It is difficult and expensive to effectively remove ‘forever chemicals’ from your drinking water at home. And you also don’t want to get rid of the health-giving minerals water contains.
An emergency bottled-water distribution site in Flint, Mich., in early 2016.
Sarah Rice/Getty Images
President Biden has proposed spending $45 billion to replace every lead water pipe and service line in the nation. A public health expert explains why he sees this as a worthwhile investment.
New research finds that tap water avoidance is on the rise in the US, especially among minorities. An expert on water and health calls for better public education about water quality and testing.
Collecting water from a street pump in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 13, 2020.
Mehedi Hasan/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Water is essential for health, economic well-being and social equity, but too many people around the world still don’t have access to clean drinking water and sanitation.
A harmful algal bloom in the western basin of Lake Erie in August 2017.
(NOAA/Aerial Associates Photography, Inc. by Zachary Haslick/flickr)
Qi Bing, University of California, Irvine and Maura C. Allaire, University of California, Irvine
Newark is the latest US city to struggle with high lead levels in drinking water. Ending this public health crisis will require more money and enforcement, plus stricter water testing standards.
Is your community’s water tainted with lead? The data might not have been reported.
ehrlif/shutterstock.com
Laura Pangallozzi, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Flint’s highest recorded lead levels were typical for water systems that report problems. What’s more, a number of cities haven’t reported their lead issues.
Brandon Fant, left, gets his blood tested for lead poison levels by Lashae Campbell at a clinic in Flint, Michigan.
Jim Young/Reuters
The children who suffered lead poisoning as a result of the Flint water crisis of 2014 are likely to struggle academically and socially as a result, an expert on treating lead-poisoned children argues.
How long has that water already been in the system?
mike.irwin/Shutterstock.com
In many municipalities, aging water infrastructure is serving fewer people than it was built to accommodate. Out of sight has meant out of mind – but resulting changes in water quality may affect safety.
The problem of unsafe drinking water afflicts poor communities most.
Reuters/Carlos Barria
Just as America’s highways, sewage systems and water pipes need fixing, so does the growing gap between rich and poor. Trump and the Democrats could use that money to address both.
A SenseTime artificial intelligence system monitors an intersection in China.
Reuters/Thomas Peter
AI can help make government more efficient – but at what cost? Citizens’ lives could be better or worse, based on how the technology is used.
Elon Musk may be on the hot seat for political donations and slurs against a British cave rescuer in Thailand, but his offer to pay for water filters in Flint, Mich., is laudable.
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Michigan officials have ended distribution of free bottled water in Flint, but many residents believe the city’s water crisis is not over and have lost all trust in government.
Canada has done a remarkable job of reducing lead in people’s bodies. But the experience of Flint, Mich. – where children were exposed to toxic levels of lead – teaches us to remain cautious. Here, Flint citizens watch testimonies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in Washington during 2016.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Reduced lead exposure has made us smarter and healthier. Could changes in regulatory agencies across North America endanger this?
Colin Kaepernick, centre, and his San Francisco teammates kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game in 2016.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Much of the discussion about “Take a Knee” has overlooked the issues of justice and social exclusion, and especially environmental matters. That’s something to think about during the Super Bowl.
Demonstrators at a 2010 Toronto rally protesting the mercury contamination of the Wabigoon-English waterway in northwestern Ontario carry long blue banners meant to represent a river.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
The declared end of Flint, Mich., contaminated water crisis echoes similar claims worldwide. Evidence shows victims of past and ongoing water crises, especially Indigenous people, continue to suffer.
Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequalities, Social Justice, and Policy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)