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I need a drink
Author: Raine
Date: 03/10/2008 12:38:56
Water. Our most treasured resource. The thing none of us can live without, and we are forcing our troops to bath in tainted, filthy dirty water. but wait! there is more! Here in America, precriptions drugs have been found in our tap water.
Granted, these are trace amounts, but coupled with the issue we see happening in Iraq, it makes me very concerned for our water supply world wide. We are supposedly the greatest, richest and most powerful country in the world, and yet, our soldiers are in the Middle East bathing in water that sounds like it is from a third-world country, and here at home, we have so many chemicals in our tap water that we do not know what the long term effects actually are.
I am sure that lawmakers will be falling all over themselves wondering how this could happen. Well let me tell you how. This is just another result of no government oversite and deregulation. This is the result of those that tout free markets and competition among public utilities. This is the result of so called "Small Government" This is what happens when profits for companies like KBR become more important than the people they are supposed to serve. This is what happens when utilities have to scramble for water wherever they can find it, and don't use the resources needed to make sure our water supply is safe.
This doesn't have to happen. However, as long as people tout all the Republican policies that put these things in place, this is what we will get. You can drink to that.
:peace: and
Water Makes US Troops in Iraq Sick
Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.
A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.
[...]
"Therefore, water suppliers exposed U.S. forces to unmonitored and potentially unsafe water," at the military sites by late 2006, the report said.
The problems did not extend to troops' drinking water, but rather to water used for washing, bathing, shaving and cleaning. Water used for hygiene and laundry must meet minimum safety standards under military regulations because of the potential for harmful exposure through the eyes, nose, mouth, cuts and wounds.
Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:
• Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.
• Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
• Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
• A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.
• The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
• Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.
Granted, these are trace amounts, but coupled with the issue we see happening in Iraq, it makes me very concerned for our water supply world wide. We are supposedly the greatest, richest and most powerful country in the world, and yet, our soldiers are in the Middle East bathing in water that sounds like it is from a third-world country, and here at home, we have so many chemicals in our tap water that we do not know what the long term effects actually are.
I am sure that lawmakers will be falling all over themselves wondering how this could happen. Well let me tell you how. This is just another result of no government oversite and deregulation. This is the result of those that tout free markets and competition among public utilities. This is the result of so called "Small Government" This is what happens when profits for companies like KBR become more important than the people they are supposed to serve. This is what happens when utilities have to scramble for water wherever they can find it, and don't use the resources needed to make sure our water supply is safe.
This doesn't have to happen. However, as long as people tout all the Republican policies that put these things in place, this is what we will get. You can drink to that.
:peace: and
