filter out this toxin for its residents?
According to the US Geological Survey’s site, a range of about 0.05 – 0.30 g is considered a deadly amount if ingested daily over a period less than or equal to 14 days in a row. A single ingested amount as small as 0.13 g can be lethal to an adult. Yet, even more alarming are the numbers here in the United States. It has been estimated that more than 34 million Americans have been drinking tap water supplied by systems containing varying levels of arsenic. So what’s the big deal? Arsenic intake can result in many symptoms including chronic health effects, including organ damage, cancer, and even death.
How is it getting in our water in the first place? According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, it naturally occurs in water after it has dissolved from minerals in our rocks and soil. Other times, arsenic enters our groundwater from mining, manufacturing, and pollution. While industrialization takes great pains to prevent groundwater contamination nowadays, we can’t wage war on naturally occurring processes – like minerals dissolving in rainwater.
What are our options if arsenic cannot be prevented from the main source? We could buy bottled water at the grocery store each week. But, in looking at the whole picture (the cost of the water, transporting the plastic to a recycling center, the costs associated with recycling plastic and not even knowing if the bottled water is assured to be safe) still don’t have me buying in.
Particularly here in California, where there are pockets of arsenic are in some places the highest in the nation, it is more appropriate to look into home water conditioning, water filtration, or reverse osmosis to rid many unwanted and unsafe toxins in drinking water. Weigh your “costs”- an affordable water filtration system, or unaffordable health risks.
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