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Some Popular Bottled Waters Contain Unregulated Chemicals, Researchers Say
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Reaching for a bottle of water may feel like the safest way to stay hydrated. But new research suggests bottled water isn’t as pure as many people think and may contain harmful chemicals. Researchers found dozens of chemicals in popular bottled water brands, including some chemicals that are not regulated by the government.
The study — scheduled for publication in the March issue of the journal Water Research — tested 10 popular bottled water brands for 64 regulated and unregulated chemicals called disinfection byproducts, or DBPs. All bottled waters tested contained DBPs, albeit at much lower levels than tap water, the researchers found.
“Overall, I think this is a good finding for bottled water,” study co-author Susan Richardson, a chemistry professor at the University of South Carolina, told Newsweek. “Before this study, there was almost no information on the vast majority of toxic priority, unregulated DBPs. Now we have it.”
SC Farmer Will Visit Washington to Tell Story of Toxic Pollution in His Community
South Carolina farmer Robbie O’Neal, whose family for years relied on sludge from a textile plant to fertilize crops, is in the nation’s capital this week to tell the story of how the waste material polluted drinking water and damaged the O’Neal’s rural agricultural community. He’s scheduled to provide two briefings for congressional staff members Wednesday as part of a non-profit organization’s effort to help farmers deal with the impact of forever chemicals, the toxic compounds that can trigger severe health problems in those exposed over time.
Plans also are under way to visit the offices of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina, as well as Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C. Graham’s staff plans to meet with O’Neal, although the senator will not be available, a spokeswoman said. “I want them to know what happened and how we got into this, and that it’s poisoned everything around here,’’ said O’Neal, whose family has farmed in Darlington County for generations.
The gunk he and other farmers relied on was riddled with forever chemicals, formally known as PFAS, or per and polyfluoralkyl substances. Drinking water on his family’s land, like many of his neighbors’, has been tainted with the toxins. Two of his uncles who drank from PFAS-polluted wells for years have died. And O’Neal said he recently learned he has notable levels of PFAS in his blood.
Are Pesticides Making Florists Sick?
“If someone had warned me, my daughter would still be here,” florist Laure Marivain told Le Monde. Her 11-year-old child, Emmy, died in 2022 after seven years battling leukaemia. In a landmark case two years later, French officials acknowledged a link between Emmy’s death and her exposure to pesticides during her mother’s pregnancy, when Laure was working as a florist.
Now, said The Guardian, voices from within the industry are “raising the alarm”.
The few studies that examine the link “paint a bleak picture”, said The Guardian. In 1990, research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health found that female Colombian flower workers, who were exposed to 127 different pesticides, had higher rates of premature births and birth defects. Concerning levels of pesticides remain in shop-bought bouquets.
A study from 2019 carried out by the University of Liège, for example, analysed samples from 90 Belgian flower shops and found 107 pesticides were present, 70 of which were detected in the florists’ urine samples. The authors recommended an “urgent need to raise the awareness” of the dangers of this level of exposure.
A public outcry following Emmy Marivain’s death saw the French government launch an initial study to examine the “exposure to pesticides faced by professionals in the flower industry”, said Le Monde. While the conclusions aren’t expected for a few more years, it is hoped the work will lead to “proposals for regulatory changes” such as setting upper maximum limits for pesticides and banning the importation of flowers found to have residue “classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction”.
What Air Pollution Does to the Human Body
I grew up in rural Colorado, deep in the mountains, and I can still remember the first time I visited Denver in the early 2000s. The city sits on the plain, skyscrapers rising and buildings extending far into the distance. Except, as we drove out of the mountains, I could barely see the city — the entire plain was covered in a brown, hazy cloud.
That brown, hazy cloud was mostly made of ozone, a lung-irritating gas that causes decreases in lung function, inflammation, respiratory symptoms like coughing, and can trigger asthma attacks. Denver still has air pollution problems, due in part to its geography, which creates temperature inversions that can hold pollution near the ground.
But since 1990, ozone has decreased 18% across the U.S., reducing the smog that choked many cities in the 1960s and 1970s. The concentration of tiny dustlike particles of air pollution called PM2.5 has also decreased, by 37% since 2000.
New Research Warns Fish Being Killed off by Pesticides
Fish are being killed off by pesticides, warns new research. Long-term exposure to low levels of a common agricultural chemical can accelerate aging and shorten the lifespan of aquatic lifeforms, according to the study. American scientists say their findings have potentially “far-reaching implications” for human health.
The study, published in the journal Science, shows that chronic exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos at concentrations too low to cause immediate toxicity causes fish to age faster at the cellular level. The research began with field studies in China where scientists examined thousands of fish collected over several years from lakes with differing levels of pesticide contamination.
Biology Professor Jason Rohr and his colleagues observed that fish living in contaminated lakes lacked older individuals, while populations in relatively uncontaminated lakes included many older fish.
Herbicide Linked to Cancer Used in Children’s Playgrounds Across UK
Over half of children’s playgrounds tested in England were found to be contaminated with glyphosate, leading to fresh calls to ban the use of herbicides and pesticides in public spaces. Most children are curious; many are grubby. They put dirt in their mouths and get up close to soil, sandpits and weeds with their hands and faces, especially in playgrounds and parks across the country.
They touch and brush against slides, swings and play equipment as they enjoy time outdoors — and then put their fingers into their mouths without a second thought. But there is a silent, odourless and unseen toxin potentially lurking on all these surfaces: glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs).
The world’s most widely used herbicide has contaminated environments that are meant to be among the safest — the places where children play. Glyphosate residues and its toxic breakdown product, AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid), were found in eight of the 13 playgrounds tested, from Cambridgeshire to London and from Kent to Buckinghamshire, according to new research by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN).
None of the playgrounds were located close to farmers’ fields, indicating that the contamination came from herbicide use by councils or local authorities to control weeds in public playgrounds for cosmetic purposes. Hackney was the only location where glyphosate was not detected. This London borough went pesticide-free in all its parks more than four years ago.
“These are places where children should be having a healthy time. There is absolutely no need for them to be exposed to this harmful chemical,” says Nick Mole, policy officer at PAN UK. “This study is indicative of a wider problem across the UK. Glyphosate contamination in children’s playgrounds is likely to be fairly common. Many kids could be literally playing with poison.”
