Atrazine
Atrazine can gain access to surface waters and shallow aquifers. Safe Home offers a few kits that provide drinking water testing for atrazine in city water and well water supplies.
Parameter Type: Drinking Water Testing for Volatiles
Parameter Name:Atrazine
What it is and Where it Comes From:
Atrazine is a herbicide and enters the environment through application to farm fields. This herbicide also can get into the environment if it is improperly stored or mixed before application. Groundwater contamination may occur when alachlor or atrazine moves from an application or spill on soil into a shallow aquifer. Improperly constructed wells have a high risk of contamination. The main way of exposure to atrazine in groundwater occurs by drinking contaminated water. However, you can be exposed to small amounts of atrazine through the skin while bathing or showering in the contaminate water. Drinking water testing gives you several benefits like peace of mind, identifying contaminants in your water, and insight into health concerns. Safe Home offers Laboratory drinking water testing kits for atrazine, allowing you to collect your water sample and ship it directly to our EPA-Certified Laboratory. This platform of drinking water testing for atrazine will give you an accurate level based on the lowest level of a parameter our instruments can detect (Method Detection Level). Safe Home drinking water testing for semi-volatiles can be used for city and well water supplies. Drinking water testing should be done any time you notice a significant change in your water quality.
Health Effects:
The EPA has found atrazine to potentially cause a variety of health effects from acute exposures at levels above the MCL. These effects include congestion of heart, lungs and kidneys, hypotension, antidiuresis, muscle spasms, weight loss, and adrenal degeneration. Atrazine has the potential to cause weight loss, cardiovascular damage, retinal and some muscle degeneration, and mammary tumors from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL.
Solutions to Contaminant Levels:
You have completed the drinking water testing process, what Is the next step? Carbon air filters are the filters most used to remove gases. They are designed to filter gases through a bed of activated carbon (also called activated charcoal) and are usually used to combat volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from common household products. They are also often used to remove odors from the air, such as the smell of tobacco smoke. They cannot remove fine particles like mold, dust, or pollen from the air. Activated carbon air filters remove pollutants from the air with a process known as adsorption. Note that this is different from absorption. In absorption, the substance you want to remove (let us say water) is absorbed into the structure of the absorbent (like a sponge), but it does not become a part of the absorbent on a molecular level. Therefore, when you absorb water with a sponge, the water does not become chemically bonded to the sponge. It just fills in the spaces inside it. Carbon filters on the other hand use ad-sorption, not ab-sorption. The key difference here is that during adsorption the pollutants stick to the outside of the carbon. Whereas with absorption, the pollutants are absorbed inside the structure itself–as with the sponge. Carbon is a lattice of carbon atoms connected to each other. The activation process is so important because the increase in surface area gives gases a greater area to stick to. When a molecule of some gaseous substance comes through the carbon, it can stick to the surface of the bed, provided there is an open adsorption site. Who do I need to contact to find out more information about water quality in my area? Every community water supplier must provide an annual report to its customers, known as a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). The report provides information on your local drinking water quality, including the water’s source, contaminants found in the water, and how consumers can get involved in protecting drinking water. How often does the local public water system preform drinking water testing? Frequency of drinking water testing depends on the number of people served, the type of water source, and types of contaminants. Certain contaminants are tested more frequently than others, as established by the Safe Drinking Water Act. You can find out about levels of regulated contaminants in your treated water for the previous calendar year in your annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).
