Many countries, including the United States, have comprehensive guidelines in place to ensure that harmful chemicals in water and overall water quality are tested for and regulated.
In the United States, the EPA Legally Enforceable Standards As well as all kinds of contaminants in drinking water. Secondary concerns It can cause skin irritation and hair damage. Every year, your local water supplier publishes a new consumer confidence report. The EPA has a public database It’s designed to make it easy to find the latest tap water report for your area. You can read the report to see if there are any contaminant levels in your tap water that concern you, but rest easy knowing that you’ll be notified if any contaminants in your water exceed legal limits.
If you’re particularly concerned about lead, one easy way to reduce your risk is to flush your water a few minutes before using it. The most dangerous amounts of lead build up when water sits in your home’s pipes overnight, so flushing the water from your pipes will make it much safer.
Lead and Chlorine in Drinking Water
Even if your water smells and tastes fine, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t contain harmful chemicals. Water contaminants fall into many different categories, but the main substances of concern in shower water are toxic metals, chlorine (used as a disinfectant), and byproducts that form when chlorine reacts with other chemicals in the water. Any of these can wreak havoc on your shower experience.
The main toxic metals found in water are arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury, all of which World Health Organization’s Top 10 List “Chemicals of great health concern”
Lead from deteriorated plumbing can get into drinking water and cause a variety of public health problems.
Lead is often considered the biggest pollutant. Even if your tap water is pure, lead in your home’s plumbing system is slowly corroded by the water, leaching the toxic metal into the water. Children are at particular risk of exposure to harsh chemicals, and are reported to absorb up to 50% of lead through drinking water. The WHO reports that even relatively low levels of lead exposure can cause irreversible neurological problems. Therefore, water quality should always be considered.
Another major problem is Disinfectants in drinking waterThe main health concern is the by-products that are produced when chlorine reacts with natural organic matter in the water. THMYou’ve probably heard of chloroform, a common trihalomethane that acts as a carcinogen at high levels.
A study It has been found that a 10-minute hot shower absorbs more THMs than drinking a litre of water, so if this is a concern for you, a shower filtration system that actively removes chlorine may be helpful.
