Filtered Water

The Case for Filtered Water.

By Peter O'Grady

It is well documented that drinking plenty of water is good for our overall health.  The human body is made up of more than 70% water so it plays a major role in keeping us healthy and helping our body operate efficiently.  The quality of the water we drink is also extremely important.

If you have ever tried to read the annual report from your local water authority you will be aware that the water coming into our homes and entering our bodies contains many contaminants.  These enter the water supply in many different ways ranging from the use of everyday household chemicals to agricultural runoff, and everything in between.  The EPA establishes a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) at which corrective action is required and a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) at which health risks may occur.  Most domestic supplies are better than the MCLG levels required and offer an acceptable water supply.  However, this only means that it complies to these standards, not that all of the unhealthy contaminants have been removed.

The list of contaminants entering our water supply continues to increase year by year as new man made chemicals are introduced into our everyday lives.  While municipal water suppliers continue to work to improve the quality of the water supplied by them, an in-home water filtration system is the easiest and most cost effective way to provide safer, healthier water.   Current standards of in-home filtration can remove some or all of the following contaminants that are found to varying degrees in most water supplies:

Chlorine

Lead

Cysts (Microorganisms carried in animal and human waste)

THMs (Chemicals formed when chlorine reacts with organic matter)

VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Lindane (Used in insecticides)

Alachlor (Used in weed killers)

Altrazine (A herbicide used on corn)

Benzene (Used in household solvents and automotive products)

TCE (Used as a solvent for cleaning metal parts)

MTBE (Used as a gasoline additive)

If you wish to find out about the quality of your water, this can be done by accessing the EPA’s consumer information section at www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo.htm .  Here you can see your own water utility’s “Annual Water Quality Report”.  You should receive a copy of this report from your water utility company by July 1^st of each year and also be able to find a copy on your water company’s own website.

From an overall environmental standpoint, water filters offer by far the better option than the purchase of bottled water.  It is estimated that over 60,000,000 plastic bottles are produced, transported and disposed of every day in the U.S. alone.  The manufacture of these bottles uses around 1.5 million barrels of oil annually and even though they are recyclable, most are usually thrown out.  Water filters also create solid waste as, to date, manufacturers do not have effective take-back procedures.  However, the volume of this disposal is significantly less than water bottles and hopefully the manufacturers will introduce some form of recycling program in the future.

Water filters will produce generally purer drinking water and at a lower cost than bottled water.  Using an in house filter, the cost should range between 10 cents and 25 cents per gallon depending on the product used.  Bottled water on the other hand will cost somewhere between $1 and $4 per gallon and is often no purer or safer than regular tap water.

Unfortunately we can not stop toxins getting into our bodies in our industrialized, chemical society.  We are exposed to minute quantities of hundreds of harmful substances every day.  However, we can help our bodies to flush out these contaminants by drinking plenty of clean, healthy water.  The more we drink, the more we allow the body to purify itself.

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