(Akiit.com) Have you ever wondered about the health of your drinking water? There have been a number of news reports during the past year about traces of improperly discarded medication contaminating our tap water.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), drinking water quality varies depending on the condition of the water source and how it’s treated.
So what does this mean? Well, it means that no matter where you live your water supply does contain some impurities and, in some cases, this can be hazardous to your health.
The EPA has published the following information about the health effects of contaminants in drinking water and the standards set for your drinking water supply?
EPA has set standards for more than 80 contaminants that may occur in drinking water and pose a risk to human health. EPA sets these standards to protect the health of everybody, including vulnerable groups like children. The contaminants fall into two groups according to the health effects that they cause. Your water supplier will alert you through the media, mail, or other means if there is a potential acute or chronic health effect from compounds in the drinking water. You may want to contact the supplier for additional information specific to your area.
Acute effects occur within hours or days of the time that a person consumes a contaminant. People can suffer acute health effects from almost any contaminant if they are exposed to extraordinarily high levels (as in the case of a spill). In drinking water, microbes, such as bacteria and viruses, are the contaminants with the greatest chance of reaching levels high enough to cause acute health effects. Most people’s bodies can fight off these microbial contaminants the way they fight off germs, and these acute contaminants typically don’t have permanent effects. Nonetheless, when high enough levels occur, they can make people ill, and can be dangerous or deadly for a person whose immune system is already weak due to HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy, steroid use, or another reason.
Chronic effects occur after people consume a contaminant at levels over EPA’s safety standards for many years. The drinking water contaminants that can have chronic effects are chemicals (such as disinfection by-products, solvents, and pesticides), radionuclides (such as radium), and minerals (such as arsenic). Examples of the chronic effects of drinking water contaminants are cancer, liver or kidney problems, or reproductive difficulties.
Your local water company can provide you with a report which will give you detailed information about the water you drink. To learn more about your local water supply click here: www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html
Written By Tibberly G. Richard