Drinking water in 31 cities has large amounts of likely carcinogen

[New Yorker]

Report: Harmful chemical found in tap water of 31 U.S. cities

December 20th, 2010
12:00 AM ET

Millions of Americans in at least 31 U.S. cities could be drinking tap water contaminated with the harmful chemical hexavalent chromium, according to a report released Monday by the non-profit Environmental Working Group.

While the dangerous carcinogen, otherwise known as chromium-6, may sound foreign to most people, perhaps the name Erin Brockovich will ring a bell.

After chromium-6 was discovered in the water supply of Hinkley, California, Brockovich helped bring about a lawsuit that ultimately ended in 1996 with the utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric, paying more than $330 million in damages.  Norman, Oklahoma; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Riverside, California, top the non-profit organization's list of cities with water supplies contaminated by chromium-6.

Although the Environmental Protection Agency does not require water utilities to test for chromium-6, and has not established a legal threshold for how much can be in our water, the agency has classified the toxin as "likely to be carcinogenic to humans."

"I was expecting to find hexavalent chromium in some of the cities we checked, but I didn't expect it to be so widespread," said Rebecca Sutton, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group and the lead author of the study.

Sutton said there is a well-documented corollary between exposure to chromium-6 and a greater risk of stomach cancer in humans. Additionally, there is ample animal evidence showing a broad risk of gastrointestinal tumors in rats and mice exposed to the toxin, she said.

Worse, skipping tap water in favor of bottled water does not guarantee you'll be protected.

"Bottled water is not necessarily any safer than tap water," said Sutton. "We just don't have any guarantee that hexavalent chromium isn't in that water."

Links to the article: http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/20/carcinogen-found-in-31-of-35-cities-water-supply/?hpt=T1
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8215065/Carcinogen-made-famous-by-Erin-Brockovich-found-in-cities-across-the-US.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121802810.html

The report from the group that did the testing and the list of cities with their contamination levels: http://static.ewg.org/reports/2010/chrome6/html/home.html?sid=ST2010122002654

This hit the news today, I live in New York City and it is on the low end of the scale, but we have JTF'ers living all over America and I don't want to see any of them getting sick in the future from Chromium-6. Be informed and proactive, I've immediately purchased on of those PUR water filter pitchers, but I only using it as a stop-gap, I am getting a British Berky ceramic gravity filter for my drinking water, the British Berkey water filter is so effective, it can purify sewage, I am using the PUR filter pitcher until it arrives.

Youtube videos about the British Berkey filter:   and