|
The following is a list of what I would consider Essential Sites
for your study of drinking water. They will provide you with a wealth of important and expert information about drinking
water, safety and quality.
Water
on Tap: A Consumer's Guide to the Nation's Drinking Water and
Drinking Water and
Health, both are from the U. S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
Tapwater at
Risk: This extensive, three-part newspaper series published in
1996 by the Houston Chronicle explores the safety of the nation's tap water,
explains the dangers
threatening our water and describes what
communities can do to protect it.
Safe Water
for International Travelers: an independent organization that
provides the best available
information about water safety around the world.
Information is gathered from the
most important and trustworthy sources as
the World Health Organization,
Center for Disease Control (U.S.A), United
Nations Development Program,
UNICEF, etc, and after selecting the most
significant and organizing it, is
freely offered to international travelers.
Drinking
water quality and health - A good , brief overview of drinking water
quality from the Center for Disease
Control (CDC). Also from the CDC, the
Drinking Water
site, where you can learn how to keep your drinking water
safe and free of contaminants.
National Drinking Water Clearinghouse
- Helping small communities by
collecting, developing, and providing timely information relevant to drinking
water issues. Excellent resources
including a very informative magazine,
On
Tap (Drinking Water News For America's Small Communities):
A Lesson in Microbiology:
Are you confused by the difference between a
virus and bacteria? Ever wonder about emerging pathogens? This article
provides an overview on microbiology and provides a glimpse of a world
we can’t even see.
Emerging and Re-Emerging
Pathogens: Compelling Reasons to Protect
Drinking Water. (pdf file)
To Floridate or
Not: Some Communities Still Struggle for an Answer. (pdf
file)
Disinfection Byproducts and Waterborne
Disease: The Need for Balance
is
Essential. (pdf file)
Endocrine Disruptors:
What are they doing to you? Certain chemicals
such
as pesticides, fertilizers, fuel additives, and detergents, are routinely
found
in groundwater and surface water. These chemicals can interfere
with the
balance of normal hormone functions in animals, including
humans.
Can Public Water Utilities Compete with Bottled Water? Isolated water
contamination incidents have turned people off from turning on their taps
to enjoy a drink of water. Water coolers, once the central station for office
gossip, are now found in home kitchens. Joggers, walkers, hikers, and
bikers carry plastic bottles, chugging store-bought water instead of water
from home....
Groundwater
101: One of our most valuable resources is right beneath
our
feet and we can’t even see it.
Distribution
101: How does water get from the source to your tap?-
Most customers think distribution systems are the network of pipes
beneath roads and streets that transport water from treatment plants to
individual households, businesses, and other customers. And while this
is true, distribution systems also include pumps, storage tanks, fire
hydrants, service connections, meters, and other equipment.
A Brief History of Drinking Water Distribution:
Teaching Children about the Hydrologic Cycle - How do kids learn best
about the hydrologic cycle and how important drinking water is? Today
there are dozens of wonderful, colorful books about water. This is a review
of first learning books, primarily picture and story books for children aged
four to eight.
What
do ppm or ppb mean?
Most contaminants are expressed as parts
per million (ppm). This means that the concentration of a particular
substance is very low even though the regulatory agency may consider it a
significant amount. (pdf file)
Drinking
Water - A comprehensive list of government web resources that
cover a wide variety of drinking water topics.
Important if you have children:
information about
drinking water and children's health
information about lead in
drinking water
EPA's table,
Contaminants to Which Children May Be
Particularly Sensitive
(includes
nitrates, lead, copper, microbes , and disinfection byproducts)
The American Water Works
Association's The Story of Drinking
Water -
Basic but informative site - geared more toward children.
For a more in-depth look at many interesting aspects of water, go to the
excellent site - H2O - The Mystery, Art, and Science
of Water which
includes The Chemistry of
Water by Professor Jill Granger.
Water
Structure and Behavior - by Dr. Martin Chaplin.
Explanations of the
complex behavior of water have been
published, many quite recently. "In
this site, I have brought
together a self-consistent selection of these ideas,
which I hope
will encourage both the understanding of water and further
work." Also, look at his Magnetic
water discussion.
No discussion about water treatment would be complete
these days without
mention of what I call "altered" water - water that
has been treated in some
way (clustering, photonic treatment, oxygenation,
vortex treatments, etc.) to
purportedly "enhance" it's health
effects. Regardless of any alleged health
benefits, these products
are extremely effective at separating customers
from their money - I have seen
some of this bottled water sell for more than
$16 a gallon (that's about 3,000 times
more than the cost of tap water). In
my estimation, the fact that these
products appear to flourish and multiply is
a sad testament to the inability of
many consumers to effectively evaluate
claims about a product's effectiveness.
Aqua Scams: water treatment pseudoscience and quackery, by Dr.
Stephen K. Lower, "A retired chemistry professor
who casts a jaundiced
eye at alternative water treatment
methods involving magnets, "catalysts",
electric fields,
methods, and similar dubious methods. The purpose of this
site is to examine the scientific validity of the
explanations given by the
proponents of "alternative" water treatment
devices or, in the case of
"clustered water", of a fictional
alternative form of water that is purported to
be a restorer of youth and vigor.
My motivation for doing this is entirely
non-vested and very simple: after
thirty-four years of teaching general,
physical, and environmental Chemistry, it
disturbs me to see my favorite
science presented incorrectly (and often mangled
into pseudoscience) in
the promotion of processes or devices offered to the
public. The Water
structure article is also interesting.
North Texas Skeptic has a
discussion
of "clustered
water" claims. I also devote a few
paragraphs to discussing
how to evaluate the claims made by
these companies.
Cryptosporidium/coccidial/parasitology
research Division
of Biology,
Kansas State University. The
definitive site for Cryptosporidium/Coccidial
Research.
Information on Endocrine Disrupters
- Endocrine Disrupters - All the better
to confuse you with.
Also check out the National Environmental Health
Association Position on Endocrine Disrupters
and the Endocrine/Estrogen
Letter
(the most comprehensive source of unbiased, accurate information
about the scientific, regulatory and political issues associated with
suspected endocrine
disrupters with excellent links).
The American
Water Works Association Drinking
Water Information -
Water quality issues from the water treatment industry
perspective including
how to interpret
your local water quality report.
Center
for Environmental Quality at Wilkes University - Online information
guide to topics related to water quality, drinking water,
groundwater
and surface water, common water quality problems
and water analysis and
testing. They also offer drinking
water testing and analysis services
provided by a certified
laboratory
You might also
want to check out The
World's Water, a site dedicated to
providing up-to-date water information,
data, and web
connections to
organizations, institutions, and individuals
working on a wide range of
global freshwater problems and
solutions.
World Health
Organization (WHO) Drinking Water Quality
page - a number
of links to world Drinking Water
Quality Guidelines and general water
quality issues.
The UK
Rivers Network, a new environmental organization designed to
campaign on river issues throughout England, Wales, Scotland,
Ireland,
and North Ireland. (Don't let the rather
limited title keep you from visiting - the site has
a tremendous
number of resources on rivers, and general water quality issues
throughout
the world, not just the UK - good for educators and
students - RJ)
"Khotso,
Pula, Nala!" (Peace, Rain, Prosperity!) Basotho
Greeting. The
Peace Corps'
Water
in Africa site. Here, (in the U.S.)
we turn on the water
tap and expect clean, safe water to
emerge. That is not an expectation in
much of the
world. At this site Peace Corps volunteers describe water
quality, water procurement, and water use in their villages. Many
pictures of the water procurement processes in Africa. (Extremely interesting
site - RJ)
Environment,
Health, and Safety Online - Environmental Health & Safety
Online, for EHS Professionals and the general
public! We hope to answer your
questions and concerns about the effects of chemicals
in the air you breath, the
quality of the water you drink, food safety, and
compounds found in building
materials, etc. that you and your family may be
exposed to.
Endocrine
Disruptors and Human Health
Drinking
Water Information (Bottled Water or Tap Water?)
State
contacts for laboratories certified to test drinking water for
contaminants
FAQs
about Drinking Water
Drinking Water In The News - search Google,
MSN,
Yahoo,
or Altavista
for current news about drinking water. You may search the US National Library of Medicine
(NLM) and
PubMed databases for the following topics and read the most current
abstracts from medical journals. (The search is actually conducted at
the NLM. The NLM
does not hold the copyright on the abstracts found in PubMed, the journal publishers do.
required disclaimer-RJ)
Disinfection
byproducts and cancer: note that the references go back to the
mid
60s
Disinfection
byproducts and adverse pregnancy outcomes: note, this is a
relatively new finding - most of the relevant references only go back to
the
mid 90s.
Solar
disinfection of drinking water: Solar disinfection of water may
significantly reduce morbidity in communities with no other means of
disinfection of drinking water, because of lack of resources or in the
event of a disaster.
There are some 300 - 400 sites listed in the pages below.
Unfortunately, with so many links, it is inevitable that some will change
location or disappear completely over time. Occasionally, I try to
weed out the discontinued and weakest links, fix the ones that have moved, and add new
links of interest.
For most references I have provided links
to both a home page and to specific articles of interest at the
site. Most of the references are annotated, usually with a
short, verbatim extract from the page referenced. Since the
words in the extracts are not mine, they do not necessarily
reflect my views. I have tried to set my comments about a site
(in parentheses). I have attempted to include sites that
encompass a wide variety of opinions on the issues under
discussion, and consequently, the content of some sites I
reference may not correspond to my personal views.
If you encounter a bad link that looks interesting, try going to the site's home
page, locate a site search engine (if present), and enter the topic of
interest. That is how I try to fix bad links, and it seems to work
about 50 - 60% of the time.
|