A University of California study showed that the additive has affected at least 10,000 groundwater sites throughout the state. These discoveries are causing a national furor since MTBE travels farther and faster in groundwater and doesn't breakdown naturally. EWG tests show that atrazine contaminates the tap water of almost 10 million people in 800 cities and towns in the Midwest. In many places, children receive their lifetime dose of this carcinogen in their first 4 months. Atrazine levels in water are highest in spring and summer, when farmers are spraying their fields, and kids get hot and drink a lot of water.
European countries do a much better job of protecting their children from atrazine.
It's banned in many countries, including Germany, Italy and Sweden. Debugging the clean water myth. In this country, cities purify drinking water by using sedimentation, filtration, ion exchange and disinfection. Disinfection uses ozonation and, particularly, chlorination to kill disease-causing microbes. Chlorine, once the salvation of the twentieth century, controls cholera, typhoid fever and other water-borne diseases.