e environment and somehow end up in the drinking water of millions. The EPA, reports, PCBs has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: cancer (Drinking 2). The Safe Water Drinking Act was passed in 1974 calling for the EPA to outline rules to regulate allowed amounts of classified harmful chemicals in drinking water (US EPA, Drinking 2). Although the EPA has set standards for concentrations of chemicals in drinking water, it seems that the established levels are too high. This is because the law was passed in 1974 and since then the number of cancer cases reported each year has risen. If the law served the purpose it was meant for the number of cancer cases should have decreased.Side by side with PCBs is a solvent used in many refineries and industrial plants called trichloroethylene, or TCE. The largest polluter associated with TCE is none other than the institution that is supposed to be protecting us with the greatest honor - the military. For many years the military has been carelessly disposing of TCE and polluting the water that eventually runs out of our kitchen faucets. With the military so widespread, it would be safe to assume that a majority of the nations drinking water is polluted, to an extent, with TCE and the other chemicals used by the military. The usage of TCE also extends to factories such as that of the Orlando Sentinel, a newspaper company. In Orlando cleanup set to begin, Mark Fitzgerald reports within the last five years the Sentinel has been discovered to have been using TCE as a degreaser in the printing presses and then disposing of it in plumes that connect with the citys water supply (1). TCE has been proven to cause leukemia in animal studies in which the animals only ingested small amounts of the toxin (Calhoun 4). As Fitzgerald states, due to such experiments, the federal EPA has declared TCE a probable human carcinogen (Accord 1). It ...
