Abstract
Some 14 million Americans are routinely exposed to agricultural weed killers in their drinking water, charges a report, Tap Water Blues, released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) at a press conference last week in Washington, D.C. The contamination is particularly acute from April through August in the Midwest, says the report. Each spring farmers apply to their fields about 150 million lb of five herbicides analyzed in the report—alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, metolachlor, and simazine. A substantial portion of these herbicides—often in combination—run off with rain and ultimately flow out of taps in millions of midwestern homes, said Richard Wiles, EWG vice president and principal author of the report, at the press conference. As a result, Wiles points out, 3.5 million people in 120 cities and towns face cancer risks 10 to 100 times higher than the federal benchmark of one additional cancer case per million persons exposed ...
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