How contaminated is the water that we consume? It must be adequately filtered, and the water must be pure for consumption, right? Many of us drink filtered water from our local municipality, which is under a degree of governmental regulation for purity.
Most water we consume from a tap or a well is polluted and contaminated to differing degrees. The water provided to you for use by your local municipality and possibly even the water in your well is adequately filtered for consumption. Erin Brockovich (yes, she is a real environmental lawyer and activist who Julia Roberts portrayed in the film that shares her name) writes and lectures quite frequently about how contaminated our modern water supply truly is.
Here is a short list of what is found in the “clean” water we consume (in differing amounts)—even water that is supposed to be filtered and treated by our municipalities:[1] [2] [3]
· Birth control hormones
· Chlorine
· Chloramine
· Farming runoff
· Fluoride (most municipalities add artificial fluoride to drinking water “for our health”)
· Fracking chemicals
· Heavy metals
· Manufacturing chemicals
· Medications (including SSRIs)
· Microorganisms, including bacteria (like H. pylori and bacterial biofilm), viruses, and parasites
· Microparticles of plastics
· Mining runoff
· Minerals
· Pesticides
· Radioactive elements
· Solid waste
Now, granted, there are differing amounts of the above contaminants in our water. However, I would say that the water that most of us consume is not contaminated with just one of the above contaminants from the above list, but a combination of any of them in differing amounts, which over time is not suitable for our health to consume. For example, there may not be a high enough concentration of certain medications to be biologically active when finished.
Water has become increasingly contaminated over the years. One specific way water is becoming more contaminated in our modern world is the increased use of chloramines instead of free chlorine to reduce colony-forming units of microbes in our water supply. Chloramine (chlorinated ammonia) is challenging to remove from water, whereas chlorine can be easily removed using activated charcoal filters. It is also not as effective as free chlorine (though it is cheaper), so biofilm formation occurs in water pipes frequently. Municipalities perform free chlorine flushing of their pipes at least twice yearly to disinfect them and reduce biofilm formation. You will notice when it happens, as the pungent smell of chlorine will reek from your tap water while they clean out the pipes. H. pylori infections are increasing in the United States every year. Is inadequately treated tap water a cause?[4] [5] [6]
Legionnaires disease cases are also on the rise—so much so that the number of cases has quadrupled in fifteen years. Legionnaires disease is a rare severe bacterial pneumonia caused by the bacteria Legionella pneumophila. The disease gets its name from its first recorded outbreak at a 1976 American Legion meeting in Philadelphia. Legionella colonizes freshwater and is known to colonize improperly treated water in hot water tanks, hot tubs, and cooling towers of large air conditioners. It is contracted by breathing in an aerosolized mist of the bacteria. Legionella can produce biofilm, so infection rates are on the rise. It can survive somewhat in chloramine-treated water, like H. pylori, because it produces biofilm. I'm not too fond of using chlorine as a disinfectant in our water supply, but it is easily filtered compared to chloramine, and it is efficient at disinfecting our water.[7] [8] [9]
Beyond problems with bacteria in the water, parasitical infections from inadequately maintained swimming pools are on the rise in the United States. Cryptosporidium infections from pools have doubled since 2014, and the parasite is difficult to eliminate from pools, immune to chlorine, and incredibly infectious. The parasite Giardia is also found in swimming pools and can easily survive moderate amounts of free chlorine. If you swim in a pool and end up with diarrhea, you are probably infected with either one of these parasites. On rare occasions, I swim in public pools; I try not to go underwater to avoid contracting a parasite.[10] [11] [12]
Infections from improperly treated water and water from natural sources have occurred. There has also been a rise in Naegleria fowleri infections, a brain-eating amoeba found in warm water. The amoeba can easily be killed with chlorine, but it is found in warm streams and lakes. It can enter the brain and cause fatal excessive inflammation in the cribriform plate at the top of the sinus cavity. You can prevent contracting this deadly brain-consuming amoeba by using nasal plugs when swimming or using only cooled, previously boiled filtered water for nasal irrigation.[13] [14]
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to We've Read The Documents to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.