Category: Public health
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Firefighting foam linked to water contamination across Massachusetts
State environmental officials are tracking an emerging threat to drinking water across Massachusetts linked to a firefighting foam used at military installations and airports. “Back in 2012, 2013 we started showing these contaminates” said Dan Santos, director of the Barnstable Department of Public Works. Testing revealed toxic levels of chemicals in the soil at the…
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Is Our Water Supply Disrupting the Human Endocrine System?
Credit: Pixabay. Exposure to emerging contaminants, even at extremely low doses, can cause adverse health effects for humans, including endocrine disruption which can lead to developmental malformations, interference with reproduction, increased cancer risk and disturbances in the immune and nervous system functions. These emerging contaminants include pharmaceuticals and personal care products, hormones, perfluorinated alkyls and…
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Cancer-causing metal found in drinking water across N.J.
Nearly 200 million Americans, including many in New Jersey, have tap water that contains a toxin that can cause cancer even from minute exposures, according to a report by an advocacy group. Chromium-6, a toxic metal that can cause liver damage, reproductive and developmental problems and cancer, was found in water systems in every New…
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Why the modern bathroom is a wasteful, unhealthy design
Piped water may be the greatest convenience ever known but our sewage systems and bathrooms are a disaster For centuries, the people of London and other big cities got their cooking and washing water from rivers or wells, limiting their consumption to pretty much what they could carry. They dumped their waste into brick-lined cesspits…
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First blood tests in Bucks, Montco show above-average contamination after tainted water
Residents in Bucks and Montgomery Counties who participated in a blood-testing program because their drinking water was contaminated by chemicals on nearby military bases have a dramatically higher presence of some chemicals in their blood than the general U.S. population — in the case of one chemical, five times more than the typical American. The…
