Toxic Waters: Experts Weigh in on Tap Water Safety

AOL Health tackles the tackles the question: Is tap water safe? in a Q&A with author James Workman. The interview was in response to the the recent New York Times Series "Toxic Waters," a shocking expose on tap water. Reporters uncovered thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act, proof that our tap water may not be as safe as we think it is.

Among the Times' more startling findings: One in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways.

Workman says that in addition to pollution by corporations, we have to be concerned about how our own daily actions are impacting our water supply.

Here are a few excerpts from the AOL Health interview with Workman, who is the author of "Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought."

AOL Health: In light of the New York Times's findings, should we be scared?

Workman: A lot of it depends on where we live. If you're living on a Midwestern farm and drinking well water, yes, you should be scared. If you're living 50 miles downstream from a coal mine, yes. In other [urban and suburban] areas, like San Francisco where I live, we don't have the same threats. Still, when the Clean Water Act was passed [in 1972], you had sludge and rivers of fire, so you could see the aesthetic and environmental impact. Today, violations are more subtle. We have invisible, tasteless, odorless threats coming not just from big bad industry but from our lawns and worksheds and medicine cabinets.

AOL Health: The report discussed industrial threats, but you're bringing up dangers we create in our daily lives.

Workman: Yes. We tend to say the water polluters are out there: That huge power plant, that factory, the hospital dumping medical waste. It's true, and significant. But we also have to look closer to home. We fertilize our lawns and say, "Good, no snails." But that fertilizer soaks into the street, under our house, into the water system. We are used to abundance and excess, so we think that if a little bit of fertilizer and water are good, then a lot is even better, and we end up harming ourselves and our neighbors and wasting water. Also, the average American is taking more pharmaceuticals, which go through our bodies and are re-circulated through the sewage system into our water.