Water Water Everywhere

Image courtesy of suphakit73 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let me preface this post by saying that I need access to clean water...and I think all people should be as demanding as I am in that respect. I recently posted a story of the headache it took to get clean water in the home I am living in now, but why it is well worth it. Tap water contains many harmful substances. Here is a short list of things, adapted from "The Hundred Year Lie" by Randall Fitzgerald, you can probably be pretty certain are in your tap water:

Triclosan- "a chemical that reacts with chlorinated water to produce chloroform gas, which is absorbed through a person's skin or inhaled. Chloroform can cause depression, liver problems, and cancer" The FDA is conducting a re-review of triclosan due later this year.
http://www.ewg.org/triclosanguide

Teflon- Linked a birth defects and environmental problems

Perchlorate- used in fireworks, auto-airbags and safety flares, can cause cancer and thyroid disruption

Chlorine- routinely added to water as a disinfectant, also the easiest contaminant to remove

Trace pharmaceuticals and Personal care products- prescription drugs, steroids, antibiotics, pesticides and other chemicals are not removed by most municipal water treatment methods. I do not want to take statins or antidepressants, but they can be forced on us through the tap water we drink. 

Fluoride- an industrial waste product that causes brittle bones, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, dental fluorosis (mottling), lowered IG in growing children and many other problems, recent reduction measures have been proposed for lowering the amount added to drinking water
http://www.fluoridealert.org/

For more contaminants you can check out the EPA's website

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/index.cfm#List

Most tap water quality reports can be accessed online. One website that is helpful is 

http://water.epa.gov/drink/local/

However, you might find some areas are missing. In that case, you can normally just search for your city on Google and find out where the water comes from and obtain a quality report. The reports are normally done annually, but water quality can vary throughout the whole year. Some people choose to buy filters specifically calibrated to the contaminants their city has the most of (such as lead), but I think that is less of a worry with a high quality filter that removes almost everything.