I thought I knew what I needed to know about bottled water, but I found out some new things from the documentary “Tapped,” shown this week at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Shelter Rock. Bottled water is usually filtered municipal water that is sold back within state at a much higher price than tap water. The plastic bottle is made in a petrochemical plant and though PET plastic #1 is usually considered safe, this film pointed out that it can sometimes be contaminated with benzene, a carcinogen. Plastic manufacturing is an environmental justice issue, causing health issues in communities surrounding the factories. One thing I hadn’t thought of was that bottled water companies have tried to bad-mouth municipal water (this is documented in the film), and yet expect municipalities to pick up the tab for recycling their bottles, and have usually fought against the bottle return bills that have now passed in only 6 U.S. States. Since many U.S. communities do not have curbside recycling, the rate of bottle recycling is still only at 20%, so many bottles end up being landfilled, incinerated, or unfortunately, as litter in our oceans and beaches. For more info see http://www.tappedthemovie.com/, or watch it free here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/tapped/.
Lung Cancer Facts Your Doctor May Not Know
Lung Cancer Fact Sheets @ http://www.gfxtechnology.com/LCFS.pdf are based on the Tables & Figures @ http://www.gfxtechnology.com/Radon.html indicate “Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer for men and women in the U.S. The good news is that lung cancer found in its earliest stage has an 80 percent cure rate.” They include well reports required to establish radon exposure in order to qualify for a low-dose CT scan, as opposed to X-rays that cannot detect small, malignant tumors. The Stony Brook Cancer Center limits such CT screening to heavy smokers or patients that “…smoked a pack a day for 20 years, are between the ages 55 to 80, and have one additional risk factor, such as radon exposure, occupational exposure, lung disease, history of cancer or family history of lung cancer”.
Example For Northport, NY
Table 3 & Fig. 3 indicate a person living near the BELLE ROSE well field in Northport released about 2,740 picocuries per minute (pCi/m) of Radon each time they took a 10 Liter per minute (LPM) shower supplied by radioactive water from SCWA well #S-61937 — enough to increase air concentrations of Radon by about 0.274 pCi/m and exceed EPA’s Radon action level of 4 pCi/L-Air in about 15 minutes – yet corrupt EPA officials have excluded this deadly carcinogen from the Radionuclides Rule since 1976, as follows: “Gross Alpha Emitters (excluding uranium and radon): radium, thorium, plutonium. MCL 15 pCi/L. MCLG zero.” [1]
Therefore, thousands of unsuspecting people have been and will continue to be exposed to Radon unless Congress amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to include Radon’s 39 isotopes and their progeny.
Yours truly,
Dr. Carmine F. Vasile
Ph.D. Electrophysics
60 Herbert Circle
Patchogue, NY 11772
631-807-7839