Water is our life source. We depend on it for drinking. We wash our children and our pets in it. But we rarely think about where it is coming from! That mentality has slowly begun to change with the bottled water movement, but just because we are now drinking more bottled water doesn’t mean the water from our tap is still not affecting us.
Research tells us that an estimated 19 million Americans may be getting sick each year from parasites, bacteria, and chemicals in our drinking water. So the water we use every day could have more negative effects than you think.
In 1974 Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was designed to ensure the public safe drinking water. It granted the EPA the authority to regulate contaminants that may affect health. But according to the EPA, only 91 contaminants are regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act and more the 60,000 chemicals are used in the United States! There is the real possibility that those contaminants are getting into our drinking water. So how well is our water being regulated? In 2009 the New York Times ran an article stating that 20 percent of water treatment plants in the United States have violated EPA standards set for safe drinking water. Meaning since 2004 almost 50 million people in the United States have consumed unsafe drinking water.
The EPA states that even with all the successes since the passing on the clean water act in 1972, the water in the United States still does not meet public health goals. Research in 2009 showed that at least one in ten Americans have been exposed to contaminated drinking water. Government treatment and EPA regulations are just not doing enough to keep our drinking water safe “It’s not uncommon for people to drink tap water laced with 20 or 30 chemical contaminants.” Says Jane Houlihan, senior research director for the Environmental Working Group. “This water may be legal but it raises serious health concerns.” So what’s in your drinking water?
In 2009 a lawsuit was filed in Boone County, WV against mining companies that were poisoning the local water source. The lawsuit stated that the coal slurry operations that the mining companies were running were leaking into an outside water source, which in turn was feeding the locals water. The effects of the contamination were widespread and it was advised to the locals not to drink or even bathe in the water. The high amount of lead and nickel in the water was leading to rashes that resembled sunburns. Dental work had been done on several of the children due to the enamel being eaten away on the teeth. The water is laced with heavy metals such as lead and nickel. Most have to apply special lotion on the skin after taking a shower. And while this may be an extreme case of what water contamination can do to our bodies with large amounts of contaminants, it only leads to questions about what is happening to our bodies with small amounts of contaminants.
Remember that only half of the contaminants found in our water are regulated by the EPA. And it has been proven that even the chemicals that are regulated are not being properly or effectively cleaned out of our water and what we are left with is more questions than answers about what we are drinking when we turn on the tap.
It is important to know what exactly we are putting in our bodies. When we go to the store, we check the back of the products to see what they contain. But we never think we should be doing that with our water. You have the right to check your local government office to get a report on what is in your water. Your water quality has several factors to determine how safe it is, some of those are the area you live in, what part of the county, whether you live in a big city or a smaller rural town, and do you have city water or do you live off of a well. It’s still important to know. Here are the top things people complain about when it comes to their water.
Chlorine
Chlorine is the number one complaint when it comes to toxins in our water supply, and it is an additive our water companies use to sterilize our water. It can cause an odor to your water as well as cause bladder and rectal cancer. Studies are now showing that intake of chlorine may increase the chance of breast cancer in women.
Lead
Lead is coming into our houses via old pipes either from the city’s water supply or the pipes in our houses corroding. Lead is extremely dangerous to young children and pregnant mothers, leading to learning development disorders.
Some of the other things that can be found in our common tap water.
Bacteria
Arsenic
Toxic Metals
Micro-Organisms
Prescription drugs
The list goes on and on but the reality is that our drinking water is not as safe as we are led to believe.
Water protection programs are failing, we should be reducing the number of pollutants in our water by stopping or reducing the number of pollutants that end up in our water sources, and we should be maintaining a regulated zone around water sources to stop pollutants from contaminating our water supply. None of the policies passed have effectively protected or cleaned up our water sources. The result has been higher water costs, more chemicals in our drinking water, and a general loss of confidence from the consumer that the water they are using every day is safe. We cannot continue to accept that the water from our tap is safe to drink or cook with; we need to make a stand and make a change.
The best solution to the tap water problem is to install a water ionizer. Not only will you have the peace of mind that the water you are drinking is clean, it is also the best water you can drink period. Water ionizers filter out all of the chemicals and poisons that may be in your tap water while restoring water’s natural antioxidants and raising the pH so that the water is no longer acidic. Don’t settle for stripped-down bottled water that is basically over-filtered tap water with no nutrients or antioxidants, and don’t spend money on filters that only clean water that is dead. Do what’s right for you and your family. Get a water ionizer!
