Continuing our series on water contamination, nitrogen is the next contaminant that poses a significant risk to humans. Most people don’t consider nitrogen when they think of nasty water contaminants. However, excess nitrogen can make water undrinkable in areas where water is already scarce.
A recent study concluded that a third of the world’s water supply could be polluted by nitrogen by 2025, affecting 3 billion people. Excess nitrogen in the water makes it undrinkable because nitrogen causes a restriction in oxygen transport in our bloodstream, making it very dangerous to drink.
Nitrogen water pollution is mostly caused by burning fossil fuels. Cars and industry are a huge source of this pollution. When nitrogen enters the atmosphere, it can create ammonia and ozone, both harmful pollutants. The nitrogen and ammonia settle into rivers and lakes and pollute them. The polluted water can even seep underground into reservoirs and put large populations of people at risk.
Despite massive efforts to educate people and businesses about the environmental impact, burning fossil fuels is still increasing, which increases the amount of nitrogen, ozone, and ammonia getting into our water supplies. What’s worse is that those pollutants are then concentrated by water loss in areas stricken by drought.
Excessive nitrogen is also linked to cancers, reproductive impacts, hypothyroidism, and methemoglobinemia — blue baby syndrome — from inadequate oxygen in body tissues. Since it disrupts oxygen transport in our blood, it affects virtually all bodily systems.
One of the saddest effects of nitrogen water contamination is a condition called blue baby syndrome. It affects infants under four months who lack the enzyme necessary to correct this condition. Humans eventually develop this enzyme, but too much nitrogen exposure can still result in cancers and other adverse health conditions.
The southern United States is the most impacted by this. Most of the southern US is already in a drought, and there are many coal-burning power plants there. All of this is combined to increase nitrogen, ammonia, and other nasty contaminants in their water supply.
Specifically, the Colorado River has seen some of its lowest water flow rates in history, drastically lowering Lake Mead’s water levels, which supplies water to much of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.
The bottom line is that drinking water is becoming more polluted and scarce due to nitrogen water contamination, putting our health at risk worldwide. Treating your drinking water at home with a multi-stage water filtration system like what you find in our premium alkaline water ionizers has never been more important.
