Internet And Cable TV But No Clean Water
Posted on 14 September 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in Health
Water is the lifeblood of a community, yet homes across America are able to receive the Internet and Cable TV, but there is no access to clean water. Jennifer Hall-Massey of Charleston, W. Virginia, relies on drinking water that is brought in by truck and stored in barrels on her porch.
Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater, heavily polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals, has caused painful rashes. Several of his brother’s teeth have been capped to replace enamel that has been eaten away.
Many residents in the area apply special lotions after showering, because of skin burns.
All this sounds as if it is from a sci-fi movie, instead of real life. Tests have shown that the tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals, at levels that federal regulators say could contribute to cancer, damage the kidneys and cause harm to the nervous system.
Mrs Hall-Massey and 264 of her neighbours sued nine nearby coal mines, accusing them of allowing dangerous waste to leach into the local water supplies. Some of the companies did disclose that they were pumping illegal concentrations of chemical into the ground. The same pollutants that flowed from the residents’ taps.
However, state regulators never fined or punished those companies, even though they were in breach of the four decade-old pollution laws.
In just the past five years in America alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other industries have violated the pollution laws. There have been more than 500,000 breaches recorded, ranging from failing to report emissions, to unlawfully dumping unacceptable levels of toxins. However, the polluters in large, remain unpunished.
The new E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P Jackson, said “Despite many successes since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, today the nation’s water does not meet public health goals and enforcement of water pollution laws is unacceptably low”.
Research shows that an estimated one in ten Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals, or fails to meet federal health requirements. This includes exposure to carcinogens in tap water and unsafe chemicals in wells. It is believed that unregulated wells are more likely to contain contaminants than municipal water systems.
A four-year study by National Resources Defense Council found one third of the 103 brands of bottled water contained levels of contamination. One brand sampled, that was labeled ‘Spring Water’, actually came from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site.
The thought of moving to a tropical island where there is clean air, clean water and organic food is becoming more and more attractive. A life-style that only a very few will experience, such as on the tropical island of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.
