How Safe is the Tap Water in Our Homes

Volume 1 Issue 5

April 2002

That flu you can not seem to shake could be from the water you have been drinking according to many academic and government studies which admit that the researchers have no real handle on how serious the problem is because most people attribute stomach problems to flu or food poisoning. They let the illnesses run their course over a few days and rarely see a doctor. Even if they do get help, doctors rarely do the kinds of tests that can peg bad water as the culprit. And, in the rare cases when doctors find bad water is behind an illness, there generally is no requirement that they report it.

"Nobody really has any idea of how many people are getting sick and dying," says Rebecca Calderon, a waterborne-disease expert at the EPA. Other researchers go further that no one has any idea what other illnesses bad water may be giving people.

There's virtually no data on less common water- related ailments, such as cancers linked to radon, radium and some industrial and agricultural pollutants. It's almost impossible to pin a specific cause in most cancer cases -- there are too many possibilities. Scared yet? You will be once you find out what is likely in the water you are drinking. First, how accurate is the claim that water in the United States is safe to drink?

While the EPA’s primary tool for ensuring the safety of the nation's drinking water is an impressively massive database containing millions of records on the USA's 170,000 public water systems, the database is so flawed and plagued with dirty data -- incomplete, outdated and incorrect information -- that even the government acknowledges it's a poor way of monitoring whether people are getting clean water from the tap.

Despite spending six years and $11 million overhauling the database, it still isn't working. Even the EPA Web site admits that the "EPA is aware of inaccuracies in the Safe Drinking Water Information System. We are working with the states to improve the quality of the data."

The EPA database is supposed to contain state-reported violation and enforcement information on all federally regulated public water systems, from those serving big cities to the smallest, with just 25 customers. It's supposed to be used by the EPA to monitor state water programs and tell which systems aren't meeting safe drinking water standards.

But dirty data, caused by a host of problems, including lax reporting by states, confusion about what information is supposed to be reported and technical glitches in transferring data from state programs to the federal system, makes it tough to get a complete picture. Looking at the database alone, one can't tell where problems exist and how well safe drinking water laws are enforced.

That means the EPA has no real idea if the water in your home is safe to drink. Is it?

You may not think so once you find out what is in your home drinking water. Bacteria are the likely cause of the intestinal and stomach upsets that the victims of bad water most often report. Among the worst bacteria is cryptosporidium, the parasite that polluted Milwaukee's water in 1993, killing 111 people and sickening more than 403,000. It was the worst case of waterborne illness in modern U.S. history. The city's treatment system at the time wasn't good enough to kill the bug, which can evade conventional filters and is resistant to chlorine, most systems' main defense. Of course, chlorine creates its own problems in drinking water. Studies now show that high chlorine concentrations can react with acids in water to create trihalomethanes -- compounds linked to spontaneous miscarriages and various cancers. In response, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new rules limiting THMs and other possibly dangerous "disinfection byproducts" in drinking water.

Also placed in your drinking water is fluoride – a hazardous chemical like chlorine.  Fluoride is a known hazard despite being pushed as good for your dental health. Just look at the side of your toothpaste box. An advisory, which began appearing on fluoridated toothpaste in April 1997, by order of the Food and Drug Administration, begins with the familiar command to brush thoroughly at least twice a day but then continues with special instructions for children ages two to six: "Use only a pea sized amount and supervise child's brushing and rinsing (to minimize swallowing).  " Then comes an additional warning to keep the toothpaste "out of the reach of children under 6 years of age," and finally the ominous advice, "In case of accidental ingestion ... contact a Poison Control Center immediately."

But nearly two-thirds of the public water supplies in the United States are fluoridated. Maybe they should not be. Fluoride is, after all, an extremely toxic compound that originally was sold as a bug and rat poison.

A growing body of scientific research suggests that long-term fluoride consumption may cause numerous health problems, ranging from cancer and impaired brain function to brittle bones and fluorosis (the white splotches on teeth that indicate weak enamel). An estimated 22 percent of American children have some form of fluorosis.
But not having fluoridated water will create an epidemic of cavities?

Recent studies in the Journal of Dental Research conclude that tooth decay rates in Western Europe, which is 98 percent unfluoridated, have declined as much as they have in the United States in recent decades. Indeed, it's only in the United States that fluoride is championed by the government; most European nations -- including Germany, France, Sweden and Holland -- prohibit fluoride on public health grounds.

In the United States, new evidence against fluoride is not coming from the far left fringe but from credentialed scientists working for the EPA and Harvard's Forsyth Research Institute who consider fluoride very dangerous.
"Would you brush your teeth with arsenic? Fluoride is somewhat less toxic than arsenic and more toxic than lead, and you wouldn't want either of them in your mouth,” asks Dr. Robert Carton, a former EPA scientist.

But chlorine and fluoride are not the only hazardous elements of nature in the water you drink at home. There may also be hazardous metals such as lead in the water you drink.

Before 1930, lead pipes were commonly used in home plumbing and in the connections between homes and the public water supply.  Copper pipes were often joined with lead solder until this practice was prohibited in 1986.  Studies have shown that we receive as much as 20 percent of our total lead intake from drinking water. What can lead do to you?

According to the EPA, everyone who ingests lead is susceptible to its effects because it accumulates in the body.  At sufficient levels, lead can impair the reproductive and central nervous systems and may interfere with behavioral and emotional development.

In adults, lead can increase blood pressure and interfere with hearing.  At high levels of exposure, lead can cause anemia, kidney damage and mental retardation. Because of their size, children are at even greater risk than adults.  Lead can reduce a child’s IQ, causing them to become slow learners, and it can interfere with the formation of red blood cells.  Lead can also delay the physical and mental development of babies and young children and impair the mental abilities of children in general. Of course lead can kill you and your family at high enough levels. How can you get the lead out of the water you drink?

If you can not afford bottled water or a home water treatment system, you can reduce the amount of lead in the water you are drinking by flushing the tap water each morning for about one minute, or until cold, to clear out lead that accumulates overnight.

Of course, lead is not the only metals that can appear in your water. Depending on your area you can be drinking water with copper, for example, in it which can make you sick too. But metal is not all you may be drinking with your water.

Gasoline from supposedly leak-proof tanks underneath gas stations and motor fleet yards across the nation is oozing into the ground and contaminating drinking water wells. Such leaks were supposed to be a thing of the past after the government ordered spill-proofing and leak-monitoring of every underground tank by 1998. Research reveals that the new regulations may only have planted a new generation of toxic troubles.

Since the early 1980s, 22,000 underground petroleum tanks have leaked in just North Carolina and cost $260 million to clean up. North Carolina ranks sixth in the nation for its resident population of large underground tanks--31,840. Every month, the state gets about 100 reports of leaks from upgraded commercial tanks, as well as from closed-down facilities and home heating oil tanks.

While the petroleum industry itself claims that underground tanks featuring double walls are the safest technology, the EPA mandates several cheaper measures, including an electronic monitoring to detect leaks. EPA inspectors complain that while the electronic monitoring box behind the counter of each gas station is supposed to alert workers there to any leaks from the tanks or pipes, with years between inspections, clerks are more likely to pay attention to the cash register and the popcorn machine than to the leak monitor.

"Our inspectors will go in, and they'll see lights blinking, alarms ringing, and the clerks are going about their business, just ignoring it,” describes one inspector which means that by the time a leak is detected and acted upon, you could be drinking gasoline and its associated poisons in your home right from your kitchen sink.

Of course, there is a lot more hazardous materials in the water you drink but you get the idea that you need to protect yourself and your family against these hazardous. How?

The best way is to cook with and drink bottled water. Bottled water produced by reputable companies takes out most – if not almost all – the contaminants in drinking water. The catch is not all bottled water is pure water. Some companies have been caught selling normal tap water as purified water complete with all the pollutants you now have in your own home water. So, be careful what you buy.

Another way to protect you and your family against home drinking water pollutants is water filtration. There are three basic methods of water filtration and purification. Carbon filtration is the most efficient, cost-effective means of purifying your water. Creates healthy, good-tasting water "on demand" without the expense and concerns of either Reverse Osmosis or Distillation. Carbon filtration does require periodic changes of filter cartridges.

Distillation is slow process to convert water to steam and then condense it back to water. This process does not remove all contaminants, like organic compounds, and should have a carbon filter for this purpose. It uses substantial energy and creates water that is rather "flat" tasting and may leach minerals from your body.

And reverse osmosis is an inefficient, slow process that can waste as much as 9 gallons of water for every gallon of purified water it creates. The RO water is also corrosive to pipes. RO units are expensive to buy and expensive to operate and maintain. Also creates rather "flat" tasting water and may also leach minerals from your body.

Before buying any water filtration system, read any information about it you can find both from the manufacturer (such as manufacturer Web site) and in such publications as Consumer Reports.

Of course, while you should get the best value for your money, you also need to remember that the human body is 65 percent water, and it takes an average of eight to ten cups to replenish the water our bodies lose each day. You need clean and pure water to stay alive and well.

Email this article to a friend

Email a friend a link to our web site

Have you seen a safety device you think our readers should know about?
Does your company make or sell a safety device you would like to see featured in this column?
If so, please e-mail the information about the device to Safety Issues.
The purpose of this column is to make your life safer with the use of the latest technology.
Neither Safety Issues nor its affiliated companies are responsible for any opinions expressed in this column.
Thank you for reading this column.

  © 2008 SafetyIssues.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.