What's In Your Tap Water?

Seattle purportedly has some of the best drinking water in the country. Our water, because it comes from protected watersheds, doesn't have some of the major contaminants that the EPA re­quires testing for but it has to be tested for them anyway. These include benzenes, vinyl chloride, BPA, triclosan, DEET, mercury, cadmium, perchlorate, phthalates, DDT, PCBs, atrazine and other pesticides, E. coli and fecal coliforms. Other contami­nants that can end up in the water supply are chloroform, caffeine, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, nicotine, fungicides and other antibacterials used in agriculture and live­stock.

Even though Seattle's water is relatively toxin-free, that does not mean that metals aren't leaching from our pipes. According to Seattle Public Utilities, "[t]he majority of homes have some risk of lead contamination in water that sits in pipes for longer than 2 hours.” And then there's the issue of untested chemicals like chlorine and fluoride.

Holy Fluorosis, Batman!

City water fluoridation programs across the United States purposefully add fluoride to the drinking water in concentrations at levels below 2 mg/L where it is thought to be beneficial to teeth and bones. Fluoride levels above 4 mg/L that are ingested for many years may result in fluorosis, which is a potentially crippling bone disorder. Most recently, the recommended levels have come under debate as more children are showing signs of dental spotting due to the excess amount of fluoride exposure.

In the early 1940s, silicofluoride, a toxic waste by-product of factory smokestacks, was proposed as an additive to drinking water in the belief that it would help prevent tooth decay. At the time, dentists, physicians and scientists were worried about adding this aluminum waste to public water.

Over the ensuing decades, industry-funded studies proving the efficacy of fluoridated water changed the minds of dentists and public health officials. No testing of fluoride as an additive had been conducted regarding its potential health effects and fluo­ride had never been approved by the FDA for human ingestion.


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It wasn't until the 1980s that any such tests were performed. The results showed that "young male rats exposed to fluoridated water developed both bone cancer and liver cancer..” In the 1990s, other studies found that laboratory animals exposed to fluoridated water had Alzheimer's-like symptoms as traces of aluminum were car­ried to their brains. Additional studies showed an increased risk of hip fractures, motor-skills dysfunction, learning disabilities, low­ered IQ levels, behavioral issues, thyroid abnormalities, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and Down syndrome.

17 out of 21 Western European countries have either refused or are phasing out fluoridation due to safety concerns and they have no more problems with dental decay than residents of the U.S. with fluoridated water. Direct application of fluoride using toothpaste is far more effective with fewer potential health problems.

Chlorine: Cancer Cocktail?

Women who drink chlorinated water are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer because chlorine reacts with some of the substances in water to form compounds that are linked to breast cancer. These by-products, called trihalomethanes (THMs), are not only toxic but also carcinogenic, and have been found to be responsible for neural tube defects in babies as well as bladder and colorectal cancer in adults.

Another issue with chlorine is that, when you use hot water, trace amounts of chlorine and other chemicals are inhaled and absorbed by your body. According to Dr. Lance Wallace from the EPA, showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated chloroform in nearly every home because of the chlorine in the water. Chloroform levels increase up to 100 times during a ten-minute shower in residential water. This was enough to convince me to get a filter. And, after a little bit of research, I ended up buying an Aquasana shower-head filter.

Other Junk That Doesn't Belong in Drinking Water

What's In Your Tap Water?There are a number of other potential contaminants in the water that don't get tested for, including Teflon, perchlorate and pharmaceutical and personal care product pollutants (PPCPs). 90% of us have Teflon in our blood. In higher concentrations this can lead to birth defects and development problems. Perchlorate is a rocket-fuel chemical that is also used in fireworks, flares and car airbags, and is one of those persistent chemicals that build up not only in the environment, but in your body as well. Perchlorate can cause cancer and disrupt the thyroid gland which, in turn, can negatively affect a pregnancy, resulting in mental retardation and, later, impaired motor skills for the child.

Other PPCPs like birth control pills, mood stabilizers, ste­roids, antibiotics and pesticides can be found in water quality testing, yet the waste-water treatment plants aren't engineered to remove these contaminants and, as a result, they end up in our drinking water. Pharmaceuticals get into our drinking water not just from people flushing unused prescriptions down the toilet, but also from users excreting drugs in their urine. This is quite common in women who take birth control pills. No amount of chlorine treatment can eliminate these trace contaminants so, even though I don't take any of the drugs, I get a little bit every time I drink my tap water. And, of course, fish are ingesting these contaminants.

Filth Filter: Chemical & Junk Free Water

In order to reduce or, hopefully, eliminate the fluoride, chlorine and other junk from my drinking water, a fairly sophisticated water filter was in order, one that was fine-grained enough to remove those chemicals. For that purpose, I looked into a carbon water filter. I wanted to stick with something that was easy to obtain, install and use and that wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg.

After doing a bit of research, I managed to find the EcoFlo Family Water Pitcher which was free from BPA, PVC and phthalates. Another nice benefit of this filter was that you could use it with any type of water source either from the tap or from rain­water, rivers, streams or even lakes. It just didn't do salt water, so I would need to stay out of Puget Sound for my drinking water needs.

©2011 by Deanna Duke. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher,
New Society Publishers. http://newsociety.com.


This article was adapted with permission from the book:

The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
by Deanna Duke.

The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You by Deanna Duke.After coming to terms with the fact that the autism and cancer which had impacted her family were most likely the result of environmental toxins, author Deanna Duke undertook a mission to dramatically reduce her family's chemical exposure. She committed to drastically reducing the levels of all known chemicals in both her home and work environments. Follow Deanna's journey and learn about your day-to-day chemical exposure, the implications for your health, and what you can do about it.

Click here for more info and/or to order this book.


About the Author

Deanna Duke, author of The Non-Toxic AvengerDeanna Duke is an environmental writer, urban homesteader, and author of the highly acclaimed environmental blog, The Crunchy Chicken (www.thecrunchychicken.com). The focus of her work is in educating others on environmental issues and explaining how she and her family have not only converted to a low-impact lifestyle, but also reduced their exposure to toxic chemicals in their home, work and school environments. In addition to her blog, Deanna also writes as an Expert Urban Homesteader for Mother Earth News Online and is the Personal Care Consultant for the eco-makeover television show, Mission: Sustainable. Visit her on Facebook at facebook.com/TheCrunchyChicken.