Our water supply is increasingly at risk of contamination from chemicals used in homes, farms, and industries. While water treatment facilities work hard to remove pollutants, trace amounts can still leak into what comes from our faucets.
It’s important that consumers understand potential dangers in their drinking water and actions they can take to safeguard their families’ health.
In this blog post, we will cover several effective steps we can implement at home to help minimize exposure to harmful runoff chemicals.
Steps to Protect Yourself Chemical Runoff in Tap Water
Protecting yourself from chemical runoff in tap water is essential to ensure safe drinking water. Here are some steps you can take:
1. Install a Water Filtration System
One of the most effective ways to remove a wide range of contaminants from your water is by installing a high-quality home water filtration system. Two popular options are reverse osmosis (RO) systems and undersink filters.
RO systems use a semi-permeable membrane to filter out dissolved solids like heavy metals, salts, and microplastics down to molecular sizes. They’re highly effective but do remove beneficial minerals in addition to contaminants, so some choose to supplement with calcium and magnesium after filtering.
Undersink filters are compact in size and are usually installed beneath the kitchen sink. They work to provide filtered water on demand. These systems are quite good at removing a wide range of contaminants and impurities.
Both RO and carbon block filters should be changed as recommended by the manufacturer, usually every 6-12 months, to maintain optimal performance. Installing a whole-house system is ideal but under-sink filters are inexpensive and effective for drinking water.
2. Test Your Water Regularly
Another important step is testing your water quality periodically, even if your municipality assures it meets federal standards. Public testing only examines a limited set of toxic chemicals and may miss seasonal spikes in contaminant levels from agricultural runoff. An at-home test kit lets you check for over 100 chemicals, including common pollutants like nitrates and heavy metals.
Look for a kit from a trusted brand that provides easy-to-follow instructions. Simply collect a sample of your unfiltered tap water, add the provided solutions and reagents, and then read the results. This gives valuable peace of mind about what’s flowing from your faucet between professional water quality reports.
If concerning levels of anything are detected, it’s time to consider additional filtration or an alternative water source.
3. Use Bottled Water
For drinking and cooking purposes, you may choose to use bottled water as your primary source instead of unfiltered tap water. However, it’s important to choose high-quality brands in BPA-free containers, as some bottled waters are just tap water in a plastic bottle.
Reputable third-party tested brands that originate from springs or wells deep underground are less likely to contain agricultural or industrial runoff contaminants. Still, plastic water bottles do pose their own environmental and health concerns due to plastic endocrine disruptors.
A happy medium is using a glass carafe or container to store filtered tap water in the fridge. This still provides a cleaner-tasting alternative to straight from the tap without the plastic bottle waste.
Or consider purchasing a countertop reverse osmosis system for convenient drinking water access without bottles. Either way, bottled should only be a temporary backup solution instead of a daily dependence on plastic.
4. Boil Water
If water quality testing reveals concerning levels of bacteria or parasites, boiling water can help. Bring it to a rolling boil for 1 full minute. This heats water to temperatures high enough to kill off disease-causing organisms.
However, boiling will not remove toxic chemicals, and leaving water sitting in an uncovered pot allows contaminants in the air to reintroduce germs. It’s best as a last-resort purification method in emergencies. The downside is that some vitamins and minerals are also depleted during boiling. Properly stored treated or filtered water is a healthier alternative if possible.
5. Use Water Softeners with Caution
Water softeners are common household appliances that remove hardness minerals like calcium and magnesium by exchanging them for non-toxic sodium ions using ion-exchange resin beads. This helps reduce scale buildup, soap scum and rust stains.
However, accumulating sodium intake from softened water over long periods has potential health effects, especially for those with high blood pressure or previous heart issues.
Moderation is key when it comes to softened water consumption. Restrict use to washing dishes, clothes, and bathing where the health risks are lower, then drink primarily from an alternate source. Whole-house systems also require occasional recharging that introduces more sodium into the water supply.
Factor in any softened water consumed as part of your daily dietary intake for heart-healthy guidelines. Water distillers or deionizers provide another option for removing minerals without sodium replacement.
6. Prevent Household Chemical Pollution
The best solutions begin at the source. Minimize or eliminate your use of harsh household chemicals whenever possible -including paints, cleaners, pesticides, motor oils, and pool/spa chemicals- that can contaminate the groundwater supply through sinks, showers, or stormwater runoff.
Natural or less toxic alternatives abound these days for cleaning, personal care products and gardening/lawn care. Use spray hoses, scrubbers, and elbow grease instead of harsh bleaches and ammonia-based cleaners whenever you can. Never dispose of chemicals down the drain and always follow disposal instructions carefully to contain toxins.
Choose less hazardous options for DIY projects that may involve paints and stains too. Every small change helps safeguard our limited water resources and our health.
So, these are some of the most proven steps that you can take to protect yourself from chemical runoff.
Conclusion:
Small protective measures go a long way towards defending our health from ongoing chemical threats in tap water.
By prioritizing tested filtration systems, monitoring water quality, avoiding plastics when possible, and minimizing household pollution at the source, we can feel more empowered to safeguard the water that nourishes us every day. A proactive mindset will help us overcome contamination issues now and safeguard future generations.
