Water Causes Cancer?
Problems With Snowmelt and Runoff in Iowa
In the Midwest, we are mostly know for agriculture. To keep our crops healthy and in tip-top shape, we use chemicals to enhance their growth and keep away rodents. These pesticides and chemicals actually can be a cause of non-point source pollution. "Nonpoint source pollution happens when rainfall, snowmelt or irrigation water runs over land or through the ground and picks up pollutants and deposits them into streams, lakes or groundwater," says DNR contact Steve Hopkins. Steve also mentions that non-point source pollution is harder to keep under control because there isn't a specific place that the DNR can go to find the problem. This is a major problem because the organisms living in the water depend on it being clean for their survival. Also, it takes more effort to keep it clean enough for the people that drink it. When trying to keep it drinkable, the water treatment facility must put higher levels of chlorine in it to kill the bacteria. But is chlorine at the amounts need to cleanse the water really safe for human consumption?
Cause and Effect of Chlorine
Our carelessness as humans effects not only other humans, but everything around us. For example: a family needs a fancy new dining table. They go to the furniture store and find the perfect one; one with imported wood. But where did that dining table come from? Where did the wood and the stain come from? The dining table was produced from wood outside the country so it was probably transported on a plane. If not a plane, then a boat. Both of these large object use an ample amount of fuel, polluting the air we breath even more. And the wood: how many trees did someone have to cut down to have enough wood? How many homes did he destroy for the animals residing in that tree? Its the same thing with chlorine. We only need to use the amounts of chlorine in our water because we caused the problem. It was also found in 1970 by a group of scientists that enough chlorine in the water can actually react with the water, forming THM's. Along with THM's comes chloroform. The THM's allow more radicals in body, which are exceptionally carcinogenic (cancerous). Not only are we harming the organisms living in the water, we are putting our own people in danger. The choices we've made have impacted many people and the way they can live their lives. We need clean water, so how do we stop endangering ourselves and the environment?
How Can We Correct Our Mistakes?
The most simple answer to the question is the most obvious: do your best to NOT pollute our environment. Riverkeeper Inc says that by planting "pest-resistant, native species, rotating garden crops to reduce infestation, using mulch and time plantings to avoid peak infestation periods, hand pulling weeds, and using biological, mechanical or botanical controls as needed for particular pest problems," can reduce our use of chlorine and help our ecosystem to an extent.