Home Water Purifiers: Your Water Supply's Last Defense
Trent Barrett
Home water purifiers and filters are becoming increasingly important. Our municipal water systems are aging, and as they start to break down, which analysts predict will happen over the next two decades, we will increasingly be at risk from contaminated water supplies. Even if your supply remains safe, harmful chemicals like chlorine can sicken you, or weaken your lungs and immune system. And the safest water supplies are sometimes contaminated with things that cause unpleasant odors and tastes. A home water purifier can alleviate all these problems for you, taking the place of bottled water and ensuring you and your family have a safe and healthy water supply.
Your home water purifiers and filters are your last line of defense if your city water system does break down. Read the news. More often these days, we hear about some critical piece of infrastructure running into serious problems - steam pipes exploding in New York City, bridges collapsing in Minnesota, and let's not even talk about New Orleans. City municipal water systems are also suffering from this infrastructure decay, but because the effects are less dramatic, you don't hear about it on the evening news. Instead, you may notice that your water smells more strongly of chlorine than you remembered, or that it's a little more cloudy than it used to be. These are warning signs of a slowly-deteriorating system.
Chlorine in your water system? If you don't have home water purifiers and filters to take it out, it's a health risk. Chlorine is an acid, and is added to water because it poisons bacteria. In larger concentrations, chlorine can kill people; releases of chlorine gas can literally melt your skin and lungs. The small amount in municipal water systems will not harm you immediately, but no one has seriously studied the effects of, for instance, evaporated chlorine you inhale in the shower over years. Even if it doesn't harm your health, chlorine dries your skin and may damage your hair. When used in very high levels in city water, it can make you sick.
Chlorine is only one of several possible dangers found in our water systems. Older street supplies are sometimes still lined with lead, and while water at the treatment plant measures clean, you may still have lead entering your house through the delivery system. The old lead piping in most cities is being replaced, but older homes and neighborhoods often still have hidden lead in their water delivery system. This and other heavy metals can be removed with a good home water purifier.
If you're not certain that you home water is uncontaminated, purchase a water test kit and check your own household water. You may be surprised at what you find. Re-test annually. With our deteriorating systems, your water safety may change rapidly, and you won't realize it's happened until it's too late. If your water has a problem, there are many different types of home water filtration systems that will eliminate the contaminants and restore your home water supply to safety. It's worth looking into.
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