| Ever wonder how clean and safe your tap water | | | | some other facts I found: |
| is? Maybe the taste of your water is not | | | | • EPA standards do not cover water quality |
| particularly appealing? When you hold your glass | | | | when it gets into public distribution systems. In |
| up to the light, do you can see "little floaty things" | | | | other words, whatever water picks up during it's |
| in it? Frankly, I knew drinking water was | | | | journey from their system to your system, the |
| important to my health, but I just could not bring | | | | quality of the water that comes out of your |
| myself to drink something that looked and tasted | | | | faucet is not their concern. |
| so "yucky!" | | | | • More than half the contaminants found in |
| For several years my solution was 5-gallon bottles | | | | our water do not yet have safety standards. |
| of spring water delivered to my house. I tolerated | | | | That means these unexamined contaminants get |
| 5 or 6 bottles, full and empty, taking up valuable | | | | a "free ride" straight to - and through - your |
| space because I felt I was doing what was best | | | | unprotected water faucet! |
| for my family. Then I learned that BPAs were | | | | • Of actual water quality violations, 50% of |
| leaching into my water from the bottles! | | | | the water systems in the US do violate the |
| Then, when Climate Change issues began flooding | | | | standards for microbes and cloudiness in their |
| the news, another light went off in my head. One | | | | drinking water. |
| look at all the bottles lining one wall of my garage | | | | • According to the U. S. Communicable |
| launched me into bottle research. I learned that | | | | Disease Center's (CDC) 2006 national estimate of |
| manufacturing the water bottles necessary to | | | | waterborne disease associated with public drinking |
| meet Americans' demand for bottled water | | | | water, they estimate a mean of 16.4 million annual |
| requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually. | | | | endemic waterborne-disease cases. (These cases |
| Just think: that is enough energy to fuel some | | | | are not including the cases associated with |
| 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. | | | | non-public drinking water systems, bottled water, |
| In addition, we pitch 38 billion water bottles a year | | | | recreational water, and water not intended for |
| into landfills. It takes 1000 years for the plastics in | | | | drinking.) The CDC has found that when errors |
| those bottles to biodegrade! Worldwide, some 2.7 | | | | occur, local Water Authorities sometimes do their |
| million tons of plastic are used to bottle water | | | | best to keep the truth from city officials and |
| each year and, as in the US, 86% end up as | | | | from the public. |
| garbage or litter. Incineration better? No, because | | | | • Cancer and other health-related risks are |
| burning bottles produces toxic byproducts such as | | | | related to chlorine and THMs (chlorine disinfection |
| chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals tied | | | | by-products).It became clear that Government |
| to a host of human and animal health problems. | | | | was never going to address, much less solve, the |
| Each week, in the United States alone, we are | | | | "water problem" for me. It was up to me to get |
| moving 1 billion bottles of water around in ships, | | | | my family the very best water filter and, by |
| trains, and trucks. That is a weekly convoy | | | | installing it in my own home, provide clean, pure |
| equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers burning up fossil | | | | drinking water without burning up more fossil fuels |
| fuel to deliver water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds | | | | and creating more litter. |
| a gallon. It is so heavy you cannot fill an | | | | From the many filters advertised in the market, |
| 18-wheeler with bottled water-you have to leave | | | | which filter was best for chlorine, chloramine, |
| empty space.) | | | | THMs, cysts, and VOCs . . . and would be cost |
| Even if you do not believe humans cause Climate | | | | efficient and easy to install? |
| Change, even if you do not believe there is such | | | | Pure Drinking Water may have been my first |
| a thing as Climate Change, no one wants to leave | | | | priority; then I learned that we absorb as much |
| a filthy Earth that makes our children and | | | | chemical contaminants through our skin as we do |
| grandchildren sick. | | | | drinking water. The skin is the body's largest |
| So why not take a good look at your own tap | | | | organ! That realization made finding the right |
| water and decide that clean, pure, safe drinking | | | | Whole-House water filter my highest priority. |
| water is one thing you can do for yourself and | | | | More research revealed that most whole-house |
| for your future generations.We recently learned | | | | water filter systems are only certified by the NSF |
| that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals found in | | | | to reduce sediment and chlorine! What about all |
| municipal water systems is only one of the | | | | those other contaminants? |
| problems that lurk in your drinking water. Here are | | | | |