Shaft part 1 Ozonoff obtained

Shaft part 1

Ozonoff obtained a medical degree from the Cornell University School of Medicine and serves on the Massachusetts Cancer Advisory Committee. He said drinking water with any amount of alpha particles, even when consumed in amounts below federal legal limits, raises your risk to develop health problems or, in rare cases, cancer. Examples of alpha particles found in the Gulf Coast region are those from uranium, radium and other minerals. Ozonoff describes alpha particles as a type of radiation that would not typically harm you unless inhaled or ingested. He warns, once you take it inside your body, your health risks immediately begin to rise. It cant penetrate very far, but when it hits something it does a ferocious amount of damage, he said. If I were to drink it, then many parts of your body are within knife-wielding distance of an alpha particle. Ozonoff said the danger in drinking alpha particles is that you bring them inside your body and right up against sensitive organs, where the alpha particles can damage DNA and create a possible mutation in your cells. He says the more you drink, the more you raise your risk for cancer. In fact, even the EPA says a single wild cell can give rise to a cancer, and that a single alpha passing through a cell is sufficient to induce a mutational event. The EPA made the disclosure in the federal register as shaft part 1 of the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations 2000 final rule that regulates all forms of radioactive elements in drinking water. The zero-threshold allowance for radionuclides, from a health-based standard, is one reason why the EPA set the drinking water federal health goal, called the MCLG Maximum Contaminant Limit Goal, at zero for all forms of ionizing radiation. Other potential contaminants in drinking water such as copper, selenium, barium, chlorine residuals, trihalomethanes, and many others that are not radioactive elements, all have goals set above zero. The EPA notes there are some who disagree with its conclusion that any amount of radiation has the ability to cause a mutation. However, it states in the federal register that EPA believes its position is based on shaft part 1 of evidence and support from national and international groups of experts interested in radiation protection. Many of America s largest water systems attain the public health goal with no detectable amounts of radiation in their water supplies. Many, but not all of these water systems, depend on surface drinking water sources, like rivers, lakes and streams, to supply their communities. Most radioactive alpha particles end up in drinking water only after it is pumped up from groundwater wells in regions of the country with natural uranium, radium or other radioactive deposits underground. In some cases, that are less common, radioactive elements do end up in surface water. However, the EPA sets a legal limit for these contaminants above zero, which it calls the MCL Maximum Contaminant Level. The government cannot force a water system to take action to clean up radioactive drinking water until the system exceeds that legal limit. However, as it pertains to radioactive materials in particular, Ozonoff says you are still put at risk if they are present, even in quantities below that legal limit. All you need is one cell to go bad, he said, to initiate the beginning stages of a cancerous event. While potential mutations could take place at any time when radionuclides are consumed, the risks are relatively small. For instance, the EPA estimates a radiogenic cancer risk of slightly less than one in 10, 000 for communities that consume drinking water over a lifetime with enough alpha radiation from uranium to reach the MCL of 30 micrograms. The odds have been calculated to be even lower for alpha derived from other isotopes. However, Ozonoff warns those risk levels are calculated in isolation from your other daily exposure to all types of carcinogens, with which we regularly come into contact. For example, he points out that water can also have other radioactive elements, and that the risk from those compounds with whatever cancer risk you are already receiving from alpha. While nearly every major city in Texas has no detectable amounts of radiation in their purified water, according to United States Geological Survey officials, the Houston region and surrounding counties are prone to having natural uranium deposits that are near the aquifers that provide well water. Lab reports reveal radiation in Harris County Municipal Utility District 105 s MUD 105 water dates as far back as the early 1980s. MUD 105, a suburban water provider outside the city limits of Houston, did not receive a formal legal violation notice until it exceeded federal limits in 2008 and 200 But MUD 105 did disclose those violations to residents in two annual water-quality reports. However, neighborhood resident Kareen Tolbert thinks both the MUD and regulators had a moral obligation to do more. Screw the fine print, Tolbert said. Something this serious, it should be mandatory that everybody in this district knows whats going on. Attorney Taylor Goodall, who represents the board of directors for MUD 105, says the MUD also began mailing out more detailed warning notices in December of 200 The notices contained language in capital letters saying THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY and also telling residents you do not need to use an alternative water supply. I dont think theres a reason to panic, Goodall said. KHOU: Do you think the Average Joe knows theres radiation in the water? GOODALL: Well I cant speak for the Average Joe, but I know that we sent out mailers. Goodall says as soon as the MUD s board was notified of a legal violation, it also began to take steps to limit the flow of water from the most radioactive water well that the utility owns, which he says still remains in limited service during high-demand times. But residents like Felicia Byford and Tolbert, who both have young children, believe the MUD should have reduced the flow of that well long ago.