Unwell: The Public Health Implications of Unregulated Drinking Water

Roughly one in seven U.S. residents relies on a private well for drinking water. Unlike the rest of the population served by the nation’s many public water systems, these 44.5 million Americans are not protected by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which regulates 87 biological and chemical contaminants. This has significant implications for public health, according to the authors of a new review in Environmental Health Perspectives, and although solutions exist for ensuring that well water is safe to drink, it is unclear how and whether they can be implemented.

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