We live at the tip-top of the water supply. Most of our water is drawn straight from mountain streams and the run off of melting snow. Our community is small, so the water isn’t fluoridated. There’s no industrial farms up this high in the mountains, so the water isn’t contaminated by agricultural inputs. We’re not downstream from any other municipality, so residual pharmaceuticals in our water supply are minimal. With little risk, you might wonder why we still filter our drinking, cooking and bathing water. (Think it sounds excessive? Keep reading.)
We also live downstream from a superfund site. Inadequate measures taken by mining companies, inadequate clean up by said mining companies and inadequate governmental enforcement measures have left the community with water that sometimes registers high levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper, chromium and manganese. But even if we weren’t confronted by potentially contaminated drinking water (levels change with the seasons), I would still filter my family’s drinking, cooking and bathing water.
Near the Mountains? Heavy Metals.
If you live in the mountains or in an area of new (or old) mines, you should be concerned about heavy metals. Indeed, our family’s chief concern with regard to our water supply is the presence of heavy metals like arsenic, cobalt, cadmium and manganese. While many of these are essential in health, in excess they can cause toxicity. Excessive levels of cobalt, for example, can lead to pernicious anemia. Excessive cadmium can damage the kidneys. Heavy metal toxicity, in general, is implicated in autoimmune conditions like thyroid disease.
Near Industrial Agriculture? Herbicide, Pesticide and Insecticide Residue.
Pesticides, insecticides and the residue of other agricultural inputs can leach from the fields into the ground water supply, ending up in your water pitcher. Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences found the residue of 39 pesticides in the groundwater of 34 US states. Of course, you don’t have to live in the hub of industrial agriculture for your water to register unsafe levels of pesticides and weed killers. According to the Environmental Working Group, herbicides in tap water exceeded federal standards for months at a time. Atrazine, cyanazine and other herbicides have been found at levels 34 times in excess of the LHA (lifetime health advisory level) in some municipal water supplies. These herbicides are known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors and have also been implicated in birth defects.
Live in an old house? Lead.
While lead is rarely found in source water, except as it relates to overall heavy metal contamination, it often enters your drinking water through old, corroded plumbing. Older homes (those built before 1986) are more likely to have lead plumbing, fixtures and solder. While even certified “lead-free” pipes might actually contain up to 8% lead. Indeed, according to the EPA, lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disabilities in children. The EPA also estimates that lead is the number one environmental health threat to children. And if you think the problems of lead in our drinking water affect only children, you’re wrong: excessive lead can also contribute to kidney disease and hypertension in adults.
In a city? Fluoride and Pharmaceuticals.
The CDC estimates that almost half of Americans take prescription drugs (and many Americans have multiple subscriptions) and over 80% of us take a pill (either over the counter or prescribed) every single day. Much of this is excreted in urine and flushed down the toilet where it ends up in your water supply. This means that mood stabilizers, hormones from oral contraceptives, antibiotics and anticonvulsants are landing in your drinking water. While the levels of these drugs are far below what could be considered a medical dose, one must consider what the cumulative effect is.
Most municipal water, though not all – especially in rural areas, is fluoridated. Fluoridation is inexpensive and was undertaken to mitigate the prevalence of tooth decay among Americans. It costs less than $1 per person per year. Of course, there’s more to dental health than fluoride, and some question the efficacy of fluoride in the first place. For instance, tooth decay is still very high in low-income areas where the water is fluoridated. Tooth decay doesn’t typically increase when fluoridation is stopped, and many populations exhibit beautiful oral health free from dental cavities without fluoridation (see the Teeth Tell the Tale). Further, there is an association between exposure to fluoride and reduced IQ and fluoride may negatively affect the endocrine system – particularly the thyroid. Due to concerns over fluoridation’s effect on systemic health, many municipalities are voting to eliminate the fluoridation of their drinking supply.
Everywhere! Chlorine.
Chlorine is typically added to all drinking water in an effort to disinfect it; that is, to kill off microorganisms than can make us seriously ill. Unclean drinking water kills an estimated 5,000 children a day – most of whom live in developing nations. Yet, the chlorine added to drinking water not only kills microorganisms, but it also can create a host of other problems. It combines with other organic matter in drinking water to form organochlorines which can be potentially toxic (many are safe, others are not). According to the World Health Organization, chlorinated water is implicated in bladder cancer and there’s also further suspicion that chlorine is implicated in elevated levels of LDL cholesterol. Chlorinated drinking water is also implicated in miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects.
What to Do: Water Filtration & Purification Options
We rent our home, so investing in a whole house water purification system doesn’t make financial sense for our family; however, when we purchase our own home, I wouldn’t hesitate to invest in a 14-stage water purification system or a whole house water filter and condition system (see sources for more information). For now my family uses a Berkey water filter for our drinking and cooking water. The Berkey is a gravitational based water filtration system that was recommended to me by Robert Disney, an environmental scientist who spoke on water contamination at a recent conference I attended. You can find the Berkey and other gravitational-based systems online (see sources).
- Whole House Filtration and Purification Systems are typically the most pricy systems available and, for those who can afford them and who own their own homes, they make the best choice (learn more here).
- Gravitational Systems like the Berkey are moderately priced and are excellent choices for those who rent their home, have a moderate budget, and are particularly good to have on hand in case of emergency preparedness. This is the system we have in our home. They are also extremely efficient and the cost per gallon of filtered water is typically only a few pennies. You can find them online (see sources).
- Point-of-use Filters for showers and baths are a good choice for those who cannot afford a whole house system or who rent their homes. Remember: your skin is your largest organ and it absorbs what you put on it, so if you’re bathing in tap water, your body may still be absorbing contaminants. Point-of-use filters for the shower and bath are reasonably priced and we purchased two bath filters and one shower filter in our home. You can find them online (see sources).
- Other filters are not typically as efficient as the gravitational based systems. While initially the cost of a pitcher or faucet filter may be low ($50 or so), the increased frequency with which you replace filters means the cost per gallon of filtered water is typically $0.10 to $0.20 (compared to $0.016 to $0.055 with a gravitational system like the Berkey). Moreover, the pitcher-based and faucet-based filters you typically find in the stores are not as efficient at removing contaminants as the Berkey or whole house systems are.
Berkey’s lack of independent certification, claims that their product exceeds all others on the market and statements to the effect that they were tired of answering consumer questions regarding their product’s abilities to filter makes me very leery of them. I am in the market for a water filter but have numerous concerns about Berkey.
There are 4 independent lab tests, which show the black berkey elements are effective and the claims that are made have valid testing. I can email them to you, feel free to reach me at directive21@directive21.com
Jeff
I hear you, Liz. But, I really do love my Berkey. We bought it at the recommendation of Robert Disney – a water expert. After hearing him speak, my husband asked him what kind of filter he recommended and he said Berkey. So that’s what we bought.
How are we going to know it works? I mean, what if its leaking or can’t remove all the toxins as it states? Since its new and not throughly certified, I am very concerned.
Go to lifesourcewater.com and check out their whole house water filtration systems (they are third party tested and certified and the smallest system will give 2.2 MILLION GALLONS of great water to every faucet in your house so that you drink, cook, bathe and shower in water that is chlorine/chloramine free and it also takes out many other nasty items lurking in your water before it gets to you!!) The systems use NO SALT and require NO maintenance. I’m not sure what area your home is in, but call me (818) 843-3260 and I can have a system shipped to you for easy install by your local plumber. Lifesource Systems have been made in Pasadena, CA for 28 years and are sod nationwide and worldwide. You can also go to findaspring.com to cart home good spring water, but that’s a little harder than turning on your faucet and getting great water — also difficult to shower with water you bring home to drink or with a unit that sits on your counter…..and your body absorbs more chemicals in a 10 minute shower than if you drink 8-10 glasses of the same water.
Hello, Jenny,
Thank you for brining up this topic. We currently rent our home and we have a Doulton above counter water filter. But we have just bought our first home and I am interested in getting a whole house filtration system after we move. So, it says (radiant life website) that a whole house filter will still need a filter for drinking water… why so? What would a whole house filter not remove that would still need to be removed for drinking/cooking?
Also, if you did have a whole house filtration system, would you still need point of use filtraton for bathing?
Thanks!
I have always felt bad I can’t afford a Berkey—ever! Thank you, Liz, for your comments. They make me feel better even if I can only afford a Doulton, too.
I have one for my kitchen sink, but really need to get one in the shower. Thanks for the reminder!
We rent our home also and receive our water from a well – but I do worry about pesticides (as we live next to a vineyard) seeping into our water supply and we often have “rusty” water. Are these legitimate fears? We purchase our water from a water purifcation system at a local store in town 10 gallons at a time for cooking and drinking water but we do not have a filtration system for our bathing water. One day I hope to purchase a Berkey filter – first saw one at my accupuncturists office and have wanted one ever since.
Elizabeth, Yes. Whatever doesn’t get carried away in runoff seeps into the water table, from which the well draws.
Hi there,
I so appreciate your post on this topic. However, I do have a few questions. I have been doing a bit of research on bottled water, and have found that it has even lower standards than tap water. So we’ve decided to filter our house water instead of buying bottled. This also helps us to be more “sustainable” as bottled water is one of the most wasteful things on the planet! But I wonder what you suggest, when we are out and about, and have the choice between drinking tap water, and buying bottled water? I am all about “taking back the tap” but sometimes, with a family of 3 kids, lugging around tons of stainless steel water bottles isn’t an option.
Also, we just can’t afford to filter ALL of our water. Our cooking water and bath water is just from the tap. We are in a city, and near heavy industrialized agriculture. What do you suggest for poor folks who can’t afford to filter everything?
Thanks::Cate
How about carrying a single gallon of water in your car with a stack of some kind of eco-friendly non-breakable cups?
When eating away from home just skip beverages other than milk, since milk is a food. Water dilutes our digestive juices and is best drunk between meals anyway.
I have a double-filtered Doulton from Radiant Life. I like that the Ultracarb takes out (most of) the chlorine and it has the separate fluoride filter. It’s such a shame that it seems no matter where you live, you can’t win on the clean drinking water front.
I have heard that reverse osmosis is one of the most effective ways to purify water. How does the Berkey method compare? I am definitely concerned about the quality of water my family consumes internally and externally.
We had a RO growing up. I read recently that there’s a lot of waste with a RO. Maybe someone else can chime in?
A standard RO system does waste a lot of water…it actually wastes more than you use. However, there are now zero waste RO systems available. We have one, in our kitchen, made by Watts with stainless steel, not plastic, reservoirs. We chose an RO system because it filters out the most things, and, it is my understanding that RO is the only home filtration system available that filters fluoride.
Getting turned on to collecting spring water has changed my entire life! Going to the spring near our home is now an active part of my lifestyle. Luckily here in Maine there is an abundance of pure spring water flowing freely throughout the state. And best of all, its FREE! Our family uses spring water for all our cooking. We feed our plants spring water and our cats drink it!
This website, http://findaspring.com/ is an online data base for springs around the world.
wow, great link! thanks for sharing this.
We live (a) in an old house, (b) in a city and (c) near industrial agriculture and we rent! We’ve been using a faucet filter for a long time, but I’ve been thinking it’s time for an upgrade. I’m so glad to know there are options out there for people who don’t own their own homes. I’m e-mailing this post to the husband. Thanks!
http://www.findaspring.com/
I live in a large city and I drive 20min. to a lovely park to collect the best water on the planet for free!!
It is regularly tested and much better than filtered water.
the site has a lot of info about the benefits of spring water over filtered
Liz, our family lives on a 15 acre farm surrounded by a 35+ acre farm (15+35) that does not use any chemicals to grow soy and corn, 2 crops a year. We are located in one of the last rural areas of South Jersey. Our well is 225 feet deep, and when it came in forty-years ago it shot up about 65′. We had it tested when we hooked it into the house system, which we built at the same time, and it came back portable. What would you recommend?
BTW, good article.
Thanks, Jim
Hi Jenny,
Funny you should do a post on water because “research water” is actually written on my to-do list! My family just moved into a rental house that has a water softening system in it. We were concerned over whether or not it would be safe to drink softened water, so my mom did some reasearch and found that there are certainly some differing opinions on this subject. The FDA says that the ammount of salt in softened water is not a health concern. On the other hand, the health community seems to have more concerns than just the potential dangers of excess salt. What are your thoughts on this subject? Is softened water safe to drink?
Thoughts anyone??
Thank you!
I have a dumb question. If you have a house built before 1986, what should you replace your pipes with if you get a whole house filtration system? Do you go to copper, or do you go to the plastic and risk BPA? We have to replace our sewer pipes soon as they are all cast iron and they are slowly starting to leak. However with this I wonder if there is anything we can replace our water pipes with.
it’s a no-win situation. copper piping could lead to copper toxicity {which my 4 year old with autism has}. We live in a 1938 home that my DH switched over to copper.
Wish there was a good answer.
Unfortunately, I am not a water expert and do not know any definitive answers. I am sorry. I am on the same path as you, seeking to find the adequately purified drinking water. I have not had time to further research the Berkey or any other systems at the moment but as we are on septic RO will not work for us (it will blow out our tank).
We filter with an undersink filter and shower filters. I would LOVE a Berkey, but they are just a ridiculous distance from what I can afford.
A couple of years ago I spent over $250 for a Berkey. I thought it would be a life-long solution to my water concerns. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Every time I drank the Berkey water, I got sick to my stomach. Has anyone else had that experience? Does anyone have any suggestions about how to ameliorate this situation? I’d be greatly appreciative.
Stephen
Only in the last few years has it really begun to sink in just how precious fresh water is. Thanks for bringing attention to it, and sharing some options for now. I feel a bit more worried about the many causes of water pollution though – didn’t realise for ages how much water pollution is caused by raising animals, or dying jeans, for example.
I would suggest getting your water tested by an independent lab so you KNOW what you are dealing with. That said, after doing quite a lot of research over a decade ago, I believe there is a lot of validated testing that has been done that supports the claims of Berkey, as well as other ceramic filter systems. We used another brand but basically the same technology to filter our odorous (lots of iron and sulfur) well water for years. It was made of terra cotta and was HEAVY. One particularly nice thing about a Berkey filter system is it’s portability, you can take it with you wherever you go. Of course there are smaller units for these purposes but we already own a Berkey and we have six in our family so we drink water in volume! We would use ours to filter lake water at a remote cabin to make it potable. I would even trust it to filter out giardia, which is plentiful in our Alaskan streams and rivers, hence the nickname “beaver fever”.
I think you brought up a very important topic! However, I noticed that a couple of things are missing from the list:
1) Chloramines – A lot of US cities are now using chloramines ( a chlorine and ammonia compound) and not plain chlorine to disinfect their water. These include Washington DC, NYC, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, etc. This poses a problem as it is very, very hard to remove chloramines from water without an RO system or a whole-house system, and chloramines increases the amount of lead that leaks from pipes. There are many reports of adverse effects from this chemical, particularly to the skin.
2) More chlorine is absorbed by showering than drinking tap water, therefore shower filters are very important to have. However, if you have chloramines, none of the regular filters will work as the filter media used is not strong enough to remove them. The only thing that will work is a vitamin C filter.
My solutions: I buy RO water from my local MOMs or Whole Foods Markets. I looked into the Berkey and other filter systems but none of them remove chloramines and I live in a condo so a whole-house system was not a possibility. In the shower I actually have 2 filters, a regular one made by Culligan plus a Sonaki vitamin C filter. Since installing this recently, my skin has stopped itching like crazy like it had been all these past years despite already having a shower filter installed.
Some useful links:
http://www.chloramine.org/chloraminefacts.htm
http://waterfilters.mercola.com/shower-filter.aspx
Hope this is useful to all!
This might sound dumb but should I be concerned about using tap water for a home water birth? We don’t have a whole house filtration system and won’t be getting one since we rent. I’ve been using a brita for everything in the kitchen until we are able to get a Berkey and I’ve gotten quite used to that. I had a small sip of water from the tap the other day to wash down a pill and the chlorine taste really got to me which I never used to notice. My concern is about me sitting in that water for so long (my showers are quick) and how would chlorine affect the new gut flora of the newborn?