Tap Water Facts: Is Your Water Safe?
When was the last time you thought about the safety of the water that comes out of your home faucets? Lets face it. Tap water facts arent the sexiest things you can thing about. However, think about them you must, since these facts have a direct impact on the health and safety of you and your family. Once you know the truth about your tap water, you can take positive action, and then go back to thinking about more pleasant topics.
One of the most important tap water facts you should know is that our city water treatment systems continue to use the same process that was developed more than 100 years ago.
How many cell phones have you replaced in the last three years just trying to keep up with the changing technology? Unfortunately, when it comes to municipal water treatment, we havent seen any new technological advances. Your city and mine continue to use chlorination as the basis for water purification. Which leads to one of the next tap water facts.
Chlorine is a disinfectant. It was miraculously effective 100 years ago when people were dying by the thousands of water-borne diseases like typhoid and cholera. Today, thanks to chlorination, our water no longer contains these dangerous health threats. However, theyve been replaced by a new type of threat that chlorine is not equipped to deal with.
Every chemical that is used in society, sooner or later, ends up on our water supply This includes industrial and agricultural runoff, as well as, household chemicals like cleaning solutions and lawn treatment products.
This type of synthetic chemical contamination cannot be addressed by the disinfecting process of chlorination. These toxins must be removed by filtration
The seriousness of these tap water facts are underscored by a recent statement by William K. Reilly, a former EPA administrator, who said, "Drinking water in the U.S. is among the top four public health risks posed by environmental problems."
Even if your particular water treatment system is relatively free of this pollution, you still are faced with tap water facts that relate to the potential dangers posed by chlorine exposure.
Chorine is harsh on the skin. It strips your body of its natural oils and cancels out vitamin E and other critical fatty acids. While your skin is being damaged during a shower, youre also at risk for inhaling chloroform gas thats present in the steam vapor. Chloroform gas has been shown to trigger an asthma attack or strongly irritate respiratory tissues.
It doesnt stop there. Additional tap water facts include the danger posed by chlorine coming into contact with aging plumbing pipes. As the water passes through the pipes, the chlorine leeches heavy metals, like lead and copper, before flowing on and into your faucets. Heavy metals are poisonous and are particularly dangerous to small children.
At the present time, municipalities do not seem to be in any hurry to update their water treatment systems. But this doesnt mean that youre helpless to do anything about these troubling tap water facts. You can take your familys safety into your own hands by installing a home water filtration system. These systems are easy to find and can be affordable, as well as, simple to install and maintain.
For my money and convenience, I have found that purifiers that use a multi-stage filtration process are the most effective at removing a wide range of chemical toxins and bacteria, while leaving healthful mineral content intact. This means that not only is my water safe and good tasting...its healthy too!
Make no mistake. The reality of living in modern society means acknowledging how vulnerable our water supply really is. But the good new is that these tap water facts have a solution. You can make sure that your tap water is safe by taking advantage of the latest in-home purification technology.