Victoria's Environmental Health Blog

  Hello Class, thank you for staying for the journey and learning about safe water in Lubbock County and the importance of this vital health right.  One of the leading issues in safe water is water systems and hazardous substances that are not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Public water systems that serve minority communities and small and rural water systems face unsafe levels of hazardous chemicals due to aging water infrastructure and lack of funds (Mcdonald et al., 2018). The EPA has no oversight over private water systems such as private wells that millions of Americans drink from and contain high levels of harmful chemicals such as arsenic that are unsafe for human consumption and increase the risk of disability and death (Greco et al., 2019). There is evidence that there are chemicals unregulated by the EPA that increase the risk of harm to the human body such as aluminum and there are no regulated levels that are enforced in public water systems (Krupi

  In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) l ocated at  2500 Century Pkwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30345   started the Safe Water program to improve the country’s access to safe drinking water. Their goal is to provide safe drinking water in communities across the country by identifying hazards and inspecting public water sources such as waterparks, public swimming pools, and wastewater systems. They have also made it their mission to respond to and prevent Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks and address drinking water system problems. In 2019, they helped 37 states improve their Legionnaires’ disease prevention and outbreak response (CDC, 2022). The CDC program has enhanced case surveillance and reporting of Legionnaires’ disease and improved environmental assessment and response. Holsinger et al. (2022) describes the increase in Legionnaires’ disease cases and how the disease often goes underdiagnosed due to its similarities to other bacterial infections. This program is impo