Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I have a report from my municipality
that my tap water is not very good. Should I stop drinking it?
A.
In the short term, if you are an adult with no special health
conditions, and you are not pregnant, then you can drink most cities'
tap water without having to worry. However, pregnant women, very young
children, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, and people living
with weakened immune systems (because they have HIV/AIDS, had an organ
transplant, or are on chemotherapy), can be especially vulnerable to
the risks posed by contaminated water. If you fit in one of these
groups, review NRDC's findings for your city as well as your city's
annual water quality report (see the next question), and then consult
with your health care provider. You may also want to check the
Physicians for Social Responsibility website
for fact sheets that can help you and your health care provider make
decisions about your drinking water. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention's (CDC)
website has advice for people with weak immune systems about
drinking city tap water and about bottled water and filters.
In the long
term, we all have reason to be concerned about pollution in tap water.
The water in many cities contains pollutants that are carcinogens and
that, over time, could cause cancer. That's why we all should try to
get cities to clean these contaminants out of tap water as soon as
possible.
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Q.
I live in a city that doesn’t seem to have a water quality
report
available. How can I find out about the quality of the water?
A.
To find out about your city's water quality, you should ask your water
utility (the one that sends water bills to people in your community)
for a copy of its annual water quality report, which is sometimes
called a right-to-know report or consumer confidence report. Then get
the brochure called "Making Sense of Your Right to Know Report," (see
www.safe-drinking-water.org/rtk.html) to help you understand
the report. Read your report carefully and contact your health care
provider if you have questions.
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Q.
A few years ago, we were told that some bottled water is bad. Now we
are hearing the same thing about tap water. Which is true and which
should I drink?
A.
In 1999, NRDC conducted 1,000 separate tests of more than 100 brands of
bottled water and concluded that bottled water is not necessarily any
purer or any safer than city tap water.
Some bottled
water is of very high quality and is very pure; other brands of bottled
water contain elevated levels of arsenic, bacteria, or other
contaminants.
Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands of times
more per gallon than tap water. So while drinking bottled water of
verified quality
may be an interim solution if you live in an area with a known tap
water contamination problem or if you have serious immune system
problems, bottled water is not a long-term solution to tap water
problems.
Instead of relying on bottled water we need to
make sure our tap water is clean and safe.
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Q.
What filter will best protect my family from getting sick?
A.
Filters are no better a long-term solution than bottled water -- in the
end we need to make tap water safe for everyone. But if you are
thinking about getting a filter for your home, there are several things
to consider. First, make sure you get a filter that removes the
contaminants of concern in your tap water. (See your city's annual
water quality report for information or NRDC's report if you live in a
city we've studied.) Second, be sure the filter is independently
certified by NSF
(or a similar
independent organization) to remove the contaminants of concern in your
tap water. Third, maintain the filter at least as often as the
manufacturer recommends, or hire a maintenance company to maintain it
for you. If you have a weakened immune system, check the
CDC website
and consult with your health care provider for advice about filters.
Also, remember that a "point of use" filter on your sink will not
remove all contaminants. For example, you can be exposed to
trihalomethanes in the shower. Only a "point of entry" device that
cleans all the water in your house will take care of all
your water taps.
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Q.
I've heard that the Bush administration is proposing to limit the scope
of the Clean Water Act. How could that affect my drinking water?
A.
Early in 2003, the Bush administration initiated a process to rewrite
Clean Water Act rules and narrow the scope of the law. If the
administration succumbs to pressure from industrial polluters,
thousands of streams, wetlands and other waters that filter pollution
out of drinking water sources would no longer be protected by the law,
allowing industry to dredge, fill or dump waste into them. Unregulated
contamination from sewage, oil, hazardous chemicals and other pollution
would be disastrous for our drinking water supplies and public health.
Children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems would be
especially at risk from exposure to unsafe, contaminated drinking
water.
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Q.
What can I do to protect the drinking water in my town?
A.
You can support measures to protect your watershed and to improve
drinking water protection and treatment in your area. To find groups
working on these efforts in your area, check the list of member groups
on the Clean Water Network
website. And sign up
for NRDC's action bulletins -- we'll send you an email when you can
take action on decisions being made at the national level and in
California .
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Q.
Isn't bottled water safer than tap water?
A. No, not necessarily. NRDC
conducted a four-year review of the bottled water industry and the
safety standards that govern it, including a comparison of national
bottled water rules with national tap water rules, and independent
testing of over 1,000 bottles of water. Our conclusion is 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. And in fact, an estimated 25
percent or more of bottled water is really just tap
water in a bottle-- sometimes further
treated, sometimes not.
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Q.
Is bottled water actually unsafe?
A. Most bottled water appears
to
be safe. Of the bottles we tested, the majority proved to be high
quality and relatively free of contaminants. The quality of some brands
was spotty, however, and such products may pose a health risk,
primarily for people with weakened immune systems (such as the frail
elderly, some infants, transplant and cancer patients, or people with
HIV/AIDS). About 22 percent of the brands we tested contained, in at
least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above strict state
health limits. If consumed over a long period of time, some of these
contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems.
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Q.
How can I find out where my bottled water comes from?
A. A few state bottled water
programs (e.g., Massachusetts and New York) maintain lists of the
sources of bottled water, but many do not. Try calling or writing the
bottler to ask what the source is, or call the bottled water program in
your state or the state in which the water was bottled to see if they
have a record of the source (your state's health or agriculture
department is most likely to run the bottled water program). If you
choose to buy bottled water and are concerned about its safety, buy
brands with a known protected source and ones that make readily
available testing and treatment information that shows high water
quality.
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Q.
How can I determine if bottled water is really just tap water?
A. Often it's not easy.
First,
carefully check the bottle label and even the cap -- if it says "from a
municipal source" or "from a community water system" this means it's
derived from tap water. Again, you can call the bottler or the bottled
water program in your state or the state where it was packaged.
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Q.
What actions can I take to improve bottled water safety?
A. Write to your members of
Congress, the FDA, and your governor (see below for contact
information) and urge them to adopt strict requirements for bottled
water safety, labeling, and public disclosure. Specifically, point out
to these officials that they should:
-
set strict limits
for contaminants
of concern in bottled water, including arsenic,
heterotrophic-plate-count bacteria, E. coli and other parasites and
pathogens, and synthetic organic chemicals such as "phthalates";
-
apply the rules
to all bottled water whether carbonated or not and whether sold
intrastate or interstate; and
-
require bottlers
to display
information on their labels about the levels of contaminants of concern
found in the water, the water's exact source, how it's been treated,
and whether it meets health criteria set by the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control for killing
parasites like cryptosporidium.
Members of
Congress and governors should also pass legislation providing the
resources for the FDA and state regulators to actually enforce the law.
To take further action, you can encourage your
bottlers and the
International Bottled Water Association
(a trade organization that includes about 85 percent of water bottlers)
to voluntarily make labeling disclosures such as those above.
Contact information:
FDA
Jane E. Henney, M.D.
Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
Congress/State Legislators
Go to our action
center to find contact information for your members of
Congress and state legislators.
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Q. If I drink tap water should I
use a filter and what types of filters are most effective?
A. The
real long-term solution is to make tap water safe for everyone.
However, if you know you have a tap water quality or taste problem, or
want to take extra precautions, you should purchase filters certified
by NSF International
(800 NSF-MARK). These filters remove the contaminants of special
concern such as cryptosporidium. Such certification is not necessarily
a safety guarantee, but it is better than no certification at all. It
is critically important that all filters be maintained and replaced at
least as often as recommended by the manufacturer, or they might make
the problem worse.
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