Clean water is essential for human survival. More than half of our body is made up of water, and without it, we can only live for a couple of days. How much do we really know about what we're drinking, though?
Local governments are charged with keeping our water supplies safe, but as I recently learned in the movie "Unacceptable Levels," one city's wastewater becomes another city's drinking water. Also, there's not a lake or stream left in this country that hasn't been contaminated in some way.
Unfortunately for the people of Louisiana, something even more sinister is lurking in the waterways, and surprisingly, it wasn't put there by a polluter.
Local officials have confirmed that a deadly, single-celled amoeba called Naegleria fowleri has infiltrated the drinking water system. Only 1/10th the width of a human hair, this organism is virtually invisible, and "does its damage by causing a devastating immune reaction rather than by actually devouring brain tissue," according to NPR.
Brain infection caused by the amoeba has already claimed the life of 4-year-old child and caused illness in others. In 2011, two adults died after using contaminated water to rinse out their nasal passages via a Neti pot.
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