What Other Toxic Chemicals in Water Affect My Health?

updated 06/27/2008

The Importance of Water

We all know that water is the magic elixir of life. Every living organism needs water in order to function properly. And, you don't need any other liquid to survive. After all, it's the liquid that makes up 70% of our body mass-pure water. Your body relies on water to digest food and to expel waste.

The amount of water is important: Dr. Group recommends that you drink eight 8-ounce glasses daily. And the quality of water you drink matters too. With all the toxic chemicals that can be present in public water supplies, as well as bottled water, it's best if you drink purified water.

Water contains many of the nutrients that make us health and keep us alive. Unfortunately, some chemicals in water are also dangerous. Most of these excess chemicals in water are "runoffs", or leftover human materials.

Fluoride While this compound has many positive traits, such as the ability to clean our teeth, is can also be quite toxic. It is used in the extremely toxic nerve agent sarin gas.1	Chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element that is essential to human life. However, in anything other than trace amounts, it becomes a toxic gas that irritates the respiratory system.2
Mercury Exposure to mercury can cause tremors, psychotic reactions, and suicidal tendencies.3	Lead This poisonous metal can damage the blood, brain, and disrupt nervous system communications.4
PCB's: A class of organic compounds that cause skin, blood, and urine problems in humans.5	Arsenic: An element that has been used for centuries as a deadly poison.6
MtBE MtBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is used as an additive in gasoline.7	DCPA DCPA is an herbicide used on strawberries, melons, and cucumbers.8
Perchlorate This is used as an oxidizer in rocket fuel and explosives.9	Dioxin: An organic compound which is known to increase the likelihood of cancer.10
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB): Commonly used as a pesticide, HCB can cause cancer and disrupt the endocrine system and interfere with enzyme activity.11	DDT: A deadly chemical used as an insecticide. It has been linked to diabetes and cancer.12
Other Ways Chemicals Enter Our Water: Drugs in water from medical waste that seeps into the water Pesticides that run off the land into the water

This list is not exhaustive. There are many toxins, some known to present health risks that are in our public waters. Some are present accidentally; others are regulated into our waters by the government, even in the face of negative safety reports.

The Dangers Posed by Toxic Chemicals in Water

All of these chemicals (and more) have been found in water. While the amount of these chemicals in water is usually not enough to cause significant harm, the possibility of long-term effects still exists. Here are some of the negative health defects¹³ caused by excess chemicals in the water:

• Toxic chemicals in water can cause brain damage. In one study, children who were exposed to high levels of fluoride had lower than normal IQ's.
• Alzheimer's disease and dementia may be caused by lethal amounts of fluoride.
• According to New Jersey's Department of Health, male children who lived in areas with fluoridated water experienced two to seven times more cases of bone cancer than other male children.
• Toxic chemicals in water can cause birth defects and prenatal deaths.
• Excess chemicals in the water have also been linked to problems with the immune system.

REFERENCES

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