I was reading the other day some documents from US official agencies like US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and EPA and I have realized how risky for human health it is something that seems so normal as rainwater. This is a little-known sanitary hazard to which people are exposed and especially the most vulnerable ones (from children, who drink rainwater or snow as a game, to refugees and homeless that may drink rainwater due to necessity and no access to other water sources). There are even some people using it in their lives (for drinking, cooking, cleaning, etc) just because they think it is better than normal tap water.
During the last few decades, rainwater has become risky to use for human consumption as it is now carrying dangerous pollutants emitted by industries, cars, power plants etc.
Besides, after nuclear disasters (eg. Fukushima and Chernobyl) and nuclear bomb testing (around 2000 tests since the 60’s, at least 500 atmospheric) persistent radioactive particles that reached the upper layers of the atmosphere are still present nowadays, and can stay there for a really long time, already distributed throughout all the world by the wind, only to fall down with rainwater. There is no need to mention how poisonous all these particles are for human health.
This is especially worrying in the case of some people groups like children, homeless and refugees that can use this rainwater or snow for drinking, some due to necessity like homeless and refugees, some as a game, like children. Even for some people that are using it in their lives for drinking, cocking, cleaning, etc just because they think it is healthier than tap water or believe it be a more ecological source of water.
Unfortunately, normal methods of cleaning water, like filtering are not effective for these cases as radioactive particles are too small to be filtered, so we need to really take care of what water we are drinking or using as rain can pollute rivers, lakes, springs and especially groundwater, as all of them could have been already polluted in the past, when the concentration of radioactive particles in the atmosphere was even bigger.
It is really important that people become aware of this reality, so I would like to ask you the really good action of communicating this reality and risk to all your relatives and friends so people can be informed and become aware of the risk they are exposed to, so that they can take the corresponding protective actions (I am especially concerned about children, homeless, refugees and those people using rainwater as their normal source of water for human consumption and usage at home, all of them need to know about these risks).
On the other hand, in order to help those ones that need to use this source of water for necessity due to not having enough economic resources, I would ask all of you who are able to do so, to try to help them with some collaboration of any kind, as far as possible for you.
Below are some evidences regarding global long term fallout from nuclear testing and accidents coming from the following official sources:
- Radioactive Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Testing. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-fallout-nuclear-weapons-testing
- Fallout from Global Weapons Testing, coming from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/fallout/rf-gwt_home.htm
- European Commission mapping of radioactive fallout in Western Europe (talking about global fallout coming from testing and accidents through rain and snow): https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/science-update/new-mapping-radioactive-fallout-western-europe
- National Cancer Institute of the US, report about fallout and nuclear testing cancer effects: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/fallout-pdf
And visit the following web pages for nuclear testing history reality:
- Nuclear testing places and numbers from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) official web page: https://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/history-of-nuclear-testing/world-overview/
- Nuclear testing history UN official page: https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-nuclear-tests-day/history
- The Dangers of Using Rainwater - November 15, 2021