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HEALTHY YOU! Is your drinking water safe?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), drinking water quality varies depending on the condition of the water source and how it's treated.
So what does this mean? Well, it means that no matter where you live your water supply does contain some impurities and, in some cases, this can be hazardous to your health.
The EPA has published the following information about the health effects of contaminants in drinking water and the standards set for your drinking water supply?
EPA has set standards for more than 80 contaminants that may occur in drinking water and pose a risk to human health. EPA sets these standards to protect the health of everybody, including vulnerable groups like children. The contaminants fall into two groups according to the health effects that they cause. Your water supplier will alert you through the media, mail, or other means if there is a potential acute or chronic health effect from compounds in the drinking water. You may want to contact the supplier for additional information specific to your area.
Acute effects occur within hours or days of the time that a person consumes a contaminant. People can suffer acute health effects from almost any contaminant if they are exposed to extraordinarily high levels (as in the case of a spill). In drinking water, microbes, such as bacteria and viruses, are the contaminants with the greatest chance of reaching levels high enough to cause acute health effects. Most people's bodies can fight off these microbial contaminants the way they fight off germs, and these acute contaminants typically don't have permanent effects. Nonetheless, when high enough levels occur, they can make people ill, and can be dangerous or deadly for a person whose immune system is already weak due to HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy, steroid use, or another reason.
Chronic effects occur after people consume a contaminant at levels over EPA's safety standards for many years. The drinking water contaminants that can have chronic effects are chemicals (such as disinfection by-products, solvents, and pesticides), radionuclides (such as radium), and minerals (such as arsenic). Examples of the chronic effects of drinking water contaminants are cancer, liver or kidney problems, or reproductive difficulties.
Your local water company can provide you with a report which will give you detailed information about the water you drink. To learn more about your local water supply click here: www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html
Tibberly G. Ríchard served as an entertainment writer for EURweb.com for a number of years. She also served as an on air personality with RadioScope, the Entertainment Magazine of the Air. Ms. Ríchard currently does a weekly television segment called The Parents' Corner, and runs a consulting business. She received a BA in Mass Communications from Southern University A&M College, Baton Rouge , Louisiana and completed Masters Degree courses in Public Administration from Southern University, Baton Rouge , Louisiana and the University of Maryland , College Park . She also received a Certificate of Completion, Charles Hamilton Houston Law School Preparatory Institute, Georgetown University Law Center, Summer Program.
Contact her via tibberlyrichard@eurweb.com, or tgr@vit-com.com. "My greatest joy is my two-year old ‘hand-full’ of a son Caleb W. Cox. He inspires me to be better in every aspect of my life. He is my reason for writing this column. I love you sweetheart. I thank God that you chose me!" Mommy.
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