Everyone knows that water is essential to life. But what's coming out of your tap or bottle may not really be your healthiest choice.
The Real Dirt on Clean Water
Sure, your water may look clean but is it?
Most people think that governmental agencies ensure that our water's clean. And while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Clean Water Act to safeguard our water supply, it only set standards and testing requirements in our municipal water treatment facilities for 114 different contaminants out of literally hundreds more.
In fact, the Environmental Working Group obtained test results from a database of over 20 million records from state water officials to determine the quality of drinking water in 45 states. The results revealed 316 contaminants were present in our water supplies. Among them were 202 chemicals that aren't regulated by any safe water standards.i
Checking the quality of your local water is easy to do. Just visit the National Drinking Water Database or EWG's Tap Water Database and enter your zip code to look up your area.
So yes, your water looks clean. But really, it's not.
I looked up the Water in Noblesville, IN on the EWG database and below is a snapshot of contaminants found; you can click here for the link to the full report.
Why Filtration?
The simple answer? You either use a filter or you are the filter.
Only 2% of all treated water is used for drinking water. The rest is used on your lawn, shower, laundry, or used for farms or industry. It's simply too time-consuming and expensive to test and remove the thousands of chemicals that may be present in any particular water source.
And even if your water was perfectly clean before it left your municipality, it still has miles to travel in pipes before it gets to your home. Who knows what it runs into along the way?
What are you really drinking?
Here's what may be in your water, and some of its hazardous effects:
Industrial Pollutants (such as benzene, nitrates, and petrochemicals): Long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, as well as blood, nervous system, kidney, and liver problems.
Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides such as atrazine, lindane, alachlor, and others): Long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, as well as eye, liver, kidney, spleen, blood, and nervous system problems.
Heavy Metals (such as lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium): Even at low levels, long-term exposure may cause behavioral problems and learning disabilities. The EPA estimates that between 10 and 20% of total lead exposure in young children comes from drinking water.ii
Disinfection By-products (such as: trihalomethanes, chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane,and bromoform): Long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, as well as liver, kidney, or central nervous system problems.
With all these problems with tap water, you might think that bottled water is the answer—but you're wrong. What most people don't know is that there're no regulations regarding the quality of bottled water. That's right, none. Bottling companies don't even have the same regulations to follow that your local municipal water supply does. That means that despite the clean look of your bottle, in many cases the water it contains isn't any better than tap water.
The bottom line is that you can't control what happens to your water before it gets to your house. But you can control what happens after. If you want to make sure you have really clean drinking water, you really have to use a filter—a good one.
Only 2% of all treated water is used for drinking water. The rest is used on your lawn, shower, laundry, or used for farms or industry. It's simply too time-consuming and expensive to test and remove the thousands of chemicals that may be present in any particular water source.
And even if your water was perfectly clean before it left your municipality, it still has miles to travel in pipes before it gets to your home. Who knows what it runs into along the way?
What are you really drinking?
Here's what may be in your water, and some of its hazardous effects:
Industrial Pollutants (such as benzene, nitrates, and petrochemicals): Long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, as well as blood, nervous system, kidney, and liver problems.
Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides such as atrazine, lindane, alachlor, and others): Long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, as well as eye, liver, kidney, spleen, blood, and nervous system problems.
Heavy Metals (such as lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium): Even at low levels, long-term exposure may cause behavioral problems and learning disabilities. The EPA estimates that between 10 and 20% of total lead exposure in young children comes from drinking water.ii
Disinfection By-products (such as: trihalomethanes, chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane,and bromoform): Long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, as well as liver, kidney, or central nervous system problems.
With all these problems with tap water, you might think that bottled water is the answer—but you're wrong. What most people don't know is that there're no regulations regarding the quality of bottled water. That's right, none. Bottling companies don't even have the same regulations to follow that your local municipal water supply does. That means that despite the clean look of your bottle, in many cases the water it contains isn't any better than tap water.
The bottom line is that you can't control what happens to your water before it gets to your house. But you can control what happens after. If you want to make sure you have really clean drinking water, you really have to use a filter—a good one.
I use the Shaklee Get Clean Water Pitcher and get a year of clean filtered water, more than 5,000 8 oz. glasses and save more than 2,400 plastic bottles from the landfill. More importantly, it reduces 59 harmful contaminants (more than the other leading brands - including up to 99% of water-borne lead. The Get Clean pitcher also features a smart meter that lets me know exactly when I need to replace my filter so I don't have to guess anymore and it costs just a little over a penny a glass.
Make a green and healthy decision .... Consider filtering your water at home and keep more green in your pocket vs. buying bottled.
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