Water
Water: Toxic in so many ways
By Kathleen Barnes www.kathleenbarnes.com
We have lately become conflicted about water. Yes, we know we need it. Yes, we know most of us need to drink more, and yes, we also know that most tap water is toxic and we know that bottled water isn’t much better.
So what to do?
Let’s dissect the issues one at a time.
Tap water: contaminated, often toxic
Tap water upon which most Americans rely for drinking, cooking and household needs has become frighteningly contaminated with everything from carcinogenic compounds to improper use of household and garden chemicals, agricultural runoff and even residues of prescription drugs.
Public water sources in 42 U.S. states are contaminated with 141 unregulated chemicals for which no safety standard have ever been set, according to the EPA.
The EPA found another 119 regulated chemicals, when it analyzed 22 million tap water quality tests at 40,000 utilities serving 230 million Americans.
Carcinogens in drinking water
Not surprisingly, the Ralph Nader study group goes quite a bit further, contending, after the review of 10,000 government documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act, that UY.S drinking water sources contain 2,100 toxic chemical that can cause cancer.
The majority of the contaminants found in our drinking water can be traced back to improper or excessive use of ordinary compounds like lawn chemicals, gasoline, cleaning products and even prescription drugs.
Prescription drugs in drinking water
Now traces of pharmaceuticals ranging from antibiotics to anticonvulsants, anabolic steroids, mood stabilizers, heart medications, birth control and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water of major cities.
Those pharmaceuticals, which have already caused male fish to develop female sex organs, most likely enter the water stream as they are excreted from human bodies and flushed down toilets. A few unused prescriptions may be flushed down the toilet, but the vast majority are simply unmetabolized parts of human waste. Purification of the water does not remove the drugs, which affect every single one of us.
There are no standards for testing drinking water for pharmaceuticals.
What you can do
- Request a copy of your municipality’s drinking water quality report. They must release it by law.
- Avoid most tap water whenever possible.
- Install a reverse osmosis water filtration system, on your drinking and cooking water. Install a separate one on your bathroom water supply, paying special attention to the shower and bathtub since you absorb toxins through your skin.
Bottled water: expensive, unhealthy, environmentally destructive
In recent years, Americans have become much more conscious of the health benefits of sufficient hydration, so we’ve all started drinking more water. That led to a booming bottled water industry and an exponential explosion of plastic water bottles in landfills.
Approximately one-third of all bottled water comes straight from the tap. Since you can’t be certain which ones bottle tap water, that means that bottled water contains all of the above hazards, plus a few unique ones of its own.
Bottled water: an expensive habit
Americans spend more than $15 billion a year on bottled water. Remember last summer when we were wailing over gas prices that exceeded $4 a gallon? That’s nothing in comparison to bottled water. The cost of water you could have drawn straight from the tap comes out to about $10 a gallon (much more if you’re the captive of he FAA’s no liquid travel regulations, but that’s a rant I’ll reserve for another time).
That adds up to more than 40 billion bottles, and more than 90% of those bottles wind up in a landfill as garbage or litter.
Real cost of bottled water
Let’s take a look at those bottles and what they really cost:
- They are environmentally expensive to manufacture, costing an annual equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil a year plus the oxymoronically high amount of water it takes to produce the containers for bottled water. One estimates says it takes 5 liters of water to manufacture a one-liter bottle.
- Then you have to use fuel to transport that bottle from its place of origin to its destination. Don’t even think of consuming Perrier from France, despite the glass bottle packaging.
- Finally, beyond the potential contaminants found in tap water, bottled water may be packaged in bottled that contain bisphenol A (BPA), a known sex hormone disruptor. BPA levels increase when the contents of the bottle are heated. Think about the water bottle you left on the back seat of your car in July. The leeching of BPA into plastic bottles increases with re-use.
What you can do:
- Buy a reusable stainless steel water bottle and fill with filtered water from home.
- Even cheaper alternative: re-use glass bottles. (Not a great option for travel.)
- For travel: Buy gallon jugs of water supermarkets. Not ideal, but better than tap water or small bottles.
Well water and spring water
Well water and spring water can be excellent alternatives to tap or bottled water, if it is available to you and if you’re sure the well is uncontaminated.
The only way to tell for certain is to have a comprehensive test that includes heavy metals, agricultural chemicals, petroleum products, radon gas, nitrates, VOCs, PCBs, bacteriological contaminants and more. This testing is likely cost several hundred dollars and should be repeated annually.
So what water is safe?
Your best bet is a whole house filtration system that filters the water as it enter the house and covers all taps in the house. However, the best of these systems will costs thousands of dollars and may be outside the budget for many Americans. The simpler ones will only filter out chlorine.
Reverse osmosis filters may remove pharmaceuticals. Testing is still underway, but these types of systems are very slow and are not appropriate for whole household systems. They’re usually available for drinking water only.
You can lobby your local officials for better quality drinking water and more restrictions on use of contaminants near reservoirs.
Fluoride additives, another subject I’ll touch on in a separate article, is almost universally present in American municipal drinking water.
I wish I could tell you there is a simple solution. There just isn’t one.
