Do You Actually Know What's Inside Our Tap Water?

Nov 24
09:18

2008

Alvyn Khoo

Alvyn Khoo

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It seem to be so normal when we turn on the tap, fill the glass with tap water, drink it or just use it for cooking purposes. Besides consuming the ta...

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It seem to be so normal when we turn on the tap,Do You Actually Know What's Inside Our Tap Water? Articles fill the glass with tap water, drink it or just use it for cooking purposes. Besides consuming the tab water, take shower in it, water the plants with it, wash our clothes and basically our life can not live without tap water. It is so important that we can't live without tap water nowadays because our life depends so much on the tap water. However, have you ever wonder what's inside our tap water?Scientifically, tap water is made of Hydrogen and Oxygen, to be more precise, it is a combination of 2 hydrogen molecules and one Oxygen molecule; H2O. Lots of the H2O make up the water and it keep in the cycle transforming from H2O (liquid form) to Hydrogen & Oxygen (gas form), and back to H2O again. So, these will go on and go on for as long as we live.When it rains, the water is being gathered in a damp or water catchments which will be channeled to the reservoir. Water then will be filtered and treated before it reach our house as tap water. During the water treatment by the water works or local municipal, chlorine will be added to water because of low cost and high efficiency in killing just about everything hazardous in the water. Chlorine reacts with water-borne decaying organic matter like leaves, bark, sediment, etc. to create a family of chemicals called trihalomethanes and other highly toxic substances. Trihalomethanes, or THM's, include chemicals such as chloroform, bromoform and dichlorobromethane, all of which are extremely carcinogenic. So, you know now what's inside our tap water.The chlorine is always at its highest acceptable level in order to be affective. Periodically, test will be carried out to ensure the chlorine level is safe for human consumption, but unfortunately there are still many ways where the tap water will be contaminated before reaching the household. When chlorine level is not sufficient to do its jobs, bacteria can re-infect the water anywhere along the distribution system within hours. It could happened in the main pipes or even the plumbing in your house, the water tank above your house or apartment, or even neighboring pollution, occasional contamination from animals either dying or defecating in the source. Those old distribution using lead and asbestos-lined water pipes, is interjecting lead and asbestos into the water supply. Sadly to say, truly what's inside our tap water, is partly contributed by the tap water distribution networks.Another " what's inside our tap water " main concern is the presence of chemicals in our tap water. The existence other chemicals even only in trace amounts, are highly toxic and harmful to human being. Leaking underground storage tanks for gasoline or industrial solvents such as TCE (trichloroethane) end up in the groundwater or in the municipal supply through breaks or cracks in the main water pipes. The biggest family of these toxic are VOC's or volatile organic contaminants, including various plastic, gasoline and petroleum products. Next is the herbicidal group such as dioxin (2-4D) and lindane, used as a defoliant in modern logging operation and found in many wild and rural areas, do not neglect DDT, malathione and other toxics used in insect eradication and control. Also, the THM's mentioned before are a big pollutant because of the amount of chlorination used nationwide. They are a separate class of chemical from chlorine itself. So, it's so scary to know what's inside our tap water!I am very sure if you really aware of what's inside our tap water, you will think the need to install a whole water filtration system is so important to purify the tap water prior to consuming it. Do not take it likely when our utmost health and wellness is concerned when find out the truth about what's inside our tap water.