subject: The Contaminants in Water Strike Back [print this page] Even more facts about water contaminants, again in no particular order: Drinking water with high levels of copper in it can cause stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting right away.
Methylmercury is a variation of mercury, which is routinely dumped into lakes and rivers by factories and mills. Methylmercury can gather in the brain and cause permanent damage. This substance was responsible, for example, for a horrific outbreak of brain disease in the fishing village of Minamata Bay in Japan during the 1950's. The fish and shellfish in the area contained methylmercury.
Biological magnification refers to the increasing accumulation of toxins as they go up the food chain. Say a big fish eats a little fish that has mercury in its system. The big fish will have a higher concentration of mercury in its system than did the little fish because of biological magnification. And whoever eats the big fish--a bird, or a human being--will receive an even higher concentration of mercury.
Some towns and cities still use lead pipes despite the danger of lead poisoning that they present. In fact, a recent survey of the water supplies of Chicago suburbs showed that several of them had high amounts of lead in them due to lead pipes.
All of these facts, and many, many more like them, should be enough to make us reconsider drinking unfiltered tap water. Sadly, the number of contaminants and thus the number of vignettes like those above are only going to grow. Drinking water with high levels of copper in it can cause stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting right away.
