Check in with yourself — are you thirsty? Drinking more water is supposed to be an easy way to feel better fast. Pretty much all bite-sized health advice finds a way to push hydration. While it’s been touted as a quick way to maintain clear skin, control your appetite, detox impurities and confer countless other benefits, it’s also simply necessary to stay alive.
With stories like the recent chemical spills outside Philadelphia and in East Palestine, Ohio, and the earlier Flint water crisis, water quality is a salient issue for everyone. Contaminated water can cause everything from uncomfortable gastrointestinal issues to more serious health issues like cancer.
Talking to a healthcare provider is vital to getting to the root of your health issues, but knowledge is also power: Here’s a quick look at what you should know about water treatment in the US, how to test your own water and whether all those filter accessories are really worthwhile.
From nature to nozzle: Where your tap water comes from
The good news is that the United States overall has one of the safest systems for drinking water in the world. About 90 percent of Americans rely on public water systems for their drinking water, with most of the remainder drawing water from private wells. A network of federal, state and local agencies is responsible for everything from maintaining pipes to treating wastewater to protecting groundwater and other natural resources.
Because your water supply is so particular to your location, get familiar with your local EPA Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). This is an annual summation of water quality issues relevant to your region, and it may be posted on your local government website. You can also look up your CCR here.
Another independent resource is MyTapWater.org, which collects data from all over the United States from official sources to generate reports laying out levels of contaminants like copper and lead and any known violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Pollution, impurities and hardness: What they mean for you
While the US has a great water system, the quality of your water can vary depending on where it comes from and where it’s delivered — a healthy water treatment system, for example, can’t overcome deteriorating lead pipes in an individual’s home. Germs and chemicals from agricultural runoff, industrial accidents and other situations, can also sometimes cause problems in drinking water. If your water is contaminated for some reason, the water utility in your area is required to tell you via a notice or drinking water advisory.
Some of the most common chemicals that can contaminate drinking water include arsenic, copper, lead, nitrates and radon. These contaminants can cause symptoms including nausea, vomiting, headaches, and at their worst, cancer. Most of the waterborne germs that can show up in drinking water, like E. coli and norovirus, stem from waste pollution, whether human or animal. These can also cause uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms. If you experience any of these symptoms, make sure to see a medical provider to identify the root cause.
If your water is contaminated for some reason, the water utility in your area is required to tell you via a notice or drinking water advisory. If you suspect something’s up with your water, get in touch with your local health department to figure out if it needs to be tested.
After an emergency or a natural disaster, you may need to boil water and rely on other disinfecting measures. Bottled water may be a useful short-term solution for cooking, drinking and hygiene, but water contamination is a sure sign that something bigger needs to be fixed, whether in your home or more broadly.
If your water leaves your hair overly greasy or your dishes smudgy, you may not be dealing with contamination, but rather, water hardness: how much calcium and magnesium is dissolved in your local water supply. Mineral buildup can be annoying, but it’s not inherently harmful: you don’t want to completely cut out minerals in your drinking water. Fluoride, for instance, is part of a well-documented and decades-old public health intervention to improve dental health in adults and children.
Marketing vs. science: The truth about filtration
Maybe you have one of those filtered water pitchers in your fridge, or a charcoal-filter water bottle for the gym. You’re definitely clued into water filtration products if you like camping.
Devices or systems that claim to purify water can be as big as a house or as small as a tube of lip balm. What’s most important to understand about each product is what it’s claiming to keep out of your water. Some insist they’re removing germs or bacteria, others say they’ll eliminate lead or “heavy metals” and still more simply assert that they make your water taste better.
One easy way to determine filter quality is to look at a product’s packaging for the NSF mark, an internationally recognized certification that the product meets local public health standards as verified by independent third-party tests.
There’s a lot of flashy, boring and downright confusing information online about water quality and how it relates to health. When you’re sorting through conflicting accounts, try to avoid websites that sell a product or service or that showcase an agenda.
Public health and other government agencies, registered nonprofits and accredited educational institutions are a good bet for collecting the most accurate and level-headed advice for figuring out what you’re drinking every day and how you should feel about it.