Water Water Everywhere
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
The ancient mariner will not be the only occupant of a boat surrounded by undrinkable water if current trends and practices go unaltered. As explorations of our fellow planets progress, we are discovering that many had water millions of years ago and lost that water to solar winds, insufficient gravitational pull or some other cosmic mishap. That loss doomed life evolution on bodies like our moon, and planets like Mars.
The socioeconomic havoc caused by threats to the available petrol sources is dwarfed by the havoc consequent to interruption of water availability worldwide. Thus we have the emergence of behavior like the weaponization of water. Do you remember 1962's Lawrence of Arabia? The scene where Otoole's Lawrence confronts an Arab tribesman who is trying to drink from Omar Sharif's desert well? Remember the approach of Sharif's horse from long to short distance and the brutal shooting of the tribesman? Otoole's Lawrence is shocked and disgusted and we are treated to a caste and class defense of the act by Sharif, which progresses to a mercantilism/utilitarian defense of 'What if they all came?' Surely there would not be enough for all and it is our well and water' is the disturbing logic.
Marcus D King in the September/October 2019 issue of American Scientist opines in his Dying for a Drink article that "Overuse, population growth and climate change are turning water into a powerful tool for conflict in many parts of the world." In the same issue, Sherri Mason's article "Plastics, Plastics, Everywhere" tells us about microplastic pollution in our rivers and drinking water. The Great Lakes pollution study to which she introduces us shows the harmful effects of this pollution on fish and crustaceans in the Great Lakes Tributary distribution. The oceans of course are polluted with macroplastics as well as microplastics. The effects of microplastic ingestion on humans is as yet unclear.
The U.S. Air Force supplied bottled water for two years to citizens living in proximity to March AFB and still is distributing free bottled water. Because of the use of organophosphate defoliants and polyfluoro fire retardants used in training exercises, it would appear that pesticide use, anti fire agents, defoliants, etc. are threatening lakes, rivers, and aquifers. CDC estimates of tolerable levels of these substances are much lower than state, county, and even FDA indicated levels, and then of course there is the issue of enforcement. The current administration is weakening proscriptive enforcement levels at federal levels. Perhaps one place where John and Jane Q Public can get involved is to question the appointment of officials whose stated intent is to abolish the agency which they have been appointed to head. Cancer, asthma, pneumonia, and mental retardation will bedevil mankind long before solar winds sweep our water away.
The Los Angeles Times reporters Cloud, Phillips and Barboza in the October 16th newspaper, report the widespread contamination of groundwater throughout the state by PFAS. These are per and polyfluoroalkyl particles, known carcinogens, used in anti fire foams with levels far exceeding levels deemed dangerous by the EPA. Obviously states, municipalities and counties will have difficulty dealing with national military activity producing air and groundwater pollution nevermind that produced by their own firefighting efforts.
