Water scarcity will be one of the defining features of the 21st century. The U.N. predicts that by 2025 two thirds of the world’s population will suffer water shortages. Here CNN takes a look at what we do with the water we can drink.
FYI, news, What is in our Drinking Water?
A brief history of Safe Drinking Water in the USA
Its been a long time since our Water was pure. Starting in the 1760s in England, when manufacturing became mechanized. Water, steam, wood, and coal powered machines forever changed a number of industries, and suddenly small towns became large cities as people flocked to factories to find work.
iPhones, self-driving cars, and designer clothing wouldn’t exist if not for the Industrial Revolution; historians use it as a time stamp for the transition between the early modern and modern periods.
As wealth increased nearly across the board, the economic standard of living rose dramatically along with the average life expectancy.
But the Industrial Revolution came at a cost to water quality and overall health.
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The 2 most important things to know about drinking water
1) Water (H2o) is Nature’s remedy – the premium fuel your body needs.
All the important juices of the body are composed of fluids, of which water is the basis. Not only is the blood, which is the very essence of physical life, composed largely of water, but also the bile, the gastric juices, the pancreatic fluid and all the other juices of the digestive organs, as well as the saliva, or fluids of which water is the basis.
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The Steam Distillation Process
California, Colorado, Deteriorating Infrastructure, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
Future of Drinking Water in the USA
The aging water infrastructure is threatening the USA’s water supply. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that keeping the nation’s water infrastructure working properly could cost the nation’s utilities $384 Billion over the next 20 years. The problems and possible solutions are explored in this video produced by the Associated Press.
FYI, Industrial Chemicals
Regulatory limits of Chemicals in Drinking Water
Given the number of chemicals in the environment and people’s variability in exposure and susceptibility to harm, it’s a daunting challenge to catalog all possible drinking water contaminants and assess their associated health risks. But after reviewing the state of the science and the data gaps surrounding drinking water contaminants, a team of authors presents in this issue of EHP an ambitious roadmap to help future studies identify and elucidate risks presented by specific contaminants.