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What You Don’t Know About Your Drinking Water Quality Could Hurt You: Surprising Facts About the Water We Drink

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What You Don’t Know About Your Drinking Water Quality Could Hurt You

If you don’t have the facts about your drinking water quality, you could be placing your health at risk. Click to learn more!

How often do you drink water throughout the day?

Ideally, you want to drink eight 8-ounce glasses—that’s half a gallon, for those who are curious. For most of us, that will be enough to keep our bodies hydrated.

Have you ever stopped to think about the quality of your water, though?

Believe it or not, but it’s actually not uncommon for there to be impurities in your water.

Given that, it only makes sense that there are drinking water quality standards in place. The last that we’d want is to ingest harmful substances.

Want to learn more about the quality of your water? If so, be sure to read the rest of the post!

Drinking Water Quality: 4 Things That You Should Know About Your Water

Here are some things that you might not have known about your drinking water.

  1. There Can Be Metals

In some cases, heavy metals such as mercury or chromium can enter the waterways. This is a major health concern—after all, they are incredibly toxic.

Lead, in particular, is extremely harmful. Even low levels of exposure can result in complications such as convulsions and organ failure. In some cases, it can lead to death.

Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself.

For instance, you can use a home water filtration system. These filters will remove most impurities from your drinking water, including metals.

  1. There Can Be Pathogens

Bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens can find their way into water supplies. As you can imagine, this can lead to disease if the water is inadequately treated.

Sometimes, however, it can lead to disease even if the water gets treated.

In 1993, more than 400,000 people got sick after a chlorine-resistant parasite entered the waterways in Milwaukee. Altogether, the incident had resulted in more than $96 million in healthcare costs.

  1. There Can Be Chlorine By-Products

Water suppliers add chlorine to drinking water to disinfect and kill germs. While it can be dangerous in high concentrations, there is no evidence to suggest that small amounts can be harmful.

With that said, chlorine by-products can have a negative impact on our health—especially if present in high quantities. In fact, studies have shown that they are linked to certain cancers.

Fortunately, there are safety limits in place for chlorine by-products. Considering this, the risk of developing cancer over your lifetime is low.

  1. There Can Be Nitrates

Nitrates are one of the most common contaminants in drinking water. Why? They are often used in fertilizers; they are also present in animal waste.

It’s not uncommon for runoffs from farms to end up in our water sources.

For this reason, the EPA has set a maximum contaminant level at 10 parts per million. Exposure below this level is not believed to cause any significant health issues.

Cleaner Water is Always Better

As you can see, there are several things that can affect our drinking water quality—some more harmful than others.

Why leave it up to chance when you can purify your water with a filter system? The fewer toxins, the better.

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