Saving Us From Ourselves: Drinking Water

By now, we have all heard about—and been sufficiently freaked out by—the news that major pharmaceuticals have been discovered in treated Philadelphia drinking water. (Editor's Note: Phillyist originally linked to this story in our news post on Monday.) Antibiotics, anti-convulsants, and mood stabilizers, oh my. While that says too much about the over-medicated state of Americans, our topic here is the water itself. Our first instinct after reading this might be to grab the nearest bottled water. But is that really the best option, even in light of this new study?

Probably not, since according to the National Resources Defense Council many bottled waters are exempted from FDA standards and are not subject to the stricter EPA rules for city tap water. The NDRC concludes that there is "no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap." They estimate that possibly more than twenty-five percent of bottled water is tap water—tap water that may or may not have been treated. [Note: bottled tap water should be labeled "from a municipal source" or "from a community water system."] While many brands of bottled water from verified sources are certainly potable, what are our alternate options?

For home use, Reverse Osmosis is an option to be considered. This filtration method works by employing a semi-permeable membrane to remove impurities from the water. However, a big concern with this method is that the amount of waste water generated from the process far exceeds the amount of resulting clean water. If you are looking for a simpler and less wasteful option, you go a little more low-tech and use an activated carbon filter. A household name and generally trustworthy product line continues to be the good old Brita pitcher or faucet mount.

On the go, water bottles with built-in filtration systems can be an option. Or you can be like the cool kids and fill a Sigg bottle with your filtered water from home.

We are sorry to say that there is no solid answer to this problem, but we hope that the above information provides you with relevant facts to inform your own personal decisions.

Image Credit: Flickr user JOE M500