We all know that there are many benefits of drinking water, but did you know that if the water you are drinking contains harmful contaminants it could be doing your body more harm than good?
According to the EPA, there are over 80 contaminants that may occur in drinking water that are a risk to human health. Wow, makes you think twice about drinking straight from the tap, doesn’t it?
There are two ways that contaminants affect your health:
- Acute: will affect you within hours or days of consumption
- Chronic: effects will occur over time
Here is a list of common contaminants found in water:
- Arsenic
- Barium
- Cryptosporidium
- Chloramine
- Chlorine
- Fluoride
- Bacteria & Viruses
- Lead
- Nitrates/Nitrites
- Mercury
- Giardia Iamblia
- Legionella
This informative water infographic from Environmental Consulting Group does a great job at explaining how these contaminants can affect your health:
This information begs the question, “Do you know what’s in your water?”
We highly recommend that you have your water tested. There are many ways you can do this, and we encourage you to do your research beforehand to make sure that the testing service you are using is a trustworthy one.
Trust us, there are many water testing scams that will “test” your water, give you false results and try to sell you an expensive water filtration system. We recently wrote a blog all about door-to-door water testing scams, read about it here.
Here are ways you can have your water tested:
- Order an at-home water test kit here.
- Have your water tested by a state-certified lab (WQA recommendation
- You can search for Information for Certification Programs and Certified Laboratories for Drinking Water here.
- Water treatment products that have been third-party certified (WQA recommendation)
- You can search for WQA-Certified Treatment Products here.
Once you’ve had your water tested and know exactly what’s lurking in your drinking water, we recommend investing in a home filtration system that fits your budget and your needs.
Need help figuring out what kind of at-home water filtration you need? Ask us! We’re here to help.
Have you had your tap water tested? If so, what contaminants were you surprised to find you had high levels of? Let us know in the comments.
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