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How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?
If you feel parched nowadays, there are so many beverages available to quench your thirst. However, none of these drinks will ever be able to take the place of good old water.
Water is the still best beverage and the healthiest way to stay hydrated. The reasons are simple. You only need to remember that your body is composed of approximately 60 percent water. Water is a primary component of all bodily fluids, including blood, urine, lymph, digestive juices and sweat. It also supports vital chemical reactions that regulate our body functions.
If you want to stay healthy, maintaining the quality of your drinking water is a must. But you can’t tell if your water is safe by the way it looks, tastes or smells. Water safety experts have recently discovered a new and toxic threat in the water supply – disinfection byproducts (DBPs).
The Dangers of Disinfection Byproducts
Water providers use chlorine as a disinfectant. Aside from chlorine, chloramines and chlorine dioxide are the other common disinfectants used at water treatment facilities to kill harmful, disease-causing microorganisms in the water.
You probably haven’t heard of DBPs before. Disinfection byproducts are formed when the disinfectants react with natural organic matter like decaying vegetation in water and are more than 10,000 times more toxic than chlorine, making them the worst type of contaminants.
Chlorine has been linked to health problems associated with drinking water but the new research suggests that DBPs, not chlorine, are responsible for almost all of the toxic effects of chlorinated water.
The two most common disinfectant byproducts formed when chlorine is used are:
• trihalomethanes (THMs) and,
• haloacetic acids (HAAs)
Trihalomethanes are Cancer Group B carcinogens, meaning they’ve been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. DBPs have also been linked to reproductive problems in both animals and humans. A study found that men who smoke and drank chlorinated tap water for more than 40 years increased their risk of bladder cancer by 50 percent compared to male smokers who drank non-chlorinated water.
Another study showed that individuals on a low-fiber diet and consumed chlorinated water for more than 40 years doubled their risk of rectal cancer.
But drinking chlorinated water is not the only way DBPs can get inside your body. You’re also exposed to trihalomethanes if you shower, bathe and swim in chlorinated water. The cancer risk from skin exposure while swimming was over 94 percent of the total cancer risk resulting from being exposed to THMs!
Trihalomethanes in chlorinated swimming pools have also been linked to spontaneous abortion, stillbirths and congenital malformations.
To give you an idea how dangerous THMs are, Environment Protection Agency (EPA) regulations only allow water providers to have a THM level of 60 parts per billion. However, water companies are resisting this regulation because they feel it would be more expensive to remove DBPs from their water and are pushing to elevate the EPA standard.
Ideally, the safest DBP level should be ZERO. This goal is likely impossible to achieve.
If you get your water from a private well, DBPs are not an issue because most, if not all, private well water systems do not use chlorine.
Other Contaminants in Your Water
Aside from DBPs, a comprehensive survey of drinking water in the U.S. reveals that your drinking water may also contain a number of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals, including:
• Atenolol – a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease
• Atrazine – herbicide banned in the European Union linked to the decline of fish population and in changes in animal behavior
• Carbamazepine – a drug used to treat bipolar disorder • Estrone – an estrogen hormone blamed for causing gender changes in fish
• Gemfibrozil – a fibrate (drug used to lower lipid levels)
• Meprobamate – a tranquilizer used by psychiatrists
• Naproxen – a painkiller and anti-inflammatory linked to an increased number of asthma cases
• Phenytoin – anticonvulsant used to treat epileptics
• Sulfamethoxazole – an antibiotic • TCEP – a reduction agent used in molecular biology
• Trimethoprim – another antibiotic
Water safety expert Robert Slovak’s advice is to request a water quality report from your local water provider at least once a year to see how safe your tap water is. He recommends using a reverse osmosis filter to help remove DBPs and various pharmaceutical agents from your water at home.
Using a reverse osmosis filter is an important decision you can make but it may not be enough to protect you from water contaminants because you’re still exposed to toxins whenever you shower or bathe, wash your hands, rinse fruits and vegetables and clean dishes, glasses and other utensils.
Watch out for Slovak’s video segment at Mercola.com within the next two week to learn about the three water filtration options that will help ensure your water safety.
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Tags: chlorine, disinfection byproducts, drinking water, reverse osmosis filter, tap water
