If the drinking water safety reports that we’ve been hearing are anywhere near accurate, then we have some major health concerns to deal with. The bevy of toxic elements which flow through your drinking water faucets on a daily basis could lead to serious consequences down the road.
The CDC and the WHO have recommended the use of chlorine disinfection to kill of multiple strains of bacteria and parasitic organisms that threaten our drinking water safety. The need for this kind of disinfection is understandable. If left unchecked these organisms could cause tens of thousands of deaths worldwide, and in a very short period of time.
The problem is that the very chemical meant to rescue us from this parasitic and bacterial threat may be killing us slowly itself. Chlorine disinfection releases particularly nasty toxins known as trihalomethanes or THMs. THMs are known to be highly carcinogenic and they come through your drinking water faucets and into your body on a daily basis.
Canadian health authorities have reported that 700 new cancer cases in their country every year can be directly attributed to long term consumption of THMs. This is a very serious issue of drinking water safety that has to be addressed. But, consumption of the toxin is not the only way that it can affect you.
Drinking water faucets are but one point of entry for chlorine and its spores, but delivery through your showerhead is an even more dangerous threat. When you take a hot shower, the chlorine in the water vaporizes even more rapidly than the water does. Inhalation of these vapors can cause several things to happen.
Chlorine vapor is a respiratory irritant, and has been known to trigger the onset of asthma. The toxin flows into your lungs and enters your bloodstream in a far higher concentration than could ever be absorbed through consumption. So as you see, there is much more to be concerned about than just drinking water safety.
Even the air in our homes could be a threat to our health. THMs upon entering your home system will convert to its natural form, which is that of chloroform gas. This gas which can be found in measurable amounts in nearly every home in America is the third form of attack that you must face. This is a drinking water safety problem at its worst.
What can the treatment facilities do in order to further protect you? They can’t really do much, because the equipment that they use should really only be the first step in a multi-tiered system. They would have to totally revamp everything in their program in order to keep your drinking water faucets free of contaminants.
So how do you fight a threat that can attack you in so many different ways? You do this with a complete set of filters for the home. You can either use individual filters for drinking water faucets and for showerheads, or a better idea might be to purchase a whole house protection system.
Whichever way you choose to go, simply make sure your system has a complete array of protective filters. Activated carbon for chlorine, a multi media unit for other chemicals, a micron filter for bacteria and an ion exchange for metals will do the trick. Drinking water safety in your home, it seems, is completely up to you.
Charlene McCracken is a researcher of health solutions. If you are interested in seeing her recommendation for water purification systems go to www.all-clean-water.com
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