If you’ve ever seen the Erin Brockovich movie starring Julia Roberts as the eponymous Erin Brockovich, you probably already have a fair idea about just how dangerous chromium 6 contamination in your drinking water can be! What makes chromium 6 so dangerous is that not only is it carcinogenic (causes cancer) to both animals and humans, but it is also impossible to detect by taste or smell.
It’s estimated by some sources that over 200 million Americans across all 50 states have been exposed to higher-than-recommended levels of this dangerous metal. This begs the question: What do we do about it?
What is Chromium 6?
Before we talk about how we can handle the chromium 6 pollution our nation’s populace has been subjected to, it’d be apt to explain what exactly chromium 6 is and why it’s so dangerous to us.
Chromium is a naturally occurring metal that can be found in rocks, plants, and dirt all over the globe. Since it’s odorless, it’s used for various industrial purposes such as producing dye, plastics, and ink. The term ‘chromium 6’ or hexavalent chromium, as it’s known scientifically, refers to a variant of chromium with a plus-six oxidation state that’s especially dangerous if consumed by human beings even in very small quantities since it has strong oxidizing powers.
Why is Chromium 6 Dangerous?
Chromium 6 is both toxic and carcinogenic. Prolonged exposure can result in numerous health problems ranging from lung and nose cancer to asthma, liver damage, kidney damage, and skin irritation. Traditionally, most people assumed that chromium 6 was only dangerous if its particles were inhaled. But today, it’s been well-proven that consuming water with chromium 6 in it will also have severe negative health consequences, including respiratory cancer and kidney and liver failure. So, you definitely don’t want any chromium 6 in your drinking water.
How Did Chromium 6 Contaminate Our Drinking Water?
Like we mentioned before, over 200 million Americans have been estimated to have been exposed to unsafe levels of chromium 6 in their drinking water. This naturally begs the question: where did such high levels of chromium 6 come from?
The straightforward answer is unregulated industrial pollution. Corporations have been dumping massive amounts of the chemical, as a waste product of industrial processes, into America’s drinking water. They’ve been able to get away with this due to a lack of strict regulation surrounding the amount of chromium legally permissible to be dumped into the water. This is because until relatively recently, it wasn’t known that chromium 6, when digested with water, could actually be so dangerous. So the nation’s governmental bodies have been a little slow to act in limiting industrial pollution.
What Do We Do Now?
Now that we’ve established what chromium 6 is, how and why it’s dangerous, and where it comes from, we’ll answer the most important question of all: what do we do about it?
The long-term and most effective solution to this problem, like many environmentalists, including Erin Brockovich herself, pointed out, is stronger government regulation over industrial pollution. We need to make it impossible for corporations to dump such massive amounts of dangerous contaminants in our water supplies in the long run. That’s the only way to get hold of the problem from its source and prevent further contamination.
What Can We Do Right Now?
You, as an individual, though, are unlikely to have the power or influence to be able to outlaw industrial chromium 6 pollution by yourself, so you’ll have to settle for less revolutionary solutions for the moment. The best thing that you can do to mitigate the chromium 6 contamination in your own home’s water supply is to purchase and install a water filter to remove the dangerous compound as much as possible.
What is a Chromium 6 Water Filter?
Chromium 6 water filters usually consist of a bed of tightly packed resins that water is filtered through. The resins attract the chromium 6 ions, in addition to several other contaminants such as manganese, and removes them from your water, making it much safer to consume. It’s a relatively simple but very effective piece of technology that can be easily purchased and installed. Chromium 6 water filters have become especially popular in recent years because of increased public awareness of the dangers of chromium 6 contamination.
Since these filters are also effective in removing other forms of pollution, they’re a great addition to making any home much safer by adding an extra layer of security for your drinking water, ensuring its purity.
How Effective are Chromium 6 Water Filters?
Chromium 6 water filters vary in effectiveness according to manufacturer and quality. Still, any good filter should be able to remove at least 95% of all chromium found in the water, with high-quality filters able to remove well over 99.5%. So, a good quality chromium water filter can go a very long way in improving the quality of your drinking water and making it much safer for both you and your family.
If you’d like some more information on which chromium 6 water filters you should consider purchasing, there are many detailed buying guides to be found online.
What Else Can You Do?
Let’s say you’ve gotten your hands on a shiny new water filter, and you’ve just installed it in your home; that’s great! You’ve made your home much safer. But also make sure to let everyone, especially your friends and family, know about the dangers of chromium 6 contamination and why they should consider acquiring a good water filter to improve their health as well.
Until effective new legislation is passed that outlaws the dumping of chromium 6, raising public awareness about the benefits of water filters is the only way to save people from the dangers that this heavy metal poses to the health of millions of Americans.
Conclusion
Chromium 6 is a dangerous carcinogenic and toxic transition metal that’s contaminated the water supply of over two-thirds of all Americans. Unregulated industrial pollution is to blame for this problem. While we’re all waiting for the government and politicians to pass new regulations that will reduce the amount of chromium 6 that can be legally dumped into America’s water supply, the best way to make our water safe is to acquire a chromium 6 water filter. These water filters are very effective in removing chromium 6, in addition to other contaminants from our water supply and making it safe to drink. So, make sure that you get one if you want to have the safest water possible.
