Less than fifty percent of Americans are confident about the safety of their drinking water, according to a recent poll.
The Associated Press-GfK poll released Saturday shows that only 47 percent of the US population think water flowing from their tap is safe.
Thirty-three percent said they are modestly confident and 18 percent said they weren’t very or at all confident, the poll found.
People of color and low-income families were more likely to express doubts about the safety of their drinking water.
Forty percent of African-Americans polled and 28 percent of Hispanics compared to whites, 54, were not very confident in their water’s safety. Also, less than 40 percent of people, who earn less than $50,000, are very confident.
“Problems that surfaced in Flint, including Legionella and lead, disproportionately affect poor minority communities,” said Marc Edwards, a water expert at Virginia Tech who played an important role in documenting the lead problem in Flint.
More than half of Americans believe the lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan is symptomatic of widespread problems in the US.