Years ago, environmentalists found it necessary to inform people about their findings that the water coming from public water systems in the United States are not at all safe. Water especially from estuaries that pass through watersheds, where our supply of public water comes from is known to be highly contaminated with toxic chemicals.
These toxic chemicals include lead, mercury, copper, and a host of bacteria from sewage sludge, that came from carelessly dumped wastes in estuaries. As a reaction, the U.S. government disallowed waste dumping in said estuaries and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) then created the National Estuary Program to rehabilitate these estuaries. That was twenty years ago; to date efforts are still ongoing due to the high levels of contamination.
Not All Bottled Water is Safe
The public then became wary of drinking tap water and it created a necessity to drink bottled water instead as a safer alternative. However, another information dissemination campaign was again made to inform us that bottled water is not as safe as we think it is. Those plastic bottles we thought of as sanitary actually contains harmful toxins called phthalates.
Phthalate is a chemical substance actively used as plastic softener in manufacturing plastic products, which includes the water bottle we thought as safe. Studies about this compound show that particles of this phthalates wear off as we drink from the bottle. It was reported to be cancer causing because it accumulates in our body and has the ability to mimic some of our natural hormones. This condition was accounted to have caused damage to the human reproductive system.
Even our environment will not benefit from this type of plastic bottles because they are considered as non-biodegradable. Statistics show that about 25% of the public landfills contain these plastic water bottles and it will take at least 10,000 years before phthalate carrying bottles and other plastic wares are eradicated from our landfills.
Availability of Home and Personal Filters to Ensure Clean and Safe Drinking Water
In response to a demand for safe and clean drinking water, home water filtering systems were devised and became available in the market. These filter devices include easy-to-install filters that can be attached to a kitchen faucet. They may also come as attachments to a non-toxic bottle to allow for portability wherein you can filter your drinking water wherever you may go.
The filters can strain contaminants like chlorine and heavy metal residues out of the tap water to produce safe drinking water. The portable water filtration system on the other hand, has a 16-ounce capacity to filter tap water wherever you go.
How are water sources became contaminated is something beyond our control. However, we should also be more responsible in our manner of waste disposal since some of them are carried down the streams, rivers, and estuaries by rainwater run-offs and floods, thus worsening the present state of contamination. Going green is also being responsible about our actions. The effects of what we carelessly throw away will revert to us in the form of pollution and contamination. Taking care of the environment is also taking care of our health.
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For more of Ciel Cantoria's Environmental articles and other issues kindly visit her homepage at this URL: brighthub.com/members/csc3819.aspx brighthub.com/members/csc3819.aspx.
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