Should you be drinking tap water?
I’ve gotten used to people rolling there eyes and shaking there heads, thinking that I am the biggest snob, for refusing to drink tap water.
It is not difficult to understand why most people would not think twice about drinking tap water, after all, grand-dad drank tap water all his life and he lived to be 110. “ And if you don’t believe that there is nothing wrong with South African tap water, ‘Google it ’ ”.
Our government has gone out of there way to publish documents stating that according to their standards, tap water is perfectly safe, or rather not unsafe to drink – I think I just spotted the problem. According to their standards.
Where I can fully agree that our tap water is perfectly clean when it comes to germs and bacteria, those are not the only things harmful to our human bodies. Those things are the fast killers, I’m more worried about the slow killers in the water.
Not too long ago the same debate raged in Grahamstown.
Although a panel of Rhodes University professors and a packed gallery containing some equally learned experts did not see eye to eye on claims that the water was tainted by heavy metal toxins, they all agreed, more tests needed to be done.
The decision to debate the quality of the town’s water comes hot on the heels of a Dispatch report earlier on allegedly dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals, coming from a tap at a local ostrich export abattoir.
Unacceptable levels of aluminium, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and coliforms were allegedly detected regularly in the water by a South African Bureau of Standards accredited laboratory, conducting tests for the Integrated Meat Processors of the Eastern Cape (Impec)
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 10 March 2010
I first became aware of this issue when a water specialist did a heavy metals test at a clients house that I was invited to. The results of the test prompted me to get my own reverse osmosis water purification home system.
The real clincher came 6 months later when it was time to clean and replace the filters. I was interested to see the state of the filters after it has been filtering only drinking water for 6 months. Well, let me show you the pictures.
Now, I’m no doctor or marine biologist, but you don’t have to be able to split atoms to know that that amount of rusting heavy metals is not good for you. Because the filters only filtered drinking water, it is safe to assume that everything you see captured in the filter and the water in the bucket would have gone through my kidneys and liver. My body would have had to fight those toxins to try and minimize the impact it would have on my body. Imagine how much of your imune system is taken up fighting things that we unknowingly put in our bodies. It is no wonder that the cancer rate among younger people have become so abnormally high. How many years do you think your kidneys can put up with that kind of abuse?
I struggled for a day to get the rust stains off my hands, and have not drank tap water since.
If you climb into a bath of water and you can smell the chemicals used to clean the water, or run a tap and you can see that the water is discoloured, what makes us think that it is good enough to nourish your body?
In closing, and probably the ultimate jinx a person could bring onto themselves (I did think it important enough to mention though) I have not drank tap water for 5 years, I also have not had flu or have needed any antibiotix for the last 5 years, where before it was a once a year accurance, at least. Are these related? I would like to think so, but who knows.
The fact remains, we are ultimatly responsible for our own health, so think careful about the things that you expose your body to.
Jurie van Dyk has written 55 articles on this blog.