First, why is water quality important to public health? Around the turn of the century, before chlorination began, waterborne illnesses were rampant in countries with large populations. Today, they are still rampant in third world nations and countries struggling with war or inadequate governments.
Worldwide, more than 5 million people die of waterborne or water-related diseases, every year. But, the Centers for Disease Control and the US Environmental Protection Agency reported only seven deaths in the US during the last reporting period.
That bears repeating. Of the 5 million people that died, only 7 of them lived in the US. If you were wondering why is water quality so important, that may give you part of the answer, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s another question.
Why is water quality important to long-term health?
The human body is primarily a bag of fluids. All of those fluids must be replaced on a daily basis or dehydration will result. Acute dehydration is pretty rare, but if you ever worked in an emergency room, you would see that a lot of hospital visits could be avoided if people simply drank enough fluids.
The question of why is water quality so important to a person’s long-term health has to do with several things. First, while acute dehydration is relatively rare, many chronic health complaints are related to inadequate fluid intake. Even the appearance of your skin is negatively affected when you don’t drink enough.
Second, chemical contaminants and heavy metals that are present in most supplies build up in the body faster than they can be disposed of. This leads to a variety of chronic illnesses. In addition, many of those chemicals cause cancer. For those that wonder why is water quality so important; that should drive the importance home.
Public treatment facilities in the US and other countries have done a lot to prevent waterborne illness, but they can do very little about the chemical contaminants and traces of heavy metals that are detrimental to our long-term health. Once you understand why is water quality important, you may be tempted to buy bottled, but that’s not really a good choice.
Bottling companies are allowed to use publicly treated supplies. They may or may not take additional steps to purify it. In other words, you could be buying your own tap-water.
If you truly understand the answer to “why is water quality so important”, you realize that home purification and filtration is the best option. Chlorination may have solved the problem of waterborne illnesses, but it greatly increased the number of cancer cases that are diagnosed every year. Researchers estimated that 70-80 new cases each year are a direct result of chlorination, because of exposure to cancer-causing chlorine by-products called THMs.
The better home purifiers and filters remove both THMs and chlorine, improving the taste and the safety of tap-water. They are affordable and a worthwhile investment in your long-term health. Now you know why water quality is important and how to ensure that yours is of the highest quality.
To become better informed about the available options you have in relation to the water purification technology you can install at your house and what I personally recommend, visit my website.
Image taken on 2009-09-04 00:49:19 by eclectic echoes.
Image taken on 2007-07-22 15:49:01 by Sue Waters.
Poor water quality has large economic and quality of life costs, in terms of health impacts and foregone revenues. According to the Philippine government’s monitoring data, just over 36 percent of the country’s river systems are classified as sources of public water supply and that up to 58 percent of groundwater sampled is contaminated with coliform and needs treatment. Approximately 31 percent of illnesses monitored for a five-year period were also caused by water-borne sources, and many …
Water quality varies from place to place, season to season and even according to the pipes that it runs through. In most municipalities, public treatment facilities are in place to address some of the impurities that are present. But, if you really want high quality water in your home, you need to install a purifier. Here’s why.
The public treatment facilities have many steps in place to reduce impurities, but one of their biggest concerns is bacteria that cause waterborne illnesses. In order to kill the bacteria, most facilities use chlorine or chloramines.
Chloramines negatively affect water quality, taste and smell, but they do reduce the incidences of waterborne illnesses in industrialized societies. So, chlorine is something of a necessary evil.
There are lots of facts about chlorine that the general public is not made aware of. For example, infants and children should not consume chlorinated water, because it causes anemia. Only the highest quality water should be used for making infant formula. Some people are aware of the dangers of chlorine. Others just don’t like the way that it tastes.
We have been told that drinking more high quality water will improve our overall health and is better than drinking soft drinks or other beverages. Because of that, many people are buying thousands of bottles, every year. Yet, those bottles are a major source of pollution. They cost a lot of money and they leach contaminants into the liquids stored within them. Obviously, the best choice for many reasons is a home purifier.
If you read your local water quality report (sometimes called a Consumer Confidence Report), you will see that THMs are listed. THMs are chemical compounds that are created during disinfection processes. The amount that is listed on the report may be very small, but the level continues to grow as it travels through the pipelines.
The amount that is released into the air, when waters are heated for cooking or showering, is 300% greater than what is present at the treatment facility, according to scientific researchers. The researchers are concerned because THMs are known to cause cancer.
Only a high quality water filter will trap THMs. Most of the inexpensive systems on the market reduce only chlorine.
Other contaminants, such as herbicides, pesticides, lead, benzene, VOCs and even prescription drugs may also be present. Chlorine and THMs are the most common, but the best systems provide the best water quality by addressing all of those other contaminants, as well. Among other things, a purifier of that type gives you peace of mind.
To learn more about your options regarding water purification systems that you can install at your house, visit my website.
Image taken on 2009-01-09 20:10:53 by Sue Waters.