Tag: water

  • Lead Contaminated Water: Boise Schools test 100 times the limit set by the EPA

    Local News reports that 23 schools in the Boise area have a water faucets exposing students to elevated levels of lead. Lead is toxic, and if it makes its way into the still-developing brains of young children, many of the effects can be permanent. Lead can change how signals are passed within the brain, how memories are stored, even how cells get their energy, resulting in life-long learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and lower IQs.

    The news report came out November 30, 2018 regarding the Boise School District. Tests for lead at water faucets and fixtures at 27 schools across the district and of the more than 1,000 tests conducted, nearly 200 tested at elevated levels (above 15 parts per billion) of lead. The tests above the limit span across 23 schools in the district. 

    Borah, Capital, Hillside and Whittier all had at least one faucet or fixture with test results more than 100 times the limit set by the EPA (0.015 mg/L).

    After Fairmont Jr. High School saw elevated results in a test for lead, Boise School District officials say they began supplying water to the 27 schools and began tests of the faucets and fixtures that could be at risk of elevated lead levels. 

    Since October, more than 1,000 tests have been conducted and the nearly 200 fixtures and faucets which tested at elevated levels are in the process of being removed and replaced. In the meantime, the District says it will continue to provide drinking water to those schools, as they have since the initial positive test. 

    While 23 schools saw at least one faucet with elevated lead numbers, Capital High School saw the most test results (44) above the 0.015 mg/L limit set by the EPA. Whittier Elementary School had 22 results above the EPA limit.

    When cells in the brain absorb lead, it tends to affect the frontal cortex, the area responsible for abstract thought, planning, and attention, and the hippocampus, essential to learning and memory. 1

    For a complete list of schools tested and links to each school’s results, click here.

    The Boise School District has a page with information about the lead tests and what parents need to know about safety and next steps. You can access that page here.

    The following schools had at least one faucet or fixture test with levels above the 0.015 mg/L limit: Borah, Capital, Collister, Fairmont, Fort Boise, Garfield, Hawthorne, Highlands, Hillside, Jefferson, Koelsch, Liberty, Madison, Maple Grove, Monroe, Mountain View, North, Owyhee, Pierce Park, Taft, Valley View, Washington, Whittier.

    The following schools had no faucets or fixtures test with levels above the 0.015 mg/L limit: Adams, Boise, Hillcrest, Longfellow.

    What are the health effects and dangers of lead?

    But the resulting symptoms vary a lot between individuals, says Jay Schneider, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University “You don’t often see the same kinds of cognitive dysfunction in all kids,” he says. “From what our research has shown, there are very significant differences in the way different brains respond to this particular toxin.” 1

    Since lead is stored in the body, a person can get poisoned from exposure to just small amounts of lead over a long period of time (chronic exposure).  You do not need to get exposed to just large doses of lead to be poisoned (acute exposure).  It can take months or years for the body to get rid of lead.  A person will continue to be exposed to lead internally even after the actual exposure to lead stops.

    How Does Lead Cause Neurological Damage?

    Lead can be ingested, through water or other contaminated substances–the Environmental Protection Agency limits the amount of lead in water to 15 micrograms per liter, though some toxicologists think that limit should be lowered to 10 micrograms per liter. Lead can also be inhaled or sometimes even absorbed through the skin, though lead can’t move from water into skin, so it’s safe to bathe in lead-contaminated water as long as you don’t drink it.

    Once it’s in the body, lead competes with calcium to be absorbed by the body. There are lots of factors that can affect just how much of the lead is absorbed, but there is an overall higher absorption rate for lead that is inhaled versus ingested. It sticks to red blood cells—doctors usually test the blood for proof of exposure to lead—and then moves into soft tissues, like the liver and lungs. If lead is absorbed into bones, it can stay there for decades and recirculate in the person’s blood if a bone is broken or when a woman is pregnant, potentially poisoning both the mother and the fetus. The amount the body absorbs depends on the route of exposure.  In general, an adult will absorb 10-15% of the lead in the digestive system, while children and pregnant women can absorb up to 50%.  People will absorb more lead if they are fasting or if their diet is lacking in iron or calcium.2

    A local doctor interviewed by 6 On Your Side said: 

    “Any neurological effects, (from exposure to the lead contaminated water fountain) Dr. Mark Uranga of St. Luke’ said, from minor exposure like this are very unlikely.”

    The U.S. National Toxicity Program states:

    The NTP concludes that there is sufficient evidence for adverse health effects in children there is sufficient evidence that blood Pb levels <5 µg/dL are associated with increased diagnosis of attention-related behavioral problems, greater incidence of problem behaviors, and decreased cognitive performance as indicated by
    (1) lower academic achievement,
    (2) decreased intelligence quotient (IQ),and
    (3) reductions in specific cognitive measures.

    There is also limited evidence that blood Pb <5 µg/dLis associated with delayed puberty and decreased kidney function in children ≥12 years of age. There is sufficient evidence that blood Pb levels <10 µg/dLin children are associated with delayed puberty and reduced postnatal growth. 3

    RESOURCES:

    1 https://www.popsci.com/lead-water-what-are-health-effects-dangers#page-2

    2 http://www.osh.net/articles/archive/osh_basics_2001_may26.htm

    3 National Toxicity Program printable brochure on low levels of lead: https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/ohat/lead/final/monographhealtheffectslowlevellead_newissn_508.pdf

  • Teflon Chemicals Bigger Health Threat Than Previously Disclosed

    Chemicals used for decades in hundreds of consumer products – including DuPont’s Teflon and 3M’s Scotchgard – are hazardous for human health and for the environment. PFOA and its cousin, PFOS, never break down in the environment. They build up in people’s bodies, and can be passed from mother to child in the womb and though breast milk.By the 1970s, DuPont and 3M had used them to develop Teflon and Scotchgard, and they slipped into an array of everyday products, from gum wrappers to sofas to frying pans to carpets. Known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, they were a boon to the military, too, which used them in foam that snuffed out explosive oil and fuel fires.

    It’s long been known that, in certain concentrations, the compounds could be dangerous if they got into water or if people breathed dust or ate food that contained them. Tests showed they accumulated in the blood of chemical factory workers and residents living nearby, and studies linked some of the chemicals to cancers and birth defects.

    Now two new analyses of drinking water data and the science used to analyze it make clear the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense have downplayed the public threat posed by these chemicals. Far more people have likely been exposed to dangerous levels of them than has previously been reported because contamination from them is more widespread than has ever been officially acknowledged.

    Moreover, ProPublica has found, the government’s understatement of the threat appears to be no accident. The EPA and DOD have quite deliberately chosen not to use the most advanced tools or to collect the most comprehensive data on contamination, researchers say.

    The EPA and the Department of Defense calibrated water tests to exclude some harmful levels of contamination and only register especially high concentrations of chemicals, according to the vice president of one testing company. Several prominent scientists told ProPublica the DOD chose to use tests that would identify only a handful of chemicals rather than more advanced tests that the agencies’ own scientists had helped develop which could potentially identify the presence of hundreds of additional compounds.  

    “If you were going to spend $200 million testing DoD sites across the country, wouldn’t you want to test for all of the chemicals you know you used?” asked Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, who has been active on chemical cleanup issues at Defense sites.

    “It’s almost like a deliberate thing, where you’re going to tell people their water is safe to drink, and you know that you have a gap in your testing and you know that you haven’t found all of the chemicals in the water.” The new analyses suggest these findings likely represent just a fraction of the true number of people and drinking water systems affected.

    Scientists are only now beginning to understand the importance of the information the government is choosing to leave out. Field has found, for example, not only that there are more variations of PFAS compounds, but that some degrade over time into PFOS or PFOA, or, like PFBS, travel faster in the environment, making them predictors for other contaminants soon to come.

    “Widespread contamination may be harming the health of millions or even tens of millions of Americans and the government is intentionally covering up some of the evidence,” said Erik Olson, a senior director for health, food and agriculture initiatives at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in an interview. The EPA and Defense Department “have done all they can to sort of drag their feet and avoid meaningful regulatory action in making significant investment in cleanups.”

    Read More at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/09/how-the-epa-and-the-pentagon-downplayed-a-growing-toxic-threat.html.

  • 12 Brands Of Bottled Water Full Of TOXIC Fluoride

    Just how badly is fluoride really affecting our health? Is it really as bad as everyone thinks? Recent studies have shown that fluoride is terrible for our health, high levels of fluoride have been shown to cause neurotoxicity in adults which causes negative impacts on the brain when it comes to learning and memory. It has also been found by the Harvard School of Public Health and China Medical University in Shenyang that fluoride negatively affects the cognitive development in children.At least seventy percent of the United States water supplies are fluoridated meaning this could be happening on a widespread scale.
    All water treatment chemicals, with the exception of fluoride, are added to make drinking water safe and pleasant to consume. Fluoride is the only chemical added to treat people who consume the water, rather than the water itself. Fluoridating water supplies can thus fairly be described as a form of mass medication, which is why most European countries have rejected the practice.

    For many years people thought fluoride was able to prevent tooth decay, but there is no significant evidence that can link the two. Fluoride can actually be detrimental to oral health. Recent large-scale studies from the United States have found little practical or statistical difference in tooth decay rates among children living in fluoridated versus non-fluoridated areas. In addition, data complied by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that tooth decay rates have declined just as rapidly in non-fluoridated western countries as they have in fluoridated western countries. Read more. 

    Fluoride is added to 37% of Idaho’s public water supply. SIGN THE PETITION TO ELIMINATE TOXIC FLUORIDE FROM PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS IN IDAHO

    Many people have bought the marketing that bottled water is healthier. Unfortunately, they are paying higher prices for a bottle of water filled with health damaging fluoride. The main chemicals used to fluoridate drinking water are known as “silicofluorides” (i.e., hydrofluorosilicic acid and sodium fluorosilicate). Silicofluorides are not pharmaceutical-grade fluoride products; they are unprocessed industrial by-products of the phosphate fertilizer industry. 

    REDUCE YOUR FLUORIDE EXPOSURE 
    AVOID THESE FLUORIDE TAINTED BOTTLED WATER:

    • Arrowhead
    • Crystal Rock
    • Crystal Springs
    • Belmont Springs
    • Deer Park
    • Diamond Springs
    • Ice Mountain
    • Mount Olympus
    • Zephyrhills
    • Ozarka
    • Poland Springs
    • Sierra Springs

    For a full list click here, yes there are many more.

    Still feel a need to grab a bottle of water?
    Here is a list of fluoride-safe bottled water brands:

    • Black Berry Farms
    • Cascade
    • Arbor Springs
    • Aqua Pure
    • Blue Ice Natural Mineral Water
    • Century Springs
    • Deja Blue
    • Dannon
    • Clear Mountain Spring Water
    • Crystal Spring Natural Spring Water
    • Eureka
    • Evian
    • Flowing Springs
    • Fresh Market
    • Glacier Bay
    • Hidden Valley Natural Mineral Water
    • Mountain Valley Spring Water
    • Oasis Pure Drinking Water
    • Polaris Water
    • Smart Water

    Learn more about the health dangers of fluoride: 

    SIGN THE PETITION TO ELIMINATE TOXIC FLUORIDE FROM PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS IN IDAHO

  • 36% of Idaho Water is Contaminated

    Did you know that 32% of Idaho’s citizens are forced to drink water contaminated with a known neurotoxin? 16 YEARS ago, scientist declared that fluoride does NOT help with tooth decay. 2 years ago, scientist declare #Fluoride is a #Neurotoxin! Our communities still ADD IT to the water! Its DOES NOT HAVE to be that way! Local communities have the power to stop add fluoride to the water. 

     

    Local communities make decisions to add or remove it from the water. Take a look at your water supply!
    Join your neighbors and get the City Council to stop the contamination of your local water!
    Don’t wait for someone else!
    Of course you can get a fluoride removing filter for yourself, but what about when your kids go to school and drink from the fountains. What about the local restaurants that serves you a glass of iced water?  Protect your WHOLE COMMUNITY! 

     https://nccd.cdc.gov/DOH_MWF/Default/CountyList.aspx

  • Potent carcinogen contaminated drinking water used by millions

    According to a new nationwide Gallup survey, Americans are really worried about contaminants in their drinking water. Nearly two-thirds of Americans have “a great deal” concern about pollution of tap water, and 57 percent worry “a great deal” about pollution of the nation’s rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Concern hasn’t been this high since 2001.

    The worry is well founded Shell Oil Co. and Dow Chemical hid a known cancer-causing substance in two commonly-used pesticides that contaminated the drinking water of millions of people in California, according to lawsuits detailed in a report from the Environmental Working Group earlier this month.