How Safe Is Drinking Tap Water from Water Filters?

Health Alkaline ^ | Health Alkaline

[truthnomatterwhat]

How safe is your tap drinking water? it’s possible pesticides or contaminants could be flowing from your faucet.

Public water systems, tap waters are tested and regulated by the government. By law, municipalities have to test the water and report to consumers once a year. They can test once a year, four times a year, sometimes less. They test for 90 contaminants like copper, arsenic, lead. There is a report that tells you what’s in the water and if it’s dangerous. But they average the results. So if you live in an agricultural area, pesticides in the water spike in the spring because those results don’t show up in your water report.

There are many contaminants, and many of them the government doesn’t perform safety tests on. We think they should test for more than they are.

Good Housekeeping tested some of the filtration devices out there that people are using. Here’s how they did the study?

They paired up with the lab for emerging contaminants at the university of Arizona. With the Good Housekeeping research institute they tested refrigerator water filters and tabletop water filters to see how they filter out the most prevalent of untested contaminants.

There's more at: How Safe Is Drinking Tap Water from Water Filters? http://www.healthalkaline.com/waternews/how-safe-is-drinking-tap-water-from-water-filters/#ixzz2KqLuLWjg

[ClearCase_guy]

I’ve heard that for Marco Rubio, it’s fatal.

[bicyclerepair]

SFL here. And untreated tap water is green from decaying organic matter.

I have a 3-stage filter under my sink. In each filter I have a different type of filter to hopefully cover all the bases. The water coming out is crystal clear.

[ansel12]

What a useless article.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I remember visiting relatives in Gary, IN when I was a kid. The water was so malodorous (sulfur) it made me sick. What a foul stench — you had to hold your nose to get it down. Amazing I still remember that after about 53 years. I don’t think there’s a filter on the market that could make that stuff palatable.

[yarddog]

I was watching a man take a sample of water from a hydrant way up in the mountains at a retreat. He asked me if I would help him turn something. Anyway he took the sample.

I asked him what was the safe limit on certain organisms. He told me then I asked him what our water rated. He said it contained zero pollutants of any kind.

I had always thought their water was great and apparently it was.

There was a creek flowing out of the mountains onto the retreat’s property. I asked him what it contained and he said it had a fair amount of bacteria. He said he would not ordinarily drink from it but if he had been hunting all day and was really thirsty, he would go ahead and drink it and not really worry.

[Intolerant in NJ]

By law, municipalities have to test the water and report to consumers once a year Some years ago when we built our new house, our town, as a routine part of the permit-approval process, asked if we would help with its water-testing each year - they provided an empty bottle once a year, and we filled the bottle from the kitchen tap first thing in the morning, after not using the tap for at least eight hours - eventually we would get a written report back on the quality of the water, alwasy well within drinkable standards - this went along fine for several years, until it became impossible for us to participate anymore (I think my daughter graduated college and got a job which meant she was up and using the sink before the required time had elapsed) - that year when the sample bottle arrived, I placed it back on the porch empty, with a note saying we wouldn't be participating again - sure enough, about a month later we got a fine written report on our water (non) sample, saying all was well - I called the water department about this strange event, and of course got a runaround about how the lab must have mixed up the samples - so much for municiple water tests......

[Secret Agent Man]

pur 3-stage filters on the tap work well. they do remove stuff well as they get to a point of needing replacement, and that’s with a pretty good water to start with. pur always outperforms brita. reverse osmosis generally beats pur.

[goodnesswins]

I have a similar memory...only it was about 30 miles south of Seattle....my Girl Scout Leader’s house....they kept the water in a pitcher in the fridge to make it palatable.

[Tainan]

We have a 3 stage also and a RO on top of that. Wife still insists on boiling the water to remove any left-in chemicals.
We get the filters changed every 3 months or so. Water tested after to check results.
As to the local testing by the 'Water Department'...when I lived in Huntington Beach we could take samples of tap water to the Water Department anytime and they would run a full screen on it.

I was a home brewer and so was the chief of the Water Department. We had some mighty fine water there!

Tap water is one thing, but most people don't think about their shower water. The skin is the bodies largest organ and it absorbs whatever is in your water.
Shower filter anyone?

[21twelve]

“I was watching a man take a sample of water from a hydrant way up in the mountains at a retreat.”

I forget the town, but it is in the foothills north of Seattle. Some bottling company in Seattle uses their water to sell as “Pure Mountain Spring Water”.

Their truck pulls it from the little town’s hydrant and heads back to the bottling plant!

[dalereed]

i’ll take mine straight out of the tap, all those things are good for you, keeps your immune system on ready alert! Last time I was sick was 67 years ago when I had the measles.

[imardmd1]

I don’t think there’s a filter on the market that could make that stuff palatable.

Not being sarcastic, Schuylkill River water is treated by reverse osmosis to provide Philadelpia's drinking water.

http://acereport.org/downloads/Download_06.pdf

Makes one wonder ---

[Nepeta]

Not everything dissolved in water is deleterious: horse farms are concentrated around Lexington, Kentucky because the calcium in the water helps build horse bones.

Maybe there are some slack towns that test their water 4 times a year, but for cities of any size, I'm certain they do chemical and microbial testing all year. It would be not wonderful if 500,000 people got sick from tap water.

Private labs doing water testing are another story. I worked at one (briefly) that cut corners, used improper equipment, improper procedures, and generated useless results.

I drink tap water every day.

[dsrtsage]

In colonial times, it was all whiskey and beer, as the water was not safe to drink. I say we go all colonial.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

That would be the Lead and Copper test. It’s more of a test to see how the water reacts with your pipes and fixtures. If the water is acidic, it can leach pb and cu from the plumbing. I doubt that you have lead solder joints. Fixtures seem to be more of a problem. We add a small amount of phosphate to our water to adjust the ph, Always let the water run for a few seconds to clear out the water that has been sitting in the fixture. Do this for yourself, and for you pets.

[traderrob6]

That foul odor is actually caused by a harmless (iron oxidizing) bacteria that lives in sandstone and produces that sulfur smell (sulfur dioxide I believe) as a biproduct.

We have it here in Southern Illinois too and a simple inline carbon filter takes care of the problem nicely.

[daniel1212]

The skin is the bodies largest organ and it absorbs whatever is in your water.

I think this is an often made but incorrect statement.

How many times have you read that skin absorbs 60% of whatever is applied to it? Yet there is no evidence to support this figure. In practise, the skin will absorb anything from 0% to 100% of whatever contacts it but in general the primary function of the skin is to act as a barrier that prevents the intrusion of external materials. Cosmetic companies actually have to work hard to develop formulations that can be absorbed into the skin to deliver all the benefits the consumer expects. - http://www.thefactsabout.co.uk/content.asp?menuid=32&submenuid=117&pageid=117&menuname=How+do+moisturisers+work%3F&menu=sub

Also see: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5415/are-minerals-chemicals-absorbed-through-your-skin-during-bathing

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showpost.php?p=5052498&postcount=27

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen06/gen06003.htm

[Tainan]

I'm gonna have to go with my initial statement...Is the skin the largest human organ?

Now I will agree that there are a number of factors that come into play when accounting for absorption and permerability of the skin. And yes, cosmetics, as well as topical ointments, salves and such do require a carrier that assists in penetration of the top layers. This is also a factor in where the item is to penetrate, i.e., topical delivery or deeper as for muscle and joint items. Aloe vera is one of the best. It just needs a good preservative to keep it from going old too quickly...longer shelf and usage life.

But as far as the skin absorbing pollutants or undesirable items in water via the shower, lets just use simple logic and consider it a valid point.
Now go rub some garlic on you palms and see how long it takes you to become..."fully fragrant"...;)