Tap Water
The human body is 60% water
73% of your brain and heart is made of water, 64% of your skin, 79% of your muscles and kidneys, and even 31% of your bones. Staying well hydrated is therefore essential for health. Making sure you’re drinking healthy water is equally important.
The water arriving at your taps
We are fortunate in the UK to have a high quality water treatment and supply to our taps at home, which disinfects water of many dangerous contaminants. It should be free of:
- Microbes – bacteria, parasites, viruses and algae
- Inorganic contaminants – salts or metal based chemicals such as lead.
- Organic contaminants – solvents, petrol based chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, PCBs. These can mimic hormones in the body.
- Radon – radon can be carried in water as well as in the air.
Making tap water healthy for drinking, cooking and bathing
For tap water to be healthy for your use there are further contaminants to remove once it arrives at your home, including:
- Lead leeching from old pipes, from brass taps or lead-based solder.
- UPVC from pipework.
- Hardness and acid/alkaline balance
- Chlorine added as a disinfectant to kill bacteria.
If we don’t filter out the contaminants in water before we consume it, then our body is forced to be the filter.
Chlorine is added to water by the local authority supplier to treat it against microbial contamination all the way from the water source, through the supply and distribution pipework, to your taps. This usually leaves residual chlorine in the water, as well as chlorine by-products. For health reasons, Building Biology recommends removal of these before drinking, cooking and bathing.
If your tap water is via a local authority water supply, you usually need to consider only final stage water treatment at your taps:
- Activated carbon filter.
- Reverse osmosis filter.
- Chlorine filter fitted to your shower head. The greatest exposure to chlorine can be in the shower, through your skin and inhalation.
If your water is supplied from your own well, rigorous testing is required by a specialist water treatment agency.
Drinking healthy water is an important factor in supporting your vitality.
For Healthy Water in your Home
For selection of pipework and point-of-use filtration.
A check throughout your home for a range of hazards including ways to resolve them. For your tap water, this includes recommendations for point-of-use filtration as necessary.
