How Widespread And Dangerous Are Pesticides in Drinking Water?

As you are probably aware, fruits are not manufactured. The majority of the fruits and vegetables we buy at the supermarket are grown on farms. However, a wide variety of insects, and rodents may be present on farms, and many of them enjoy eating or attacking plants and fresh produce. Since they can go a long way to damaging the crop yield, farmers cannot afford to let them destroy their hard labour; therefore, some take to applying pesticides to farms in a bid to keep pests away from crops.

Pesticides are advantageous as they help increase crop yield and quality, protect crops from disease, and also control pests for a safe farming environment. In spite of its plenty of fascinating benefits, pesticides pose a great risk to your health by potentially causing some acute and chronic health challenges. The extent of damages depends on the quantity and type of pesticide consumed. Most controlled water is not usually a victim of pesticide invasion. Modern designer taps, like the water filter taps, let you control the temperature and flow of your water.

Given the world’s long history with pesticides and the fact that these toxic chemicals can leach into groundwater and surface water, significantly degrading water quality, we can’t help but wonder if pesticides are present in our drinking water, and if so, how prevalent and dangerous they are.

How Pesticides Get To Drinking Water

Pesticides first pollute groundwater before approaching municipal water systems because the soil they permeate helps improve the process. Pesticide groundwater pollution is a major concern because groundwater serves as drinking water for approximately half of the populace. This is a major concern for residents of rural communities in which pesticides are commonly used for agricultural purposes. In a real sense, about 95 percent of this segment of the population is entirely reliant on groundwater for drinking purposes.

Since pesticides can conveniently find their way into groundwater, which is several people’s main source of drinking water, surface water systems which feed drinking water supplies are likely to contain pesticides. In the United States, about fifteen percent of the total population depends on water from private wells. However, these are not governed by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

How Prevalent And Dangerous Are They?

The health implications of exposure to pesticides vary depending on the quantity and substance consumed. Atrazine and simazine seem to be two of the most prominent pesticides found in drinking water. Both are regulated and have maximum limits (3 parts per billion for atrazine and two parts per billion for simazine).  Unfortunately, many other pesticides are present in drinking water that are not even controlled. This is indeed a source of worry. Thousands of contaminants are being washed into rivers and streams. This includes several pesticides, which the US EPA monitors and regulates only 100.

It typically takes a couple of years of moderate – to – severe pesticide exposure for a person to develop the disease. The amount of pollutants that impose a threat to human health is largely influenced by the pesticides’ toxicity; that is, the amount found in water and the direct impacts that take place by using polluted drinking water.

Conclusion

Because of the increased demand for food, farming became more widespread. Farmers began spraying and sprinkling more pesticides on growing production areas in order to reduce pest activities to the barest minimum, achieve high agricultural