Marisa Visel

Marisa Visel, Florida PIRG

CHEMICALS IN TAP WATER PUT 1,700 FLORIDA PREGNANCIES AT RISK OF MISCARRIAGE, BIRTH DEFECTS

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Tallahassee, FL-A report published by Florida PIRG, a public interest advocacy organization, and the Environmental Working Group, documents that over 1700 Florida women are at risk of having pregnancies end in miscarriage or of having children with birth defects because of chemical byproducts that occur in drinking water as a result of chlorination.
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"Floridians are participating in a massive experiment under terms that are an unacceptable trade-off, and even worse, our government doesn't have the information to know what the impacts are," said Marisa Visel, Clean Water Associate for Florida PIRG."Chlorine rids our water of dangerous pathogens, but creates toxic contaminants at the same time.However, no one's tracking how many pregnancies end in miscarriage or how many babies are born with birth defects just because their mothers used tap water."

Chlorine added to water interacts with organic matter, particularly the soil and plant material that comes from agricultural run-off, to create hundreds of toxic chlorination byproducts (CBPs).At least ten major epidemiological studies have shown elevated an elevated risk of birth defects and miscarriages for women drinking chlorinated tap water.The U.S. EPA has estimated that CBPs cause 9,300 cases of bladder cancer nationwide every year, and studies have linked CBPs to a dozen other internal cancers, including brain and breast cancer.
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"Citizens, policymakers, and health care providers are blindfolded when it comes to protecting our health from toxic hazards like chlorination byproducts," said Marisa Visel.

Florida PIRG and the Environmental Working Group called for immediate action to clean up the lakes and rivers that provide tap water by reducing the soil erosion and the nutrient and animal waste runoff from farms and feedlots that increase the need for chlorination, but also recommended a more ambitious effort to address the long-term health threats of chlorination byproducts.

The groups recommend the creation of a nationwide health tracking network, coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that would monitor Americans' exposure to potentially health-impacting pollution and would track birth defects, miscarriages, and other environmentally-impacted health conditions like cancer and asthma.In December, Congress appropriated $17.5 million dollars for pilot environmental health tracking projects.The President will submit his budget to Congress in February and has the opportunity to increase funding for next year so that environmental health tracking can begin to be expanded nationwide.A coalition of public interest groups including Florida PIRG are recommending that funding be increased to $100 million.

"Runoff pollution is the most common water quality problem in Florida," said Marisa Visel, a clean water associate for the research group."Until our leaders get serious about runoff pollution, fish kills, algae blooms, red tides and beach closings will continue to degrade our quality of life."

The report was written by Alliance staff, based on research into runoff control programs in Florida and three other states and interviews with federal and state officials and citizens' groups in those states.Florida scored the worst, while Massachusetts earned a B+, Delaware a B and Ohio a C.

The report's stated goal is to inspire and motivate citizens and lawmakers to clean up the problems.
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The state is moving in the right direction, Visel said, but "isn't doing enough" and needs better coordination, more enforcement and more commitment to programs to control runoff.

Many of the state's bays and estuaries have been polluted by agricultural products such as fertilizers and by grease and oil washing off streets and into storm sewers, the report stated.

The Indian River Lagoon for example, which lies partly in southern Volusia, has been plagued with pollution, including contaminated runoff.

"We think our state deserves the grade it got," said Marisa Visel, clean water associate in Florida for group."The Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, Tampa Bay, Apalachiocola Bay and Florida Bay have all been heavily damaged by runoff."

Meanwhile, in our back yard, the Humane Society of Marion County is looking for a few good people to serve as foster parents for kittens and puppies until the animals are of adoptable age.Also, the shelter needs food for cats and dogs.Can you help?

said Marisa Visel, the Florida Public Interest Research Group's clean-water associate.

But so far, legislators have indicated they want to let the DEP keep working on the issue.

Meanwhile, the agency also may be studying how putting reclaimed water into the canals would affect water quality, water supply and public health.

Depending what the study finds, Palm Beach County water officials may seek permission to release reclaimed water from the Wakodahatchee Wetlands west of Delray Beach into a nearby Lake Worth Drainage District Canal.The 50-acre wetland was created to further purify already treated wastewater.