Water. Inside and out. Contaminants. Tap and Bottled Water.

11/09/2020

Water is the most important thing in our life. It feeds cells by transporting the nutrients, it cools when it's hot and warms when it is cold. Water is a term of life all over the Planet. And it is the most beautiful thing at the same time.
To cover our needs We get our water from a tap, a bottle from a supermarket or a well in the countryside. What quality has this water?
According to a recent United Nations report, unclean water is a sure predictor of shortened life expectancy.
The importance of clean water cannot be overstated.
We all deserve to know what we'll be putting in our bodies when we get our glass of water. So let's take a deeper look, so we can make an informed decision when it comes to choosing the water we drink.

Here are the topics for our discussion:

Where The Water from?
Regulation. Contaminants.
The cumulative risks of multiple pollutants.
Accumulation
Individual Chemical Examples.
So now What's about The Bottled Water?
Regulation. Contaminants.
What about The Plastic?
Plastic Chemicals.
Microplastic Particles.
The trash Of those Plastic Bottles.
Related Products
Related Links and Information Sources

Where The Water from?

The Government takes this water from a river, lake, groundwater aquifer or etc.

Water can be contaminated in several ways. It can contain microorganisms like bacteria and parasites that get in the water from human or animal fecal matter. It can contain chemicals from industrial waste or from spraying crops. Nitrates used in fertilizers can enter the water with runoff from the land. Various minerals such as lead or mercury can also enter the water supply, sometimes from natural deposits underground, or more often from improper disposal of pollutants. Lead can leach into drinking water through old lead pipes.

In countries that purify public drinking water, various treatment methods are used to make water safe, including:

Coagulation and flocculation: Positively charged chemicals are added to water to bind with negatively charged particles so they can be filtered out. This forms larger particles called floc.
Sedimentation: Due to its larger size, floc settles to the bottom of the water supply, separated from the clean water.
Filtration: The clean water on top of the supply then flows through numerous filtration systems made of sand, charcoal and gravel. This removes contaminants like dust, bacteria, chemicals and viruses.
Disinfection: During this step, chemical disinfectants like chlorine are added to the water to kill any remaining bacteria or viruses that may have survived the first few steps.
It's important to note that water may be treated differently depending on the area and quality of the local water.

So After it goes to tap connection system.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has set minimum testing schedules for specific pollutants to make sure that levels remain safe, it must meet strict safety standards. But that doesn't mean that your water is free of all contaminants, but that the levels of any contaminants don't pose any serious health risk.

Regulation. Contaminants.

Government scientists have evaluated 830 of the contaminants most often found in water supplies, according to a review of records from the EPA and the United States Geological Survey. They have determined that many of them are associated with cancer or other diseases, even at small concentrations.
Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Add to the mix an ever-growing list of new chemical compounds that come online just about every day.

You can find out more about what is in your tap water by checking the Water Quality Report published annually by your water utility. This is an important resource that consumers often overlook. It is usually called a "Consumer Confidence Report," but may also be titled "Water Quality Report," or "Drinking Water Quality."

EWG tested for many contaminants that municipal utilities don't test for or regulate, so this report is excellent at telling you what's really in your water.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is an American activist group that specializes in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and corporate accountability.
For a more robust look at your local water, visit the EWG's new online Tap Water Database, which lists the most recent contaminants found in 50,000 water systems across all 50 states. A major benefit of the EWG database is that it calls out contamination levels that are considered dangerous according to scientific health research, not EPA standards, as well as listing their known or suspected health effects.

Recent studies have found that even some chemicals regulated by that law pose risks at much smaller concentrations than previously known.
Government scientists now generally agree that many chemicals commonly found in drinking water pose serious risks at low concentrations.
Sensitive groups, like pregnant women and children, are at higher risk for health complications.

But there are still tens of thousands of chemicals we haven't assessed. If you don't know what's dangerous, you can't write laws against it.

Because some of the diseases associated with drinking water contamination take so long to emerge, people who become ill from their water might never realize the source, say public health experts.

The cumulative risks of multiple pollutants.

And in some places, water contains not just one contaminant, but dozens. More than half of the systems have at least seven chemicals in their water. But there is nothing in the law that addresses the cumulative risks of multiple pollutants in a single glass of water.
Researchers from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) conducted a "cumulative assessment" - basically looking at the combined health effects of contaminants in the water. This is the same type of assessment the EPA uses to determine the health risks of air pollution.
The study was published in the journal Heliyon.
The authors of the study focused on 22 cancer-causing contaminants found in varying levels in 48,363 community water systems in the United States.
Using the cumulative approach, they estimated these carcinogens could result in more than 100,000 cases of cancer over the lifetimes of the people using the water systems. Most of these cancer cases would be due to arsenic and the byproducts of chemicals used to disinfect the water.
So, even though the "vast majority" of the water systems met national drinking water standards for these carcinogens, they still carried some risk.
In reality, some contaminants may interact with each other to become more dangerous - even across contaminant categories.
For example, some research has found that "exposure to arsenic makes a population more vulnerable to microbial infections." (Kelly Reynolds, PhD, a researcher and public health educator in environmental science at the University of Arizona in Tucson)

Accumulation.

Of course the amount of them in the glass is not huge but it gets bigger when get thinking about the year flow and year accumulation. More we drink, more we get, more it gets to proceed and more can be accumulated.
"These chemicals accumulate in body tissue. They affect developmental and hormonal systems in ways we don't understand, " said Linda S. Birnbaum, who as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is the government's top official for evaluating environmental health effects.

Individual Chemical Examples.

Examples of chemical contaminants include mercury, lead, antimony, arsenic, copper, manganese, Uranium, VOCs, Bromodichloromethane, Chloroform, Chromium (hexavalent), Dibromochloromethane, Dichloroacetic acid, pesticides, Nitrate and nitrite, Perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHXS), Microplastic Particles, perchlorate, an unregulated rocket fuel additive, as well as two regulated compounds, trichloroethylene, a degreaser used in manufacturing, and perchloroethylene or perc, a dry-cleaning solvent

Let's take a dipper look at them, in the way they impact human health.

Lead. Likely the most famous one, this heavy metal can leach from lead pipes and plumbing fixtures, especially when the water flowing through them is corrosive. Even relatively new brass fixtures and faucets can still contain significant amounts of lead. Just because your home is less than 20 years old doesn't necessarily mean you're lead-free.
It can cause neurological and behavioral problems in children and adverse health effects in adults. Children are especially susceptible to dangerous side effects ranging from stomach pain to brain damage, can cause both physical and mental developmental problems in infants and children. Adults who have been drinking lead-tainted water for a number of years can experience kidney problems and high blood pressure. No amount of lead exposure is safe.

Copper, which can be harmful to infants.

Manganese, which has been associated with Parkinson's disease.

Mercury. Too much mercury in the body causes damage to the kidneys, brain or even a developing fetus. Mercury seeps into water when the earth's crust naturally degasses. And this is increased with human activity like the burning of fossil fuels. Mercury circulates for months in the global atmosphere. Eventually making its way into lakes, rivers and streams.

Chromium. Hexavalent chromium is another name for chromium-6. And this industrial chemical is found in the drinking water of all 50 states. Chromium-6 is a known carcinogen, linked to cancer, reproductive issues, asthma attacks and other severe effects.

Arsenic, which can cause cancer. Arsenic exposure through drinking water has generated excess adult mortality after 20-30 years of exposure.

Atrazine. This endocrine-disrupting chemical is one of the most commonly detected pesticides in U.S. waters. NRDC studies have found its contamination is most common in drinking water across the Midwest and the southern United States. The EPA currently monitors a sample of community water systems to determine if atrazine concentrations pose a risk to public health, but NRDC has called on the government to phase out the use of this chemical entirely.

Nitrates. Nitrates can contaminate water and pose an immediate threat to infants. In the intestines, nitrates are converted to nitrites, which prevent blood from transporting oxygen. Though nitrates occur in plants and soil at low concentrations, they have become a widespread contaminant due in part to their use as fertilizer. Runoff from factory farms flows into surface and ground water and ends up in our drinking water. The EPA set a limit of 10 parts per million for nitrates, which can be harmful to pregnant women and infants.

Radioactive contaminants. Most radioactive elements found in drinking water occur naturally, but radioactive material from the production of nuclear weapons, energy, and medicines can also get into drinking supplies through leaks or improper waste storage. Exposure can cause cancer or kidney failure.

Traces of uranium, which can cause kidney damage.

Perchlorate. This widespread toxic chemical, used in rocket fuel, explosives, and road flares, can interfere with thyroid hormone production. Perchlorate has been detected in the water in at least 26 states.

Vinyl chloride. Used to make PVC plastic products, such as some pipes, this cancer-causing contaminant can leach from older PVC piping and has been found in the drinking water of a small number of communities across the country.

A good example of unregulated chemicals that deserve some caution are per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, which are used in manufacturing and show up in drinking water. The EPA issued a health advisory earlier this year that set a lifetime exposure limit for these chemicals. But the agency hasn't yet passed an enforceable drinking water standard that covers them.

Chlorine. Chlorine is an oxidizing, bleaching and disinfecting agent. Which has been used to disinfect water since the 1890s. Plus, it dries out skin and hair. Chlorine linked to birth defects.
May cause heart diseases because in the blood, chlorine reacts with calcium which causes it to become toxic and non soluble. Then it becomes plaque (breeding ground for bacteria) that eventually builds up in the body.

Chlorine treatment by-products. Chemicals used in drinking water's disinfection process, such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, may cause cancer and reproductive problems if present in high quantities. Chlorine interacts with organic materials in water to form a mixture of disinfection byproducts (DBP). Although concentrations in the United States are quite low, there is concern that some chemicals in the mixture may increase cancer risk.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). Risk of Cancer. In 2017, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the most well-studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as a possible human carcinogen based in part on limited epidemiologic evidence of associations with cancers of the kidney and testis in heavily exposed subjects. To address the gaps in our understanding of the carcinogenicity of PFAS, DCEG has launched a series of studies aimed at identifying specific cancers associated with PFAS at exposure levels typically found in the general population. These investigations have the potential to inform future evaluations of the carcinogenicity of PFOA and to extend our understanding to other PFAS that have not yet been evaluated.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Oil, gasoline, paints and cleaners all contribute to VOCs in groundwater. Hence, contaminating drinking water. Depending on the level of exposure, volatile organic compounds can cause respiratory illnesses or in severe cases, nervous system damage.

Microplastic Particles. Some of these plastic particles are small enough to pass through the body's protective tissues and into the bloodstream and organs.

Fluoride may also be added within the limits set by FDA.
Although this practice has led to decreased tooth decay in children, especially in at-risk areas, some argue that fluoridated water is not worth the potential health risks associated with its use.
Excessive fluoride levels can be toxic to both brain and nerve cells, and long-term exposure to high levels of fluoride has been linked to learning, memory and cognitive deficits

So now What's about The Bottled Water?

Regulation. Contaminants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees the quality of water that comes out of your tap, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring the safety and truthful labeling of bottled water sold nationally. States are responsible for regulating water that is both packaged and sold within its borders (which is most of the bottled-water market), but one in five states doesn't even bother.
The federal government does not require bottled water to be safer than tap.
Both kinds of water are tested regularly for bacteria and most synthetic organic chemicals, but city tap is typically assessed much more frequently. For example, bottled-water plants must test for coliform bacteria just once a week; city tap needs to be tested 100 or more times a month.
Limits on chemical pollution for both categories are almost identical. The one place where bottled water might have the edge is in the case of lead; because many older homes have lead pipes, the EPA standard for tap water is less strict-one-third of the FDA's standard for lead in bottled water.

Under "right-to-know" provisions in the drinking water law, all tap suppliers must provide annual quality reports to their customers. You also can test your water yourself. Standard consumer test packages are available through large commercial labs at a relatively reasonable price.

The label "from a municipal source" or "from a community water system," means it's derived from tap. If you don't find any information on the bottle, you can call the bottler or the bottled-water program in your state or the state where it was packaged and ask about the source.

What about The Plastic?

Plastic Chemicals

Plastic Bottles pose a health risk itself. Recent research suggests there might be cause for concern. Chemicals called phthalates, which are known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, can leach into bottled water over time. One study found that water that had been stored for 10 weeks in plastic and in glass bottles containing phthalates, suggesting that the chemicals could be coming from the plastic cap or liner. Although there are regulatory standards limiting phthalates in tap, there are no legal limits in bottled water; the bottled-water industry waged a successful campaign opposing the FDA proposal to set a legal limit for these chemicals.

The longer water is stored in plastic bottles, the higher the concentration of a potentially harmful chemical, a new study suggests.

Also William Shotyk of the University of Heidelberg found that the concentration of certain chemicals, such as antimony, increases the longer the water sits in the plastic bottle. Shotyk's study measured concentrations for a period of up to six months.
"It's increasing over time because the plastic is leaching chemicals," said Shotyk in an interview during a recent visit to Ottawa, where he lectured on his findings.
Shotyk was cautious about the implications for human health, saying more research is needed. Antimony is a white metallic element that in small doses can cause nausea, dizziness and depression. In large doses, it can be fatal
"Antimony is similar chemically to lead. It is also a potentially toxic trace element," said Shotyk.
However, the levels are not that high. The World Health Organization recommends a standard of 20,000 parts per trillion. Shotyk said more research is needed about how high the level of antimony can go as water is stored longer than six months.

Most bottled water is sold in plastic #1, also known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Research shows that PET may be an endocrine disruptor, altering our hormonal systems. Although this type of plastic is BPA free, phthalates in bottles can still seep into your water, especially when exposed to high temperatures or stored for an extended period of time.

An EWG investigation found that PET plastics - the kind used to make plastic water bottles and marked with a "1" on the bottom - can contain dozens of chemical additives, manufacturing impurities and breakdown byproducts. That's more than 80 additional contaminants that could be leaching into your water.

Microplastic Particles

As plastic's ubiquity in the external environment has been increasing, this has lead more researchers to investigate various consumables for the presence of plastic.

Eleven globally sourced brands of bottled water, purchased in 19 locations in nine different countries, were tested for microplastic contamination using Nile Red tagging.

Of the 259 total bottles processed, 93% showed some sign of microplastic contamination. After accounting for possible background (lab) contamination, an average of 10.4 microplastic particles >100 um in size per liter of bottled water processed were found. Fragments were the most common morphology (66%) followed by fibers. Half of these particles were confirmed to be polymeric in nature using FTIR spectroscopy with polypropylene being the most common polymer type (54%), which matches a common plastic used for the manufacture of bottle caps. A small fraction of particles (4%) showed the presence of industrial lubricants. While spectroscopic analysis of particles smaller than 100 um was not possible, the adsorption of the Nile Red dye indicates that these particles are most probably plastic. Including these smaller particles (6.5-100 um), an average of 325 microplastic particles per liter of bottled water was found. Microplastic contamination range of 0 to over 10,000 microplastic particles per liter with 95% of particles being between 6.5 and 100 um in size. Data suggests the contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and/or the bottling process itself.

Its synthetic nature means that the vast majority of microorganisms haven't evolved to utilize plastic as a food source. Thus, while plastic will break into smaller and smaller particles via photo-oxidative mechanisms, the fundamental molecular structures of the material change very little throughout that process. Plastics become microplastics become nanoplastics, but they are all plastics, just of increasingly smaller size, allowing them to be more easily ingested and perhaps even cross the gastrointestinal tract to be transported throughout a living organism.
We found roughly twice as many plastic particles (>100 um) within bottled water as compared to tap water on average.
Some of these plastic particles are small enough to pass through the body's protective tissues and into the bloodstream and organs.
What's not clear, though, is how this plastic exposure affects human health. Unfortunately, we do not currently know the toxicological outcomes of these exposures.
Other researchers say we know enough already to deem these plastic exposures a threat to human health. "In animal models and in epidemiological studies in humans, we have a correlation between plastic exposures and known health hazards. While correlation is not causation, direct cause-and-effect data will be hard to come by." says Frederick vom Saal, a distinguished professor emeritus of biological sciences at the University of Missouri.
Bottled water may be a useful short-term source of drinking water in emergencies, but it shouldn't be a permanent solution because it is not necessarily cleaner or safer than tap water and may be even opposite.

The Trash Of those Plastic Bottles.

Roughly 17 million barrels of oil go into a year's worth of plastic bottles, according to The Pacific Institute. What's worse, because of the low recycling rates in the U.S., roughly two-thirds of those bottles will wind up in landfills or eventually make their way to the ocean, harming wildlife and pollute waterways.

More than 100 million plastic bottles are used worldwide every day. In fact, the marine conservation organization Oceana estimates that up to 20 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans each year with some collecting to form huge, free-floating landfills like the Pacific Garbage Patch the size of Texas. Plastic is listed as the number one threat to marine ecosystem.

It takes 1 PET plastic bottle 700 years to start decomposing. Bacteria, which usually helps in breaking down organic materials, don't like petroleum based plastics. Technically, they can last forever.
Due to these environmental issues, some countries are thinking of banning the manufacture of water bottles.

Conclusion

Although we may have the access to fairly clean water, there are still chemicals and contaminants in our water supplies as Tap as well as Bottled Water.
The safest is to take matters into our own hands.
Purchasing a purifier can save the planet, health and cash.

More information in The Blog posts and at links to Related articles and Information sources below

See the next Post "Water. Inside and out. Purifying"