Environmental Working Group study indicates widespread nitrate pollution in U.S. drinking water — at levels linked to increased cancer risk — underscores the need for in-home water filtration, the Water Quality Association said on October 2, 2018.
WQA Executive Director Pauli Undesser said, “In-home treatment provides a final barrier to many contaminants not removed by centralized treatment or that can be picked up in service lines along the way to your residence, or that occur in private well water supplies.”
In a report released October 2, 2018, the EWG analyzed tests of public water systems and found that 1,700 communities across the U.S. regularly have nitrate levels that the National Cancer Institute says can increase the risk of cancer. Two-thirds of those systems, serving more than 3 million Americans, have no nitrate treatment process. The group calculated that nitrate treatment could add more than $50 a month per person to the cost of drinking water.
Primary sources of organic nitrates include human sewage, animal waste, fertilizers and septic tank wastes.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) for total nitrate/nitrite at 10.0 mg/L and for nitrite at 1.0 mg/L (measured as nitrogen, N) translated as an enforceable MCL of 10 parts per million (ppm), but recent National Cancer Institute research indicates that drinking water with more than 5 ppm of nitrate increases the risk of kidney, colon, ovarian and bladder cancers.
Other studies have demonstrated a link between nitrate and blood disorders in infants, which can be responsible for a temporary blood disorder in infants called methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome). In infants less than six months old, a condition exists in their digestive systems which allows for the chemical reduction of nitrate in drinking water to nitrite giving rise to this decease. When the nitrate-contaminating source is removed, the effects are reversible.
The US EPA conducted a 6-year review for selected drinking water contaminants and found that the largest releases of nitrates in drinking water occurred in California by far. In 2005 alone, California had 320 systems above the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 10 parts per million – 10 mg/L total nitrate (measured as nitrogen). However, the National Cancer Institute research indicates that drinking water with more than 5 ppm or more of nitrate increases the risk of cancer.
Of the communities with 5 ppm or more of nitrate but no treatment system, almost half are in just five states: California, Texas, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Adding another five states – Washington, Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska and New York – covers almost 70 percent of such communities.
Homeowners concerned about nitrate in drinking water can have their water tested through a certified water-testing laboratory.
WQA Director Undesser points out that home filtration devices or systems can remove nitrate or other contaminants. Multipure offers NSF certified Point-Of-Use water filters that reduces nitrate and other dangerous contaminants.
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Edward A. Shields, CPA, MBA
Senior Builder
Water Magi
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(646) 960-6830
info@watermagi.com
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