Water is one of the primary things that are necessary for our overall well-being. It does not only keeps us hydrated, but more importantly, it keeps us alive and healthy. Even though many people do not realize the importance of water for their bodies, they should know that water is keeping their immune system preserved and functioning. Moreover, our bodies include 75% of water. Therefore, drinking high-quality water is a must.
Who is in charge of water supply and water safety?
In general, our municipal water providers’ job is to do everything in their power to remove any possible contaminants from the water we are drinking. They are achieving this goal by adding disinfectant agents to the water including chlorine or chloramine. But despite their efforts, contamination problems can still occur which means that all people on the planet should always be highly careful when it comes to the presence of contaminants in the water. This means that you should not ignore when you detect that something is wrong and strange with your water, instead you should always report it to your water supplier. The water will be tested and you can preserve the health of many people that are drinking that same water in your area.
Unfortunately, many people do not realize the fact that the water in their homes can be unsafe. Everyone is considering that the water must be generally safe since it comes from a public water system that is run and maintained by a municipality. Additionally, there is a special Environmental Protection Agency that has the authority to monitor all public water systems.
How can we improve the quality of the water we are drinking?
Even though authorities are doing their job in order to meet strict safety standards, you can still drink unsafe water and not know that. In order to not put yourself and your family health’s at serious risk, you should consider using water filters and in that way do everything that is in your power to ensure that the quality of your drinking water is great. You can find more about this on berkeyfilters.com. Exposing your body regularly to unsafe and contaminated water can truly lead to serious health issues, therefore we as individuals should take measures of getting water filters and stay out from the exposure.
How safe is our water – What Contaminants Are in Water?
Water can actually be contaminated in more than one way which can lead to drinking unsafe water and jeopardizing your health. The water we are drinking can contain some microorganisms such as parasites, bacteria, or some others that come from human or animal fecal. Despite that, the water can contain chemicals from industrial waste.
Additionally, nitrates that are used in fertilizers can also come into the water with runoff. Finally, there are different kinds of minerals including mercury or lead that can get into the drinking water from the disposal of pollutants. As you see the quality of the water we are drinking regularly can be jeopardized and contaminated by different things that we can not even recognize.
What are the characteristics of safe water?
Safe water is meeting special requirements and measures and because of that, it has some general characteristics. Based on those characteristics that you are going to find more about in this article, you will be able to recognize whether the water you are drinking is quality and safe for your health.
Primary, the drinking water in your house should not have any type of color, smell, and taste. In the case, you see that the water is not clear, you think it smells strange, or it has some metallic or other taste, you should consider this a red flag. This is the first sign that you need to call the authorities and report your concerns. Based on them, the laboratory tests are going to be conducted and after that, the authorities will take necessary steps in order to meet safety water measures.
Despite that, you should also be aware of the fact that your water needs to be free from any type of pathogenic microorganisms such as parasites, or bacteria. They can be very dangerous for your health and cause some serious diseases and health conditions.
Safe water has the characteristics of being free from toxic substances, minerals, and organic matter. Additionally, the water we are drinking needs to contain a high amount of oxygen. When it comes to the temperature, your water needs to have a suitable temperature.
One more thing that you should pay attention to is whether or not your water is hard. It needs to be light, so if it is not, there are some divalent ions including the calcium ions present in the water and they are making the water hard for drinking.
Finally, there is a special ph range of water that needs to be adjusted. The range of the appropriate ph range goes between 6.5-8.5 and if the ph is in the mentioned range, undesirable chemical reactions can be controlled.
The Water Your Family Drinks Should Be Safe
The different array of chemicals, minerals, and other dangerous pollutants that the water we are drinking contains can actually have long-term and very serious effects on our health. You should one very important fact – even though federal regulators are reporting that the water is completely safe to drink, scientists are not agreeing with this. They are saying that the water quality should be much better for the overall health of people.
Therefore, aside from using water filters, you should also contact the laboratory for testing if you suspect that the water is contaminated in any way. They will identify the contamination and be required to do everything to provide safe and healthy drinking water to people. Additionally, we need to raise the awareness of thinking about the safety of our water. We should take care of each other and by taking little steps, change big things.