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Water Worry: Is Your Tap Water Safe?


The Quick Facts: Two hundred forty million Americans use tap water from public water systems for drinking water and to meet their everyday needs. It is assumed by most that tap water is safe for consumption but potential health threats may be just a sip away. The EPA sets standards for drinking water that are far from perfect since many chemicals have no standards, many standards are outdated, limited technology is available to measure small amounts of contaminants, and standards are based on levels of consumption for adults and not on vulnerable populations like our kids. To obtain safer drinking water follow these suggestions: find out what is in tap water supplied by your public water company or if you have a private well get your well water tested, use a filter to filter your tap water, and understand that bottled water may not be the healthiest option.

Every Summer, we all drink lots of water (or should) to counter the seasonal effects of heat, sun, and exertion. If you favor drinking water from the tap, you should know that there is an enormous variation in water quality from city to city, and that if you have a private well, you're the only one monitoring your tap water's quality. To make sure that your tap water is doing all the good things for your body that water should, you should find out if there is anything in your tap water that could threaten you and your children's health.

Potential Health Threats In Drinking Water
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 240 million Americans use tap water from public water systems for drinking water and to meet their everyday needs. The rest of us use tap water from private wells. In 2003, the NRDC conducted an independent study of drinking water quality from public water systems in 19 American cities. The cities were ranked from "excellent" water quality, meaning meeting and exceeding all current national enforceable standards, to "poor" water quality, meaning just meeting the minimum current national enforceable standards. The NRDC ranked only Chicago as having "excellent" water quality, while Albuquerque, Boston, Fresno, Phoenix and San Francisco all were found to have "poor" water quality. (To see if your city was one of the 19 evaluated by the NRDC, see the NRDC's publication "What's on Tap? Grading Drinking Water in U.S. Cities" at http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities/contents.asp.)

It is hard to believe that seemingly clear and refreshing tap water may not be as clean as we think. However, it is the unseen contamination that, at high levels, can have a negative impact on our health. These impacts can range from gastrointestinal issues to cancer. Below is a table of potential drinking water contaminants, along with a listing of the potential health risks associated with those contaminants and suggestions on what you can do to help decrease the risk of that contaminate entering your drinking water supply and ultimately your body.

Drinking Water Contaminant Associated Potential Health Risks What You Can Do to Help
E. Coli and Cryptosporidium- found in feces that wash into water bodies Gastrointestinal illness Always pick up dog waste and dispose of it in the trash to decrease such germs in water supplies.
Commercial chemicals such as pesticides Disruption of normal hormone function from the brain, thyroid, and reproductive organs in females as well as males Try not to use pesticides for lawn care or other commercial chemicals that can wash into water bodies.
Commercial chemicals and disinfection byproducts, like chlorine and bromine Commercial chemicals, as well as organic compounds (broken down soil or leaves), in water systems may react with disinfection substances to form trihalomethanes and haloacetatic acids, which the EPA states have the potential to cause cancer when subject to long-term exposure. Avoid the following chemicals, among others, which the EPA states have the potential to cause cancer with long-term exposures: asbestos, atrazine, chlordane, benzene, beryllium, haloacetatic acids, and vinyl chloride.
Arsenic Skin damage or problems with the circulatory system, and a possible increased risk of cancer Arsenic is naturally occurring and enters drinking water supplies from natural deposits in the earth or from agricultural and industrial practices. If you obtain your drinking water from a public water supplier, the supplier is responsible for abating any arsenic contamination to within federal, state or local standards. If you have a private well, and testing indicates high arsenic levels, the arsenic can be removed from the drinking water through different technological treatments.
Fluoride Dental fluorosis may result presenting as a brown staining and/or pitting of the permanent teeth. This problem occurs only in developing teeth, before they erupt from the gums. Children under nine should not drink water that has more than 2 mg/L of fluoride. Many communities add fluoride to their drinking water to promote dental health. Each community makes its own decision about whether or not to add fluoride. Know whether your community adds fluoride to your water. Fluoride is also naturally occurring, so if you have a private well, have the water tested for fluoride content to determine whether or not you should be giving your child fluoride supplements.
Lead If not detected early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from: damage to the brain and nervous system; behavior and learning problems (such as hyperactivity); slowed growth; and hearing problems. Adults can suffer from: difficulties during pregnancy and other reproductive problems; high blood pressure; digestive problems; nerve disorders; memory and concentration problems; and muscle and joint pain. If you live in an older home, which may contain lead pipes, have your tap water tested for lead content, let the water run to its coldest temperature before drinking, and always use cold water for cooking.

How Much Is Too Much?
The levels of a particular contaminant allowable in our public drinking water supplies are set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act. (Note that there is little regulation of drinking water that is supplied from private wells, although local county standards often apply at the time of initial drilling.) The EPA sets these levels through its issuance of Primary Drinking Water Standards. Although the United States enjoys some of the most pristine drinking water in the world, the EPA's system is not perfect: First, many contaminants found in drinking water have not been assigned a standard due to the enormous number of chemicals to be evaluated. However, the EPA may still allow the use of a chemical even if it has yet to be evaluated. Second, even those potential drinking water contaminants for which standards have been issued have not been updated for years due to the backlog of new chemicals to be evaluated. Third, the standards are designed to protect healthy adults; they are not based on the potential effects that a particular contaminant may have on the vulnerable populations that exist such as children, the elderly, or those with compromised immune systems. Fourth, the standards required are limited by the technology available to measure small amounts of a contaminant in our water.

Primary Drinking Water Standards are expressed as maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) and maximum contaminant level goals (MCLGs). The EPA requires that only the level that can be measured (MCLs) be met and not the level that is believed to fully preserve our health (MCLGs). Thus, due to the limitations of technology, your health may not be not fully protected because even if your tap water meets the MCLs set by the EPA, the MCLG is the only standard that is believed to be safe. For example, for arsenic, there is no safe level, therefore, the MCLG is zero. However, the current technology to measure arsenic down to a level of zero does not exist. Since January 23, 2006, public water systems must comply with an updated MCL for arsenic of 10 parts per billion (previously, since 1942, the EPA required a MCL of 50 parts per billion). Accordingly, arsenic in public drinking waters is allowed at a level of 10 parts per billion, even though only a level of 0 parts per billion is considered to be completely safe. At a level of 10 parts per billion, the exposure poses a 1 in 300 lifetime cancer risk.

How You Can Ensure Safer Drinking Water
Here are some simple ways that you can improve drinking water for you and your family.

Read the report sent to you by your water company to know what is in your water. If you obtain your drinking water from a public water supply, then every year your water company must file a comprehensive report on the water it treats and send you a copy by July 1, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Amendments of 1996. This "Right to Know Report" will detail what is in your tap water, including any warnings of a high level of a particular contaminant. For more information on this, see the Campaign for Safe and Affordable Water's publication "Making Sense of Right to Know Reports" at http://www.safe-drinking-water.org.

Get your private well tested. The Safe Drinking Water Act does not regulate private wells that serve fewer than 25 individuals. Therefore, you should have your private well water supply tested regularly for biological contaminants, or tested if you have problems with odors, iron staining or hard water that needs to be treated. This is particularly important if you use tap water to make formula for an infant. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that formula made using well water contaminated with high levels of nitrates may cause a dangerous blood disorder in infants under 3 months old. In order to find out how to test your well water, you can contact your state or county health department.

Keep your water pipes clean. Lead can be a problem in drinking water since it can leach into water from plumbing in older buildings. Lead has been banned for use in pipes and plumbing since 1998. If not detected early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from: damage to the brain and nervous system; behavior and learning problems (such as hyperactivity); slowed growth; and hearing problems. Adults exposed to excessive levels of lead can suffer from: difficulties during pregnancy and other reproductive problems; high blood pressure; digestive problems; nerve disorders; memory and concentration problems; and muscle and joint pain.

In order to reduce lead exposure from your drinking water, if you live in an older home, have your water tested for lead content. You can reduce your exposure to lead in your drinking water by "flushing" out your pipes every morning. Lead from lead-containing pipes may leach into water that sits in the pipes for a long period of time (such as overnight), "flushing" out the pipes until the water that had been sitting in the pipes is eliminated will help to reduce your exposure to lead. You can run the dishwater and do laundry in the morning to flush pipes for the rest of the day. You can also flush your pipes by running the water until it reaches the coldest temperature (which will indicate you have flushed out the water that was standing in the pipes). Additionally, always use cold tap water for drinking and cooking since hot water picks up lead from pipes more easily.

Use a water filter. If you are dissatisfied with the results of the report provided by your local water company, want an added level of protection (which is recommended by experts), or you have a private well, you can utilize an at-home water treatment (otherwise known as a filter). Many types of water filters exist and are available on the market at varying prices depending on what process of treatment they use. For example, in order from least to most expensive, there are carbon filters, distillation units, and reverse osmosis systems. Carbon filters, such as those found in Brita systems, are those that come in pitchers or attach to faucets. Distillation units, such as by Nautilus, boil water and condense it back from steam. Reverse osmosis systems, such as GE's SmartWater, are mounted under the sink and combine the other two technologies. You will need to learn what type of contaminant each type of filter removes, and you should chose a filter based on how much and what kind of treatment is needed. Generally speaking, more treatment will be required for a private well. Always remember that installing a filter alone will not provide protection, unless it is changed out and/or serviced as instructed by the manufacturer.

Don't assume drinking bottled water is the solution. The information above may make you wonder whether avoiding tap water and instead drinking bottled water is the safer alternative. It may not be. Bottled water is regulated even less strictly than tap water. Bottled water is regulated as a food product and not as drinking water. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (and possibly the state in which it is sold) and not the EPA regulates bottled water. The standards required by the EPA are more stringent than those required by the FDA. States may have additional requirements for bottled water to be sold in a particular state.

The NRDC has found that 22 percent of 1,000 independently tested bottles of water contain chemicals at levels above state health limits. However, bottled water is consistently found to have less lead and disinfection byproducts than tap water entering homes via pipes. NSF International is a company that tests bottled water products for compliance with federal guidelines set by the FDA and provides a voluntary certification process that includes product evaluations as well as on-site audits of bottling facilities. To find out the quality of the bottled water that you drink, go to http://www.nsf.org/certified/bwpi/.

Special thanks to Patrick Sullivan for his professional assistance in reviewing the information contained in this article. Patrick J. Sullivan is a partner of Forensic Management Associates, Inc. in San Mateo, California where his consulting activities are focused on environmental litigation support and expert witness services. Since 1988, Dr. Sullivan has been an environmental forensic expert. Over the last 30 years, Dr. Sullivan's environmental research has focused on hazardous substances, water chemistry and synthetic chemicals in food. Dr. Sullivan has co-authored the following books:

Information used in this article was found at the following sources, which you can visit if you want to find out more about this topic:

http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities/contents.asp
(Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), whose purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends; 2003 study "What's On Tap? Grading Drinking Water In U.S. Cities.")

http://www.safe-drinking-water.org
(Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water, an alliance of 300 organizations working to protect the Nation's drinking water; 2002 fact sheet "Making Sense of Right to Know Reports")

http://www.safe-drinking-water.org/
(Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water, an alliance of 300 organizations working to protect the Nation's drinking water whose Steering Committee includes representatives from environmental, consumer, public health, and HIV/AIDS organizations)

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/hfacts.html#Inorganic
(EPA fact sheet listing drinking water contaminants and potential health effects)

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/index.html
(EPA fact sheet on lead in drinking water)

http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp
(NRDC, whose purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends; Question and Answers Fact Sheet about bottled water)

http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp
(NRDC, whose purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends; 1999 report on the results of a four-year study of the bottled water industry)

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/consumer/pdf/mcl.pdf
(EPA Alphabetical list of National Primary Drinking Water Standards)

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic/index.html
(EPA Arsenic in Drinking Water Information with links to the Arsenic Rule and Publications on Arsenic).

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/sept05wellwater.htm
(American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical sub-specialists and pediatric surgical specialist dedicated to the health, safety, and well-being of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults; press release on the findings of "Infant Methemoglobinemia: The Role of Dietary Nitrate in Food and Water")

http://www.nsf.org/certified/bwpi/
(NSF International, an independent, not-for-profit organization, which has been committed to making the world a safer place for consumers)

Sullivan, Patrick J. and James J.J. Clark (2005) The Environmental Science of Drinking Water, Boston (p. 213, 166-167).

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