Category:Water Pollution: Difference between revisions

Water Pollution / Water Quality -- A Worldwide Health and Environmental Problem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution

... an endemic global problem that requires revision of water resource policy at all levels, international down to individual aquifers and wells

• Water pollution is a leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases

• About 90 percent of the water in the cities of China is polluted (2015) ... As of 2007, half a billion Chinese had no access to safe drinking water

• In a recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47% of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bays and estuarine square miles were classified as polluted ... http://www.epa.gov/waterdata/national-water-quality-inventory-report-congress

• 'Point source water pollution' (identifiable sources of contamination) and 'Nonpoint source water pollution' (sometimes referred to as 'urban runoff') must be addressed by environmental remediation/cleanup

• Surface water and groundwater contamination are increasingly evident and solutions are necessary

• Water Pollution: Pathogens; Organic, inorganic and macroscopic contaminants

• Industrial wastewater; Agricultural runoff; Petrochemicals; Sewage/Human/Animal Waste

• Lead contaminants are exceptionally damaging when ingested by children

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A 2016 US investigative report suggests that recently recorded lead poisoning rates in over 3,000 areas in the U.S. were twice as high when compared to Flint, Michigan, during Flint's drinking water contamination crisis.

The Flint water crisis occurred after the city switched its water supply in 2014. In September 2015, scientific studies showed that around 4-5 percent of children screened there had high blood lead levels.

In the latest investigative report, Reuters found vulnerable neighborhoods where testing showed the highest rates of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood. By relying on data obtained from state health departments and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spanning about a decade, Reuters found about 1,100 communities that had rates of lead blood levels that were at least four times higher than that found in Michigan.

According to the study, pockets within cities such as Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia saw an increase of 40 to 50 percent in blood lead levels in the last decade.

In all, Reuters found 2,606 census tracts, and another 278 zip code areas, with a prevalence of lead poisoning at least twice Flint’s rate. Census tracts have an average of about 4,000 residents apiece, while zip codes average populations of 7,500.

Though requests for data records were placed in all 50 states, due to lack of data or inadequate responses, the Reuters map has limitations: the available data includes roughly 61 percent of the U.S. population in 21 states.

Exposure to lead, a heavy metal neurotoxin, can cause anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to reproductive organs. Subjection to high levels can also cause coma, convulsions and even death, according to the WHO.