Did you know the average household uses 150 gallons of water per day?! Between toilet flushing, bathing, lawn irrigation, laundry you name it...
Americans use a lot of water!
But a lot of Americans don't know where their water comes from, and even more alarming is they don't know what pollutants are in their water!
A lot of drinking water contains pesticides, herbicides, solvents, heavy metals, industrial waste by-products, plastics, and chemicals from the water disinfecting process.
Here in Phoenix, there are very high amounts of pollutants in our tap water. One of the main reasons for that is a lot of our tap comes from open air water transportation methods. So those open canals you see, that have a lot of organic matter in them, that is our drinking water here. So the amount of treating that has to be done to that water to remove all that organic matter negatively impacts the water quality that we can have.
For example, Phoenix tap water contains high levels of arsenic, chlorite, chromium, haloacetic acids (HAA5 and 9), nitrate, radium, and total triholomethanes. All these chemicals are linked to cancer as well as changes in blood chemistry.
When you're looking at how to remove these specific chemicals from your water, the only way to remove all of them is by installing a reverse osmosis (RO) system. This is the most expensive water filtration system, but it is also the most effective removing everything from your water. If you are to do an RO system it's highly recommended by a lot of professionals that you mineral supplement as you can become mineral deficient quite easily if you're consuming pure H2O.
Another really effective way to remove some of these chemicals from your water is by installing point of entry carbon filters to your water supply. These types of filters are super cost-effective they only need to replace be replaced every two to three months, depending on what you're using them for and can be really beneficial at reducing health risks.
One of the most fascinating water contaminants, to me, are Trihalomethanes. Trihalomethanes are an excellent example of why point of use filters should be used within your house.
Trihalomethanes are easily removed by a simple carbon filter, which just needs changed every 6 months. But the cool thing is they are heat activated, so when your water heater kicks on, breathing the fumes in can actually cause health damaging effects. So having a point of entry filter on your shower or your water faucet can be really beneficial at reducing the negative health effects of trihalomethanes.
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