마시는 물에 있는 소량의 화학 물질에 대해 이야기하기 전에 무엇인가를 알 수 있는 국가 수질 오염이 진행되는 방향에 대해서 인식한 필요가 있다.

West Virginia의 나쁜 수질

국가는 국가 비상 사태에서의 West Virginia에있는 아홉 카운티 지역에 주시하고 있다. 석탄 처리 화학 물질이 강으로 흘러들어가고 오염된 물이 있다. 정화작업이 진행되고 있다. 그들의 식수 시스템 중 화학 물질을 세척하는 시도로, 관리는 안전한 화학 물질의 수준을 결정하기 위해 노력하고 있다.

웨스트 Virgina 공보의 켄 워드 주니어는 지방과 연방 관리는 조 4 methylcyclohexanemethanol (석탄 처리 화학)의 "백만 분의 1 부분은"사람들이 마시기에 안전하다고 보고했다.

Before I talk about the small bits of chemicals often found in drinking water, I want to direct some attention to the national water contamination story going on now because I think it reveals something.

The water is bad in West Virginia

The nation has its eyes on a nine-county area in West Virginia that’s under a state of emergency. A coal-processing chemical leaked into a river and poisoned the drinking water there.

Cleanup is ongoing. As they attempt to flush the chemical out of their drinking water systems, officials are trying to determine what level of the chemical is safe.

Ken Ward Jr. of the West Virgina Gazette reports that local and federal officials are saying that "1 part per million" of crude 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (the coal processing chemical) is safe for people to drink.

But Ward is having a tough time finding out what they based that number on:

When asked for more information about where the number came from, Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Karen Bowling pointed to the "material safety data sheet," or MSDS, from Eastman, the maker of the chemical that leaked.

Bowling, though, downplayed the fact that there is precious little toxicological data and few – if any –public and peer-reviewed studies of what the chemical would do to humans if ingested.

There it is. The research on how these chemicals affect our health can be pretty thin.

Trace amounts of chemicals in drinking water

Around much of the nation, the fact that chemicals get into our drinking water has been known for some time. We’re talking tiny amounts. Scientists use terms like "parts per billion" or "nanograms."

The kinds of chemicals found depends on what gets into the water.

Larry Sanford is the assistant manager of the Ann Arbor Water Treatment plant. On a recent tour of the plant, he read from a list of chemicals researchers found going into the drinking water supply. These were trace amounts of chemicals found after the treatment process.

"Ibuprofen… Carbamazepine – I’ve never said that word before. Seventeen b estradiol … 17 a ethinyl estradiol, and estrone, and estriol, and cholesterol, and coprostanol."

Baylor University researchers tested the drinking water in Grand Rapids, Monroe, and Ann Arbor back in 2005.

The researchers were looking for trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products in the water. Our bodies don’t take up all of the medicine in birth control pills, or antidepressants, or even coffee.

You go to the bathroom, and the extra stuff gets flushed down the drain. Small amounts end up in the drinking water.

The water samples in Ann Arbor showed that 19 different types of drugs were going into the treatment plant. And the treatment process took out eight of them.

Sanford called that "serendipity."

"None of these plants were built with the intention of removing any of this stuff," said Sanford. "You just get the removal based on what’s there already.

Now when you decide what it is you want to remove, then you’ll have to build a treatment facility that will take that out. It may take other things out at the same time, it may not.”