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Yeah, kind of. Back in March, a study found a cocktail of chemicals in metropolitan drinking water, but the study didn't include Chicago's supply. Well, the Trib commissioned a study of local samples, and guess what? It found trace amounts of "an anti-seizure drug, a common painkiller, caffeine and two chemicals used to make Teflon and Scotchgard."
The tests do not show that drinking water is unsafe. But they do raise important questions for regulators and city officials aware of growing concerns about potential health effects from long-term exposure to drugs in our drinking water, even at very low levels.
Not all the chemicals were found in the same sample, and experts say that the city's water supply is safe to drink. [Trib, photo by JoeM500]
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We should be terrified about our absolutely safe water with trace amounts of chemicals that no one has ever gotten sick from drinking in recent memory.
I will drink water STRAIGHT out of the lake to show how safe it is.
We should be grateful that we even have safe drinking water instead of being at the whim of the Terror MSM that wants us to freak out at every available opportunity. Shit like this is irresponsbile.
Spav: I agree there are better things for the media to worry about, and that the media too often engages in sensationalism, but how is this "irresponsible"?
As a citizen, I have no problem with knowing as many facts as possible and making up my own mind. In this case, I still think Chicago's water is pretty safe, though I am glad I know more about it.
why are people so set on proving how bad the water is in chicago? the fact this was front page news on red eye should clue people in on what a joke this story is.
I too appreciate being informed of matters such as this, even though by all accounts both scientific and medical, the water is apparently still safe for human consumption...
That being said, from this point forward I shall only be drinking, bathing, cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry and watering my plants with botted water. It's Evian-les-Bains or nothing for me!
i'm guessing 9/11 was front page news in the red eye. would 9/11 therefore be a joke as well? i don't know if this story is a joke or not but your logic is backwards there petey
Believe it or not, the 9/11 attacks didn't even get MENTIONED in Red Eye. Of course, Red Eye didn't start publishing until 2002, but still, a story that big, you'd think they'd report on it somehow...
I am only drinking beer from here on out.
oh, and my wife really doesn't drink out of the sink like that, I had just purchased that camera and was figuring out the long exposures.
we like to keep the city gov't alive by buying taxed bottles of bottled tap water put out by coca cola.
This story is just like "Killer Bees!!!" or you know "PEOPLE GETTING MURDERED FOR iPODS!!"
Stupid.
i think 9/11 predates red eye, but i see your point magilla. i meant that this story is nothing to be terribly alarmed about but the cover would like you to think otherwise. i think its interesting how the tribune has become the erin brokovich of local media.
I find it interesting that just as the backlash against bottled water starts to gather momentum, we're suddenly treated to stories about how allegedly unsafe our tap water is. Spav, let's you and I get a couple of big, fat drinking straws like they put in bubble tea.
Seriously! The reason that people get sick from water is because they are raised in such a bubble that they don't develop immunities to shit. Same with food poisoning.
Like 10 years ago, Lake Springfield got this gross bacteria in it called leptospirosis and all these Iron Man triathletes got sick. I, also, was swimming in the lake that summer and nothing bad happened to me.
We should thank all the people who work to make sure our drinking water is safe, instead of using gross scare tactics to sell ad space.
"We should thank all the people who work to make sure our drinking water is safe, instead of using gross scare tactics to sell ad space."
Do you think a story as "gross" as this sells as much ad space as, say, a story about pet rescues or other nice and fun things--or even celebrity news? I'm skeptical.
Actually, matilda, I do think fear sells, perhaps not as much as sex, but a hot second for sure. Print and broadcast news are rife with unsubstantiated, poorly-sourced, or simply misleading stories about the latest thing that's supposed to kill you. I just heard one on a BBC podcast about vitamin supplements. So beware: If your neighbors are pissing vitamins into the water supply, you may be at risk of dying at some point.
Which leads to another observation: Since we don't flush our toilets into the lake like savages, where are the chemicals coming from? Epileptics in East Chicago? Chronic headache sufferers in Kenosha?
Matilda:
If it bleeds, it leads.
Yeah, horrific events move papers more than human interest stories. See: sensational coverage of O.J., Jon Benet Ramsey etc etc.
We had "The Trial of the Century". Tell me the "Feel Great Event of the 20th Century"
If it bleed, it leads is true enough, but that is a different issue than ad space.
Perhaps some marketing person can weigh in, or someone who works in media ad buys/sales, but would a company--all other factors being equal--rather have an ad placed by a nice, feel-good story, or some story that is more disturbing and gross?
Isn't circulation directly tied to ad dollars?
Same with food poisoning.
So, Spav, do you honestly believe "immunity" is built against salmonella, e. coli, cryptosporidium, even staph? Maybe if someone has repeated instances with any of these bacteria, symptoms may become more "tolerable". But, to think that exposure to any sort of infectious bacteria or other "parasitic microbe" will increase immunity is just naive. Plain naive.
Why have I never had food poisoning then? Even when I ate THE SAME THING as relatives or friends who came down with terrible cases?
Because I am stronger. That is the only explanation.
I will tell you what does worry me: Mad Cow Disease. We ALL probably have it. The gestation period on that muthafucka is like 20 yrs. Early-onset Alzheimers is a cover for the beef industry. Plain and simple.
I appreciate the effort of the Trib, but the sensationalist way they presented it is irresponsible IMO.
There are some quality problems with our drinking water, but trumping up a few parts-per-trillion of something thats not dangerous is going to encourage wasteful spending by our utilities.
What about Air Pollution? If they are really worried about water how about testing for those high levels of Chlorine in the summer.
Spav1- I don't recommend drinking lake water after it rains... unless you are really into untreated human waste water.
frp- yes immunity is built up from exposure to many contaminants in water. Thats why Mexicans don't get Montezumas revenge.
i don't know what you're talking about ... the RedEye is known for it's hardhitting investigative journalism! The stuff in Metromix makes Woodward and Bernstein look like chumps. Further, I love the 5 on 5 segement ...
Truth = anecdotes scrawled in bathroom stalls of truck stops are more interesting to read than the RedEye. Why the Trib included them in this article is beyond comprehension. Maybe to make it sound legit? If that was the case, it just discredited this study 5 fold.
Drink water not urine.
Kfunk:
Thanks for underscoring my point.
And while I am not interested in human waste water, I am interested in proving how weak everyone else is compared to me.
Spav1 you are my favorite. I will be drinking beer and eating chicken tartar tonight in your honor.
i'm with spav re: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. knock on bacteria, but i employ the 5-10 second rule with glee, i am not a huge hand washer, i don't fear swimming in fresh water, i eat raw beef with my 'sconsin relatives when i go home. i absolutely REFUSE to believe that the flu shot is good for you ... in fact, i think it's horrible for us. i think we've gotten sicker and weaker because of it. also see: loads of antibacterial this and antibacterial this (can anyone say MRSA?).
when i was a kid, all my mom had was scrubbing bubbles for the bathroom, palmolive for the dishes and that crazy ass lysol disinfectant spray for everything else. i'm still alive and kicking. not to mention, i am the last person to get sick when 'stuff is going around' or i don't get sick at all.
if you make your body work for it, it gets good at fighting shit off. if you baby it, it gets weak and soft. you can keep your asbestos, lead and mercury, but my body does a pretty good job with most everything else. bottom line is ... i refuse to walk around living in fear. that'll kill ya quicker than anything.