|
|
Article: Water: safe to swallow? (includes related article)
- Article from:
- Nutrition Action Healthletter
- Article date:
- November 1, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Center for Science in the Public Interest. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Water: Safe to Swallow?
If all the water on earth could fit in a gallon jug, and if you poured out the portion that was non-drinkable (too salty, polluted, or hard to get), you'd end up with one single drop. Is that drop safe to drink? Not if you happened to be in Des Moines, Iowa on September 27, 1983. On that day, levels of trichloroethylene (TCE)--a suspected carcinogen--soared to more than 18 times the current federal limit. In fact, throughout the late 70s and early 80s, the 190,000 residents of Des Moines routinely drank water with anywhere from two to ten times the amount of TCE now permitted.
THERE'S MORE TO WATER THAN [H.sub.2] O
How ...