In 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act was established by Congress to monitor and protect the safety

of our nation's drinking water. Fifty years later, most of us still assume that the water

flowing from our taps is clean and safe. But with emerging threats like microplastics,

pharmaceutical residues, and forever chemicals,

some are beginning to wonder, are our existing regulations and the systems that enforce them

still up to the task?

Welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, where we take a closer look at nutrition news, research, and trends so that you can make more informed decisions about what you eat.

I'm your host, Monica Reinagle, and today's episode was suggested by Chuck, who wrote,

I really enjoyed your recent bonus episode on the

Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen List. It helped me put those ratings in proper perspective,

but now I'm wondering about their ratings on local water quality. How concerned should I be

when drinking unfiltered local tap water that's been flagged by the EWG.

Now, in case you're not familiar with the Dirty Dozen List that Chuck is referencing, this is an

annual list put out by the Environmental Working Group of the 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest

pesticide residues.

And although it gets a lot of media attention every year, it is somewhat misleading

for reasons that I explored in the bonus episode that Chuck mentioned.

And I'll put a link to that in the show notes for you if you missed that.

Now, the EWG's tap water ratings are not quite as well

known as their pesticide rankings, but they might also understandably raise alarms for those

whose local water system has been flagged as hazardous. So I want to take a closer look at

tap water safety in general, as well as EWG's methodology.

...