With the trend toward using pure and natural products in personal health care, city tap water has come to be considered a processed, unnatural substance, containing potentially hazardous chemical additives. No wonder bottled water has become a huge industry in the last decade! For the most part, city water is heavily chlorinated to kill germs, fluoridated to prevent tooth decay, and some cities add calcium hydroxide or other alkaline substances to change the pH (acidity) of the water so it does not corrode pipes. Chlorine and other additives used to treat water can react with other organic chemicals to produce chlorinated hydrocarbons that may act as carcinogens. For example, the chloramines including chloroform and other trihalomethanes, are formed in water from chlorine and organic matter such as ammonia or decaying leaves. Water pipes may contribute chemicals or metals such as copper or lead.

Choosing Your Drinking Water
I have urged people for many years to use special purified drinking water and to avoid the faucet. I have not drunk tap water in more than a decade; instead, I have used well water or spring water collected from mountain or underground sources (unfortunately these waters can be contaminated also) or, more recently, home-filtered tap water. But lately there have even been questions regarding the purity of bottled waters and the effectiveness of filters. What is the right thing to do? Clearly, scientific research and the marketing information of companies selling water and the various water cleaners may differ. After all, advertising has a big influence on our nutrition in general and certainly has and continues to be a hindrance that must be overcome to achieve a healthier diet and lifestyle. The government can only protect the consumer from gross misrepresentation and not subtle interpretation of "facts."

Let’s look at our drinking water choices before we decide. We don’t want to worry or be fanatic, but since water is second in importance only to air for sustaining life, we do want to do the best we can with the current knowledge and inner guidance we have. Taste and smell can help us assess if our water is good for us. However, the presence of negative health factors may not alter taste or smell. If there is a question about water safety, we can have our drinking supply, whatever it is, analyzed for bacteria, minerals, or chemical pollutants.