| Water Quality Reports or Why You Need a Good Water Filter
Important
information that everyone should know about water quality and its
relation to human health. We at AquasanaUSA Water Filters feel very strongly about educating ourselves and others.
The
following sources and reports contain alarming information about
water quality and potential risks related to tap water and bottled
water. This source information is made available as a public service,
by non-profit health organizations whose only goal is to raise awareness
and protect public health. We feel that these sources and reports
are the most credible and factual third party information available
on this subject and highly recommend that people educate themselves
on these issues.
Who
says tap water is unhealthy?
Internet Health: Cancer & Chlorine
Dirty tap water puts pregnant women at risk
Study: Bottled water no better than tap water
Natural Resources Defense Council
Our Children
At Risk
Bottled
Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?
Environmental
Working Group
Weed Killers By The Glass
In The Drink
The
Breast Cancer Fund
"Environmental Causes/Breast Cancer
Voice
of Women, Chlorine Connection
Science
News Online
More Waters
Test Positive For Drugs
What's
In My City's Water, City-by-City Water Quality Reports
See
What The Experts Say, What you don't know can hurt you... Who
Says Tap Water Is Unhealthy?
Find
Out What's In Your Cities' Water, From EPA's own data base.
The following link will direct you to the EPA's consumer information
section where you can see your own water utilities "Annual Water
Quality Report." This is a relatively new requirement for water
companies, and one that is still mostly unenforced.
On
October 1, 1999, a new federal law went into effect that requires
water utilities to send each customer a detailed report showing
what is in their water, appropriately called "The Right To Know
Amendment." The most important thing to remember is that no matter
how insistent these reports are that "contaminants in your water
do not necessarily pose a health risk," any level of contamination
in our drinking water does in fact represent a danger to our health.
Of the over 75,000 toxic chemicals used in our society, the EPA
has only set standards (MCLs) for about 90, and those 90 Maximum
Contaminant Levels are not necessarily set on "health effects."
The EPA considers limited health studies based on consumption of
one certain chemical by a 175 lb. adult when setting these standards.
No consideration is given to the effects on small children or
the combined effects of two or more contaminants, which some studies
show are magnified by as much as 1000 times. Water utilities
are only required to test for the 90 contaminants that the EPA has
set standards for.
Nobody
knows how many toxic chemicals may actually be in tap water. According
to the Ralph Nader Research Group, after reviewing thousands of
pages of EPA documents acquired through the Freedom of Information
Act, more than 2100 toxic chemicals have already been detected in
U.S. water supplies. Virtually all public water systems have some
level of contamination. The water utilities are usually quick to
point out that the chemicals found in their water are "below EPA's
Maximum Levels", and in most cases they are. The fact is that even
the smallest trace of a toxic chemical causes damage and science
is just now starting to realize to what extent. In a recent report
from the National Cancer Institute to the Surgeon General it was
stated that "No level of exposure to a chemical carcinogen should
be considered toxicologically insignificant to humans."
It
is recommended that you print this page and use it as a guide in
interpreting your "Annual Water Quality Report."
Definitions;
MCL: (Maximum Contaminant Level), This is the level at which
the EPA requires corrective action and can impose penalties.
MCLG: (Maximum Contaminant Level Goal), This is the level
at which the EPA has determined that unacceptable health risks may
occur. Notice that the MCLG is always at or below the MCL, the law
allows some unhealthy levels of contaminants. A "Superior" water
system only means that it complies with EPA minimum water quality
standards, not that it doesn't contain unhealthy levels of contaminants.
ppb: (part per billion), The unit of measure used for many
water borne synthetic chemicals.
ppm: (part per million), The unit of measure used for chlorine
in tap water.
mg/L: (milligram per Liter), A unit of measure used for contaminants
in water.
Most
Common Things To Look For: Lead, VOCs (volatile organic chemicals),
Organic Contaminants, and Disinfection By-Products (THMs, Trihalomethanes),
are the most noticeable problems on these reports. Often these toxic
chemicals exceed the MCLGs or healthful threshold. Also these thresholds
are relevant only to the one contaminant; if more than one is present
the thresholds for heath risks drops considerably.
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