Drinking water contaminations have affected water piped to more than 49 million Americans since 2004, according to an  exhaustive study just completed by The New York Times.  And while the government is aware of the violations, it has rarely fined or punished the violators.

In its Dec 7 issue, the Times reported analyzing federal data on violations since 2004 of rules regulating toxins found in city water. These violations document illegal concentrations of chemicals, radioactive substances, or dangerous bacteria from sewage. More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems, often the smaller systems, broke the EPA regulations.

These violations were reported as they occurred. But only six percent of the water systems that broke the law received fines or other punishments from state or federal officials.  Some violations constituted one-time events, but others persisted for years, according to the Times.

Members of Congress, responding to the Times reporting, demanded an explantion from the EPA at a hearing Dec. 8. Enforcement leadership at the EPA is pledging to overhaul its system, according to ABC News.

The Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in parts of each state. For example, in prosperous Ramsey, NJ, too-high concentrations were found of arsenic and tetrachlorethylene, a cleaning solvent. Both are linked to cancer. In New York State, 205 water systems were found to contain illegal amounts of bacteria.

Ramsey, NJ, was not fined–but it did update its filtration systems. In New York, just three water systems were penalized.

According to the Times, research indicates that diseases follow the contaminants and show that as many as 19 million Americans get sick each year from parasites, viruses, and bacteria found in drinking water.  And we all know cancer rates are rising; could this fact be related to increasing levels of carcinogens in our drinking water?

A home water filter is the best way to protect y our family, experts agree.  For the best of the best, get a Multi-Pure triple-carbon filter that’s certified to remove the most pollutants of any carbon filter, while leaving in beneficial minerals. Or, if you want to remove everything and add the beneficial minerals back in, you can get a Multi-Pure reverse osmosis system plus the carbon filter. Multi-Pure filters provide you with peace of mind and a warranty unmatched in the industry. I love mine. You’ll love yours too.

The answer is yes, according to a study published in the open access journal Environmental Health in September. The study tracked the infants of pregnant women exposed to the chemical inadvertently by PCE coating inside water piping used on Cape Cod between 1969 and 1983.

Ann Aschengrau, Boston University School of Public Health, and a team combed through records of those living through this episode. They compared rates of birth defects for fetuses exposed to the PCE to a control group which was not exposed.

They found an increased risk of cleft palate and neural tube defects, especially anencephaly.

Troubling news? Actually, I have the solution for you. Multi-Pure triple-carbon home water filters are certified by the NSF to remove more than 99 percent of traces of this chemical, also called tetrachloroethylene. Multi-Pure filters protect your family from many toxins, including mercury and PCB’s–which are not filtered out by many competitors. Its 90-day satisfaction warranty is unmatched.  Check out Multi-Pure today!

Olga Naidenko, Ph.D. is a senior scientist with Environmental Working Group of Washington, D.C. She addressed a letter to the EPA in August, 2008 (www.ewg.org/node/27005).  On behalf of her advocacy group, she told the EPA that it should be setting water regulations that protect pregnant women and children from chemicals in drinking water.

The current EPA system involves listing questionable chemicals, including prescription drugs and agricultural chemicals, and then deciding not to regulate the bulk of them.  She charged the EPA with “shielding toxic water pollutants from regular scrutiny,” using this listing process.

She listed eleven significant contaminants currently exempt from EPA regulations. The EPA, she said, claimed that none of the contaminants  “were found nationally at levels of public health concern in public water systems.”

But the EWG study team discovered significant levels of exposure to four toxins, in reviewing EPA data.  It found that dacthal, a herbicide, contaminated water served to 486,000 people in six states.  In addition the study found significant exposures to aldrin, a neurotoxic form of dieldrin, and to soil fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene.

In addition, a USGS study by Kolpin and others in 2002 (Environmental Science Technology 36(6)) showed that veterinary and human antibiotics, as well as prescription and nonprescription drug and  anti-microbial compounds, are frequently found in our streams, said Naidenko. Many of these streams serve as important sources of drinking water. These potent compounds are all unregulated at this time, wrote Naidenko.

We’ve found out that toxins and prescription drugs are in our water supply. The best protection available for your family is a triple-carbon filter, proven to get rid of many toxins, yet holding onto the essential minerals needed for health. Check into home water filters, especially the durable, high-flow, triple-carbon filters made by Multi-Pure.

Let’s think of ways to protect our children. We can carefully choose their foods, favoring organic food where possible.  And we can easily serve them clean, pure water.

Unfortunately the tap water in America contains low levels of a variety of chemicals.  The EPA tests for high levels of certain compounds, but there are others that it does not regulate.  The Environmental Working Group of Washington, D.C., is an activist group that is concerned.

One of the major contaminants in water is in fact caused by an effort to clean it.  Chlorine treatment to remove bacteria results in toxic byproducts called trihalomethanes. Water high in trihalomethanes also confers an increased risk of birth defects, according to a recent study.

The study, published June 2, 2008, in the online journal Environmental Health (www.environmentalhealth.com), tracked nearly 400,000 infants in Taiwan, searching for 11 specific birth defects. The study also recorded whether the pregnant women drank water with high, medium,  or low levels of trihalomethanes.

Researchers found that mothers exposed to high levels of trihalomethanes ran an increased risk of birth defects in their infants in three common areas: holes in the heart, cleft palate, and anencephalus, or absence of most of the brain.

“High” exposure consisted of trihalomethanes measured at a level above 20 ig/L. Exposure at this high level increased the risk of these birth defects from 50 to 100 percent as compared with the “low” level below 5 ig/L.

It’s time to get rid of the bottled water, which studies show is no safer than tap water. Instead, let’s go for the solution that works.  Let’s protect our children! Find out more at home-water-filter.info