Is Tap Water Bad for Me and My Family?

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When water looks and smells clean, it can be difficult to really understand the number of potential health risks that may be lurking in that glass. The questions about tap water continue to grow, and there can be quite a bit of debate on the safety of standard tap water.

As more and more people do develop concerns, companies like Aquafil (aquafil.com.au) offer up lots of affordable options to help clean up your tap water. So, what possible problems might be hiding in your water?

Chlorine and Fluoride

These two are present in most city water sources, because they are deliberately added to your drinking water. The first is intended to purify the water by killing microorganisms and the second is supposed to be a beneficial addition to help with dental health. Governments generally insist that they are both safe and harmless, but people are starting to question that. If you are concerned about undiscovered health risks, you will want to filter just for these 2 compounds alone.

Pesticides and Fertilizers

Agricultural run-off and contamination is another source of potential toxins in your water supply. Pesticides and fertilizers in your drinking water is a documented issue though it’s not consistently a problem in every region. Needless to say, these are not chemicals you want to be consuming regularly.

Heavy Metals

This category of water contaminants includes mercury, lead, arsenic, copper, and zinc as just a few examples. Exposure to high levels of these compounds will lead to a wide range of health problems. Many are naturally occurring so it’s not necessarily an issue about pollution in this case. But if water treatment processes don’t filter them out, it’s something you need to deal with on your own.

Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals

Again, too much agricultural run-off can introduce a high level of antibiotics into a water system due to their use with livestock. Residential waste can also introduce medical products to the water supply, as they are often in such low traces that purification systems aren’t very effective. Even so, low amounts of many medically active compounds have have a cumulative effect if they are in your drinking water.

Organic Contamination

By this we mean various organisms like E.coli, bacteria and parasites can all make an appearance with improperly treated municipal water. Even simple household filters won’t protect you from this kind of contamination so you should consider a UV light system if biological organisms are a likely threat.

The bottom line is that there is no set answer about your tap water because it varies so greatly from place to place. Overall, there is almost certainly some level of contamination (chlorine alone if nothing else), and that can be enough of a problem to start thinking about water filters. Whether or not your health is directly at risk can only be established by getting some detailed testing done of your household drinking water. Once you find out what is in your water, then you can decide what kind of filtering system is best for you and your family.