Sharing Knowledge About Residential Plumbing

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates over 80 common drinking water contaminants. Although the EPA claims that 90-percent of the tap water in the U.S. is safe to drink, that still leaves a questionable 10-percent of the water supply that may contain unacceptable levels of contaminants. Approximately 900,000 thousand citizens become ill each year as a result of drinking contaminated tap water. Bottled water has been found to be no safer than tap water. Fortunately, a good water filter provides your family with an extra layer of protection against many contaminant commonly found in tap water. Following are just three of them.   

Arsenic

Because arsenic occurs naturally in the Earth's subsoils, it's found in drinking water in many parts of the country. Residents of the western half of the country are more likely to have arsenic in their soils than their counterparts in the eastern part of the U.S. However, investigations conducted within the past decade suggests that concentrated levels of arsenic have been found to be higher in New England and in the Midwest than previously believed. 

Lead

Even though levels of lead in municipal tap water systems has decreased in the past two decades, it's still a concern in some areas. For instance, the entire community of Flint, Michigan, has recently made the news because of high levels of lead in the drinking water. Because you can't see lead, taste it, or smell it in your water, the only way to tell if it is present is to ave the water tested. As the country's infrastructure ages, lead levels have the potential to increase in areas that have older fixtures. Your local water authority may be able to provide you with information concerning lead levels in their tap water. Because lead in the water affects children more often than adults, many parents are opting to err on the side of caution and use household water purification services. 

Cryptosporidium

Cryptosporidium is a parasite that is very resistant to chlorine, which is a chemical commonly used to disinfect municipal tap water. This parasite causes significant abdominal distress among humans and animals and is most easily spread via drinking water and recreational water. This problem is more pronounced in agricultural areas with large amounts of grazing livestock, so be sure that your water filtration system is equipped to filter out this particular pathogen. 

For more information on keeping you family's drinking water as clean and pure as possible, please contact your water purification system retailer at your earliest convenience.