Throughout the thriller Marathon Man, a sinister Laurence Olivier repeatedly asks Dustin Hoffman, as he’s drilling his teeth sans lidocaine, Is it safe? It is a question that takes on an even more sinister tone in reality, considering it is one we must now routinely ask regarding the safety of our drinking water. Earlier this year it was revealed that almost ninety percent of U.S. Congressmen buy bottled water funded from taxpayer revenues. However, this same year the Senate voted in favor of allowing more cancer causing chemicals in our tap water, and in the House a proposal was narrowly defeated that would have furthered eroded our drinking water standards as outlined in the Safe Drinking Water Act. This kind of hypocrisy in the U.S. Congress is nothing new. However, what is new is the increasing risk of acquiring cancer, illness or death from turning on the tap for a glass of water. A study reported in the American Journal of Public Health revealed that “350,000 Americans drink water contaminated with arsenic levels that pose a 1-in-100 cancer risk, and 35 million drink water containing arsenic levels that pose a 1-in1000 cancer risk, the same as passive cigarette smoking” (Carney and Mitchell 1).
Pollution gets into our drinking water by a variety of methods. Many of the chemicals and harmful agents in water come from run-off from agricultural pursuits, but many of them also come from fertilizers and pesticides that millions of Americans use to maintain their lawns and landscaping. The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) is in charge of ensuring our water supplies are safe, however the federal government bolsters these efforts by giving states billions of dollars to improve drinking water supplies and to monitor them for unsafe pollutants. Strip mining, industrial and nuclear waste and other sources of water pollution also contribute to unsafe drinking water. Bacteria, mineral
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