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Water Standards Out of Touch With Reality

Posted by: Nate Berg

18 December 2009 - 9:00am

American drinking water meets federal safety standards, but some say it's only because those standards are far too low and don't accurately reflect the potential for contamination.

"Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.

But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000."

Sinc 2004, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed to contaminated drinking water, according to this investigation from the New York Times.

Full Story: That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy
Source: The New York Times, December 16, 2009
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