Contaminated Water and the effects on the Developing Brain
There have been several studies of poor quality water affecting the brain development of fetuses, infants, and young children. How is this an issue we’re facing in the twenty-first century?
>1 billion People are struggling to access the needed quantity and quality for drinking, cooking, washing, showering, hand washing, and growing their crops. This is a global water crisis, not just in Flint, MI, or sub-Saharan Africa but, unfortunately, several other areas. You never realize how important a necessity really is until you are exposed to that living condition. Many people, including myself, are lucky that we have easy access to several necessities and we haven’t had to worry every day if we’ll be able to have enough and good quality water. That’s why we need to work together and find more efficient ways/solutions for the water crisis because if we don’t then we’ll all dealing with this and it’ll be too late. Education and awareness are some of the most important solutions to this crisis. There seems to be little doubt that science and technology must play a vital role in devising the solutions that will be necessary to overcome the daunting problems arising from global water scarcity and its quality. Science has a major role in solving the world’s emerging water problems. And with this crisis, there’s of course a health crisis. Getting enough data and evidence to help share out awareness on what’s going on with our bodies and our brain is important for people and especially countries to take this seriously. There have been several studies of how contaminated water damages the brain, but it needs to continue to be brought to light. I believe showing all these effects will show everyone how this is a literal crisis. It should scare us that our society is still having little to no access to non-contaminated water.
Can you believe lead exposure is connected to serious health impacts — even madness and death? There’s been a lot of data that shows that even low levels of lead can impair the brain development of offspring. The damage can reverberate for a lifetime, reducing IQ and physical growth and contributing to anemia, hearing impairment, cardiovascular disease, and behavioral problems. However, this is actually an old problem of seepage of lead from industrial wastes into drinking water is an old problem. The brain is one of the most important organs in your body to keep fueled. It is approximately 85 percent water and brain function depends on having abundant access to water. Water gives the brain the electrical energy for all brain functions, including thought and memory processes. Which water provides this energy more effectively than any other substance.
Lead toxicity was once believed to involve only a small population of industrially exposed workers, the neurotoxicity of very low levels of lead that can be relevant to large populations has been widely recognized for the last 20 years. This adverse effect is especially pronounced in the developing fetal and neonatal brain. Low-dose exposure to lead has been associated with behavioral and cognitive impairments. There are so many other neurotoxic metals and organics like Aluminum, Copper, Arsenic and Calcium, Halogenated Residues, Acrylamide, Bisphenol A, other organic contaminants of Anthropogenic origin, and mixtures of contaminants.
People who don’t even have access to water at all leads to dehydration. It causes your brain to shut down and not run at full speed. There are so many mental symptoms due to dehydration. Prolonged dehydration causes brain cells to shrink in size and mass. This is most common in the elderly, many of whom tend to be chronically dehydrated for years. It can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Radiation, toxins, contaminants, pesticides, and radioactive metals all flow easily into the blood supply of the brain. A strong antioxidant and powerful anti-inflammatory agent is needed to prevent the many sources of free radicals from attacking the brain and causing brain inflammation.
So as we know, water is often unhealthy due to the presence of developmental neurotoxins, or DNTs. These chemicals have an impact on brain development from conception to adolescence, with long-term effects on motor control, learning, and behavior. They not only deprive our children of their full potential, but they also add to society’s pressures, as stunted neurodevelopment can lead to a variety of problems. Is this really what we’re doing to the next generation? Not only are we damaging our planet and adding all these problems to upcoming generations, but we’re also damaging their body … their mind! I’ve heard several of my teachers telling us that we’re the future and need to prepare to solve all the global problems. That we’re next in line from finding solutions for problems caused by several past generations. But I have a question. How is the next generation be able to solve anything if they’re getting harmed both mentally and physically?
In the words of Robert Swan,
The greatest danger to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.
Every citizen of planet Earth can and should be part of the solution.
From my article to several other sources showing evidence/ data of spreading awareness to people does scare them. Honestly, we should be scared. We’re killing our planet and our society, and there’s not a lot of time that we have. But we should be optimistic and start a solution, not just wait for other people and generations to fix it. We still have our natural resources, let’s not contaminate it and/or make it harder to get access to it to people.
So… what now?
There have been major improvements regarding the quality of residential water supplies. However, there is still considerable variance in different communities, in part due to differing standards. In addition to the World Health Organization and federal government, each state in the US has its individual standards. A unified set of guidelines for drinking water, based on scientific evidence and economic feasibility, would effectively protect global health. There’s been a lot of conservation technologies and community governance and partnerships making huge impacts in solving the water crisis. But this is not going to fully fix the solution, we need more people involved in activism and innovations. I hope I inspired a little bit to you, the reader, to want to help fix the water crisis by making sure we have a good quantity and quality water.
