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How Do You Know if Your Drinking Water is Healthy?
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink?
The facts about drinking water.
No doubt you have heard the recent controversy over bottled water. Does the discussion leave you tapped out?
Its hard to know what to believe these days, isn’t it? We try to do what’s best for our family’s health, and a few years down the road, we hear that our efforts may have been in vain.
We want to help you understand the problem so that you can make an informed choice for your family. You may want to do some research into the facts about your own local water systems. We will show you how.
But first, let’s take a look at the big picture.
Tap or Bottled – What’s the Difference?
For years, environmental groups, such as Natural Resources Defense Coalition, have been crying in the wilderness that
that bottled water is not any safer than tap
-- and in many cases actually is tap!
Regardless, the bottled water craze took off and took off in a big way!
But recently, everyone seems to have discovered that tap water can be perfectly drinkable --and that bottled water has problems of its own.
In a bit of irony, the stuff you can get practically for free is now cool. Big city mayors are pushing it, high-profile restauranteurs are offering nothing but, and even the New York Times editorial board has seen fit to recommend it.
For many of the new converts, using tap water as drinking water has two chief advantages.
1) Tap water doesn't leave a flood of non-biodegradable and rarely recycled containers behind.
2) Tap water doesn't require the manufacture of plastic containers from non-renewable petroleum.
For other supporters, the fact that tap water usually flows to us through an energy-efficient infrastructure has great appeal. No trucks or ships are required, cutting mass amounts of potential emissions.
Who could argue with either of these points?
Major population centers are already drained of landfill space. They don't need the additional strain placed by millions of plastic drinking water bottles.
Neither can we tolerate the unnecessary contribution to global warming that transporting the water to market makes – and many bottled waters are shipped to us from great distances.
The Key is Safety!
The main reason to prefer tap water as your drinking water, in the end, may, ironically, be safety – yes, safety! Its not because tap water is inherently purer (it's not), but because it is better regulated. This is the key point.
Tap water is subject to higher safety standards and better monitoring than bottled water.
That doesn't mean the
standards are tough enough.
They do leave a wide range of
contaminants uncovered
(from rocket fuel to the gasoline additive MTBE), but they are nevertheless the tougher of the two, and they're also better enforced. Tap water is also regulated more consistently. Environmental Protection Agency rules apply to every public water system in the nation. In contrast, bottled water is governed by Food and Drug Administration rules when transported across state lines and otherwise by individual states. Tap water - Utilities must issue annual "Water Quality Reports" -- also called "Consumer Confidence Reports" -- identifying the source of the water and contaminants found in it. Bottled water - FDA regulations for bottled water offer nothing comparable to “Water Quality Reports”. False claims on labels are barred, but there is no requirement that contaminants within so-called safe limits be listed. You can ask bottled water companies for the information -- and by all means do if you drink it -- but recognize that they are under no obligation to tell you any details. Tap water in most places is still pretty good (excellent in some places). Bottled water is no better quality and abandoning the public system will only serve to make tap water worse.
Quality you can count on in drinking water purification units
- for information on systems that meet and exceed the qualifications on this page.
If you are concerned about the quality of your tap water, here's what you can do:
1) Ask your utility for a
Water Quality Report
(downloadable pdf.) and see if your fears are founded. 2) Consider
filtering your drinking water
to address any problems you may have uncovered. Filters can help with water that tastes bad, too. The National Geographic Green Guide offers a comparison guide to available filtering systems, including
our favorite.
Click on the above link to see the chart. 3) If your water fails to meet safety standards and you or a member of your household is very young, old, pregnant or living with chronic illness or a weakened immune system, consult your doctor about what to do. In some cases, bottled water may be the best alternative if it is from a source that is known to be good. And please support local measures to protect your watershed, modernize infrastructure and upgrade drinking water treatment. They are the keys to clean, affordable drinking water for all. For email information on our favorite water purification systems, fill out the form below.
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