The challenge of the 21st century
As reported in Science Daily researchers found strong evidence a chemical referred to as hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, causes cancer in laboratory animals when it is consumed in drinking water.
Chromium 6 has been found in some public water supplies.
According to the Oregonian river bottom sediment reads more like a pharmacy nowadays. Scientists found Willamette and Tualatin rivers, Fanno Creek and the inlets of many smaller creeks such as Tryon, Johnson and Kellogg. These include venlafaxine, citalopram, diphenhydramine, diltiazem. fluoxetine (also known as Prozac) and cimetidine (or Tagamet), a heartburn drug.
It is all to do with the simple fact that water treatment plants were thought up before people started popping large amounts of modern chemicals. And washing them down with huge amounts of coffee. Because sediments are crawling with caffeine as well.
Apart from the risk to wildlife and the ecological services we enjoy from nature, water purification plants that make our drinking water have to find ways to removes them.
All of this adds up to the legacy of the industrial and consumption age making it more and more difficult for those who come after.
The ongoing rise in bottled water sales has beverage companies wringing their hands in glee. However, according to the Worldwatch Institiute the trend is another example of the failure of market mechanisms.
An estimated 35–50 percent of urban dwellers in Africa and Asia lack adequate access to safe potable water whilst year, about 2 million tons of PET bottles end up in landfills in the United States alone.
The report, State of the World 2007 underlines the tragedy of this lop-sided situation.
According to this article Americans drank nearly as much bottled water as beer in 2005.Americans on average drank more bottled water in 2006 than milk.
According to an industry newsletter, if the trend continues, Americans could be drinking more bottled water than tap water within a few years.
