Study: US Needs Billions for Water, Sewers

This is why home filtration and self-serve retail water vending will continue to be growth industries.

Study: US Needs Billions for Water, Sewers

Grisly But On Point Video

FTC changes guides on term 'eco-friendly'

NEW YORK - It's an inconvenient truth: Many of the environmental claims in advertisements and packaging are more about raking in the green than being green.

Aiming to clear up confusion for consumers about what various terms mean, the Federal Trade Commission has revised guidelines for businesses that make claims about so-called "eco-friendly" products.

The proposed new version of the agency's Green Guides was released Wednesday, with recommendations for when to use words like "degradable" and "carbon offset," in advertisements and packaging, and warnings about using certifications and seals of approval that send misleading messages.

Regardless of changes to definition, Aqua Star International products remain "eco-friendly" under any definition of the term.

1 in 5 deaths in Bangladesh linked to arsenic in drinking water

This ten year study, one of the first of its kind regarding long term, low level exposure to known carcinogens ingested via drinking water, lends validity to the theory that even low levels of toxins in our systems present serious long term consequences.

clipped from www.dnaindia.com 1 in 5 deaths in Bangladesh linked to arsenic in drinking water London: Exposure to arsenic in drinking water - even at low levels - increases the risk of death from any cause, suggests a new study conducted on Bangladeshis. Arsenic is known to be a potent carcinogen and toxic to organs such as the liver, skin, kidney and the cardiovascular system. In a new study of 12,000 Bangladeshis, more than 20% of deaths were attributable to arsenic exposure from contaminated drinking water. The large 10-year study is the first to prospectively measure the relationship between individual exposure to arsenic and its associated mortality risk, the authors said. The Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS) was led by Habibul Ahsan, MD, MMedSc, Director of the Center for Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention at the University of Chicago Medical Center. For the 25% of people exposed to the highest levels of arsenic, mortality risk increased by nearly 70%, the study determined.

In The CDC We Trust?

If the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, a body whose soul reason for being, is to assess and inform the public about health threats can't be trusted to "tell it like it is"; what is John Q. Public to do?

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Sometimes Don Quixote beats the windmill. It happened for Marc Edwards, a lean, intense Virginia Tech environmental engineering professor. Drawing on what he called his own "world-class stubbornness," he mounted a six-year campaign that succeeded last week in forcing the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to admit that it had misled the public about the risk of lead in the District's drinking water. The CDC, which is the nation's principal public health agency, made the confession in a "Notice to Readers" published in an official weekly bulletin Friday. It came a day after a scathing House subcommittee report said the agency knowingly used flawed and incomplete data when it assured D.C. residents in 2004 that their health hadn't been hurt by spikes in lead in the drinking water.

Interesting National Geographic Illustration

A graphic portrayal of the types of pharmaceuticals entering our water sheds and therefore our aquatic species. While not affecting humans in their current concentrations, scientists do not know what the long term hazards may be regarding the multitude of possible combinations of these drugs or how they will alter the food chain.

clipped from ngm.nationalgeographic.com

Cities Sue Manufacturer of Weed-Killer Found in Tap Water

Beyond the excerpts below, what's interesting about the article are the quotes from the manufacturer's representative. In a cavalier tone, he states that because the EPA years ago said there was no data to support atrizine being harmful to humans, no further testing is necessary. So in light of recent scientific studies suggesting there may be more to be learned about the effects of exposure, especially via drinking water, Syngenta would rather just sweep it all under the rug.

Perhaps this organized citizen action will have an impact on their corporate nonchalance.

clipped from huffpostfund.org A coalition of communities in six Midwestern states filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to force the manufacturer of a widely-used herbicide to pay for its removal from drinking water. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois by 16 cities in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa.  The communities allege that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. reaped billions of dollars from the sale of atrazine while local taxpayers were left with the financial burden of filtering the chemical from drinking water. Atrazine has long been a controversial product. The European Union in 2004 banned its use, saying there was not enough information to prove its safety. The EPA recently  announced that it would be re-evaluating the herbicide’s ability to cause cancer and birth defects, as well as its potential to disrupt the hormone and reproductive systems of humans and amphibians.