Contaminated Water Causing Serious Thyroid Complications

In Duncan, Oklahoma, the Halliburton Company reported the presence of perchlorate, a toxic substance in at least 18 of its water wells. Perchlorate is known to cause thyroid problems.
According to a news report published by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Halliburton Co. confirmed the presence of perchlorate found in the water samples. They stated that the perchlorate likely came from a missile fuel project performed two decades ago.

Numerous studies show that even a minimal amount of perchlorate in the body can cause medical problems. The most common thyroid condition caused by perchlorate is hypothyroidism- an under active production of hormones. Heart disease, weight gain, depression, and infertility can also result from too much perchlorate exposure.
Pregnant women as well as people with pre-existing thyroid conditions have a greater risk of experiencing perchlorate-related health problems.

Source:
http://www.mesotheliomaattorney-blog.com/2011/07/contaminated-oklahoma-well-wat.html

EPA Holds Stricter Regulations

Perchlorate, which is both man-made and a natural resource, is one of the many toxins found in our water. After many years of Americans ingestion of toxic water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to hold stricter regulations. They also intend to hold national standards for water.

Way To Protect Yourself From Drinking Water Toxins

Many of you porbably won't know that millions of Americans have been ingesting toxins in tap water. These toxins include hexavalent chromium, which has been traced to stomach cancer in humans and in animals, volatile organic compunds, which is also linked to caners, and of course, perchlorate. You would probably be surprised to know that those three are amond the 6,000 toxins the EPA has not gotten around to regulating in municipal drinking water symptoms.

Luckily after a change in administrations and a harsh review by the General Accounting Office, the EPA has begun to develop regulations to remove these chemicals from tap and bottled water.

Until thay happens though, here are ways to remove perchlorate from your water without government help!

In a new push for stricter drinking water regulations, the EPA reversed a Bush Administration decision to leave perchlorate unregulated and to pursue perchlorate first. It's an important ingredient in rocket fuel, fireworks, and explosives. Over time, perchlorate can disrupt the thyroid glands's production of hormones essential to prenatal and postnatal development of body metabolism.

According to the EPA, more than 4 percent of public water systems have detected perchlorate and between 5 milliom and 17 million people may be severd drinking water containing perchlorate.
The National Sanitation Foundation said perchlorate can be removed from drinking water through revers osmosis.

The Water Meeting

In July 25, 2011, a meeting came up by Erin Brockovich whose a famed legal clerk and environmental activist, that was a meeting with the residents who have concerns on the contaminated water. The setting was taken place at Simmons Center, Osage Road area, Duncan. The following questions are the question which people more interested to know. For instance,

What is the chemical caused to contaminated the water? That's a good question for the main purposes! The answer would be the water contaminated with perchlorate and has spreading all over to the ground water.

But where those contaminated water spreaded from? It was spreaded from one of the proverty area on Fifth Street owned by Halliburton.

According to the article, "Contaminated water wells bring Brockovich to Duncan" by Toni Hopper (The Duncan Banner). At the beginning when the problem was explode, Halliburton didn't know that the problem was caused from their private wells. After the testing came out by the Department of Environmental Quality, they addressing the issue immediately a week later. The perchlorate wasn't exist recently, it had been exist since in the past 50 years. Between 1965 and 1991, Halliburton contracted with the U.S. Defense Department to remove the wells that were used. And they found out there atleast a dozen more wells were on Fifth Street and Osage Road.

Along with the meeting, there were several representatives presented. One of the attorney, Todd Ommen said, "The high levels of contamination tested have raised some concerns, for sure"... "Our firm has experience in dealing with contaminated ground water. It's one of our primary areas".

Hence, from the descriptions above presented by attorney, Todd Ommen, it can conludes that as the level of the contamination tested increases, the complaint from the residents will increases too. Anyway, there is a good news is the company "Halliburton" would be responsible for all the responsibilities and may solve the situation.

http://duncanbanner.com/local/x2057649356/Contaminated-water-wells-bring-Brockovich-to-Duncan

Worries in LIVING by around the WATER

Water is an important element to not only human, but also to every biological living beings in the world, such as plants, animals and so on. Frequently, there were tons of the worries coming up from the residents in the north side of Duncan, OK which are influenced by after the contaminant water explodes. Residents are complainning and drawing attention to the causation that the problem had spreading. They felt upset is because they're the innocents who need to "enjoy" it.

A resident who named Amy Calloway is one of the victims in Duncan, OK. After the water got contaminated in her area, she and her family have to move into a hotel where the water is safe. However, she was more worrying about the water in pool where her grandson is usually swimming at.

Another resident named Russell Wilkerson, a neighbor of Amy Calloway. He was concerns about his wife's disease if it would traced back to years of drinking the contaminated water that coming from the well.

Unfortunately, from now the solution that Halliburton did was only sponsering the safe water to the residents for their common life uses.


http://newsok.com/contaminant-found-in-duncan-water-wells/article/3589399

Sources of Perchlorate

Perchlorate is not only naturally occurring chemical, but also can be man-made. Perchlorate is highly soluble in water. The Independence Day fireworks displays are often held over lakes and other bodies of water to minimize the risk of fire. However, by doing this, it can deposit significant amounts of perchlorate into the water like the contamination in Oklahoma wells. Sources of perchlorate range from lightening and certain fertilizers to the perchlorate compounds in rocket fuel and explosives. Some researchers also found that fireworks displays are another source of deposing perchlorate.

Source info: American Chemical Society. "Fireworks Displays Linked To Perchlorate Contamination In Lakes." ScienceDaily, 28 May 2007.

My friend sent me this, it's an interesting read:

Recently, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) released two reports evaluating the performance of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) on its efforts to protect American drinking water. These reports pointed out several glaring issues with the way the EPA collects accurate information and processes the proper procedures for regulation.

The first report explained that part of the problem was found to lie in the underreporting of drinking water violations by the states. About 26 percent of health-related violations and 84 percent of monitoring violations of the SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act) were inaccurately reported or not reported at all by the states. These inaccuracies were not isolated incidents as they were found in more than one year. The GAO speculated that there are several factors that could have had a hand in this issue, some of which include inadequate training, staffing, and funding. This misinformation severely limits the EPA's ability to enforce its own rules and regulations.


Included in the second report was a study which determined "systemic limitations" to the EPA's abilities to regulate contaminants. The EPA does not have a set criteria by which to determine the contaminants which pose the greatest risk to public health, and the study noted a significant problem in the EPA's inability to assess the effects of a contaminant on children's health. Perchlorate was also noted as an issue of significance, as though there were warnings as early as 1998, a formal decision was not made until 2008 and a regulation standard was not put in place until 2011.

Read more at:
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11787