Our water is polluted and toxic

How is it that the quality of water in nature (but also that we consume) will be so degraded ? Who to blame ? What are the consequences for our health and our environment ? Global warming affects the quality of the water ?

The facts

D’après l’étude de l’ASEF (Health environment France Association) from 2010, 10% surface waters of the France (rivers, rivers, Lakes, etc.) are without pesticides, 27% are poor to average and 10% are of very poor quality. 53% groundwater (groundwater), pesticides and 24% require special treatment before being consumable.

Who to blame ? And what are the consequences ?

1) Agriculture

Intensive agriculture requires large amounts of fertilizer (nitrates, phosphorus, etc.), of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides) that contaminate the environment (soils, water courses, etc.). The France is the first European consumer of pesticides in tonnage, According to the INERIS (National Institute of the industrial environment and risks). Between 70 000 and 110 000 tonnes of active substances spilled per year on our territory, 90% come from agriculture. Consumption doubled between 1970 and 1990.

“66% de la pollution aux nitrates est d’origine agricole” stresses the report by ASEF. Nitrates are transformed in the body into nitrite. They poison the blood and cause methemoglobinemia (or blue disease) by oxidizing the haemoglobin of blood which can no longer attach oxygen disrupts cellular respiration. Related to some pesticides can cause long-term cancers, According to the CNRS (National Centre of scientific research).

The toxicity of pesticides is still poorly known because they form a family of hundreds of molecules very different which, degrading in nature, to generate yet other. “L’incertitude [door] sur les effets à long terme des doses infimes mais répétées” explique le CNRS.

2) Livestock

Intensive farming causes large amounts of manure containing nitrogen matter, phosphorus and bacteria that also contaminate the nature. L’InvS (Institute of sleep health) affirme qu’There is a link between the spread of acute gastroenteritis and the quality of the tap water, to know the rate of fecal matter in the water (see the epidemic in the batch in 2000 and the balance the InvS waterborne outbreak of 2008)

Furthermore, livestock is stuffed to medicines for more often prevent it infections (and not treat) and promote growth. These antibiotic residues, and other, are also serious contaminants. Le rapport de l’ASEF affirme que “l’importance des rejets médicamenteux dans les eaux est mal connue aujourd’hui”.

3) Medicine

Discharges from livestock drugs, fish farms (voir Pièces à Conviction – Assiette tous Risques dans vidéothèque), added hospitals, pharmaceutical and chemical industry, and the man ! Indeed the consumption of drugs has ceased to grow, According to a comparative study of the Direction of the Research Evaluation and statistics (DREES) from 2006, the France is the biggest consumer of drugs in Europe. But these are mainly releases from hospitals which are very worrying because contain some radioactive products and anticancer which almost do not degrade.

Specialists suspect antibiotics to be at the origin of resistant bacteria. Ils se rendent également compte que cette médicamentation rends les espèces piscicoles plus vulnérables aux agents infectieux et constatent qu’une “féminisation” des espèces piscicoles occurs thus harming their reproductive qualities.

Size problem : the sewage are not designed to treat the traces of drugs in water. “So far, no drug is on the list of priority to analyze drinking water pollutants” selon l’ASEF. In a more general manner found in the water coming out of the conventional wastewater treatment plants, in concentrations greater than 100 NG/L, 1.5% priority substances, 30% organic molecules and 90% pharmaceutical substances !

4) Industry

Nitrogen is also rejected by the manufacturers of fertilizers and explosives, metal processing industries and agro-industries. 12% nitrates are drawn from industry and an important part of pesticides (weed control) comes from companies that maintain roads, parks, the gardens and the railways.

Certain metals released by the industry (lead, chrome, Mercury, cadmium, nickel) are very harmful to humans and the environment. Heavy metals are not eliminated by the body. Even if these substances are present at very low doses, le fait de les ingérer quotidiennement “can be the cause of serious diseases” d’après le CNRS.

Children are, for example, far more sensitive than adults to lead and can thus develop lead poisoning. It is a disease that affects the growth, the behavior, the development of the central nervous system and intellectual development. Of highest concentrations in the body, lead causes disorders of reproduction, transmissible and kidney failure. Lead can also bind to the bone in our body and to combine, consequent brutal poisoning if returned in the blood lead, which mainly affects the elderly and pregnant women, says the CNRS.

What are the consequences of global warming ?

All this adds climate change causing an increase in temperature of water courses, the seas and oceans and by this fact, promotes the development of some unwanted organisms (bacteria, toxic algae, etc.). Bathing water and the products of the sea (fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc.) becoming less good quality.

The second consequence of global warming is to reduce the water supply. With a drying, the rivers and groundwater level drops, increasing the concentration of pathogens and other pollutants. Water supply became more difficult and the health risks are increased.

Main references

http://www.zones-humides.eaufrance.fr/
http://www.eaufrance.fr/
http://www.invs.sante.fr/
http://www.ASEF-Asso.fr
http://www.cnrs.fr/

On the same subject :

Filter jugs : a health hazard ?