Is Las Vegas water safe to drink?
Here’s an aricle by the Las Vegas Review Journal in response to the Las Vegas Valley Water District releasing its annual Water Quality Report about drinking water in Las Vegas.
Bascially the article says that Las Vegas drinking water is safe in spite of the presence of uranium. Read more here: Continue reading
I am not comfortable with USEPA’s maximum allowable level of nitrates in drinking water. This amount is known as the Maximum Contaminant Level or MCL in your water report. Nitrates in drinking water can cause bladder cancer in women at levels below the EPA MCL.
Yet another study has come out which finds a causal relationship between nitrates in drinking water at just half of the MCL and bladder cancer in post menopausal women.
You can read a synopsis of that study here: Continue reading
City water contains known carcinogens including trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. You can find these in your local water report. What follows is a brief discussion of some of the common carcinogens in city water:
Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are a by-product of drinking water chlorination. Exposure to such disinfection by-products in drinking water has been associated with a number of health outcomes by epidemiological studies.
Other contaminants depend on the landuse taking place above your water source if it is from wells or upstream if it is from rivers.
Yet another study shows pharmaceuticals in drinking water has disturbing results. Numerous studies have demonstrated that millions of Americans are drinking water containing drugs.
“Pharmaceutical contaminants are growing aquatic-health concerns and largely attributed to wastewater treatment facility discharges,” the study says. But only 17 of the 59 streams have any reported wastewater discharges.’ You can find information on the study here:
Is drinking chlorinated water healthy? The notion of whether or not your chlorinated tap water is ‘healthy’ for you to drink is an intriguing question. USEPA regulates the level of contaminants which can be present in tap water. As long as those contaminants fall below the EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), the water is deemed to be acceptable. But what does acceptable mean? Does it mean the water is safe for healthy individuals? Does it mean the water is healthy to drink?
USEPA also limits the amount of chlorine or chloramine (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) that can be in water. From a health perspective one has to inquire as to what happens to these compounds when they are ingested. I have heard some EPA officials suggest that they are immediately (and harmlessly) oxidized in the stomanch. See what happens when I drink chlorinated tap water here.
I don’t think there is a clear answer to this question of health. My opinion was reinforced recently when I came across this article: Chloramines in Water. The author, a former head of USEPA drinking water standards division says this in the article, Continue reading
I’ve been getting a lot of calls lately about PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, an ingredient in Teflon. Apparently DuPont used this toxic ingredient and it has ended up in the water supplies of a number of cities. Most of my calls are coming from Montclair, NJ.
This is an interesting article about how a local farmer discovered the toxicity of this chemical and DuPont’s disposal methods when his cattle started dying: Continue reading
Round Up is linked to kidney damage in a new study.
Do you live near fields of corn and beans? If so you may be drinking glyphosphate, aka Roundup. A recent study performed on rats resulted in kidney and liver damage.
‘Long-term exposure to tiny amounts of Roundup—thousands of times lower than what is permitted in U.S. drinking water—may lead to serious problems in the liver and kidneys, according to a new study.’ Continue reading
The other day a woman wrote me and said she wanted the purest water possible at every faucet in her house. “No you don’t”, I said.
What’s the difference between purified water vs filtered water? Words have certain technical meanings in the water treatment world but of course consumers don’t know this. And not knowing you can be asking for the wrong things when you start your search for a water treatment system for your home. This can cost you money. More importantly it can simply lead you astray as you waste time searching for the wrong thing. Continue reading
When you call me about buying a water purification system the first thing I want to know is are pharmaceuticals in your drinking water. I always look at a local water quality report (aka consumer confidence report) to see what contaminants are in your water. It is my opinion that this is the only way to determine the water filtration system you need. Some unregulated contaminants can only be found by doing this.
Some contaminants, like chlorine, can be removed with a whole house filtration system, like my Urban Defender, but other contaminants, such as nitrates, radioactive metals, arsenic, fluoride and some other metals require a kitchen water filter also.
The first thing I look at when reviewing a water report is the source of the water. There are several reasons for this. Continue reading
When we wash our clothes, particularly those made from polyester, it turns out that tiny pieces of the plastic break off and end up going down the drain. These end up in rivers and lakes and are now another source of pollution. Fish eat them and you may be drinking them in your water.
Please read this recent news release:
nbc15.com/home/headlines/Scientists-Great-Lakes-teeming-with-tiny-plastic-fibers-288081131.html – link is broken
Of course this makes perfect sense. We’ve known for some time that there are pharmaceuticals and other contaminants from caffeine to cocaine in water sources containing treated city sewage.
How will this affect humans? That remains to be seen. Apparently the fibers are accumulating in fish, which we eat, but this may also suggest that the fibers will accumulate in our bodies.
It is my perspective that your only option is to protect yourself at your home by installing an effective kitchen water filter. And the best water filter is the one that removes the contaminants that actually exist in your water. To learn what you need start by looking at your local water quality report.