Monday, November 17, 2014

What’s In the Water? Knowing Your Contaminants

A lot of people take drinking clean water for granted. There’s a lot of things that you may inadvertently drink while you’re enjoying that tall, cold glass of water. Here are a few of those frightful stuffs: substances:


  • Bacterial Contaminants. There are a lot of water-borne diseases that can be passed on via drinking water. Bacteria naturally occurs in a lot of places and they can easily contaminate your water source. An additional source of bacterial contaminants is sewage and waste water during floods and rain. A majority of these bacteria can cause gastrointestinal diseases, and the worst types, like Legionella which cause Legionnaire’s Disease, can be fatal.
  • Chemical Contaminants. Fertilizers and pesticides can be helpful in the fields, but rainwater can leech them from the soil and bring them to a nearby river or aquifer. This event can contaminate a community’s source of drinking water.  Water contaminated by chemicals can be toxic, and can cause severe damage to a person’s internal organs.
  • Metals. Lead pipes and soldering used to be a major part of the world’s plumbing infrastructure. However, natural corrosion can have them mixing into the water line. Though odorless and tasteless, lead has a lot of negative effects like kidney disease and stunting development in children.

With all of these dangerous substances potentially floating in people’s drinking water, homeowners should seriously think of installing a water filter, such as a reverse osmosis system or a carbon filter to ensure their families’ safety.


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