Would nitrates be better?
If you don’t like the idea of chlorinated water, think about a nitrate-rich liquid from your kitchen faucet.
Nitrogen, the “N” in nitrate, is the fifth most abundant chemical in the universe. The earth’s atmosphere contains about 4,000 trillion tons of nitrogen. (That’s 4,000,000,000,000,000 tons.) We combine nitrogen with hydrogen to make ammonia and use it in fertilizers, explosives, and other products.
We need nitrogen to survive. Plants, including vegetables and fruits, rely on nitrogen plus two other elements (potassium and phosphorous) to live and grow. Although 80 percent of the air we breathe consists of nitrogen, the airborne form of the chemical is inert and has no effect on our health. Most foods contain nitrogen but in amounts that can be readily digested by the body.
The problem is that when oxygen instead of hydrogen joins with nitrogen, we have nitrates or, chemically speaking, NO3. Micro organisms in the cattle’s digestive system convert the nitrate to its more poisonous form, nitrite, and then to methemoglobin, a biological chemical.
Step by step harm is done. Methemoglobin doesn’t react with oxygen. The animal’s blood becomes oxygen starved and turns dark brown. Within 30 minutes the animal may have trouble breathing, may begin to suffer from tremors and diarrhea, experience a rapid heartbeat, go into convulsions and die within 24 hours. Cattle owners take pains to keep their cattle away from weeds such as pigweed, oat hay, goosefoot, and many others because their ability to absorb nitrates can raise levels to a dangerous point. Montana University provides an easily understood explanation of how nitrates cause problems.
Nitrates are also found in water: the water we humans drink and the water cattle and other living creatures take into their systems.
Most people tolerate nitrate and nitrates fairly well unless they are infants. A baby’s tiny body converts nitrates to nitrites that binds to methemoglobin and starves the blood of oxygen. Too much nitrite, and the result is a condition we call “blue baby” because the baby’s body is the color that blood without enough oxygen has—blue. Long-term effects on the spleen and an association with certain types of cancer have also been observed.
And that’s where Idaho’s water comes in.
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has measured nitrate levels in groundwater throughout the country and has set a standard of 10 parts per million (ppm) as the maximum acceptable level in drinking water.
We have learned since 2000 that about 8 percent of wells in Southwest Idaho have nitrate levels above this standard, and educational efforts are under way by state and county agencies and an advisory committee representing the general public in Canyon County. The goal is for well owners to test nitrate levels in their water systems on a regular basis and cooperate with other well owners and agencies in reducing these levels.
Tags: blue baby, nitrates, nitrite
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