Understanding Your Water Is No Longer A Simple Matter
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The multitude of water conditions and possible contaminants has become a frightening reality that we must all face, everyday. Access to quality water for drinking, bathing and cooking is a crucial component for maintaining a healthy lifestyle; yet everyday this vital resource is becoming scarcer, more contaminated and more expensive.
Many people have turned to purchasing bottled water as a reliable source of potable water when it in truth, it is often more of a health risk than the water from their own faucets. Bottled water is an expensive, wasteful, unsustainable and unreliable source that should be considered only as a last resort or under emergency conditions.
Consider this: commercially produced bottled water uses seven time the amount of water than is in the bottle and can cost the consumer more than 10,000 times more than tap water!! The adverse environmental impacts of bottling water are absolutely terrifying. It is ludicrous to believe that this is in any way sensible. We have been duped into believing it is better for us when the truth is, Its all about the money. We are the victims of one of the most successful marketing campaign in history. Corporations are pocketing BILLIONS of dollars a year while manipulating and devastating global fresh water supply's.
In almost all situations it is more cost effective to filter your water at home than to buy bottled water; and with the proper filtration system, you are assured of it's quality.
In an effort to help you in making an informed decision we have compiled information and employed reliable resources that will aide in furthering your understanding of how water can be affected by environmental conditions, why your water is the way it is and what your options are for improving and maintaining the quality of water in your day to day life.
Many people have turned to purchasing bottled water as a reliable source of potable water when it in truth, it is often more of a health risk than the water from their own faucets. Bottled water is an expensive, wasteful, unsustainable and unreliable source that should be considered only as a last resort or under emergency conditions.
Consider this: commercially produced bottled water uses seven time the amount of water than is in the bottle and can cost the consumer more than 10,000 times more than tap water!! The adverse environmental impacts of bottling water are absolutely terrifying. It is ludicrous to believe that this is in any way sensible. We have been duped into believing it is better for us when the truth is, Its all about the money. We are the victims of one of the most successful marketing campaign in history. Corporations are pocketing BILLIONS of dollars a year while manipulating and devastating global fresh water supply's.
In almost all situations it is more cost effective to filter your water at home than to buy bottled water; and with the proper filtration system, you are assured of it's quality.
In an effort to help you in making an informed decision we have compiled information and employed reliable resources that will aide in furthering your understanding of how water can be affected by environmental conditions, why your water is the way it is and what your options are for improving and maintaining the quality of water in your day to day life.
Clear & Contaminated: The water looks and smells clean, but is it safe
Water is one of the most important things in our daily routine. We use it everyday to bathe and shower, to wash our clothes, clean our dishes and homes, and most importantly we cook with it and we drink it. Water is the foundation of life and of our modern society, without clean, drinkable water, much of what makes our civilization so advanced would not be possible. For that reason, public water systems are an important part of our daily lives. We couldn’t do without them.
But, looking at the public water system and the unfiltered tap water that you drink and use everyday, are you truly getting a safe and reliable source of potable water for your family? There are dozens of problems with typical tap water. In some cities tap water is so bad that few if any residents drink it. Many people will buy bottled water rather than drink the tap water in their homes.
The lesser of two evils: Contaminants as a part of the process
Water treatment itself is a process that every major city in the nation has mastered and performs on a daily basis as a service for its citizens. Starting at the source (which varies as much as the quality itself) water is screened, tested, and then treated with various compounds and chemicals to manage the hundreds of different possible contaminants.
When people think of contaminants, they often consider the obvious ones first – those of diseases and man made toxins; however, there are plenty other possible problems that the treatment plants are designed to remove.
One of the first steps in treatment is to add lime or soda ash to water to balance the pH levels. As a treatment, this is also supposed to help minimize the decay of lead piping into the water. Lead itself is a contaminant that, especially in older water systems, can lead to serious health problems.
The next step is yet another additive process. Called coagulation, different compounds of metals are added to the water and charged to help remove the organic compounds by separating the water. The process does a great job of removing the possible organic contaminants, but it leaves trace elements of things like aluminum and iron. For those with nasty water stains in your porcelain fixtures, it is the result of iron levels in your water.
After filtration and the removal of the sludge that coagulation separates out, water is disinfected. The disinfection process produces much of what we consider contamination in our drinking water. While the process is necessary to remove any viruses, bacteria, or free floating life forms that would be harmful when drank, many disinfectants will often linger in the water long after treatment and some transform into other chemical biproducts, with harmful health effects.
Many countries require that disinfectants remain in the water throughout the entire treatment process (which can take varying lengths of time) to keep it clean. Chlorine has long been one of the most popular and least expensive disinfectants used for drinking water. Not only is chlorine toxic in gas form, it has a habit of binding with certain organic compounds to create chemical by products such as THM and HAA that are considered carcinogenic. The only solution is to try and remove as many organic compounds as possible before disinfection.
Other disinfectant options such as Ozone or UV radiation are less dangerous in terms of creating harmful byproducts, but tend to leave no residual disinfectants, and thus chlorine or a chlorine derivative will be added afterwards anyways.
Some places even add further chemicals to their water, including fluoride, in an attempt to limit tooth decay. However, such additions are not always necessary, and in high enough concentration, fluoride is vastly unhealthy.
Health Effects
The water coming through your pipes is not exactly clear and pure; although it may appear that way. It is true that water can harbor harmful organisms and natural metals. However, the tradeoffs of their removal are harmful chemicals and the possibility of chemical byproducts that do not naturally occur is a very real possibility.
You might have grown up with the taste of tap water and do not find it wanting, especially as the treatment plants have tried to enhance how they treat water. However, children are not given the luxury of such an option, and honestly, the cold hard facts are that the water coming from the average tap is not as pure and safe as it could be.
Within many of the nation’s pipes, lead lining still flakes off, or leaks admit other contaminants, which when combined with all of that disinfectant added by the water purveyor, create those horrible chemical byproducts.
This is why drinking water filters are becoming increasingly popular in today’s homes. Aluminum in your drinking water for example combines with the fluorides and creates a compound that has been found to contribute to cognitive decline, leading to early onset Alzheimer’s. Even for those whose water treatment plants use iron instead of aluminum, fluoride (which many plants add to their water) breaks down aluminum naturally, including from your cookware and appliances. H2O Easy filters go a long way in removing up to 99% of those harmful metals from your water.
Chlorination of the water is not only bad for your health but it can be a serious cause of that dry, brittle, unresponsive head of hair you’re constantly annoyed with. How does your hair feel after a swim at the local pool? It can’t be much better after a shower. At home shower filters are probably the only way to assure that your shower water is kept clean and safe for your skin and hair every day. You might even find yourself making progress with that unruly mane of yours.
But it is the general health effects that bother most people. Metal and chemical filled water is generally not good for the human body. It doesn’t provide the same refreshment and it doesn’t taste very good. Silver content might discolor the skin and an over-saturation of fluoride will discolor the teeth. Your household fixtures will turn color and decay and your children will complain about the odor and taste of water, making it that much harder to get them to drink the water they need every day.
While the city does its best to remove the contaminants and organisms from our drinking water and make it safe for our everyday use, it’s becoming increasingly clear that all they accomplish is creating an entirely separate problem for us to deal with in our water. Home water filters are probably your safest line of defense in getting not only safe water every day, but crisp and clean water that your whole family will actually enjoy.
But, looking at the public water system and the unfiltered tap water that you drink and use everyday, are you truly getting a safe and reliable source of potable water for your family? There are dozens of problems with typical tap water. In some cities tap water is so bad that few if any residents drink it. Many people will buy bottled water rather than drink the tap water in their homes.
The lesser of two evils: Contaminants as a part of the process
Water treatment itself is a process that every major city in the nation has mastered and performs on a daily basis as a service for its citizens. Starting at the source (which varies as much as the quality itself) water is screened, tested, and then treated with various compounds and chemicals to manage the hundreds of different possible contaminants.
When people think of contaminants, they often consider the obvious ones first – those of diseases and man made toxins; however, there are plenty other possible problems that the treatment plants are designed to remove.
One of the first steps in treatment is to add lime or soda ash to water to balance the pH levels. As a treatment, this is also supposed to help minimize the decay of lead piping into the water. Lead itself is a contaminant that, especially in older water systems, can lead to serious health problems.
The next step is yet another additive process. Called coagulation, different compounds of metals are added to the water and charged to help remove the organic compounds by separating the water. The process does a great job of removing the possible organic contaminants, but it leaves trace elements of things like aluminum and iron. For those with nasty water stains in your porcelain fixtures, it is the result of iron levels in your water.
After filtration and the removal of the sludge that coagulation separates out, water is disinfected. The disinfection process produces much of what we consider contamination in our drinking water. While the process is necessary to remove any viruses, bacteria, or free floating life forms that would be harmful when drank, many disinfectants will often linger in the water long after treatment and some transform into other chemical biproducts, with harmful health effects.
Many countries require that disinfectants remain in the water throughout the entire treatment process (which can take varying lengths of time) to keep it clean. Chlorine has long been one of the most popular and least expensive disinfectants used for drinking water. Not only is chlorine toxic in gas form, it has a habit of binding with certain organic compounds to create chemical by products such as THM and HAA that are considered carcinogenic. The only solution is to try and remove as many organic compounds as possible before disinfection.
Other disinfectant options such as Ozone or UV radiation are less dangerous in terms of creating harmful byproducts, but tend to leave no residual disinfectants, and thus chlorine or a chlorine derivative will be added afterwards anyways.
Some places even add further chemicals to their water, including fluoride, in an attempt to limit tooth decay. However, such additions are not always necessary, and in high enough concentration, fluoride is vastly unhealthy.
Health Effects
The water coming through your pipes is not exactly clear and pure; although it may appear that way. It is true that water can harbor harmful organisms and natural metals. However, the tradeoffs of their removal are harmful chemicals and the possibility of chemical byproducts that do not naturally occur is a very real possibility.
You might have grown up with the taste of tap water and do not find it wanting, especially as the treatment plants have tried to enhance how they treat water. However, children are not given the luxury of such an option, and honestly, the cold hard facts are that the water coming from the average tap is not as pure and safe as it could be.
Within many of the nation’s pipes, lead lining still flakes off, or leaks admit other contaminants, which when combined with all of that disinfectant added by the water purveyor, create those horrible chemical byproducts.
This is why drinking water filters are becoming increasingly popular in today’s homes. Aluminum in your drinking water for example combines with the fluorides and creates a compound that has been found to contribute to cognitive decline, leading to early onset Alzheimer’s. Even for those whose water treatment plants use iron instead of aluminum, fluoride (which many plants add to their water) breaks down aluminum naturally, including from your cookware and appliances. H2O Easy filters go a long way in removing up to 99% of those harmful metals from your water.
Chlorination of the water is not only bad for your health but it can be a serious cause of that dry, brittle, unresponsive head of hair you’re constantly annoyed with. How does your hair feel after a swim at the local pool? It can’t be much better after a shower. At home shower filters are probably the only way to assure that your shower water is kept clean and safe for your skin and hair every day. You might even find yourself making progress with that unruly mane of yours.
But it is the general health effects that bother most people. Metal and chemical filled water is generally not good for the human body. It doesn’t provide the same refreshment and it doesn’t taste very good. Silver content might discolor the skin and an over-saturation of fluoride will discolor the teeth. Your household fixtures will turn color and decay and your children will complain about the odor and taste of water, making it that much harder to get them to drink the water they need every day.
While the city does its best to remove the contaminants and organisms from our drinking water and make it safe for our everyday use, it’s becoming increasingly clear that all they accomplish is creating an entirely separate problem for us to deal with in our water. Home water filters are probably your safest line of defense in getting not only safe water every day, but crisp and clean water that your whole family will actually enjoy.
It's not all bad
Not all water conditions are bad or bad for you. In fact some of what you may have heard from other sources may be misleading. When water is taken to a "pure" state, such as with distillation or reverse osmosis, the water itself becomes of little or no value to your body. These processes remove minerals from the water that our bodies need to stay vibrant and healthy. Our bodies primary source for certain minerals may be clean healthy H2O and if you rely on water that has been over purified you could be causing more damage than good.
Reverse Osmosis and distillation are the right choice for certain water conditions or health concerns but are truly rarely needed the solution in most situations. What they are however is a potentially high profit margin for manufacturers and resellers. These systems can be costly to maintain and very wasteful. RO systems have improved over the past decade but the best options out here are still a one to one ratio; 1 gallon of waste water per 1 gallon of purified water and you are loosing those all important minerals.
The best choice is always an educated choice. Acquire the knowledge you need, weigh your options and make an educated choice.
Reverse Osmosis and distillation are the right choice for certain water conditions or health concerns but are truly rarely needed the solution in most situations. What they are however is a potentially high profit margin for manufacturers and resellers. These systems can be costly to maintain and very wasteful. RO systems have improved over the past decade but the best options out here are still a one to one ratio; 1 gallon of waste water per 1 gallon of purified water and you are loosing those all important minerals.
The best choice is always an educated choice. Acquire the knowledge you need, weigh your options and make an educated choice.
