Is Your Water Clean Enough?

Our Most Precious Resource. Second only to oxygen, water is the most vital substance for human life. While humans can survive weeks without food, only a few days without water will put you in dire straits. Across the world, water is one of the most precious resources to humanity, and people go to great lengths to secure a steady supply of it. Here in America, we often take this precious resource for granted.

But while we have relatively clean water pumped straight into our homes and buildings, we’ve certainly seen in recent years how it is not always safe to use, let alone drink. We have a remarkable system in place in this country for treating water and keeping it running through our vast network of cities, but we’ve learned that these systems are not always foolproof. Unknowingly, you could be using and/or drinking tainted water. Furthermore, even when our water supplies are not tainted or somehow compromised, water is still treated with a variety of less-than-healthy chemicals, such as chlorine.

“trace amounts of toxins such as lead, mercury, and even prescription drugs can still be found in the water we drink regularly”

Chlorine is excellent for eliminating any sort of biological contaminants, but knowing this, perhaps it is not something you would prefer to consume regularly. Contention also surrounds the addition of fluoride to our water; people on both sides of the debate surrounding the addition of fluoride to our water have their arguments for or against its use, but ultimately it is not something necessary for human health; many would choose to avoid it all together.

Ultimately, even when our water is treated optimally and un-compromised, trace amounts of toxins such as lead, mercury, and even prescription drugs can still be found in the water we drink regularly.

So What Should We Do?

So what can you do to ensure that you and your family are getting the purest, healthiest water available?

There are a variety of options available. Many companies deliver clean water treated via reverse osmosis and other non-chemical treatment methods (such as steam distillation, etc.) straight to your door. Opt for glass containers when possible; be sure to avoid any plastic containers containing bisphenol A, or BPA.

There are also a variety of water filters available, from gravity-fed filters to filters that attach directly to your kitchen sink. While these are great options, particularly for water you plan on drinking and/or cooking with, it doesn’t address the issue of the water you use for cleaning, bathing, showering, etc. To that end, it is possible to install in-home reverse osmosis filtration systems. This is ideal, but also a more expensive option. On faucet-filters can be installed in showers or sinks and provide good filtration options for water used for purposes other than just cooking or drinking.

If you’re a water connoisseur and like to gather your own water in nautre, you may like using your own TDS meter, which measures “total dissolved solids”, and determine a natural source for yourself. There’s a website, for example, called Find A Spring where you can track down natural spring water near you. Springs are sometimes the cleanest “raw”, untreated source of water anywhere. (But make sure to test before consuming raw water, and consider thoroughly boiling the water, as animal waste and environmental pollutants could always be a factor.)

Water is vital to health; take the necessary steps you are getting the purest water possible.