Those of us who drink water should be VERY CONCERNED. In Weld County, Colorado, there's a whole new meaning to "fire water":
The state agency that regulates oil and gas says although there is some evidence methane may have contaminated a private well in rural Weld County, they're not sure why the family's tap water ignites when a lighter is put to it.
But bottled water is no better, at least not if you want to avoid cancer
More than three out of four plastic bottles of drinking water may contain contaminants that have been linked to sterility in men and cancer according to research in Germany.
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The estrogenic compounds, also called xenoestrogens, leach out of the plastic bottles and into the water. They researchers warn that, "We must have identified just the tip of the iceberg in that plastic packaging may be a major source of xenohormone contamination of many other edibles."
Of course, on the bright side, you can't always trust the university researchers. I say that because a (former) professor at my university got himself in some "hot water" (highly inflammable, of course) after he gave WASA, the Washington DC water authority, the power of final approval of his study of the effects of lead in the water on DC children
Editors at the Environmental Health Perspectives journal said author Tee Guidotti, who was a paid consultant for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority and until recently a department chairman in GWU's school of public health, did not disclose a contract that appears to require that he get WASA's approval in writing before publishing information about the utility. By policy, the journal refuses to consider research that is not free from the control of a paying sponsor. It is the first time in the journal's 30-year history that it has conducted such a review, editors said, which could lead to a retraction of the paper.
When it was published, the paper was cited locally and across the country as reliable evidence that the city's water hadn't harmed residents. This review is the second time in recent weeks that those reassurances have been questioned. A study published recently in the Environmental Science & Technology journal by another group of researchers found that lead had spiked to harmful levels in the blood of hundreds of D.C. children and that thousands more children could have been harmed.
As a guy in my environmental politics and policy class said, "Lead. The sweetest of all the post-transition metals." (though mercury can give it a run for its money
I believe the safest thing to do is to avoid water altogether, though that may not be possible if you plan to stay alive or live in the Fargo area