Bottled vs. Tap -- What's the Difference?

Do you know what you're drinking when you get a drink of water from your tap at home? Or from your little sink water filter? Or do you just drink bottled water?

I wasn't sure that I really wanted to know what was in my water, but I had to find out because I really wanted to stop buying bottled water. Bottled water is so easy and convenient, but, as it turns out, most of them test positive for toxins -- and to make matters worse, many of the plastic bottles do not end up getting recycled.

So much of it ends up in our rivers and oceans that there are literally fish-sterilizing wastelands of debris the size of Texas, like the one that drifts north of Hawaii in the North Pacific Gyre. This island of plastic spans a distance one and half times the size of the United States. In some cases, it extends down 100 feet.

So in my quest to consume less plastic and protect my children, I had my water tested by several companies. There are many options for free tests from companies on-line, and any company wanting to sell you a filtration system will usually test your water for free.

I had both tests done and was shocked to find that my city treated water had contaminants at levels that should not be consumed. Over time these toxins can accumulate in your body, so regardless of size, it will eventually take its toll.

Here's what we found in our water:

1. Aluminum. Level Found: 0.14 ppm

• Known To Cause: Linked to lung diseases, heart problems and stomach ulcers. Known to cause cancer in laboratory animals. It is poisonous to the nervous system; symptoms include: nervousness, mood swings, emotional instability, memory loss, headaches, and impaired intellect.


• Where It Comes From: Discharge from petroleum refineries; fire retardants; ceramics; electronics; solder.

2. Arsenic. Level Found: 2.6 ppb

• Known To Cause: Linked to causing cancer of the skin, lungs, liver, urinary bladder, and kidney, as well as other skin changes such as pigmentation changes and thickening in humans through consumption of drinking water.


• Where It Comes From: Arsenic is widely distributed throughout the Earth's crust, most often as arsenic sulfide or as metal arsenates and arsenide. Arsenicals are used commercially and industrialy, primarily as alloying agents in the manufacture of electronics. Arsenic is introduced into drinking water sources primarily through the dissolution of natural occurring minerals and ores and some pesticides.

3. Barium. Level Found: 0.05 ppm

• Known To Cause: Linked to causing difficulties in breathing, increased blood pressure, heart disease (affecting heart rhythm), stomach ulcers, brain swelling, muscle weakness, damage to liver, kidneys, heart and spleen.


• Where It Comes From: Barium is present as a trace element in both igneous and sedimentary rocks. Although it is not found free in nature. Barium compounds, including barium sulfate and barium carbonate, are used in the plastics, rubber, electronics and textile industries, in ceramic glazes and enamels, glass making, brick making and paper making, as a lubricant additive, in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, in case hardening steel and in the oil and gas industry as a wetting agent for drilling mud. Barium is released to water and soil in the discharge and disposal of drilling wastes, from the smelting of copper, and the manufacture of motor vehicle parts and accessories.

4. Chlorine. Level Found: 2.4 ppm

• Known To Cause: Linked to increased risk of cancer. Byproducts of chlorine are linked to liver, kidney or central nervous system problems. Asthma can be triggered by exposure to chlorinated water. Also linked to dermatitis.


• Where It Comes From: Chlorine is produced in large amounts and widely used both industrially and domestically as a disinfectant and bleach. Water companies typically add chlorine to water because it is a cheap disinfectant.

5. HAA5's (Haloacetic Acids). Level Found: 14 ppb (May be higher at your home).

• Known To Cause: Linked to causing liver, kidney or central nervous system problems, increased risk of cancer, reproductive Difficulties.


• Where It Comes From: Byproduct of drinking water disinfected by halogenation. It can also be found in ozonated drinking water.

6. Trichloroethylene. Level Found: 1.2 ppb

• Known To Cause: Linked to causing neurological, liver, and kidney problems, adverse reproductive effects, such as spontaneous abortions, increased risk of cancer, known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.


• Where It Comes From: Primarily used for dry cleaning and textile processing, as a chemical intermediate, and for vapor degreasing in metal-cleaning operations.

7. TTHM's (Trihalomethanes). Level Found: 46 ppb (May be higher at your home)

• Known To Cause: Linked to causing liver, kidney, or central nervous system problems, reproductive difficulties, increased risk of cancer.


• Where It Comes From: Byproducts of drinking water disinfection with chlorine.

The only good news was that the water was clear and the other contaminants found--copper, fluoride, lead, and nitrate--where not at dangerous levels.

What kind of filtration system will eliminate chemical contaminants in water? Everyone selling a system will tell you their filtration process will give you the cleanest, best tasting water, but only distillation will eliminate chemicals, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals. That's right, there is such a high saturation of prescription medication in retreated water that municipals aren't certain that it can be filtered completely. Most systems that are available and affordable for homeowners use reverse osmosis with a combination of carbon filters and some UV. Those kinds of systems work well when you are trying to remove pathogens from water like spores, bacteria, ecoli and viruses but none of them remove the chemicals or metals listed in my water reports.

I chose to install a small home distiller for drinking water and a basic whole house filtration system. It was not an easy decision. Distillers can use a lot of power and create a lot of heat in the process. Ultimately, I decided that my plastic consumption needed to end not only for the planet but also for the health of my family. It is also necessary to re-mineralize your water for flavor and to make it more biocompatible. Sounds complicated, but only involves adding a few drops of liquid minerals that are widely available.

Free Water Testing:
AquaMD: 1-866-278-2634 or www.AquaMD.com

Basic Home Filtration Systems:
Culligan: 1-877-412-2750 or www.culliganwaterservice.com

Home Distiller:
Pure & Secure: www.mypurewater.com

Liquid Minerals:
Concentrace-Trace Mineral Drops
www.traceminerals.com/Available at Whole Foods

 

Follow Margaret Hyde on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@MosNose

Comments

[rf dude]

12:53 PM on 03/27/2010

EPA "Safe" Levels:

Aluminum - 0.2ppM
Arsenic - 10ppB
Barium - 2mg/L or 2ppM
Chlorine - 2 to 3 ppM
HAA5 - 60ppB
Trichlorethylene - 5ppB
TTHM - 80ppB

Filter if you want, but your water tests well within established safety guidelines. Of course, the actual safety of the guideline numbers is always open for (and will be) debated - but there are probably other far more dangerous threats to your health than your water.

Like that Toyota Prius behind you on the freeway...

[Josephius]

04:32 PM on 03/25/2010

"......but only involves adding a few drops of liquid minerals that are widely available."

Such as?

[rf dude]

12:48 PM on 03/27/2010

'
Texas Tea...

[Jeff Sloan]

02:10 PM on 03/25/2010

Margaret—

It’s good that you are researching the quality of your drinking water. I must take issue with your characterization of chlorine, however.

Chlorine is present in our water for a good reason— it’s effective at killing the germs that can make us sick. Before cities began treating drinking water with chlorine--starting with Chicago and Jersey City in 1908--cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A and dysentery killed thousands of U.S. residents annually. EPA requires municipalities that treat their water to have a residual level of chlorine to protect water from microbial recontamination as it travels to consumer taps.

Additionally, chlorine is not classified as a known or possible carcinogen by EPA, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) or the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Chlorinated byproducts of water treatment are being researched for their potential health effects. But In 2000, the World Health Organization concluded, “The risk of illness and death resulting from exposure to pathogens in drinking water is very much greater than the risks from disinfectants and DBPs…Efficient disinfection must never be compromised.”

Best,
Jeff

Jeff Sloan
American Chemistry Council

[Sheldon101]

07:44 PM on 03/25/2010

Facts, we don't want no stinking facts!!! Actually, what are "dinstinfectants and DBPs?

[Kevin Mangini]

08:52 AM on 03/25/2010

I bought this new product, a self-filtrating "bobble" a few weeks ago and love it. Water tastes great and I feel better knowing that I'm not filling up landfills with plastic bottles. http://www.fastcompany.com/1553973/bobble-aims-to-become-the-brita-of-portable-water-bottles

[GinaL]

07:26 AM on 03/25/2010

Did you test bottled water as well?

[nyscof]

07:18 AM on 03/25/2010

Sorry, I have more bad news for you. Fluoride at any level in your drinking water is hazardous to some people's health. For example, both the Centers for Disease Control and the American Dental Association advise that infant formula NOT be mixed with fluoridated water.

Even low levels of fluoride have been linked to many adverse health effects such as thyroid damage. Fluoride also accumulates in the body. So high water drinkers can especially be harmed by fluoride which builds up in bones to create skeletal fluorosis - an arthritic type disease.

Unlike most of the other chemicals mentioned in your article, fluoride is purposely added to water supplies and isn't required to make the water safer to drink. Fluoride is added in a failed effort to reduce tooth decay in tap water drinkers. So people need to call, write, petition and lobby their legislators to stop the unnecessary, health-robbing and money wasting fluoridation of your public water supplies.

Further, the fluoridation chemicals are allowed to contain trace amounts of arsenic, lead, mercury, barium, antimony See: www.nsf.org/business/water_distribution/pdf/NSF_Fact_Sheet.pdf

You pay to put this stuff in (NYC spent $24 million in 2008) and you pay to take it out.

Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth. Politics not science keeps fluoridation afloat.
For more info http://www.FluorideAction.Net

[lbsaltzman]

03:33 AM on 03/25/2010

There are excellent filtration systems that don't use energy to filter. I support filtration over bottled water, but that system should not use additional energy.