Justice MullayDon't Drink the Tap Water Every day, Americans and people around the world encounter toxic chemicals as part of their daily routine. People wake up, wash their hair with shampoo containing parabens, brush their teeth with sodium fluoride and triclosan, and use deodorants with aluminum. A quick breakfast is consumed; bagel or toast both containing Azodicarbonamide, a flour whitening agent also used to make shoes, (Gillam) On the bagel there is cream cheese or butter for the toast with added hormones and antibiotics which were administered to the cow whose milk was used. During daily commutes a person typically buys more gas for their vehicle, while many fill their tank by inhaling fumes from the approximately 150 chemicals refined into crude oil. (Wisconsin Department of Health Services). Later, at work or school, people sit down and have their desks chemically cleaned, perhaps with Lysol and its benzalkonium chloride, which is deadly to fish and birds and slightly harmful to mammals. (The United States Pharmacopeial Convention) At lunch, most meals contain an animal protein still contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls improperly disposed of over fifty years ago, (EPA). Lunch produce may contain persistent pesticides or fertilizers. In the afternoon you use the bathroom where you lather the antibacterial soap triclosan on your hands. (EPA) At the end of the workday, walking outside inhales car exhaust and pollutants from any nearby factories. Once home, dinner is eaten, completing the average daily intake of 7-9 grams of aluminium. (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) The glass of tap water consumed with the meal contained fluoride and possibly some heavy metals from old pipes. Before bed there's more toothpaste... middle of paper... B is the Great Lakes, the Fox River and the Mississippi River. (Clear Water Action Council) In the year 1968 in Kyushu, Japan, approximately thirteen hundred people were diagnosed with a new disease called Yusho due to PCB fluids present in a rice bran oil; around 15,000 are expected to have been affected. The disease began with chloracne, which consists of severe blackheads and cysts on the skin. (Umeda) These symptoms progressed to tumors, vision disorders, changes in the endocrine system, and increased rates of liver and lung cancer. About 50 deaths were caused by this disease. Over the next decade, liver and lung cancer rates increased nine times the average in the Kyushu, Japan area. Approximately 400,000 chickens were killed due to PCB exposure. (Clear Water Action Council) Polychlorinated biphenyls have many known adverse effects on humans and animals.