A recent study examined the correlation between water contamination, birth anomalies, and migration. Janet Currie, the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing, recently conducted a study with Princeton University in which researchers tested factors that may effect the development of a fetus: pollution, location, movement during pregnancy, seasons, temperature, marital status of the mother, and each parental level of education. One would imagine this study would take place in an underdeveloped country; however, this study took place here in the United States, in Princeton, New Jersey.

Terrifyingly enough, the study stated that within the 488 water districts that Currie studied in New Jersey, more than a quarter of the districts had water contamination violations that affected more than 30,000 people.  Violations included water toxicity from plastics and “degreasers,” such as dichloroethane, and also the rare radioactive gases radon and coliform, bacteria used to test the salinity of food.  These statistics were uncovered through the public records held at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Additionally, the study concluded that the age, education level and marital status of pregnant women had an affect on the potential health risks of their fetuses.

Why isn’t there national coverage on the danger of contaminated drinking water damaging mothers and their unborn babies? In fact, why were mothers who received the DEP’s required endangered citizens notice not concerned?  According to Currie, the problem begins with the fact that these notices do not receive much attention from their recipients.  “If someone puts something in your mailbox, do you even see it? Does your landlord pick it up?” asks Currie. “Notices are being sent that people don’t receive. There’s an undercurrent here that the way information is sent isn’t adequate. We need to get this information to people directly.”

There is a very strong possibility that other places within the United States could pose health threats to fetuses through water contamination.  If policy does not change to educate citizens about health risks, countless more children run the risk of terminal health issues.  To solve this problem, states must inform the public of the environmental dangers to one’s health and then provide a solution for action.

Quite simply, this is ridiculous.  The fact that the United States, a country that is arguably the most able nation to connect and inform its citizens, has failed to inform their people of a direct health threat angers me.  Forget about a participatory democracy, this is downright negligence.

Although disregard of the people is one thing that can be agreed upon by all readers, most forget that the press have ignored this issue as well.  Fifty years ago, this study would have caused uproar.  The New Jersey administration would have been ripped apart.  Now, however, the only way I could even find information on Currie’s study was through an online magazine specifically for science.

What have the American people become? Are we are ready to stand by and watch as babies are born with defects and mutilations? What has led us to believe that there are more pressing concerns than the basic right to a healthy environment?

There needs to be someone, other than a high school junior, to take a stand and raise awareness about the lack of communication between Departments of Environmental Safety and the people.

References: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131008122906.htm