What’s considered legal isn’t necessarily safe. What’s in your drinking water that could harm your health. That’s why you need to be careful of Maryland drinking water.
When water flows from your faucet into your glass the clean and clear color might be deceiving. A report released Wednesday, though, found hundreds of harmful contaminants across the American water supply that can cause cancer, developmental issues in children, problems in pregnancy and other serious health conditions.
In Maryland drinking water, 10 contaminants in drinking water were found to be above health guidelines, while five are above legal limits.
“There are chemicals that have been linked to cancer, for example, that are found above health-based limits, or health guidelines, in the water of more than 250 million Americans,” said Nneka Leiba, director of Healthy Living Science at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an independent nonprofit organization that released a detailed account of the contaminants.
The contaminants found in Maryland’s drinking water are listed below.
- Chromium (hexavalent), which is linked to cancer, liver damage and productive system damages
- Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), which are linked to bladder cancer, skin cancer and fetal development issues
- Radium-228, which is linked to cancer
- Bromodichloromethane, which is linked to harm to child and fetuses, as well as reproductive difficulties
- Chloroform, which is linked to cancer and fetal development issues
- Dibromochloromethane, which is linked to cancer and harm to fetuses
- Radium-226, which is linked to cancer
- Chlorate, which impairs thyroid function
- Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which has been linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, accelerated puberty, liver and immune system damage and thyroid changes
- Arsenic, which has been linked to cancer
A few things can be done to treat your family’s drinking water
- Get a whole house water system.
- Use bottled water for drinking and cooking
- Get a reverse osmosis water filtration system