In general, and for seniors in particular, we are advised to drink a lot of water every day.
We use water in our daily life from early in the morning to late at night for everything. From our first cup of coffee in the morning to a shower late and night and all day long for everything in between.
Drinking water in most cases come from what is called surface water sources like rivers or lakes.
There is however some work to be done before we can drink this water.
Water has what maybe could be called a bad feature. It is a good solvent. Meaning that it is easy for a lot of natural pollutants to be picked up by it and dissolved in it. This is also a reason that we have to drink a lot of water during a detox.
This means that we have to filter that out before we can use it as drinking water.
There are basically four steps to clean our water to the point that we can drink it.
I will describe them, in short, to make clear that it is not easy to make drinking water.
Coagulation and flocculation
This is the first step and it adds chemicals to the water that neutralizes the negative charge of dirt and binds them to it so they form larger parts.
Sedimentation
The sedimentation takes the so-called floc from step 1 and makes it sinks to the bottom.
Filtration
Once it is all settled to the bottom the more clear water at the top will be filtered in a variety of filters that basically goes from large to smaller to filter out a lot of dust, bacteria, viruses, and other chemicals.
Disinfection
The final step is to kill all remaining bacteria, viruses, and the last remaining chemicals.
This part is done by adding Chlorine or Chloramine and this will stay in the water and is transported to your house and comes out of every faucet in your house.
Chlorine was used to make chlorine gas and this was used in World War 1 as a chemical weapon.
Yes, you read it well. The same chemical used as a chemical weapon is in the water you drink every day!
Here is a “how it’s made” video that explains the whole process in a pretty simple way.
The mechanical part and the filtering are something I understand and are almost a no-brainer.
You need to filter out all the things that are in a lake or river.
That they have to remove bacterial life and other organic viruses is also pretty well understood.
My concern is what is left in it when it comes out of my faucet in the kitchen, and is used for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing, and all the other things we use drinking water for.
Here is more information about the two basic chemicals used to make “healthy” drinking water.
More about Chlorine and Chloramine
Chlorine is highly toxic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_chlorination
It is also used in the production of plastics, metal degreasing, agrochemicals, and in many more industrial and consumer products.
Let’s have a look at Chloramine
Wikipedia writes that Chloramine is being used to replace Chlorine in water treatment plants because it is more stable and does not dissipate as fast as free chlorine.
Dissipate means that it dilutes faster and it is harder to find traces of it.
Your water treatment plant can use both of them. Chloramine is a combination of chloride and ammonia.
According to the Centers for disease control and prevention, the safe level of chlorine in our drinking water is 4 milligrams per liter of water. This is 15.14 milligrams per gallon or 0.0053 ounces per gallon.
I have not been able to see this confirmed, but read an article that mentioned 4 parts per million, and that was from the EPA.
https://www.health.ny.gov wrote that “when chloride enters the body as a result of breathing, swallowing or skin contact it reacts with water and produces acids. The acids are corrosive and damage cells in the body on contact.”
My Opinion About How Safe Drinking Water Is.
It looks like we do not have much of a choice but to accept the way the water is delivered to our houses. The water companies apply all the rules set by the EPA and they probably do not know any better anyway.
There are older lines that still contain lead and that can leak into our drinking water. Lead is very poisonous for our bodies. There also can be lead pipes in older houses and I would let these replace as fast as possible.
The only option to filter our water before it comes out of the faucet is to use a filter system between our meter and the faucet. This so-called whole house system can be very expensive, but the best option is to filter out everything.
After the faucet is one of the cheapest, but less effective ways to filter our water. The use of a water filter pitcher is one of the options we have there.
I had a look at, and use a Brita 10-cup water pitcher filter and although it does not filter out everything, it will lower the levels of several contaminations and every little bit will help.
These pitcher filters do not filter out any chloride, however. So if this is your main concern you have to look at other options. Recently I found out that water can even contain asbestos in some places.
I still use it every day for the reason that everything is better than nothing.
It is my personal opinion that we poison our bodies daily by exposing them to the “safe” water that comes out of our faucets.
If you look at our skin, which is our largest organ, we can even say that by taking a bath or a shower we take a bath in poisoned water.
Bottled water safety is in my opinion not much of a better option. I have an opinion about bottled water also and it is not much better than faucet water.
You can also read my article on how much water should seniors drink.
I will look at ways to use water filtration to make it safer for us to drink this water. I will write about more filtration systems and place links here.
Eddie Vandam
Eddie Vandam, the voice behind the Senior Citizen Website, is a retired internet marketer and proud senior. With a passion for helping fellow seniors navigate the complexities of aging, Eddie shares his insights on health, independence, products, and enriching hobbies. He’s committed to making senior years both fulfilling and enjoyable. Read more about Eddie Vandam.