Drinking Water

Colonoscopy: The very word sends shudders down the spine of anyone who has drunk "the drink" -- the concoction that cleanses the colon so the doctor can later examine it. I've enjoyed three different procedures with three different preps, and I've made it my mantra to minimize the misery: The appointment: Just pick up the phone. The test is far better than cancer would be. My first one was early, at age 45, because my mother died of colon cancer. Feel nothing but gratitude that such a preventive procedure exists.

SACRAMENTO — Under pressure from state lawmakers and environmentalists, Gov. Jerry Brown's administration has agreed to write regulations for one controversial oil extraction method and reexamine rules for another that led to a worker's death last year. The administration is seeking money in the next state budget to regulate the booming oil industry and assuage public concern over hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking. " Officials plan to develop rules that would ensure the integrity of oil wells and establish reporting requirements for operators that inject chemical-laced water and sand deep into the ground to tap oil, according to a California Department of Conservation document released this week.

Rats fed fructose-laced drinking water for six weeks performed more slowly in a maze-navigating task, UCLA researchers have found. (Read this L.A. Times opinion article .) They think the effect is due to changes in the way the brain responds to insulin as a result of exposure to fructose. “Our study shows that a high fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body,” study senior author and UCLA professor Fernando Gomez-Pinilla said in a release about the finding, which was published in the Journal of Physiology (postdoc Rahul Agrawal was first author)

SACRAMENTO –The Brown administration is scrambling to convince an increasingly wary public that state regulators are getting a handle on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial oil extraction method that can pose a hazard to drinking water. State environmental officials last week requested that energy companies disclose where they conduct "fracking" operations and what chemicals they inject into the ground to tap oil deposits. They also were considering whether to launch an independent study to assess effects of the practice.

Question: Is bottled water really safer than tap water? How can one make an intelligent choice between Sparkletts, Arrowhead and the others? As for their "deep wells" claims--what about ground-water contamination? How effective is the monitoring of bottled water, and who does it?--B.S. Answer: Everyone in the bottled-water industry delicately tiptoes around the "safety" aspect of what it replaces--tap water.

A national panel of scientists reported Wednesday that high levels of naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water are leaving children in some communities at risk of tooth enamel damage and adults prone to weakened bones that could lead to fractures. The scientists unanimously recommended that the federal limit on fluoride in drinking water be lowered to protect people in communities where high levels leach into the water from natural sources, such as rocks or soil.

For years before the mid-1980s, groundwater in parts of Southern California was contaminated with toxic solvents, yet the federal body responsible for tracking this didn't investigate the potential health threat to people who were drinking contaminated tap water. A congressional committee is now investigating why that neglect occurred. Here's a closer look at what scientists know about the main solvents of concern and their health effects.

SACRAMENTO –The Brown administration is scrambling to convince an increasingly wary public that state regulators are getting a handle on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial oil extraction method that can pose a hazard to drinking water. State environmental officials last week requested that energy companies disclose where they conduct "fracking" operations and what chemicals they inject into the ground to tap oil deposits. They also were considering whether to launch an independent study to assess effects of the practice.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl's bill on requiring developers to guarantee water to residents of big developments is good (editorial, Oct. 1). But we apparently need much more than this, considering your Aug. 14 article saying one in three people on the planet will not have adequate drinking water in as little as 25 years. We need leadership and people with vision, right now. Our leaders need to educate citizens about how vital it is to start conserving, start planning, start trying to figure out ways of providing water to the world population.

The Environmental Protection Agency took steps Wednesday to curb toxic substances in drinking water, including perchlorate, a chemical thought to threaten the thyroid gland that has contaminated hundreds of public water wells, mostly in California. The agency also moved to set standards for 16 other substances that can invade water supplies and impair human health. Perchlorate, a remnant of California's manufacturing, aerospace and military bases, can inhibit thyroid hormone production, especially in fetuses and infants.

Environmental Protection Agency reports recently obtained by several Pennsylvania families who feared their well water was polluted by natural gas drilling appear to contradict the agency's original statement late last week that the water was safe to drink, according to the investigative website ProPublica and the environmental group Water Defense. A week ago, the EPA said that tests of the well water of 11 families in Dimock, Pa., out of a total of 60 the agency said it would analyze "did not show levels of contamination that could present a health concern.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it did not find significant contamination in well water serving 11 Pennsylvania families who feared that natural gas drilling had polluted their well. Some residents of Dimock, a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania, complained that their well water turned cloudy and foul-smelling after an oil and gas company drilled for gas using hydraulic fracturing, a controversial extraction method that involves shooting water and sand laced with chemicals underground to unlock reservoirs of fossil fuels.

Nitrate contamination of groundwater in some of the state's most intensely farmed regions has grown worse in recent decades and will continue to spread, threatening the drinking water supplies of more than 250,000 people, according to a new study. The research, conducted by UC Davis scientists, underscores the complexity of dealing with nitrate pollution, which is largely the result of nitrogen leaching into aquifers from fertilizers and manure applied to cropland. High nitrate levels have been linked to cancer and reproductive disorders and can be lethal to infants.

The bid to bring a large-scale desalination plant to Southern California cleared a major hurdle Friday when water regulators approved a permit for a Huntington Beach facility to turn seawater into drinking water. Connecticut-based firm Poseidon Resources is proposing a seawater desalination plant on a 12-acre site next to a coastal power plant, which is adjacent to a popular state beach. According to the company, it would be the largest such facility in the Western Hemisphere.

Opponents malign it as "toilet to tap. " But a new National Research Council report says that reclaimed water can contribute a growing portion of the nation's drinking water supplies and be as safe as conventional sources. The assessment is especially relevant to Southern California, which has been a pioneer in recharging local aquifers with treated wastewater but still sends most of its runoff and treated water to the Pacific Ocean. A decade ago, public outcry and electoral politics thwarted a Los Angeles plan to partially replenish San Fernando Valley groundwater with recycled supplies.

What does it really take to change a habit? It may have less to do with willpower and more to do with consistency and a person's environment, researchers have found. A 2009 study in the European Journal of Social Psychology had 96 people adopt a new healthful habit over 12 weeks - things like running for 15 minutes at the same time each day or eating a piece of fruit with lunch. The average number of days it took for participants to pick up the habit was 66, but the range was huge, from 18 to 254 days.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans on Monday to overhaul its efforts to safeguard drinking water and to tighten restrictions on four waterborne compounds that can cause cancer. Officials said the steps would help regulators identify new contaminants faster and move quickly with new technologies to prevent harm to consumers. Environmentalists expressed hope that the moves will break a regulatory logjam at the EPA, which has not listed a new water contaminant for regulation in more than a decade.

Yep, Thanksgiving is hazardous, if alerts that regularly come our way this time of year are anything to go by. With titles like "First, a Thanksgiving feast. Then to the emergency room" and "New Report Finds BPA in Thanksgiving Canned Foods," they remind us to remain vigilant during this happy holiday time.  There can be blood-pressure-raising fights over politics and religion or resurrection of other old family tensions at the Thanksgiving table! We're going to consume 3,000 calories at the meal and we're all fat already!

Over at the Sardis Lakeview Cafe, where the sign assures all "hillbillies and outlaws" welcome, folks can't help but worry about losing the lake. With water scarce in western drought-dry Oklahoma and neighboring Texas, cities are trying to tap the lake in Southeast Oklahoma, a region dubbed "Little Dixie" due to an influx of Southern settlers after the Civil War. Sardis Lake has become a battleground, with local Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes...