Americans never seem to be able to agree on whether it is healthy to be drinking tap water. You’ve likely seen scary videos on the internet of intense distilling processes of tap water that show a surprising amount of specular debris left behind, but does that necessarily mean that your water isn’t safe to drink? The answer is both exceedingly simple, and also a little complicated. Check out some more information below about whether you should worry about drinking tap water…
All tap water should meet EPA regulations
The simplest answer to whether or not tap water is safe to drink is this: yes. Every county in the country needs to adhere to strict EPA regulations, as it pertains to water that the public is liable to drink, such as tap water. When a place fails to meet these standards, such as what happened in Flint, Michigan, then it tends to be a very big story that everyone hears about.
As for the dust/dirt that you are probably drinking when you drink tap water (the stuff in all those scary YouTube videos), the reality is that you consume lots of those dirt traces every day without much problems. Do you ever eat uncooked vegetables? Well, you’re consuming the same level of dirt traces there.
Check your zip code
This doesn’t mean that there can’t be any contaminants in your tap water, though. But the good news is that it’s not exactly a mystery! The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a database where you can get a report on the components that make up the tap water in your zip code. This helps keep the public informed on their local water services and the quality of their tap water.
Bottled water isn’t necessarily better
One last note: some people avoid drinking tap water by getting bottled water. The problem with this line of thinking is that your bottled water doesn’t have any more guarantee to be contaminant free than your tap water, as the EPA regulations are exactly the same for county drinking water and companies that produce bottled water.
