Did you know that nearly all the major systems in your body depend on water? Water moistens sensitive tissues, lubricates joints, protects organs, regulates body temperature, helps dissolve minerals to make them accessible to your body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells and lessens the burden on the kidney and liver by flushing out waste. That’s why it’s so important to stay hydrated! As a reminder, your daily requirement is half your body weight in ounces.

Your Water Source

It’s tempting to drink straight from your tap, but is the water safe? To make it easier to understand exactly what’s in your water, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has pulled together a comprehensive database of drinking water quality reports by zip code. Click here to find the results for your area.

According to the EWG’s study:

“The vast majority of the nation’s drinking water supplies get a passing grade from federal and state regulatory agencies. However, many of the 250-plus contaminants detected through water sampling and testing are at levels that are perfectly legal under the Safe Drinking Water Act or state regulations, but well above levels authoritative scientific studies have found to pose health risks.”

This is where we can take action.

Fortunately, there are ways to clean this up so you can safeguard your health. As part of the study, the EWG has provided suggestions for specific filters—across all price ranges from simple pitches to whole-home systems—that pull out specific contaminants found in your tap water.

Filter Options

Here are a few filter options to pull out hexavalent chromium from your tap water.

Pitcher: ZeroWater 8-Cup Stainless Steel Pitcher

  • Uses ion exchange and granular activated carbon

  • Only pitcher certified by NSF to reduce both lead and chromium

  • BPA free

  • TDS (total dissolved solids) meter that provides a digital reading so you know when it is time to change your filter

Dispenser: ZeroWater 23-Cup Dispenser

  • Uses ion exchange and granular activated carbon

  • Only pitcher certified by NSF to reduce both lead and chromium

  • BPA free

  • TDS (total dissolved solids) meter that provides a digital reading so you know when it is time to change your filter

  • One-handed “push to dispense” spout to fill any bottle or cup

Plumbed- In, Separate Tap: Microline Reverse Osmosis System TFC-435

  • Uses reverse osmosis and granular activated carbon

  • Up to 35 gallons per day

  • NSF Standard 58 Certified System

  • 4-stage TFC (thin film composite) performance

  • Comes with 1 free set of replacement filters

Plumbed-In

Whether or not your water is harmful of helpful depends on what’s in it. Distillers and reverse osmosis systems come the closest to removing most contaminants. If you are on public water, call your water provider and ask for the Annual Consumer Confidence Report which will contain a list of regulated contaminants in your water. For public/municipal water supplies, pay attention to what is intentionally put into your water to disinfect it for you. Numerous contaminants naturally occur in well water. If you are on a well, it’s important to have your water independently tested for contaminants. Know the contaminants in your specific water, and find filters that remove them.

Download Environmental Working Group’s water filter guide here.