Water purification information

U.S. drinking water causes cancer? How to check the quality of tap water at home?

Update time : 2021-08-25 11:18:13

Many friends who come to the United States will understand that most Americans drink the tap water directly at home, they will not "boil the water" or even bother to filter it. In addition, many public places will also have special drinking water dispensers with upward spraying water, so that the public can replenish water at any time.

Does that mean that the tap water in the United States can be drunk with confidence? In theory, yes.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in the United States federal law authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA to formulate national drinking water standards to limit the level of natural or artificial pollutants that may exist in the public water supply system and protect the entire United States Public drinking water safety. As long as the tap water in the home is supplied from a public water supply system (such as a water company rather than a private well), the water quality should meet the relevant standards.
However, the problem of unqualified tap water quality in the United States has always been exposed. The most impressive one must be the lead water crisis in Flint, MI, which began in 2014. The city’s drinking water source, Flint, The river was found to contain a high concentration of neurotoxin lead, and eventually residents had to live on bottled water.

In addition to lead pollution, the environmental working group EWG, a non-profit organization, has also been raising a number of different types of water pollution problems, such as radioactive pollution.

There are carcinogen PFAS pollution and so on.

According to research statistics, since 1982, 3% to 10% of water supply systems across the United States have failed to meet the standards. In 2015 alone, as many as 21 million Americans may have access to substandard drinking water.

How to check the quality of tap water?
Consumer Confidence Report
EPA has set limit standards for the content of more than 90 harmful substances in public water supply systems that may harm human health, including microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection by-products, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, and radionuclides. These mandatory water quality standards belong to the first drinking water regulations.
In addition, the EPA has also formulated the Second Drinking Water Regulation, which includes 15 water quality standards including aluminum, copper, chlorine, fluorine, color, acidity, and odor, but it is not mandatory to implement, but only as a water quality guideline. EPA believes that within the maximum level of secondary pollutants, these pollutants will not pose a threat to human health.

In addition, where the public water supply system must publish a water quality report every year, it is also known as the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). Consumers can learn about the drinking water sources in their homes, the levels of controlled pollutants in them, and more.
Friends can search the local CCR publication information from the EPA official website, or directly search for the keyword "water company + Water Quality Report/Consumer Confidence Report". If the water quality report is not published online, it can also be obtained directly from the water company. The friends who rent the apartment also have the right to obtain relevant information from the landlord/apartment management.

Understand the abbreviations of nouns in the CCR report:
• Contaminants: the name of the specific contaminants detected
• MCLG: The target for the upper limit of the pollutant level. If the pollution level of "Your Water" your drinking water is below the MCLG, it is safe;
• MRDLG: the target for the upper limit of the disinfectant residue level;
• MCL: The upper limit of the pollutant level. If the pollution level of your drinking water exceeds the MCL, it means that the pollution exceeds the standard;
• TT: Treatment technology, the necessary process to reduce the level of pollutants in drinking water;
• MRDL: The upper limit of the residual level of disinfectant. Drinking water contains a certain amount of disinfectant to help inhibit bacteria and microorganisms;
• Your Water: The highest level of pollutants detected in your drinking water;
• Range: The lowest and highest value range detected by the sample will be given;
• Violation: Whether it exceeds the standard and violates the regulations.
Water hardness
Friends should note that the mandatory standards for drinking water quality established by the EPA do not include water hardness, because water hardness is directly proportional to the content of minerals (mainly calcium and magnesium) in the water, and the EPA considers water to be soft. Hard water does not affect human health, and even to some extent, drinking hard water is beneficial to supplement calcium and other minerals.
However, water is too hard to accumulate scale, soap-containing detergents (including shampoo, shower gel, detergent, laundry detergent, etc.) will weaken the effect under hard water... In addition, many people think that the water quality Too hard will damage hair and skin.

According to the standards defined by USGS:
• 0-60mg/L is soft water;
• 61-120mg/L is medium hardness;
• 121-180mg/L is hard water;
• 181-250mg/L is super hard water.
In most parts of the United States, the water quality is generally hard, which is also something that friends should pay attention to. Some water companies may include water hardness test results in specific reports. For example, in the water quality report file published on the EWEB official website, you can see that the hardness test results in the secondary standard (no mandatory requirements) test results are 18.

DIY test

In addition to the water supply system itself, the problem of tap water pollution may also come from the problem of aging water pipes at home. Therefore, even if the local water quality report meets the standards, it does not mean that the tap water at home must be safe. In addition, the water quality standards set by the EPA may be lower than the health guidelines set by other organizations. The “legal” water quality does not mean that it will meet the safety standards in your mind.
Therefore, the best way for friends who are worried about water quality problems at home is to directly detect the quality of the water coming out of their faucets.
Friends can use the EPA official website to find locally certified laboratories to help with testing, and some areas may also have some government-funded testing projects.
In addition, you can also use some DIY testing tools to do your own testing. For example:
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in water is one of the indicators of water quality. In the EPA secondary standard, the upper limit of TDS is 500 mg/L or 500 PPM. The harder the water, the higher the TDS value.

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