Threatened
Waters:
Turning the Tide on Pesticide Contamination
Water
is the most basic building block of life. Clean water is essential for
human health, wildlife, and a balanced environment. Yet, water is being
polluted at unprecedented rates, with pesticides, industrial chemicals,
nutrients, metals, and other contaminants. Studies of major rivers and
streams find that 90% of fish, 100% of surface water samples, and 33%
of major aquifers contain one or more pesticides at detectable levels.
As a result of pesticide contamination of streams, rivers, lakes, and
underground water supplies, drinking water is also widely contamined.
With a crisis in safety looming, steps can and must be taken to curtail
pesticide use and adopt alternative practices and products to protect
the nation's waterways. Download brochure.
Did you know?
- Human health effects, including low birth weights, breast cancer, and low sperm counts are linked to herbicide-contaminated water;
- Frogs exhibit hermaphrodism when exposed to legally allowable levels of the herbicide atrazine in waterways;
- Dozens of pesticides and their degradation products contaminate waterways and escape regulatory oversight;
- Runoff from urban lawn pesticides contaminates local watersheds and stresses municipal water treatment; and,
- Children are not adequately protected by federal limits of pesticides in water.
For
more information, download the full,
28-page color booklet (1 Mb), Threatened Waters:
Turning the Tide on Pesticide Contamination.
Contact Beyond Pesticides to order color hardcopies of the brochure, 202-543-5450.
A full cited version available to download. You may also download a shorter cited article version of Threatened Waters article published in the Winter 2005-2006 issue of Pesticides and You (Vol 25, No. 4).