Water and health: Do you really know what's on tap?
Stop for a moment and think about how
water affects your daily life. From the minute you get up in the morning, you
use water to flush the toilet, make your coffee, take your shower and brush
your teeth. You continue to use water when you clean your breakfast dishes and
run your garbage disposal. Then, it's off to work or to take the kids to
school, and you're probably carrying a bottle of water or a travel mug of
coffee along with you.
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As
I write this article, it is Saturday morning, and water (the driving rain) has
necessitated cancellations of all sports activities today, which gives me time
to write; however, I forgot to buy bottled water at the grocery store, so I
have no water to drink while I write. It should come as no surprise that water
affects our daily lives: Water is the most common substance on the Earth. It
covers nearly 70 percent of the Earth's surface, and is essential to all life
on Earth. Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician, said that water is the
source of life, the spring of health. And yet we all, self included, tend to
take this most precious resource for granted. As we turn on the shower, how many
of us think about where the water comes from? If asked, would you have the
answer? And where does the water go after it goes down the drain?
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It
was with these questions in mind that the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project
conceived of a forum about water and how we, as a community, can keep from
misusing this valuable resource. A couple of years ago, the WCPP was involved in a debate about putting herbicides in Morses Pond. At that time, many people expressed surprise
to me that some of the drinking water in
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Wise
words, and yet there still seems to be a prevalence of those little yellow
flags on lawns in our town.
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Our
forum is not about Morses Pond; I use the pond as a
local analogy to demonstrate ways that people neglect to take seriously the
hazards posed by our use - or misuse - of water. As more chemicals are
introduced into our lives, water treatment plants have to meet the challenge of
filtering them out. Remember the days when we didn't feel it necessary to buy
bottled water? When we actually trusted our tap water for drinking?
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The
Toxics Use Reduction Institute, based out of the
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Although
our organization is called "the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project,"
this particular forum's focus is on a broader look at health issues, and how
they may be affected by water. We are not drawing links between water and
cancer rates, although there are, sadly, those horrific stories like the
leukemia cluster that was identified in the Massachusetts town of Woburn in the
early 1980s, which was eventually linked to their town's water supply. However,
a substance that affects our lives in so many ways and which we, in turn, could
be adversely affecting deserves a closer look. We hope that you will join the
WCPP for "Wellesley's Water: What's On Tap?" featuring Denise Breiteneicher of the Massachusetts Water Resources
Authority, and Joe Duggan, Wellesley's Water & Sewer superintendent, at 7
p.m. on Nov. 9 in the Wellesley Free Library. I am confident that you will come
away from this program with some questions answered and some ideas to implement
in your own lives. I know I answered one question for myself just by writing
about this program. I realized I had enough faith in the safety of
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This column was submitted on behalf of the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project by Sara Frost Azzam.