Consumer Law

Drink to Your Health But Watch Out for Water

By Joe Consumer

News broke over the weekend about the new Environmental Working Group (EWG) study, released today, showing that, ?Tap water from 31 of 35 U.S. cities tested contains hexavalent chromium (or chromium-6), the carcinogenic ?Erin Brockovich chemical,? with the 'highest levels were detected in Norman, Okla.; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Riverside, Calif.'"  That?s about 74 million Americans in 42 states ? at least.  This nasty chemical ?is commonly discharged from steel and pulp mills as well as metal-plating and leather-tanning facilities. It can also pollute water through erosion of soil and rock.?  Yum.

Add this to the atrazine crisis we coverd earlier this year and it seems to me that drinking water has lately become pretty deadly in America.  Or at least, we are just now finding out about it thanks to the good work of environmental groups.

As the Washington Post reported over the weekend, the EWG study ?comes as the Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to set a limit for hexavalent chromium in tap water. The agency is reviewing the chemical after the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, deemed it a ?probable carcinogen? in 2008.?

Erin Brockovich told the paper, "This chemical has been so widely used by so many industries across the U.S. that this doesn't surprise me. ? Our municipal water supplies are in danger all over the U.S.  This is a chemical that should be regulated."

Here?s the science: ?Hexavalent chromium has long been known to cause lung cancer when inhaled, but scientists only recently found evidence that it causes cancer in laboratory animals when ingested. It has been linked in animals to liver and kidney damage as well as leukemia, stomach cancer and other cancers.?

So, 2008.  Why is regulation taking so long?  Well, probably some of this is due to the industry disinformation compaign.  As EWG reported,

PG&E [the company responsible in the Brockovich case] hired consultants to publish a fraudulent analysis of cancer mortality in Chinese villagers exposed to hexavalent chromium, in an attempt to disprove the link between the chemical and cancer. The study was published in the respected Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and scientists and regulators ? including the EPA ? cited the fraudulent article in research and safety assessments. The journal retracted the paper in 2006 in response to EWG?s request for corrective action.

Speaking of 2008, that?s actually the last time we covered hexavalent chromium, after 60 Mintues reported that soldiers in Iraq, tasked with protecting KBR contractors at a water plant contaminted with hexavalent chromium, were dying from lung cancer.  Hexavalent chromium.  The gift that keeps on giving.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on December 20, 2010 (boomark / email).