Abortifacient equivalent

Table 3.2 reports the amount of lead in Massachusetts tap water in terms of an abortifacient equivalent. The abortifacient equivalent refers to the amount of water an individual needed to consume in order to have been exposed to the same amount of lead as was contained in the... 

Figure 3.1 illustrates the relationship between the abortifacient equivalent and the modern EPA standard regarding water lead. The y-axis is scaled logarithmically and the function approaches both axes asymptotically. The figure shows that when water-lead levels exceed the modern EPA standard by more than a factor of 300, consuming less than 2 ounces of water per day would allow one to reach the abortifacient equivalent. In contrast, when water-lead levels are only 2-4 times greater than the modern EPA standard, one need consume between 150 and 300 ounces of water per day to reach the abortifacient equivalent. 

Municipality Ounces of water needed to reach abortifacient equivalent ... 

To arrive at the fraction of a gallon of water necessary to ingest the abortifacient-equivalent, the following formula was used ... 

Because an ounce equals (1/128) of a gallon, the ounces of water that would have had to have been consumed to reach the abortifacient-equivalent (A ) in ounces was calculated as follows ... 

Letting L equal the water-lead concentration expressed in terms of parts per 100,000, the abortifacient equivalent can be expressed as... 

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