Worldwide, around 11,000 new substances are registered every day.
Almost all these substances find their way into our water.
And water holds tight.
LBL Berkeley reveals a cross section of water around a nanometer particle, in blue. Pink and red indicate the way water molecules layer around it.
Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment points out that along with non-toxic titanium dioxide, the color white, paint is preserved with antimicrobial silver nanoparticles that are destroying algae and fungi in our waterways as it seeps from our property.
Studying 37 pesticides that mix together after leaching into water, 30% transform into new products as toxic as or even more toxic than the parent compound.
Our waters are capturing a cocktail of contaminants and our wastewater treatment plants were designed mainly to remove nutrients rather than chemicals – industrial chemicals, pesticides and biocides, medicines and birth control hormones, cleaning agents, flame retardants for furniture and plastics – the list could be extended indefinitely.