• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Outdoors / Report says stuff used to make us clean is polluting the water

Report says stuff used to make us clean is polluting the water

December 2, 2009 By O. Kay Henderson

A new report suggests Iowans should be more concerned about the perfume, bug spray and other things we spray on our bodies as those substances often wind up in the water supply. Teresa Galluzzo is with the Iowa Policy Project, the group that released the report. She says when we shower and do laundry, the shampoo and detergent we use also winds up in the waste water that’s treated and then reused in drinking water systems.

“Organic wastewater contaminants not only slip through the treatment process, but they also slip through all of our current environmental regulations,” Galluzzo says. William Wombacher, a civil and environmental engineer, conducted the research. While there’s been some attention to the pharmaceuticals that wind up in the water supply, Wombacher says there’s been little attention to other organic compounds that come from a wide array of common products.

“Synthetic fragrances which are added to shampoos, lotions and deodorants; antibacterial agents in soaps; Deet, the active ingredient in insect repellent,” he says. “There are the compounds that you find in sunscreen.” Wombacher says there’s little research about the impact these compounds may have when they’re in our drinking water. Wombacher earned a masters degree from the University of Iowa and worked for three years as a student operator of the university’s drinking water system.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Outdoors

Featured Stories

Governor signs child care expansion into law

Iowa seniors have until July 1 to apply for new property tax break

Smoke from distant fires creates colorful sunrise in Iowa

DOT’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division to merge into State Patrol

Iowa’s governor approves liability limits for trucking industry

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa names Beth Goetz interim AD

Cyclone Trio Invited to USA Basketball U19 Training Camp

Cameron Young to compete at the John Deere Classic

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/29/23

Iowa AD Gary Barta announces retirement

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC