanes such as carcinogenic chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. The formation of trihalomethanes is due to the reaction between free chlorine and the organic matter which originally present in the water. This statement was prove in one study with 5,000 pregnant women in the Fontana, Walnut Creek and Santa Clara areas of California as the samples and found that pregnant women who drank more than five glasses a day of tap water containing over 75 parts per billion of THMs had a 9.5% risk of spontaneous abortion such as miscarriage if compared 5.7% risk found in those women who are less

“The idea that nature can harm us is not new. Have you ever heard of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, botulism or tetanus? Why, then, are so many convinced that anything and everything natural is healthier for us than synthetic products? It 's true that modern chemistry has brought us a number of toxic chemicals, like DDT and dioxins, but do you really think that nature 's chemicals are any less

38a. There is controversy about chlorine’s long-term health effects .It was discovered chlorine and materials found naturally in water, such as decomposing plant and animal materials. Some health

First, water is an important resource for consumers and the environment. Water is needed in the body to maintain health and the body’s mechanism. “People cannot survive without water resources in their everyday lives, which cost, taste, or health factors the cause for choice and how water consumption affects people and the environment” (Mythri, Chandu, Prashant, Subba, 2010, p. 515). The challenge is understanding the risk of drinking water, from either bottled water or tap water, and the adverse effects on the body system. Therefore, the better the quality of water, the less risk of drinking water from a bottle. “The most uncommon knowledge of the consumers is almost half of all bottled water comes from the same place as tap water, yet marketing tools to persuade the consumer will never unveil important information regarding this”(Liberatore, 2011, p. 69). Bottled water and tap water treatment process levels are different in a treatment process. In particular, tap water treated as high priority because of where the water comes from. The difference between the two water sources is tap water is from run offs and recycled water, which is filtered to remove waste, chemicals, and pollutants, then processed again for all living organisms to use again. By the same token, bottled water is captured from the mountain chambers and natural springs and afterward processed differently, yet once it drunk its nothing left to recycle. “Scientifically, the biological stability is to

can only do harm in this situation of our enviroment. Increasing pollution of these chemicals are