EWG Report: Unsafe Carcinogen Levels May Affect More Than 200 Million

A new analysis released last week by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says unsafe levels of carcinogen are contaminating the tap water of two-thirds of Americans. The report is an analysis of federal water testing data.

Under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program, from 2013 to 2015, local water utilities took more than 60,000 water samples and found chromium-6 in more than 75 percent of samples. The EPA’s tests were spurred by a 2010 EWG investigation that found elevated levels of chromium-6 in the tap water of 31 of 35 cities sampled. EWG’s analysis of the EPA data estimates that water supplies serving 218 million Americans have potentially unsafe levels of the chemical.