This blog, which I first posted 5 years ago, and many many others, have posted various warnings about our drinking water from our taps. These warnings are REAL, people! This country may have the best drinking water in the world, but that doesn’t mean it is safe to drink over years.
The sad part about re-posting this blog in 2018 is that NOTHING has changed. It’s gotten worse if anything!
Tap Water is NOT Drinking Water
Tap Water
Tight municipal budgets as well as a lag in technology have caused water-treatment plants to stick with the old standard of using chlorine or rather, chloramine to “shock” the water we drink. The process has worked for many years but not so much any more. It seems that chlorine can and does react with organic matter in the water coming from the reservoir to form toxic by-products that have been linked to bladder and liver cancer.
What isn’t being removed
Most municipal water authorities, test and treat for heavy metals in the water, such as lead, mercury and such. But did you know that some contaminants aren’t even screened, let alone removed. Those include, but are not limited to, pharmaceutical drugs like prosac, Consumer-product chemicals such as PFOA which is the chemical used to coat clothing and nonstick pans. BPA which is used on receipts, plastics and canned-food linings is also present in our water, and the new one, “artificial sweeteners“. Anything we flush down the toilet has the potential to end up in our water supply.
Are you STILL drinking bottled water?
STOP!!!!!
Bottled Water
If you are, then you didn’t get the memo that 50 percent of all bottled water is supplied from the same place your tap water comes from. Worse than that, the government water sources have to make public the contaminates they test for and which ones they remove. Bottled water companies don’t have that requirement. Bottled water has a shelf life too. Bacterial can develop in those bottles and toxins from the plastic can leach into the water also.
What are we to do?
Filter your potable water. Find a filter that fits your budget and paranoia level and USE it! The best of what is available to us now are reverse osmosis systems. I use one in our house, but they have expensive filters that need to be replaced every 6-12 months and other maintenance is very important to keep them working properly.
EWG’s Updated Water Filter Buying Guide – click here
Reverse Osmosis System
Above is a diagram of how a reverse osmosis filtration system works. The EWG deems this system, currently, the most effective.
Be safe, drink lots of filtered water – jughandle
