"Nitrates, largely from agricultural runoff, are linked to cancers and birth defects. Research says areas with factory farms have higher levels of risk."
"Close to 20 percent of Americans are exposed to water polluted with high levels of potentially cancer-causing nitrates, known to come mostly from agricultural runoff, according to new research published this month.
In a first-ever review of nitrate levels in public water systems across the country, the Environmental Working Group found that 6,114 of them—from heavily agricultural rural areas to major cities, including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Philadelphia—have elevated levels of nitrates, affecting 18 percent of the country’s population, or roughly one in five people, between 2021 and 2023.
“We wanted to get a full national picture,” said Anne Weir Schechinger, the report’s author. “And the sheer size of the numbers—there are over 62 million people impacted by this—I was not expecting that.”
The government set the legal limit of nitrate in water at 10 milligrams per liter in the early 1960s to help prevent cases of “blue baby” syndrome, a condition in which infants have low levels of blood oxygen. But research has since found that concentrations at 5 milligrams per liter and even lower are linked to colorectal and other cancers, thyroid disease and birth defects. Health advocates have pushed for lowering the limit, but the Environmental Protection Agency has yet to do so. The Trump administration gutted the division that would continue a review process started under the Biden administration, Schechinger noted."
Georgina Gustin reports for Inside Climate News April 27, 2026.
