Tap water contains pesticides and nitrates
Pesticides in tap water
Source Our planete.info
more than 90% of waterways in France are contaminated by pesticides , pesticides which are then found in tap water, as evidenced by a urinary analysis to detect glyphosate carried out in 2019 in a person who does not eat only organic products but drinks tap water. Its results showed fairly high glyphosate contamination.
A report published mid-June 2020 by Générations Futures shows the difficulty and limits in detecting pesticides in tap water in France. For example, in Aisne, around ten pesticides are searched for, while in Bouches-du-Rhône, more than 550 different pesticides were searched for in each sample targeting pesticides, which greatly distorts the results.
That said, on the pesticides sought, the data analysis work of Générations Futures shows that 35% of the analyzes carried out in France detect pesticides. These are mainly suspected endocrine disruptors: 56.8% of pesticide residue quantifications. Pesticides with Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, Reprotoxic (CMR) properties are also very present: 38.5% of pesticide residue quantifications.
In total, more than 3/4 of the pesticides found in tap water are of the CMR or PE type.
“ Given the potential for action at low doses over the long term of endocrine disruptors, Générations Futures considers these data to be worrying because they attest to continuous exposure to low doses of these EDs through drinking water. », Explains François Veillerette – Spokesperson for the association.
Furthermore, the Metabolites , many toxic by-products from pesticides, are not researched, quite simply due to technical incapacity.
What about bottled water?
According to the responses we received from bottled water professionals and according to a 2015 study , bottled water would contain no or very few pesticides: out of 40 brands of natural mineral waters and spring waters, the 13,000 analyzes carried out show that 78% of the samples tested do not present any nano -trace of pesticides and that those which contain them have levels twice lower than the regulatory threshold and on average ten times lower than those observed on average in tap water.
“To grasp the infinitesimal scale of these traces, we estimate that they represent contents 200 times lower than the maximum threshold allowed for pesticides in food products, including organic products”, specifies the National Federation of Packaged and Bottled Waters .
Nitrates in drinking water
In 2015, 61.8% of the French population had tap water with a maximum nitrate concentration[1] less than 25 mg/L ( Ministry of Health , 2016). In other words, 38% of French people could drink tap water with nitrate values between 25 and 50 mg/l, whereas most bottled water (natural mineral water and spring water) remains below 5 mg. /L.
Medicines in tap water
2,000 active ingredients currently used in pharmaceutical products for human or veterinary use have never been evaluated. And several dozen new active ingredients are generally approved each year...
The most common are hormones, painkillers, antidepressants and antibiotics.
Humans or animals excrete between 30 and 90% of its components in the form of active substances which spread in sanitation networks or in the environment. Conventional wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove pharmaceuticals and the presence of residues in water resources is not systematically monitored.
Low concentrations can harm freshwater ecosystems and human health, since pharmaceuticals are designed to interact with living organisms.
In France, a study published in 2016 by researchers from ANSES and the University of Friborg demonstrated the presence of resistance genes in the bacterium Escherichia coli in drinking water.
However, these chemical substances - at the origin of the appearance of resistant bacteria that medicine cannot treat - are not yet regulated, let alone eliminated from tap water, just like an ever-increasing number of medications that end up in the drinking water system.
Tap water altered by the state of the pipes
In 2016, the Que Choisir association published a alarming investigation into the real quality of tap water by adding an important criterion: the condition of the pipes which deliver running water and the presence of toxic components such as lead, copper, nickel and vinyl chloride. If the initiative is laudable, it is sorely lacking in control points as Que Choisir points out: "for the search for lead, copper, nickel, vinyl chloride and epichlorohydrin, water sampling is frequently occurs at consumers' taps. Consequently, their presence in an analysis does not in any way mean that this pollution affects the entire network or the city, because it may only concern, for example, certain network connections, certain buildings or housing." Which means that the quality of tap water mainly depends on the condition of the pipes downstream, in our home.
