Is Tap Water Safe? (aka Is There Prozac In Your Drinking Water?)

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hand holding glass filling it with water from filter faucet with title saying toxins in your tap water: the shocking truth.

There’s so much to think about regarding toxins we put in our bodies – from pesticides on food, to chemicals on our lawns, to chemicals in our personal care products, chemical “nasties” are everywhere.  All of those are important, but since we drink so much water and our bodies are made up of so much water, what we really should be asking is, “Is tap water safe to drink?”

Have you been:

  • wondering if your tap water is safe to drink,
  • purchasing cases of bottled water from the store or
  • deciding what kind of water filter to get?

These are questions that I pondered literally for years.  I wish that I’d done what we finally did years ago, but then again, hindsight is 20/20, right?

Eating a healthy diet is crucial for healthier living, however, it’s so important to think about the quality of the water that you’re drinking.

I really can’t emphasize this enough.

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Why Should You Filter Your Water?

Water is Crucial for Good Health

We all learned in school that our bodies are made up primarily of water. But did you know that our bodies are about 55-60% water?  And water’s function in our bodies is critical to good health.

Water transports nutrients, minerals, and chemicals to every cell in our bodies.

Beyond that, consider these functions of water in our bodies:

  • Is a vital nutrient to the life of every cell
  • Regulates our internal body temperature by sweating and respiration
  • The carbohydrates and proteins that our bodies use as food are metabolized and transported by water in the bloodstream;
  • It assists in flushing waste mainly through urination
  • acts as a shock absorber for brain, spinal cord, and fetus
  • forms saliva
  • lubricates joints

We Drink Water Every Day

It’s one things to eat the occasional hot dog.  But it’s another to drink contaminated water each and every day.

I personally know many people who are very concerned about healthy living.  They buy organic, or at least whole foods, but they drink unfiltered tap water.

Water is certainly the item that we consume the most of by volume and by weight.  So it makes sense that we pay the most attention to it, over and above everything else.  In my opinion, it is the most important thing that we must change on our path towards health, with the exception of considering the quality of the air that we breathe.

Our Water Is Contaminated

It’s great to know that you need to drink more water to be healthy, but clearly it needs to be clean water.

City water departments clean the water by filtration and sterilization, but actually even the sterilization is part of the problem due to what’s left behind as byproducts.

Following is a list of things that are in your tap water, some of which will likely shock you.

Contaminants In Tap Water

You likely already know that there is chlorine and fluoride (a known carcinogen) in your water, but did you know about these other things?

Here are some not so great things that are in the water you likely drink and use for cooking each and every day.

Arsenic

Arsenic gets into lakes, rivers and underground water when things like rocks that contain arsenic erode and dissolve into the water. It can also enter groundwater as an industrial and agricultural waste product.

 Arsenic in drinking water is a huge problem because it’s toxic at very low levels and is well known to be a carcinogen. (source)

Perc (a Dry Cleaning Chemical)

Perc can get into well water or other water that’s a source for drinking water when groundwater comes in contact with a toxic spill or from water contaminated with waste from dry cleaners.

Mercury

Rain and snow carry mercury that’s in the air to lakes, rivers and reservoirs. Mercury can also seep into underground water supplies from the waste of industrial sites and hazardous spills. (source)

Uranium

Uranium enters local water, air and food supplies by leaching from natural deposits and also from industrial and agricultural sites like mills, the nuclear industry, from fertilizers and the combustion of coal and other fuel products.

Pharmaceuticals

Yes, you’re drinking other people’s meds! Pharma products enter the drinking water through urine, people disposing of meds in the water system, and also waste from pharmaceutical companies.

PCPPs (Personal Care Products)

Of course personal care products get into the water system as we use them (in the case of shampoo, body wash, conditioner, detergent, and the like. But they also come from industrial waste and people disposing of products down the drain.

And More

In fact, there are likely up to a total of at least 830 synthetic chemicals in the water coming out of your tap.

Yikes.

Many of these are linked to cancer and other diseases, even in small amounts.  And this is all not to mention what might be leaching into your water through copper or PVC pipes in your home :-(.

Toxins have been documented in the water of many cities and the quality of our water just isn’t up to safety standards.

One of the main problems is testing.  For example, you for sure don’t see PROZAC listed as something that water plants are testing for.  Water testing is antiquated since there are so many more toxins in water today than in years past.

Sources: The New York Times and USA Today.  It cites the fact that toxins like arsenic, perc (a dry cleaning chemical), uranium, mercury and others have been found in tap water and that there are even 830 chemicals that have been found in total in our water.  According to The Times, many of these are liked to

To be fair, my city’s water site does have a statement showing that they are concerned about this issue and are performing some testing of our water to monitor levels of PCPPs (Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products).  Kudos to them for being ahead of the curve on this, but truthfully, “90% elimination of a majority of 22 target compounds? is not enough for me.  I want them all out!

        I think you’ll agree with me that the answer to the question, “Is tap water safe to drink?” is a resounding “NO!”

Clean water, on the other hand, we can take with us.

Water running from the faucet with glass filled with water

How to Take Clean Water With You

When you’re home, it’s easy enough to get clean water if you have a great water filter in your house.

However, once you leave your home, things are a little more difficult, but certainly not impossible.

If you know our family, you have seen us toting our water around in stainless bottles for a long time.  We even occasionally risk insulting hosts by bringing bottles of water to the table with us when we are invited for a meal (depends on the occasion).

Especially when the alternative is drinking tap water, I try not to worry about what others might think, because I am trying to do the best for my family within reason, and after reading articles like those cited above, I feel that a little embarrassment is a small price to pay for good health.  Plus, it might spark conversation that helps get the healthy-living message out.

If we clean up our water, are we solving all of our problems?  Of course not, but to quote Maria Von Trapp from The Sound of Music, it’s “a very good place to start” :-).

This water problem is just one part of the greater problems that truly are everywhere in our environment.

In effect it’s a perfect storm.

We have toxic water, polluted air, heavy-metals in cosmetics, pesticides in food, mercury in fish, pesticides, EMF’s (electromagnetic frequencies) coming at us from our cell phones and fluorescent lights, and smart metersBPA leaching from our plastics…the list goes on and on.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, my son has a form of autism, (actually he’s edging off the spectrum) and I’ve dealt with a number of health issues over the years.  Therefore, we need to be extra careful with what we put into our bodies.

I also feel that we are, like others dealing with auto-immune disorders. chronic fatigue and the like, like canaries in a coal mine. We are, by our illnesses and disabilities, warning others that something is wrong. 

There are things that we ought to be paying attention to.

So, what to do about this water problem?

Read what to do about your toxic water next.

Do you drink tap water? Will you keep doing so after reading this post?

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28 Comments

  1. Do you own an instant pot and if so, have you tried making coconut yogurt in it? I have and its wonderful. I did have to use the greek yogurt strainer though, which was fine. Cheers, Sam

  2. It’s a shame that something so fundamental as our drinking water is a danger. Probably more like “criminal”. Fluoride is a big concern. It is a known carcinogen, endocrine disrupter, neurotoxin, helps heavy metals cross the blood-brain barrier, and is bio-accumulative. For crying out loud, it’s one toxin that can be easily avoided, but the bung holes put it in our drinking water on purpose. It’s a hazardous industrial waste material (“harvested” from smokestack scrubbers!), and municipal water suppliers PAY for it, thereby saving industry huge $$ in EPA hazmat disposal costs. Industry actually MAKES $$ with it, while using our bodies as walking, breathing treatment plants for their hazardous waste. Why people don’t rise up and demand an end to this criminal practice is one of life’s great mysteries. I guess the fluoride (a major component of Prozac) is doing its job? As always, thanks for all you do to educate us, Adrienne.

    1. An industry “bung hole” here. We don’t like adding flouride any more than you like having it in your water. It is extremely dangerous to handle and requires constant supervision to make sure dosage levels aren’t exceeded. At my current plant we are FORCED to add it by the city even though we have produced reports and studies stating that it is not beneficial. But the citizens voted on it and it comes up every 10 years or so and they continually approve it. So before you go blaming industry professionals check with your water provider or municipality. I’ve often found places who add flouride do not really have a choice. Their hands are tied by the communities they serve who demand flouride be added to water. If you want it out go to your governing body and get enough people to be pests and make noise and it will be gone. It is extremely rare to find source water containing flouride and it really adds no value to the water, except in the case of young children and even then only maybe. If you ask me we are better off not adding it. I also do find it somewhat insulting to be labeled a “bung hole”. As a chemical engineer working in operations I pride myself in providing the community I serve with safe reliable drinking water. This year alone, with the exception of 2 major religious holidays, I worked and missed time with my family. Many in the industry sacrifice nights, weekends, christmas, Thanksgivings because people need water. If you see the source water many municipalities have to work with thats truly toxic. Worse yet loaded with potentially deadly organisms. I could keep ranting but really until we can clean up our whole way of life so that our source water is purer it would be extremely difficult and expensive to remove all potential contaminants, especially those in minute traces (such as prozac in moselt cases although usually more prevalent in sewage plants and reclaimed water from them). It probably is much more financially beneficial to all involved to get home filtration systems especially when I’ve seen people complain that their bill increased by a dollar the year we replaced 85 miles of lead leaching 100 year old mains. Getting your own system also affords you more control; you decided how much you want to filter out. Personally i run it through a granular activated carbon filter to get rid of chlorine but thats about it.

  3. Just googled the name Kacper Postawski and came up with sites claiming the “Water Liberty (Adya Clarity) exposed for deceptive marketing, high aluminum and science research fraud” and that these people are scamming. I don’t need to proceed any further when there is question about the integrity of these so called problem solvers. There is so much toxicity to watch out for in our world today that we must choose which we will avoid or make better some way. Hope no one falls for these prevalent false advertising messages.

    1. Or is it a spin off to make adya look bad… Natural news was attacking them hard and it makes me suspicious…there is an article that explains why natural news might have been doing this. Discernment isn’t easy, especially as we have people mixing truths with lies… For a greater and more destructive purpose.

  4. Hi, I tried to be self sufficient, however after looking at several options I am still unsure. I recently read you purchased a whole house water filter. (I couldn’t find the exact spot.) May I ask where you purchased it from? Was it from the same place as this original posts on clean water? (I almost bought a faucet filter from them awhile back, but something else came up.) I’m actually looking to buy a whole house filter now. Thanks, Tracie.

    1. I got a whole house from Pure Water Products. It just does sediment and chlorine. I just put in a new kind of water softener from them. Hope that helps.

  5. What are your views on natural spring water? We are using a company called Jackson Springs. I’ve heard soo many great reviews on drinking Alkaline water and this seems to be our best option… and I’m assuming it’s clean water? or…

    1. I’ve heard it can be great but I wonder about the cleanliness w/ our toxic environment. I am going to be talking about a new solution soon – you can feel free to email me if you like – wholenewmom at gmail dot com.

  6. Thank you Adrienne for your posts!!!
    For EU you can find good products from Meditech Europe.
    we bought our mini classic III in combination with Grander water.
    we feel BLESSED every day with our fresh safe water!!!
    Much love,

        1. Hi Diana.
          Yes, really. As I am sure you can imagine I work very hard to juggle a lot of things here and so I multitask. Plus I type very fast so I can go through comments quickly and respond so readers feel connected.

          So in that sense, an occasional error is expected. However, in this case, if you look back at the reader’s comment, she wrote “for EU” which is a grammatically incorrect sentence and that is what threw me off. I didn’t notice that the URL that she linked to was a European site.

          Maybe you didn’t notice the oddity of the sentence and that w/ the way it was written EU doesn’t appear to be referring to a locale and could have easily been something else like a technical term. My father is from Ireland and most of his family lives there and I did have the blessing of doing some inexpensive traveling in Europe before it became the EU (and I will say that I preferred it in those years to what it has become today). I assure you that I am well aware of what the EU is. Hope that helps and I would appreciate a bit more grace in the future if you don’t mind.

          Side note – EU stands for European Union and not for Europe.

  7. I have been researching this for so long not for me-we thankfully have well water, but for my Daughter in CA. From all the things I have read RO is the best as it does take out the fluoride also which many dont. But you need to revitalize the RO water with Himalayan salt, I think was 1 TBS per gallon to get minerals back in there. Basically becomes what they call DEAD WATER if you dont nothing in it. Sounds easy enough to me!!

    1. Interesting – so you use Himalayan Salt? I have a remineralization cartridge on mine and one person told me mineral drops are good as well.

  8. would you recommend what RO system you got? I know we need to get something to clean our water but keep getting overwhelmed with all the choices/prices and then I keep waiting :/

    1. I bought one from Pure Water Products – I think I linked to one on Amazon that looks good as well in the next post on water. Let me know if you can’t find it :).