The water we drink and the whether we should use a water filter has been a hot topic over recent years, with manufacturers like Berkey becoming an increasingly common site in kitchens across America. We are right to take it seriously. After all, more than 55 percent of the human body is comprised of water, and for our children, it can be up to 75 percent.
Being properly hydrated is enormously important for the health and wellbeing of our family, as dehydration is still one of the biggest killers on the planet. While we can survive for more than a week or more without food, humans can only live without water for about two days.
In the United States, we are lucky to have an infrastructure that provides running water into our homes. The water that emerges from your tap is rigorously tested in comparison to that of many countries, and the Safe Water Drinking Act sets quality standards to protect against both natural and man-made contaminants.
Having said that, it is a well-known fact that tap water still contains added chemicals that you and your family are better off not drinking. Chlorine is added to kill bugs, and many water supplies contain fluoride, too. Also, there have been numerous instances when the public water supply has been contaminated, including a high-profile case in 2016 that affected 15 million American citizens.
When it comes down to it, most of us would opt for bottled water instead, but you might be surprised to learn that this can contain as many, or even more, unwanted ingredients as tap water.
Berkey water filters – as good or better than bottled water
Buy a bottle of water, and unless you are choosing a high-end product with demonstrable provenance, all you are buying is filtered tap water. FDA regulation of bottled water is no stricter than the EPA’s regulations for tap water – in fact, bottled water is subject to fewer checks and balances, so there is no way to really know what you are getting.
This is why it makes far more sense from every angle to invest in your own water filters from a reputable supplier for your family. For example, a Berkey water filter system, available from bigberkeywaterfilters, is proven to remove more of the unhealthy contaminants than most other filtration types – meaning water that has gone through a Berkey water filter almost certainly has fewer chemicals and pathogens than the average store-bought bottle of water.
What’s in our tap water?
Given that tap water goes through such rigorous testing, you might wonder why we need to filter it or consider bottled alternatives at all. The problem is, the regulations are not focused on purity per se – they are really there to ensure there is nothing in the water that will make you or your family immediately sick.
Tap water contains chlorine, as a “lesser of two evils” to kill bacteria, and many municipalities also add fluoride, despite growing evidence that this does more harm than good. However, these intentional additives are just the tip of the iceberg.
A three-year project by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found more than 300 pollutants in tap water. These contaminants included pharmaceutical residues, such as pain killers, and trihalomethanes, which are compounds that form when the chlorine added to the water reacts with rotting organic matter such as human waste, dead insects or leaves. You can enter your zipcode into their database and find out what pollutants were found in your area.
The truly sobering point is that in more than 90 percent of cases, the water met EPA standards for drinking water – despite the fact that the contaminants themselves were present in amounts that exceeded official health guidelines.
The Berkey water filter described earlier goes beyond the rudimentary requirements of the EPA and removes harmful contaminants to a level of more than 99.99 percent.
Bottled water is little better
Bottled water tastes nicer than tap because it has been filtered. The problem is that you have no way of knowing what sort of filtration system has been used. With FDA regulations being no more stringent for bottled water than they are for tap water, the truth is, you could be getting anything. And you will be paying through the nose.
US consumers pay on average more than $1.22 per gallon on bottled water. That seems a lot to spend on an unknown quantity, particularly when the big Berkey water filters work out at a cost of around 7 cents per gallon over the course of ten years.
Of course, the other major drawback to bottled water is that the cost is far more than a financial one. Research carried out by the Pacific Institute ten years ago showed that just producing the water and soda bottles used in the US in a single year consumes 17 million barrels of oil and produces 2.5 million tons of CO2. Producing one liter of bottled water uses around three liters of water – and this amount is doubled when you take into account labelling and transportation.
We have all seen the devastating effects that plastic waste has on the environment, and the truth is that only around a third of plastic bottles are recycled. When it comes down to it, our continued use of bottled water is not just pointless and a waste of money – it is ethically unconscionable.
Filtration ticks all the boxes
When the quality of tap water is dubious at best and bottled is potentially as bad and carries these additional disadvantages, a water filtration system using recognized products like Berkey water filters is the perfect answer. It allows you to take control of the quality of water being consumed by your family, while at the same time saving money and taking a stand when it comes to environmental responsibility.