Millions of people choose not to drink the water from their taps because of its taste, appearance or overall quality. Learn more about your drinking water and the options available for improving it.
Your Water and You
We can live for weeks without food but only days without water. Water plays a huge role in our everyday lives. We bathe in it, brush our teeth with it, wash our clothes with it and clean our dishes with it. We swim in water and sprinkle our lawns with it. We wash our cars, trucks, vans, bikes and boats with water. We drink it, cook with it, make orange juice with it and mix baby formula with it. Industries use water in manufacturing processes. As a matter of fact, there's a little water in just about everything.
But more importantly, there's water in you. Between 55 and 65 percent of the human body is made up of water! That means if you took all of the water out of a 175-pound man, he would weigh a mere 70 pounds! And the younger you are, the more water your body contains.
Water:
- regulates body temperature
- serves as a solvent for minerals, vitamins, amino acids, glucose and other small molecules, aiding their assimilation into the body
- carries oxygen to all parts of the body
- lubricates the areas around our joints (especially important for athletes, people with arthritis and those with chronic musculoskeletal problems)
- is necessary for chemical reactions in the body
- acts as a shock absorber inside the eyes and spinal cord
- removes the waste products of our metabolic processes
Look at how much of our bodies is made up of water!
- Our blood is 83% water.
- Our brain is 75% water.
- Our muscles are 76% water.
- Our liver is 70% water.
- Our kidneys are 82% water.
- Our skin is 70% water.
- Our bones are 22% water.
- Even our fat is 20% water.
Since water is such an important part of our lives, many people are becoming more and more concerned with using only the best for drinking and food preparation.
Determining the Quality of Your Water
There are a number of problems that can affect the quality of the water you drink. Surprisingly, some contaminated water can look clean and clear at a glance. But just because water looks good, doesn't mean that it is.
The only way to be certain what's in your water is to have it tested. Water treatment professionals can perform on-site tests, direct your water sample to certified laboratories for more advanced testing and help you decipher the results. If you are supplied with water by a local water utility, you can request the results they've recorded from government mandated tests for a variety of contaminants.
While bad odors, unusual colors or metallic tastes usually indicate a drinking water problem, some go undetected. Lead is tasteless, odorless, and colorless and can find its way into your water via soldered pipe connections. Lead-based solder was used in homes built as recently as the late 1980s.
Even though cities generally use chlorine to disinfect water to prevent illness and disease, chlorination is not a foolproof disinfection method. Unexpected outbreaks of certain microorganisms can still occur. Cryptosporidium, a waterborne parasite, caused several hundred thousand people to become ill in Milwaukee in April, 1993. And although it's disinfected, city water may encounter contaminants once it leaves the treatment plant and travels through miles of distribution lines before it reaches your home.
What you can find in your drinking water
The most common drinking water quality complaints, because they are easily identifiable and often leave water aesthetically unappealing, include:
- Chlorine Taste/Odor
generally caused by chlorine used to disinfect water supplies.
- Musty, Earthy, Fishy Tastes/Odors
caused by algae, molds and bacteria that live in water and can multiply within a home's plumbing system.
- Cloudiness/Turbidity
results from suspended particles or sediment.
- "Rotten Egg" Smell
comes from hydrogen sulfide in water.
- Color
linked to decaying organic matter (tannins) and metals such as iron.
Other problems that cannot be easily identified include:
- Chlorine Byproducts
created when chlorine reacts with other substances in water.
- Toxic Metals
metals such as mercury and lead.
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
include commercial chemicals and pesticides.
- Microorganisms
include cysts, bacteria and viruses that can live in water.
The above contaminants are not necessarily in your water. The only way to be certain is to have your water tested.
Options for Improving Your Water
The good news is that there are a number of options available for improving your drinking water.
Carbon Filters
Activated carbon can reduce chlorine, VOCs, tastes, odors and, in some cases, lead. Carbon filters are available in a wide variety of sizes and styles, from small units that can be attached to the end of a faucet to in-line systems that must be connected to a home's plumbing. Filter cartridges must be changed regularly to ensure optimum contaminant reduction. Some systems eliminate guesswork by alerting you when a filter change is necessary.
Distillation Systems
Distillation systems boil water to reduce contaminants, then condense the steam that results and collect the water in a storage tank. Since certain substances don't vaporize, they don't rise with the steam. These units operate independently from a home's plumbing and are generally placed at the point of water use. Distillers can use a lot of energy, may radiate heat and must be cleaned regularly.
Ultraviolet Systems (UV)
UV systems destroy microorganisms by exposing them to intense ultraviolet light. Since they disinfect water rather than remove contaminants, UV systems are usually installed with other filters. They are ineffective in water that's cloudy, however, and constantly use electricity. Bulbs must be changed regularly for the systems to function properly.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) Systems
RO systems are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control as one of the most effective ways of protecting residential drinking water. They utilize a semipermeable membrane to reduce contaminants. When water is forced against the membrane, a portion of it passes through, while impurities are left behind to be carried away.
Reverse osmosis is effective against dissolved salts, suspended solids, dissolved chemicals and a wide variety of other contaminants that cannot be seen by the naked eye. When choosing an RO system, look for a unit with a high recovery rate (recovery rate = amount of water produced divided by amount of water used). Generally, a rate of 25% is considered efficient. Certain systems also employ a membrane rinse feature that cleans the membrane with the clean water produced by the system to prolong its life and ensure that it continues to produce only the best quality water.
The Importance of Choosing
Certified Products
Be sure that the system you choose is third-party certified by NSF International or the Water Quality Association (WQA). Remember that displaying the WQA logo may only signify that the company is a member of the Water Quality Association, not that its products are validated. And just because a product is NSF certified against some contaminants doesn't mean it protects you against all of them. Check to see that the system you choose is specifically certified to reduce the contaminants from which you wish to protect your family. Also, be wary of systems that carry only the NSF "component" certification, which indicates that only a single component of the system is certified and may not reflect overall system capabilities.
Courtesy of
Helpful Information: Drinking Water
