Analyzing Media Hype

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:48:16 -0400

I see articles like this published weekly across the country. I don't quite understand why this is a popular topic, but the media tends to hype it up anytime they come across one of these studies. I follow the very companies that are responsible for distributing drinking water to millions of Americans. It is a VERY RESGULATED industry. Honestly, I have ZERO CONCERNS that we are drinking contaminated water - AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU!!! The amount of chemicals that they are talking about is measured in "parts per billion". They used to be measured in "parts per million". Recently the way they measured the allowable amount of arsenic in drinking water got changed from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion - you would need to drink 5 gallons a day for over 50 years for this to have a detrimental impact on your health. Is there a meaningful health benefit from the legislative change - No, not really.

For anything like this to truely impact the health of the public/consumers, you would need to consume an INSANE amount of water. To gauge if something like this really impacts you (ala Erin Brockovich) they assess what the impact is during a lifetime of usage. In that movie, the amount of MTBE was INSANE compared to current standards. All public utilities are operating within the limits that the FDA has stipulated. That doesn't mean that the water is 100% pure - it means that there isn't enough of these chemicals in the water to have a negaitve impact during your lifetime.

In actuality, it BENEFITS water utilities when something like this is written. It gives them a reason to spend more money on infrastructure to take contaminants out of the water that they otherwise wouldn't need to. Who pays those costs? The consumers, of course. Hey, that's not bad for the utility, this gives them a reason to increase rates. So, everytime an article like this is published, our companies have an excuse to spend more money on purification remedies and then pass the cost on to the users....

While this is good for the companies I follow, it creates unnecessary fear and concern in the public, and ultimately drives up the cost of water.... Personally, I find this to be a very interesting topic, and one that comes up often when I talk to investors.

Please, please, please DO NOT be frightened about your water supply when you read articles like this.

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Analyzing Media Hype