Great Taste – Less Waste

Is your drinking water damaging your kidneys and bones?

Over the past few years more testing has been being done on drinking water and more harmful contaminants are being identified. Finding all the different contaminants has also given us a good idea of how much damage they can cause. Drinking water is something we cannot do without, yet we really must have good clean drinking water, not contaminated sludge.

Uranium is a common element found in rock and soil. It is a result of volcanic activity, and therefore is radioactive. It is mined for energy, industry, medicine, and weapons among other things. Uranium is useful; however, it is also dangerous when ingested. Uranium is present in greater amounts in granite rock, shale and sandstone. Whenever water flows through these rock formations, the mineral dissolves into the water. Wells that draw from underground sources where it flows through bedrock are more likely than other wells to contain too much uranium for safe consumption. Uranium is also present in the environment as a result of leaching from natural deposits, released from mill tailings from mining, emissions from the nuclear industry, the combustion of coal and other fuels, and also the use of phosphate fertilizers that contain uranium.

About 99% of the uranium ingested in food or water will leave the body, but the remainder will enter the blood and be removed by the kidneys and a small amount will deposit in a person’s bones where it will remain for years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working to determine safe levels, and a 2011 document offering a provisional guideline suggests that 0.03mg/L may be a conservative level. The WHO says that the “guideline value for uranium remains provisional because of the difficulties in identifying an exposure level at which effects might be expected from the scientific data”. Despite the so-called recommended safe levels, is there really any level of uranium that we want in our water?

It is becoming so clear that trusting the local water treatment plant to remove all the contaminants that could potentially be harmful is simply impossible, and those of us with private wells have even less protection. There are answers; however, most contaminants can be removed from water with the proper information and products. We simply have to be informed about what is in our water and what the levels are so we can choose the water treatment system that we need.

The WHO reports that standard reverse osmosis treatment will remove 90-99% of uranium. Documentary proof exists to show that uranium and many other contaminants can be removed from drinking water by reverse osmosis, distillation, special absorbent media (such as titanium dioxide) and anion exchange systems. Even though there is no way to stop uranium from ever being in the water to begin with, it is good to know it can be removed and that there are home water systems that can do the job.

The first step is testing the water you drink every day, the next step is to be informed about your choices to fix the problem, then go out purchase your home drinking water treatment system and let it fix the problem for you. Get on board with the first step and find out if you have a problem that could be damaging your kidneys and bones. Then guarantee your own health and safety with a cutting edge water treatment system that will deliver great tasting, clean, safe water to your kitchen sink or bottleless water cooler.