There’s so much information online about the dangers of drinking tap water, but how many of them do you trust?
Not many of the resources you find online are free of bias. Plus, they’re so boring and pedantic to read!
What you need are trusted authorities to explain to you the necessary, and evidence-backed research about such dangers without boring you to oblivion.
In this article, we will enumerate those reasons and tell you why research and scientists all over the world say that drinking tap water could be harmful to your health.
We might even insert a joke or two if you play your cards right. Let’s get it on!
Fluoride Danger
The first reason you should consider about the dangers of tap water is the issue of fluoride content. Yes, the fluoride that you find in the toothpaste that makes your teeth shiny and white is harmful in large doses!
It is confirmed that since 1940’s fluoride has been added to tap water to make the people prevent getting tooth decay.
However, latest studies prove that fluoride is a variation of a neurotoxin that could disrupt the normal functioning of your endocrine system.
This means that you can get your thyroid gland in trouble and your pineal gland calcified with the fluoride in drinking water. That’s not a fun thing your body can have.
Chlorine Kills
You should also know that chlorine is added to drinking water. Sure, chlorine makes swimming in a public pool less disgusting to do, but seriously, why would you want something as toxic as that in your drinking water?
According to a BBC report , it is shown that the poisonous hydrochloric acid component in chlorine could impair the normal functions of your respiratory system.
You could get memory loss and damaged cells just from drinking too much of chlorinated water. I wonder if you’re still thirsty for tap water after knowing this.
Lead is a Leading Threat
Lead is another toxic element in your tap water. In fact, it’s so toxic that almost all of your body organs will cower in its presence. Your body organs are no match for lead’s destruction!
Humor aside, we have enough reliable scientific studies that show how most of the developmental disorders today, such as autism, deafness and learning disabilities could be from lead-infested tap water.
Lead exposure damage doesn’t stop there. Science has shown that reproductive problems and kidney failure may also be caused by lead ingestion.
Mercury Rising
You hear about scary celebrity deaths involving mercury, right? Well, let us increase the horror some more by telling you that tap water could have mercury in them.
There’s no doubt that scientists all over the world agree to the fact that mercury is one of the most toxic elements today.
Research from NCBI also showed that exposure to it means muscle atrophy, headaches, cognitive disability and skin rashes. Scary, right? And you thought drinking tap water is harmless.
As a supplement to your research, you may want to check out this video about mercury in tap water for you to understand the level of danger you may be facing just by drinking the water alone: watch this video.
PCB’s Are Not Cool
PCBs or more technically called polychlorinated biphenyls are also found in your tap water. According to EPA, this is a chemical used for various industrial purposes, which includes production of oil, paints, adhesives, electronics, and insulation.
Do you really want to have these chemicals in your body? These PCBs can disintegrate and get processed by your body, and that means more toxins in your internal organs. Avoid this toxin at any cost!
Arsenic Equals Toxic
Arsenic may be a cool-sounding name that your hip friend might’ve once name-dropped over drinking craft beer, but don’t be fooled. Arsenic is poisonous!
Studies have found that arsenic poisoning can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, and even death.
There are also reports from The Massachusetts Government that connect arsenic ingestion to skin and lung cancers. Bladder cancer is also another effect when arsenic overloads your system.
What happens to your body when it ingests arsenic is that it reacts to your blood vessels negatively and causes it to rot, and eventually die.
Despite being a poison, many industries still use arsenic as a form of cohesive ingredient to create various commercial and personal utilities.
The problem with this chemical is that it is usually improperly disposed of, and many of the factories that use it have poor waste-disposal structures.
When this happens, the tap water that people drink gets contaminated. Ever seen that Erin Brockovich movie where the locals were slowly becoming sick because of water contamination?
That could be The Story of Your Life.
Perchlorate Is Not Great
Perchlorate is another key ingredient in tap water that could destroy your health. You may think that perchlorates are safe to use because it’s being utilized by the military and the government itself, but don’t get those credentials to fool you.
There are many problems and complications that your body could experience when you get perchlorates in your system.
One example of such horrifying contamination issue was what happened in the Colorado River, where the problem was severe enough for people to get worried about thyroid damage.
Dioxins Are Damaging Toxins
Another toxic reason that should worry you in drinking tap water is dioxins content. Despite its cool-sounding name, this chemical is a dangerous toxin that’s released during a combustion process, including forest fires and cigarette smoking.
The problem with this toxin is that it lingers in the environment and can destroy our water sources. This bad boy of a chemical is so dangerous that it can damage your reproductive systems and long-term exposure to it could cause problems in your nervous, endocrine and immune systems.
D in DDT is Double Danger
DDT means Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, and this is an insecticide that has been used ever since in the 1940s to make sure that insect-borne diseases like malaria can be addressed.
It gained popularity as an agricultural pest control ingredient but was later banned in the United States in 1972 because of the series of environmental damages that it poses. That said, DDT’s remnants are still in the tap water you’re drinking.
Some of the lethal threats of DDT today are cancer and liver damage. In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has gone out of their way to declare this toxin as a harmful threat to the environment and one’s health.
HCB Is Toxin-Heavy
Until the year 1965, HCB or what is commonly known as Hexachlorobenzene had been used as a pesticide to help the agriculture industry flourish.
Studies today show that in large doses HCB can result in death. Smaller doses of this that are found in tap water could mean damage to your liver and various skin lesions.
In fact, journalist records showed that in Anatolia, Turkey at least 4500 people suffered from HCB poisoning in the 1950’s, which later led to a national policy to ban this chemical from any agricultural project.
Conclusion
Drinking tap water may make you think that you’re saving money, but in the long run, as you may have understood from this article, you might be spending a lot of money on hospital medications because of tap water’s poisons.
You don’t have to memorize all of the reasons we listed, but try to remember some of them in case you’re tempted to drink that free service water that your waitress offers you with an innocent grin.
Oh boy, if she only knew what’s in the water she serves.