Many people fail to realize the impact that pesticides in water can have on wildlife, on aquatic life, and in what humans consider ‘extreme’ situations, on human life.
In an article by Jeff Barnard (Associated Press Writer) published on Yahoo News on Thursday August 14, 2008. . .
“GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Three pesticides commonly used on farms and orchards throughout the West are jeopardizing the survival of Pacific salmon, the federal agency in charge of saving the fish from extinction has found.
Under the settlement of a lawsuit brought by anti-pesticide groups and salmon fishermen, NOAA Fisheries has issued a draft biological opinion that found the way chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion get into salmon streams at levels high enough to kill salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act.
. . .
Banned from many household uses, tens of millions of pounds of the chemicals are still used throughout the range of Pacific salmon on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, forage crops, cotton, fence posts and livestock to control mosquitoes, flies, termites, boll weevils and other pests, according to NOAA Fisheries.
. . .
The chemicals are the first of 37 that NOAA Fisheries and EPA must evaluate by 2012 under terms of a settlement reached last week in a lawsuit brought by Northwest Coalition Against Pesticides and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen.
A total of 28 species of Pacific salmon are classified as threatened or endangered from overfishing, dams, logging, grazing, urban development, pollution, irrigation, misguided hatchery practices and other threats.
Lecky said he could not say where pesticides rank in the threats to salmon, but eliminating the harm from pesticides would boost efforts to save them.”
This naturally leads all of us here at Water Testing Blog to wonder what sort of effect those same compounds may have on human life.
With that in mind, we sought out testing methods for ‘common’ pesticides currently viewed as harmful and/or toxic to human life and sometimes found in well, surface, and drinking water. We discovered the Pesticides in Water test kit which detects Atrazine and Simazine in drinking water at levels established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as harmful to humans.
The Pesticides in Water test kit detects Simazine at the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 4 parts per billion and Atrazine at the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 3 parts per billion.
As always, though, if you have serious reason to suspect the accidental or intentional addition of harmful chemicals to your drinking water supply, we suggest you seek the testing services of trained water professionals.
