10 Important Reasons Why You Need to Filter Drinking Water

Last Updated on October 1, 2020

Water is life, but water can kill you!

All living creatures are probably facing one of the most serious water shortages in history. The ocean, as well as ground water, is continuously being polluted. Almost all types of human consumption lead to water contamination.

Moreover, electronic waste is usually being dumped on some of the poorest regions in the world, which exposes kids to toxic chemicals that eventually find their way into the water.

Pharmaceuticals, sunscreens, lotions, fragrances, etc, they all are affecting water sources. Just because you can still turn your tap on and water comes out, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a worrying water crisis nationwide.

The scary truth is that one day turning on your tap won’t be so safe, cheap, or easy. Even in the current time, the high levels of contaminants in our water are alarming! And these are the reasons why you absolutely need to start filtering your water now.

1. Arsenic

khoahocphattrien.vn

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element found in groundwater and its levels can vary from the water source to another. Arsenic contamination has been a problem in India, Taiwan, Argentina, Bangladesh, and recently, in parts of California.

In Bangladesh, people developed skin lesions and many died of cancer due to arsenic poisoning, while in Taiwan, drinking arsenic-contaminated water resulted in Blackfoot disease, and in Southern California, residents cannot drink the tap water because it’s highly polluted with arsenic.

Scientists claim that even low levels of arsenic can lead to serious health problems, including bladder, lung, and skin cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory problems. People should learn a great deal from what Bangladesh had experienced to avoid another large mass poisoning due to contaminated water.

2. Fluoride

The Nate Max Project

Besides mass poisoning, there is also mass medication! In fact, fluoride is used not to treat water but supposedly to prevent tooth decay.

Mandatory water fluoridation has been a national issue, as activists stood up against being subjected to mass medical treatment through drinking water without previous notice, while some people have brought suit against municipalities because their families have become sick from ingesting fluoride. In reality, when it comes to water fluoridation, US citizens are not allowed informed consent.

Water fluoridation has been banned in most parts of Europe, while here, more individuals are taking a strong stand against water fluoridation, with some researchers saying that fluoridation is a violation of medical ethics as well as human rights, according to an article published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.

3. Rocket Fuel

Time Magazine

The primary component of rocket fuel is Perchlorate, which is a salt made of four oxygen atoms and one chlorine atom. Perchlorate is actually both naturally occurring and human-made. It is often used in flares, explosives, and fireworks, and it can sometimes be found in bleach and fertilizers. According to the Awwa Research Foundation, California led the nation with the biggest number of high-risk sites for perchlorate contamination, followed by Texas.

Dangerously, perchlorate has been found in tobacco plants, milk, foods, and of course, drinking water, surface water, and groundwater. According to the EPA, perchlorate is a potential human carcinogen. The people who are most vulnerable to perchlorate exposure are pregnant women with hypothyroxinemia and infants (either from breast milk or through water in infant formula).

Consequently, deficits in brain development may become permanent in case thyroid hormone deprivation occurs in fetuses and babies. Make sure to always use a reverse-osmosis filter for your drinking water.

4. Chlorine

Live Science

Water suppliers often add chlorine to your drinking water in order to kill bacteria. No one wants bacteria in their water, but when chlorine interacts with the naturally occurring organic compounds, it can produce trihalomethanes (THMs).

By drinking these THMs for a long period of time, people can develop several health problems, including liver, kidney or central nervous issues, as well as a higher risk of developing cancer.

Furthermore, THMs have also been specifically associated with eczema, bladder cancer, and heart disease. You should consider using water filters, like Big Berkey, to remove THMs, chlorine, and fluoride from your water.

5. Chloramine

Berkey Water Filters

Water supply companies use chloramine to disinfect water. Chloramine is difficult to eliminate; even distilling and boiling water cannot completely remove it. Chloramine can cause congestion or shortness of breath, damage your respiratory system, increase asthma, and damage mucous membranes (as seen in smokers).

Research revealed that there were more death cases from pneumonia and influenza in communities that used chloramine.

This substance may also cause other health problems, including digestive disorders and various skin issues, such as itching, rashes, pigmentation, cracking, blistering, welting, chapping, and scarring.

Chloramine can be very risky to consume for people with blood or kidney problems. This actually sounds like a list of side effects on a prescription drug label. Unfortunately, it is a common additive to public drinking water.

6. Fracking

npr.org

Some fracking processes contaminate drinking water. In fact, eight states have already reported contaminated drinking water due to controversial drilling. According to the EPA, specific instances have been found where one or more of these mechanisms affected drinking water resources, causing contamination of drinking water wells.

California is using recycled water from fracking wells on their crops. What’s more dangerous is that this carcinogenic waste is even sprayed on organic food. In California’s Central Valley, which is responsible for massive food production for the entire nation, has used recycled water from fracking wells to water vast spaces of farmland.

Laboratory tests uncovered acetone, a strong industrial solvent, and benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, in the wastewater.

7. Prescription Drugs

The Ecologist

Birth control drugs, anti-anxiety drugs, sex hormones, anti-epileptic drugs, Prozac, antibiotics, antidepressants, Oxycontin, hydrocodone (for pain), hydrochlorothiazide (congestive heart failure), ranitidine (acid reflux), and carbamazepine (mood stabilizer).

This is a drug cocktail that could be found in your tap! It is easy to diagnose the common health problems of a certain community just by testing their water. This is not just a theory, in fact, Los Angeles tested positive for phenytoin (anticonvulsant) and meprobamate (anti-anxiety), while Tucson tested positive for carbamazepine (treats nerve pain, manic depression, and seizures).

Nick Schroeck, a researcher at the Great Lakes Environmental Center, suggests that more scientific research is needed to look at how low doses of these drugs interact with each other and how bad it can affect aquatic life and human health. It’s frustrating when you think that you could be drinking Viagra in your water, and this is only one example.

8. Agricultural Chemicals

Promecom

According to the Environmental Working Group, almost 2/3 of the agricultural chemicals found in tap water are unregulated, having no legally mandated limit. A 1987-report discussed the increasing use of agricultural chemicals, many of which had negative impacts on ground water.

Today, we’re still only discussing the increasing pollution from nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides. The disaster of widespread pollution had just started to be a real concern. 30 years later, problems with nitrate in the water are anticipated to worsen in the future.

It can take a longer-than-your-life time for contaminants to cycle out of the groundwater. Reports from the University of California stated that nitrate is one of the state’s most widespread groundwater contaminants while groundwater is essential to California.

Although nitrate in groundwater is principally a key input to agricultural production, an excessive intake through drinking water can harm human health.

9. Urban Pollution

SlideShare

Everyone is trying to forget that urbanization eventually leads to the contamination of drinking water. Well, let’s try to remember that the main pollutants that flow into our streams, lakes, rivers, and estuaries from urbanization are grease, oil, sediment, and toxic chemicals from pesticides, bacteria from pet waste, motor vehicles, viruses, road salts, heavy metals, and thermal pollution.

These urban pollutants and much more that aren’t mentioned here can affect drinking water in many negative ways, harm wildlife populations, and exterminate native vegetation.

10. Endocrine Disruptors

Kerr Wood Leidal

Endocrine disruptors can interfere with the functioning of hormones in the human body, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Endocrine disruptors include diethylstilbestrol and DDT (a drug that was commonly prescribed between the 40s and 70s), PCBs (human-made chemicals used in electrical equipment), and dioxin.

The Environmental Working Group gathered a list of endocrine disruptors you must avoid, including dioxin, BPA, atrazine, phthalates, mercury, perchlorate, fire retardants, arsenic, lead, perfluorinated chemicals, glycol ethers, and organophosphate pesticides.

According to Attorney Philip Schworer, plenty of wastewater treatment facilities don’t treat for these risky chemicals, and in case they did, the treatment is incidental with no ability to completely eliminate the chemicals from the water.

Keep in mind that even if the water is safe to drink, it wouldn’t hurt to run recycled sewage water through your home filter one more time before you drink it.