Lead in Water at Home
A typical sink with lead-contaminated water: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/faucet-running.jpg
Summary: Learning disabilities, shortened attention span, and behavioral problems in children are just a few of the possible issues that can occur from consuming lead. Also, a buildup in lead can lead to many health issues, especially in women's pregnancies.The environmental protection agency, or EPA estimates that over 40 million U.S. citizens consume water contaminated with water every day. Lead is predominantly found in typical faucets at homes. The reason for this is that even though the original water isn't always contaminated with lead, the pipes that carry the water concentrate the water with lead as the water passes. Homes built before 1986 are known to have pipe systems contaminating lead, but even newer homes from that point run the risk of drinking water with lead, unless things are done to prevent it. The best possible way to prevent water from being contaminated with lead when drinking from the faucet is to purchase a water filter to attach to the faucet. Most water filters are said to be priced thirty dollars and under. This is just one possibility.
Opinion: I think that lead in water is a fairly large issue at hand that is not being noticed by the U.S. in general. With masses of tens of millions of people drinking this type of water everyday, a lot of people can be negatively impacted, and most people are unaware of the possible harmful effects of drinking this type of water. I think that buying water filters is a good idea in removing the harmful contaminants from water, but I think that we need more options than buying a filter to have clear tap water. Although filters are sometimes said to be 100% effective, that is actually quite doubtful. I think that drinking lead-contaminated water can have many harmful effects, as the EPA has acknowledged, and I think that we need more methods of completely removing lead from our faucets. Drinking lead contaminated water is very risky health-wise in my opinion.
Source: Title: Forty Million Americans Drinking Lead Contaminated Water; Author: Linda Symonds; Publication and Date: Ezine articles in 2006
Questions:
1. What are some ways that you think lead can possibly be removed from our water systems?
2. Do you think that drinking water contaminated with lead is an issue that needs to be faced fairly quickly or over time?
3. Do you think that drinking water contaminated with lead is harmful enough to completely stop drinking it?
Water purifiers seem like the best bet at this point in time to remove lead from our water. It's not necessarily our water systems that are the problem, we would need to find something to stop the inside of the faucet from letting lead out. I think this is something that needs immediate attention because it can cause so many different negative outcomes. It could become a bigger problem if it isn't taken care of soon. I think if you know for sure water is contaminated with lead then I obviously wouldn't drink it, but I have o problem drinking tap water just because there is a chance that there could possibly be lead in it.
ReplyDeleteWe must have water to survive. Some families only rely on this tap water, so we cannot just stop drinking it. The solution is to provide the public with filters that are made to also filter out lead as well as other contaminates. An upgrade in plumbing could also be beneficial. I believe there are materials out there that can be permeated by chemicals and such. Another problem with tap water is the contamination with arsenic. This may be even worse because according to the EPA, "Non-cancer effects can include thickening and discoloration of the skin, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting; diarrhea; numbness in hands and feet; partial paralysis; and blindness. Arsenic has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver, and prostate." It is not just lead in our water that we have to worry about. It is anything that could be harmful to us.
ReplyDeleteFor more on Arsenic in the water and where my quote is from; here is the link: http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/arsenic/index.cfm
Luckily, I did some research on this subject recently because my article (The previous one on this blog)and we also studied this
ReplyDeletein class. If you read my blog, you can see that I believe this should be addressed eventually, but right now, the country has too many issues to work on to focus on this now. Though, this should eventually be attended to. And yes, people cannot just stop drinking the tap water, even if there could be harmful substances contained in the water. However, there should be an attempt to remove lead from the water systems, then, when we can afford to do it, make an effort to remove other substances from the waters. Not having a complete knowledge of water systems and substances contained within, I don't know of a possible way to surely remove lead from water. As I have stated multiple times, I think the rest of the substances can wait to be removed, but lead needs to be taken care of a bit sooner. So far, I do not think that lead in tap water has affected anything severely yet, so we can give it a bit more time before attending to it, considering the many more important issues around us, though we should still be concerned about this lead.
Matthew Newman
ReplyDeleteOpinion/ Reflection
I never would have thought that water with lead contamination could be so bad! I feel that people should be more aware of this because it is something that everyone can work towards resolving or at least making a lot better. After reading this, it makes me wonder if it could be affecting my attention span. I wonder the degree of impact that a water purifier could have in taking the lead out to make it safer. I also think that the government should do more to start improving the water quality by having hard restrictions and penalties for people and companies that are responsible for allowing water with lead be in homes all over the country.
I found an article that was very interesting that discussed the symptoms of lead contaminated water at: http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/programs/lead.htm