Author/Source: Beyond Pesticides- National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides October 2006.
Water is the most basic building block of life. Clean water is essential for human health, wildlife, and a balanced environment. Yet, water is being polluted at unprecedented rates, with pesticides, industrial chemicals, nutrients, metals, and other contaminants. Studies of major rivers and streams find that 90% of fish, 100% of surface water samples, and 33% of major aquifers contain one or more pesticides at detectable levels. As a result of pesticide contamination of streams, rivers, lakes, and underground water supplies, drinking water is also widely contaminated. With a crisis in safety looming, steps can and must be taken to curtail pesticide use and adopt alternative practices and products to protect the nation's waterways.
Did you know?
- Human health effects, including low birth weights, breast cancer, and low sperm counts are linked to herbicide-contaminated water;
- Frogs exhibit hermaphrodism when exposed to legally allowable levels of the herbicide atrazine in waterways;
- Dozens of pesticides and their degradation products contaminate waterways and escape regulatory oversight;
- Runoff from urban lawn pesticides contaminates local watersheds and stresses municipal water treatment; and,
- Children are not adequately protected by federal limits of pesticides in water.