Many people have chosen to switch to bottled or filtered water due to poor tap water quality. However, many of these people are completely unaware of the real dangers of ingesting tap through drinking or absorption. They feel that since water has already undergone several stages of treatment by municipal water treatment systems that it must be safe.

This could not be further from the truth. Tap water quality may be vastly improved by municipal treatment centers. However, these treatment centers often use the same technology put into practice decades before the current pesticides and herbicides were ever developed. Still, the governmental regulations on tap water processing help, right? Not necessarily.

In actuality, the government regulations guiding treatment of tap water contamination are failing. There are thousands of reported violations of these regulations each year. Additionally, the regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) that are well above zero.

This shortsightedness of government agencies and municipalities has led to pressing health threats that grow each year. Tap water contamination is being linked to various types of cancer, dermatological problems, and learning disabilities. In fact, the chlorine used by treatment centers to cleanse the water is actually considered one of the leading causes for the increase in pediatric asthma.

There are also contaminants that affect tap water quality that enter the water after leaving the treatment plants. The worst of these are lead. Lead can enter the tap water through the pipes leading to or within the home. Lead causes severe developmental issues and learning disorders in children, and is especially dangerous for children and pregnant women.

There are many ways to eliminate or reduce tap water contamination in your home. Many people turn to bottled water. However, the truth is that bottled water is often no different. Even water claiming to be from springs may contain herbicides and pesticides due to runoff from agriculture and industry.

Other people turn to water filters for their countertops, or pitcher type filters. While these filters will reduce the level of contaminants and increase tap water quality, they still do not eliminate many of the most dangerous synthetic chemicals found in most tap water. Additionally, while the systems are inexpensive to purchase, the cost of filters make them an exorbitant monthly expense.

The best way to eliminate tap water contamination in your home is through a home water filtration system. There are many of them out there. The most inexpensive systems use reverse osmosis methods for cleaning the water of minerals, chlorine, and other contaminants. However, these systems will also neglect to eliminate the more harmful synthetic chemicals.

The best way to improve your tap water quality is through the use of a home water filtration system that uses dual carbon based filters. Carbon based filters are the only type of filter that is recommended by the EPA for elimination of harmful tap water contaminants. Dual carbon based filters are more likely to eliminate more of these contaminants than a single stage filter alone. In fact, multi stage filters eliminate up to ninety eight percent of the contaminants found in most tap water.

Martin Spencer is a health researcher who has been studying water filtration for over 25 years. He is a regular contributor to Water Filtration Guide, a site dedicated to various methods of treating and purifying water. Learn about tap water contamination on our site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Spencer

Never Drink Tap Water Again-The Benefits of Bottled Water

For years and years many of us went to the tap to drink water without ever thinking about what could possibly be lurking there. Although it is reassuring that most water companies have taken steps to make sure the water coming into our homes is clean enough and safe for drinking, those same companies allowed unclean water to be piped there in the first place. Nowadays, in most American cities, before tap water is pushed through the pipes to homes, schools, hospitals, and restaurants, the public utility company processes the water to remove harmful contaminants.

During the processing stage, water companies treat the water with a variety of chemicals intended to remove or neutralize contaminants in the water. However, not all of these contaminates are removed or neutralized during the water treatment process. The contaminants left behind, along with residuals from some of the chemicals used to treat the water and other contaminants, find their way into our water through the very pipes that bring them into our neighborhood homes and businesses.

Pipes can have unknown leaks or breaks which allow environmental pollutants to infiltrate the water, or pipes can be encased in materials that can leech harmful substances into the water as it is carried to its destination. Sometimes a chemical taste or a distinctive odor of chlorine can be detected when drinking tap water. It is difficult to determine whether your home or business pipe system is safe. Contaminants in tap water are small particles that are not easily seen unless you hold your glass of water upwards toward a light source. If you do this with a glass of tap water from your home or your office you may be surprised and concerned about what you see.

Most healthy people with strong immune systems will not experience serious health problems from drinking these contaminants, and that is a potential reason water companies can get away with low standards. However, the elderly, children, and people whose immune systems are not healthy can be especially vulnerable to the harmful affects of the contaminants found in tap water. These individuals should not drink water from a tap unless a filter has been installed, however the safest solution is to avoid tap water altogether.

Filters installed on faucet taps do filter out many, but not all contaminates found in tap water. A healthier alternative for you and your family is to use bottled water in place of the tap water that you have been using for drinking, brewing coffee, adding to food and drink mixes, cooking, brushing teeth, bathing, and even for providing water to your pets. When you dine out, insist that the restaurant use bottled water when preparing and cooking your meals and that any water brought to the table for drinking is from bottled water. There is no reason to place your health and the health of your family at risk by dining at establishments that use tap water for cooking and for customers to drink at their table.

The manufacturers of bottled water work under the strictest of standards. Before it can be offered for sale to consumers as "bottled water", the water must be as contaminate-free as possible. There are multiple steps involved in the processing of water intended for human consumption before it can bottled and made for sale. The containers used to hold the water during transit to selling points or storage are designed to maintain the integrity of the water until it is consumed. These strict standards are followed and met before the bottled water can be offered for sale to consumers. This may indicate that the manufacturing of bottled water is not easy on the bottling companies, but it ensures that the highest quality standards are being met and that consumers have a healthier choice made available to them in the water they drink for refreshment and for health.

Many top manufacturers of bottled water now offer varieties of bottled water containing healthy additives like, vitamins and minerals to boost the healthful benefits of bottled water even further. If you are getting enough vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat or from vitamin supplements, you may not be interested in the new varieties containing vitamins with minerals added to them. The fact is your body needs water, 8 to 10 servings of at least 8 ounces each, every day for survival and proper body and organ functions. Give your body and health the benefits of bottled water and never drink tap water again.

About Author:
Grant Eckert is a freelance writer who writes about topics pertaining to the food and beverage industry such as Gourmet Coffee | Bottled Water

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Grant_Eckert_Ti

 WASHINGTON — The US Senate was scheduled on April 15 to begin a hearing to look into reports that trace levels of prescription drugs are present in US public drinking water supplies, according to an April 15 Marketplace report.

The hearing, called by Sen. Frank R, Lautenberg, D-NJ, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, will examine the problem of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies, and provide a national framework for tackling the problem, as WaterTech Online™ reported.

Issues of public disclosure and the absence so far of federal regulation on the pharmaceutical issue are expected to be the focuses of the hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, according to an April 14 Associated Press report.

Officials from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Geological Survey were scheduled to testify, as was Jennifer Sass, senior scientist for the New York-headquartered Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group.

Sass, who offered elements from her testimony in her NRDC blog, told Marketplace that she disagreed with the pharmaceutical industry’s stance that there is no proven risk to human health from trace levels of pharmaceuticals in drinking water. She said those findings are based on individual drug exposures, not the combination of drugs commonly found in many municipal supplies.

AP reported that the hearing “could produce a showdown between committee members and EPA officials.” EPA had not responded to committee members’ inquiries on the agency’s plans to address concerns about pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

Meanwhile, officials in cities across the nation also have called hearings on drugs in their water supplies.

Philadelphia, which was named in the March AP investigative report revealing that drugs were detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas, held an April 14 meeting. The city’s water commissioner, Bernard Brunwasser, said at the meeting that “infinitesimally small amounts” of pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia’s drinking water should not pose a health hazard, but acknowledged that the health effects of the drugs remain largely unknown, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Brunwasser, who said the city has tested its water supply for 75 drugs, called for a reduction of pharmaceuticals in the water supply, starting with asking residents not to flush unused medicines down the toilet.

*WatertechOnline.com 

Feds Not Addressing Drugs in Water

By MARTHA MENDOZA – 3 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House task force that was supposed to devise a federal plan to research the issue of pharmaceuticals in drinking water has missed its deadline and failed to produce mandated reports and recommendations for coordination among numerous federal agencies, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

More than 70 pages of the task force's documents, including e-mails and weekly reports, were released under the Freedom of Information Act as a Senate subcommittee prepares to convene a hearing Tuesday prompted by an AP investigation about trace concentrations of drugs in America's drinking water.

The working group on pharmaceuticals in the environment was formed two years ago through the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The panel has met several times for briefings and is aware of public concern about pharmaceuticals in water supplies, according to the documents.

In a weekly report dated March 24, 2006, then-task force coordinator Kevin Geiss, wrote: "There has been considerable congressional interest in this topic."

But it is impossible to track any possible progress by the group because the White House has classified task force agendas and minutes as internal documents, and therefore cannot be released, said spokeswoman Kristin Scuderi. The group's annual report is in draft form and therefore also cannot be released at this time, she added.

While providing some documents to the AP, Rachael Leonard, a White House deputy general counsel, said "10 inches worth of documents" were not being released.

The group's deadline to produce a national research strategy came and went in December. Scuderi said the task force needs extra time to "serve as an internal federal vehicle to further enhance interagency collaboration."

The group includes representatives from nine federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration.

The lack of public disclosure and failure of federal agencies to act on the pharmaceutical issue is expected to be a focus at Tuesday's hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Among others, officials from the EPA and U.S. Geological Survey are scheduled to testify.

The hearing could produce a showdown between committee members and EPA officials.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who heads the committee, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., chairman of the Transportation, Safety, Infrastructure Security and Water Quality Subcommittee, wrote to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on March 18 asking what the agency plans to do to address concerns about pharmaceuticals in water. The EPA had not responded, a Senate staff member said Friday.

The hearing was prompted by a five-month-long inquiry by the AP National Investigative Team that disclosed the presence of trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water of at least 41 million Americans.

The AP found that while water is screened for drugs by some suppliers, they usually don't tell their customers of results showing the presence of medications including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones.

The series revealed how drugs — mostly the residue of medications taken by people, excreted and flushed down the toilet — have gotten into the water supplies of at least 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to Northern New Jersey. The stories also detail the growing concerns among scientists that this pollution has adversely affected wildlife, and may be threatening human health.

EPA officials responded with concern, pledging to organize additional research and by saying people should be informed if drugs are detected in their water supplies.

But Kyla Bennett, a lawyer and former EPA biologist, said the EPA "is moving with all deliberate delay."

Bennett, who directs the New England branch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said Congress first ordered the EPA to address the issue 12 years ago.

"When it should be pressing forward, EPA is spinning in place, as if it has overdosed on pharmaceuticals," she said.

Others say funding has been pulled and priorities shifted.

"The EPA has missed the boat in really addressing the serious consequences of pharmaceutical disposal," said Anna Gilmore-Hall, executive director of Healthcare Without Harm.

Hall's nonprofit now runs what was the EPA's Hospitals for a Healthy Environment stewardship program, designed to reduce mercury use and improve the environmental footprint of the health care industry.

The EPA cut the $200,000-per-year program in 2003 after five years, despite widespread interest and involvement from hospitals, declining to even sit on the nonprofit's board.

Clean Water Action's New Jersey campaign Director David Pringle, slated to testify at the hearing, said he plans to tell the senators that "while it's not time to panic, it's a time of concern and we need to take action."

Pringle said existing regulations are not being used and that federal officials have known for years there are problems. "They've clearly been dragging their feet," he said.

Local hearings and public meetings have already been held in various cities including New York. The Philadelphia City Council has a hearing prompted by the AP series scheduled for Monday.

The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate (at) ap.org