The use of pesticides and herbicides has become so excessive that they are now commonly found in household tap water and bottled water with alarming frequency.
A 1998 study of 29 major U.S. cities by the Environmental Working Group found that all 29 cities had traces of at least one weed killer in the drinking water.
The report, titled "Weed Killers By The Glass," went on to say that "Millions of Americans are routinely exposed to one or more pesticides in a single glass of tap water."
These first ever "tap water testings" found two or more pesticides in the drinking water of 27 of the 29 cities, three or more in 24 cities, four or more in 21 cities,
five or more in 18 cities, six or more in 13 cities and seven or more pesticides in the tap water of 5 major U.S. cities. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, nine different pesticides were found
in a single glass of tap water!
As a startling side note, it was reported that in these 29 cities, 45,000 infants drank formula mixed with tap water containing weed killers and that "over half of these infants were
swallowing 4 to 9 chemicals in every bottle!"
The tragic health effects of consuming these highly toxic chemicals are magnified many times over for small children because their systems are more sensitive and still developing.
Small children also consume a much larger volume of fluids per pound of body weight and therefore get a bigger dose, yet none of these factors are considered when the EPA‘s maximum contaminant levels are
set. The National Academy of Sciences issued a report in 1993 on this subject and stated "children are not little adults" and their bodies are less developed and simply incapable of detoxifying certain harmful compounds."
(For more information about the effects of drinking water on our children, please read WaterWays: Healthy Children.)
Another major flaw in the estimated risks of chemicals in our drinking water is the false assumption that only that one chemical is being consumed. The regulations are set based on what is assumed safe for a 175 pound adult drinking water
with only one chemical present and does not take into account the combined toxicity of two or more chemicals. In a 1995 Science Advisory Report to the EPA, it was stated that
"when two or more of these contaminants combine in our water the potency may be increased by as much as 1000 times!"
