Water is one of the most important things from the list of our daily necessities. Your body can hold on for three weeks without getting any food, but it can only last four days without water before it can affect overall functionality. Additionally, clean local water is a necessity to maintain good public health risk effects and cell hydration.
Drinking dirty water can cause diseases in both humans and other animals. But because of the advancement through water research and technological advancement, the majority of the world can now access treated water. The public water from treatment facilities, commonly known as tap water, is one of the biggest sources of potable water. Since its existence, a lot of people are still wondering, is it bad to safe to drink tap water?
Although safe drinking water/tap water is potable, the number of problems from water quality is still a staple in each year’s report. Chlorine treatment itself can produce carcinogenic by-products. Would it be better if we opt for a more expensive alternative like bottled water? In this article, we will give five good reasons why you should think twice before gulping a glass of tap water from your faucet.
Three Different Kind Of Potable Water
There are three kinds of potable water currently offered in the market right now. Millions of people are getting their primary source of potable water via tap water safe. According to One Medical Group, tap water is generally safe for most drinkers. However, it’s hard to get a consistent water quality in tap water because it is affected by a lot of volatile factors. Tap water treatment and distribution is currently being overseen by EPA
Another source of potable water is bottled water, which is usually marketed as water derived from nature. This is the water recommended if there is sudden contaminated water in the tap water supply. The additional price in consuming bottled water is usually the premium from packaging, labeling, and manufacturing containers. However, according to One Medical Group, there is no real significance in the water quality between tap and bottled water.
Lastly, there are a lot of people who use water filters either for the whole house water systems or in point of use. There are a lot of filters available in the market right now, but the most common filters in developed countries are activated carbon and UV lamp.
Read more: https://www.onemedical.com/blog/live-well/tap-water
Five Reasons Why You Should Add Filters For Your Tap Water
1. Presence Of Carcinogenic Trihalomethanes or THMs
There has been a lot of talk regarding Trihalomethanes or THMs, which is a by-product when chlorine is used as a disinfectant. According to Water Research, the four known THMs (Chloroform, Dibromochloromethane, Bromodichloromethane, and Bromoform) are all carcinogenic. All of these THMs are considered as Cancer Group B carcinogens, which is known to infect lab animals.
Read more: https://water-research.net/index.php/trihalomethanes-disinfection
2. Tap Water Contamination Can Happen During Distribution
Sure, the water is treated based on the standard from EPA, which follows the international standards. However, even if the water delivered is treated and cleaned, a lot of things could happen during the transit from the treatment facility to home users. Unexpected accidents such as a pipe bursting, rainwater seeping into leaking pipes, and more accidents can cause contamination in tap water.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG6xCy_xLfI
3. You’re In A Neighborhood With High Case Of Cryptosporidiosis Or Drug Use
According to WebMD, drugs such as antibiotics, mood stabilizers, hormones, and more. For various circumstances, these drugs found their way into the water supply. This problem has been in concern for more than a decade. In addition, some samples from tap water suppliers might contain Cryptosporidiosis, which usually causes severe diarrhea. These might not be a problem for healthy individuals. But for children, the elderly, chronic illnesses, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, contamination might be deadly.
Read more: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/drugs-in-our-drinking-water
4. If You’re Living In Locations With Worst Bad Water Reputation
Not all water distributors have equal quality standards. There are places in the US where water is cleaner than the other. In particular, small rural communities have a lower quality of bottled water because of the off-grid water source. Fresno and Modesto in California, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and other places located at Texas, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin are among the places with worst water supplies, according to Bob Vila.
5. You Don’t Like The Taste And Smell Of Tap Water
At the end of the day, one of the biggest contributors to dislike for drinking tap water is its funny smell and taste. In addition to its chemical-heavy smell and taste, there are times when the water is cloudy or muddy. This is also one of the reasons why there are people who prefer to spend more money on plastic bottles water. One of the best ways to get the smell and the taste out of the water is by using a filtration system.
Conclusion
Overall, the best solution for people who don’t want to spend a lot on bottled water, but doesn’t want to drink water directly is using a water filter. You can get a better water quality if you combine several kinds of filters such as activated carbon and UV lamp. Additionally, filters can last for a long time without hurting the environment by not using plastic containers and without by-products that can harm its consumer.
And that’s it for five reasons to not drink unfiltered tap water. If you learned something new, please share this article with your friends. If you have more questions, you can use the comment section and share your ideas with us and other readers. Thank you for reading and see you in the next article.
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