As clean as the drinking water is in the United States compared to other countries, it still contains trace amounts of cancer-causing contaminants.
But this past March, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that advances in science and technology were allowing them to define stricter regulations on four chemicals: tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, which are used in industrial and textile processing, and epichlorohydrin and acrylamide, which ironically can be introduced into drinking water during the water treatment process.
“The determination to revise the existing standards is the result of improvements in technology, not greater estimates of risks,” EPA spokesperson Enesta Jones told Discovery News Tech.
Those technologies include compressed air to extract pollutants from water and granular activated carbon, which absorbs contaminant molecules.
But even trace amounts of carcinogens can make people nervous -- enough to spur them into buying a water filtration system. Is it worth it?“The first point to make is that the news on tap water quality is generally good,” said Greg Kail, director of public affairs for the American Water Works Association. “We have stronger federal standards in place than ever before, and the vast majority of water suppliers meet every single one of those standards.”
A century ago, people had to worry about water-borne illness, microbial diseases and other acute health impacts from drinking water, but today’s water treatment regulations focus more on potential long-term health effects.
“Typically, if your water meets all of the standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act, you can have confidence in the safety of the water,” Kail explained.
To find out if that's the case, you can consult your public water system’s consumer confidence report, an annual assessment of how well community water fulfills federal and state safety requirements, including detectable contaminants that might call for filtration.
More often than not, at-home water filters function to enhance taste more than safety.
“Surveys have shown that most consumers purchase point of use water filters to improve the aesthetic quality of their water -- the taste, odor and appearance -- as opposed to addressing potential health risks,” said Rick Andrew, operations manager for the drinking water treatment program at NSF International, which tests product claims and develops industry safety standards.
If tap water simply doesn’t suit the palate, Andrew says a water filter certified for chlorine, taste and odor reduction should do the trick.
However, private well owners whose water isn’t subject to federal and state treatment regulations, as well as homeowners who are concerned about lead contamination, should be vigilant about water testing and filtration.
“There are a number of contaminants that can affect private wells due to a number of sources,” Andrew said. “Some are naturally occurring and related to local geography, such as arsenic, and some are related to contamination, such as bacteria and nitrates that can infiltrate wells due to poor well condition or poor septic conditions.”
Lead can also seep into drinking water after being decontaminated at the central treatment facility through lead household plumbing or service lines.
Consumers who decide to purchase water filters to remove health hazardous impurities should look for ones designed to target the exact chemicals or whatnot that’s tainting their taps.
Otherwise, a water filter won’t be worth the upfront and replacement costs, which can add up to a few hundred dollars.
“So the important thing is to get informed about your water quality so that if you choose to purchase a supplemental treatment system, you’re buying the right device to correct the problem, said Kail.”
But if your water is safe by all standards, a filtration system may just be offering some peace of mind.
“Sometimes people just want to feel an added level of safety, so they make an investment,” said Kail.
Photo: iStockphoto
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