Your water management district may not be telling you everything. When it comes to reporting on contaminants in water, you may be missing out on a lot. A number of contaminants can be present even in water that has been declared safe. Waterborne disease, contaminants such as lead, arsenic, and mercury may be present along with radioactivity, insecticides and herbicides. The presence of water-borne diseases and parasites is also of concern, especially if water is not adequately treated, or if you are drawing from a private well. Installing a home reverse osmosis water system maybe the best step you can take to assure that your water supply is potable and free of hazard.
Reverse Osmosis 101
In reverse osmosis, water is pushed through a semipermeable membrane which has openings small enough to catch most particles such as bacteria, viruses, and other contaminants. A reverse osmosis system is capable of catching and removing such waterborne parasites such as cryptosporidium and giardia, dissolved solids, a host of chemicals used in agriculture and industry, and even the dreaded norovirus which has capsid proteins that make it virtually impossible to kill. In fact, for a country that accounts itself as civilized, the United States has an astounding number of emergency room visits and hospital admissions due to waterborne causes.
The thing to keep in mind when you visit the above link is that the survey only accounts for 13 different causes, not the full number of waterborne contaminants. In other words, if you weren’t sick enough to go to an emergency room or be admitted to the hospital, you were not counted. Additionally, if you did not present with one of the 13 conditions being tracked, you were not counted. Therefore, the actual number of waterborne illnesses in the United States could be far higher than half a million per year.
Bottled Water Is Not The Answer
Until health authorities are willing to take on the sources of contamination that include large agricultural interests as well as industry, and modernize our water systems, incidents of water-borne contamination, illness and death will continue. Protecting your family by installing a reverse osmosis water system can help to protect against a variety of threats.