How do you know what's REALLY in your tap water?

EWG has terrific resources for you and your customers!

I really love the Environmental Working Group. They have such terrific resources for consumers and they do a great job of educating people on all kinds of health issues.

Today they sent me a really great article worth sharing with you and your friends who have questions about what's really coming out of their tap water:

"Confused about whether you need to filter your tap water? And how to do it?

We all know that drinking plenty of good, clean water is important for a healthy body. Learn how to stay hydrated while cutting down on your exposures to common drinking water pollutants. We suggest that you:

1.Identify the contaminants in your home tap water
2.Find a filter that works
3.Skip the bottled water
4.Choose safer reusable water bottles
1.Identify the contaminants in your home tap water

Tap water quality is local. To know what's flowing from your tap, you need to know what contaminants your local water supplier found when testing. The good news is that contaminant testing data is readily available because EWG compiled millions of state water reporting records to create a national tap water quality database. (www.ewg.org/tap-water/home ) It makes it easy for you to identify and understand the contaminants in your water.

What's the problem with tap water? For the chemicals that EPA regulates, water utilities complied with EPA's mandatory health standards 92 percent of the time.

The problem is we also know that there are many unregulated contaminants in our nation's drinking water. We recently identified 316 chemicals in tap water throughout the country, 202 of which aren't regulated. EPA's failure to protect drinking water sources from pollution and to develop enforceable standards for scores of common tap water contaminants leaves the public at risk.

For an in-depth look at this issue, see the top-notch 2009 New York Times series Toxic Waters. ( http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters )

Ready to search for your water? You can quickly find out what contaminants are in your tap water by searching our interactive, user-friendly database. It covers 48,000 communities in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Just enter your zip code in the search box to the right, after which you'll be asked to select your local water utility (since more than one utility often serves a single zip code).

Can't find your system in our database? Call your local water utility and request a copy of its Consumer Confidence Report, which contains information on water testing (it may be available online as well).

Have a private well? Get it tested regularly. The New Jersey Department of Health has an excellent guide to private well testing."

- Trina -