Whats in Your Drinking Water?

Did you ever ask yourself what's in the water that you drink? If you ever found out, it could make you sick. Maintaining your ignorance could make you sicker. We always assumed our drinking water is safe. We were wrong.

The coming water crisis Across the country, long-neglected mains and pipes, many more than a century old, are reaching the end of their life span. When pipes fail, pressure drops and sucks dirt, debris, and often bacteria and other pathogens into the huge underground arteries that deliver
water......

Whats in YOUR drinking water?

Lead, chlorine, disinfection by-products, cryptosporidia, giardia, bacteria, endocrine disrupters, pesticides, etc.

The geographic region where people live is an important contributing factor to both the quality and availability of fresh waterIf you are provided with municipal water, the responsibility for your safe drinking water lies with the water provider.

Although water companies in the US and many other countries are strictly regulated and the treated water must meet certain minimum purity and safety standards, all water companies are not created equal.

You can reasonably assume that most are doing the best they can with the resources available to them. In general, though, the larger water companies (in the US anyway) have greater resources available to treat and distribute the water and maintain the distribution infrastructure. And, because they serve more people, they are required to meet stricter regulations.

Some information for well owners or people who use surface water for drinking: People with private water supplies are responsible for the safety of their own drinking water.

While all wells, springs, and surface water should be tested regularly, there are some situations where it is critical to know what is in your water:

• If you use surface water or water from an unconfined aquifer and have any sources of pollution nearby, you are at risk for contaminated water.
• If you or members of your family are at higher risk of health problems from contaminants, you should know what is in your water.
• If the quality of your water suddenly changes - new taste

The depth of a well is not usually as important as the type of aquifer from which the well draws. Well water from an unconfined aquifer is much more prone to contamination than water from a confined aquifer.

Poorly designed or maintained septic systems are a potential source of contamination for wells or springs mostly in unconfined aquifers. The most common contaminants from septic systems tend to be E. coli and nitrates, but if other chemicals are flushed into the septic system by you or your neighbors, they can become part of the ground or surface water pollutants as well.

Water Testing: If you use municipal water you should be able to obtain a water quality report yearly and, except for special circumstances, would probably not need to test your water. If you use well, spring, or surface water, it is important to test your water periodically for contaminants liable to be present in your water. Water quality from a water source can change over time - particularly in surface water or shallow, unconfined aquifers.

Where You Live:
Home Located in an Industrial Area: The range of possible industrial pollutants is extremely large. Important contaminants include heavy metals and many thousands of kinds of manufactured chemicals.

Whats in your drinking water could come from:
Emissions into the atmosphere that either settle onto or wash onto the earth's surface and from there into the surface or ground water.

Waste dumps that leak into surface or ground water.

Leakage from storage areas of chemical products or their precursors.

Accidents and spills during transport of chemicals.

Direct dumping of contaminants into surface water for disposal.

Home Located in an Agricultural Area: Farms can have many potential sources of pollution for the underlying water, including: manure lagoon, feedlot / barn, septic system, earthen silage pit, fuel storage tank, chemical storage area, chemical mixing area, dump or landfill, and fields on which fertilizers or pesticides have been applied. In addition to the health effects of nitrates on children, discussed above, nitrates in drinking water have also been associated with an increased risk for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Chlorinated Water and the Risk of Disinfection By-products:
Is your water Chlorinated? Most municipal water treatment plants use chlorine to disinfect the water before it leaves the treatment plant and/or keep the water biologically safe during the distribution process. Many well users also use chlorine to disinfect their water.

Chlorine, while an excellent disinfectant, reacts with organic material in the source water to produce a group of chlorinated organic compounds collectively known as Disinfection Byproduct (DBPs).

According to several EPA articles:

"While disinfectants are effective in controlling many microorganisms, they react with natural organic and inorganic matter in source water and distribution systems to form DBPs. Results from toxicology studies have shown several DBPs to be carcinogenic in laboratory animals.

Other DBPs have also been shown to cause adverse reproductive or developmental effects in laboratory animals. Several epidemiology studies have suggested a weak association between certain cancers (e.g., bladder) or reproductive and developmental effects, and exposure to chlorinated surface water.

More than 200 million people consume water that has been disinfected. Because of the large population exposed, health risks associated with DBPs, even if small, need to be taken seriously."

In general, the levels of DBPs are highest in treated water from sources with high organic matter content, such as rivers and lakes, and lowest when the source is groundwater. Within a single water supply, however, DBP levels can vary greatly, depending on both water quality and treatment conditions.

The DBPs include Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs) (including chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, and bromoform), and Haloacetic Acids (HAAs) (dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid)

In 1979, the EPA set an interim Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for TTHMs of 0.10 mg/l (or 100 microgram/l) as an annual average. This applies to any community water system serving at least 10,000 people that adds a disinfectant to the drinking water during any part of the treatment process. By 2002 the MCL for TTHMS will be lowered to 0.08mg/l (or 80 ug/l) and a MCL for HAAs will be set at 0.06mg/l.

In addition to laboratory studies showing cancers and reproductive problems in animals, there is a growing body of evidence based on epidemiological studies that implicates DBPs as contributing to problems during pregnancy.

Epidemiological evidence suggesting a weak association between the consumption of chlorinated drinking water and the occurrence of bladder, colon, and rectal cancer (and possibly even some brain cancers).

In epidemiological studies, investigators compare health effects in a population of people who drink water containing higher levels of DBS with a similar group of people who drink water with lower levels of DPS. According to some estimates, anywhere between two and seventeen percent of all bladder cancer cases in the U.S. may be due to DBPs. It is a tough balancing act between adding too little chlorine (resulting in more microbial contaminants and fewer DBPs), and too much chlorine (resulting in dead microbes and higher levels of DBPs).

A 1996 study by King and Marrett concluded "that the risk of bladder cancer increases with both duration and concentration of exposure to chlorination by-products". They found that those exposed to chlorinated surface water for 35 or more years had a 1.4 times increased risk of bladder cancer compared with those exposed for less than 10 years, and those exposed to an estimated THM level greater than 49 micrograms/liter for 35 or more years had 1.63 times the risk of those exposed for less than 10 years.

Populations At Greater Risk from Water Contaminants: Pregnant Women, Children, Elderly, Immuno-Compromised
Any person who requires water of a specific microbiological purity should follow the advice of their doctor or local health officials regarding the use and consumption of tap water treated by ANY purification system.

Don' Think You Have Lead in Your Water... Check again

Home Age and the Risk of Lead Contamination:
The age of your home can be an important indicator of whether lead might be a contaminant in your drinking water. Lead is a serious threat to human health and can adversely affect almost every organ in the human body. Lead contamination usually occurs in the home as water dissolves lead from household plumbing made with lead containing materials. Even many "lead-free fixtures still contain some lead. More likely than not, water in buildings less than five years old or that were built before about 1987 have some levels of lead contamination.

Boiling the water will not reduce the amount of lead. Young children and pregnant women have the greatest risk from even short term lead exposure. An adequate calcium intake can help protect against lead poisoning - but that is NOT a substitute for lead reducing methods discussed below.

Indicators for high lead content in your drinking water. Lead levels in your drinking water are likely to be highest if: your home has faucets or fittings of brass which contains some lead, or your home or water system has lead pipes, or your home has copper pipes with lead solder, and the house is less than five years old, or you have naturally soft water, or your water is acidic, (pH below 7), or water often sits in the pipes for several hours, or you use hot water from the tap to make formula or drinks you regularly notice blue/green stains on sinks, tubs, and fixtures (this is probably copper, but it is an indication of corrosive water which will also dissolve lead).

Check for Lead Water Pipes
Inside your home: locate the pipe leading to the kitchen tap, and follow it as far as possible until it exits your home. Unpainted lead pipes are dull gray and soft. If you scrape the surface gently with a knife, you will see the shiny, silver-colored metal beneath.

Try to find a place where the supply line is accessible (water meter for example) and check for indications of lead pipe. Other types of pipe in use Copper - bright copper-brown color may have silver colored metal around the soldered joints - the solder may contain lead. Iron/Steel - black, may be rusty, and is quite hard. The pipe may have a shinny galvanized coating. Plastic - may be white, blue, gray, black, etc.

Lead compounds may also be present in some plastic plumbing components. Lead may be used in the manufacture of the plastic plumbing products as a plasticizer. Plastic plumbing components that are certified by the NSF International do not contain lead. Plastic materials certified by NSF are recommended for potable water plumbing applications. Plumbing components made of bronze and brass contain 3% to 8% lead.

If your drinking water has not been tested for lead, or if it does contain lead, seriously consider taking the following precautions:

• If the water has not been used in a particular faucet for six hours or longer, run the cold water tap until the water is noticeably colder, about a minute, to "flush" the pipes.
• Use only cold water from the tap for drinking, cooking, and especially making baby formula.
• Hot water dissolves materials better than cold water and thus may contain higher levels of lead.
• Frequently clean the screens and aerators in faucets to remove captured lead particles.
• If building or remodeling, only use "lead free" piping and materials for plumbing.
• If you are served by a public water system contact your supplier and ask whether or not the supply system contains lead piping, and whether your water is corrosive.
• If either answer is yes, ask what steps the supplier is taking to deal with the problem of lead contamination.
• One indication that your water is corrosive (if you have copper pipes) is that you may notice blue/green stains in tubs, sinks, and around faucets. If your water is dissolving copper, and if there is lead in the pipes, solder, or fixtures, there is a good chance your water is also dissolving lead!

Note: Drinking water is estimated to contribute only 10 to 20 percent of the total lead exposure in young children. Make certain you are informed about all of the risks for lead exposure.

Contaminants and Sensory Clues:
Great looking, smelling and tasting water is no guarantee that you have safe water! Many contaminants, lead, mercury, E. coli, disinfection byproducts.

If your water normally looks, tastes, and smells good and then suddenly becomes cloudy (turbid) or acquires a bad smell or taste it may be an indicator that the purification process has failed. Immediately begin using water filtered with a high quality filter, bottled water, or otherwise purified water until you have determined that your water is safe. That would also be a very good time to consider looking for a permanent water filtration solution.

Personal Water Filtration Bottle