As strange as that sounds, experts in the Philadelphia area have suggested that patients receiving treatment for thyroid cancer may have something to do with the presence of I-131, a radioactive isotope of Iodine used pretty much exclusively in the treatment of certain types of cancer, in local bodies of surface water.
We couldn’t have made this kind of thing up even if we tried. Scientists have hypothesized that the lack of any industrial applications using that specific isotope leaves few options other than human waste from patients receiving radiation treatment for cancer as the source of contamination.
For more information on this topic, you can read the whole article here.
While no at-home test kits exist to test for the type of iodine mentioned in the above article, some do exist for testing levels of ‘regular’ iodine which occasionally shows up in drinking and industrial water.
As an example, the SenSafe Iodine Test Strips can detect concentrations as low as .02 ppm without the need for messy reagents, advanced testing techniques or expensive meters.
Now we come to our favorite part:The Moral of the Story
Whether the result of irresponsible actions on the part of industry, poor enforcement of environmental codes on the part of government bodies, or the unintentional discharge of questionable contaminants such as pharmaceuticals into the water supply by any person who takes medications, the fact remains that our drinking water MAY contain any number of potentially dangerous contaminants at any given time.
Simply put, the folks who designed and built the bulk of our water treatment facilities could not have planned for many of the potential drinking water contaminants we could find in our water supply today because we, as a culture, didn’t even know they existed until recently.
Therefore, Water Testing Blog continues to believe that a thorough testing of one’s water by a certified water testing company such as National Testing Labs, or one suggested by your local health department, followed by the proper installation of the correct home water treatment device(s) will always make sense.
