For Pregnant Women, Clean Water is Essential

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, pregnant woment should drink 8 to 12 cups (64 to 96 ounces) of water daily. Water has many benefits. It aids digestion and helps form the amniotic fluid around the fetus. Water also allows nutrients to circulate and helps waste leave the body.

There is no dispute that water is healthy. However, if you are pregnant, be aware that the water you drink and bathe in has cancer-causing agents. Click the following link to see what may be in your tap water.  https://www.ewg.org/tapwater.

To understand water drinking standards, you must take into consideration that: 

  • Legal does not necessarily equal safe. Getting a passing grade from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not mean the water meets the latest health guidelines.
  • Legal limits for tap water contaminants have not been updated since 2000 when the EPA took steps to lower uranium in tap water!
  • The best way to ensure clean tap water is to keep pollution out of source water in the first place.

The Secret

The well-kept secret about existing drinking water standards is that the vast majority of the nation’s drinking water supplies get a passing grade from federal and state regulatory agencies. But many of the 324 contaminants detected by local utilities’ tests are found at levels that may be legal under EPA’s SDWA standards or state regulations. Authoritative scientific studies have found most exceed levels to pose health risks.

Chlorination 

The disinfection of public water supplies by chlorination is standard today. It has remained a popular disinfectant choice, despite alternative disinfectants being available. With the discovery of disinfection byproducts (DBPs), a spectrum of halogenated compounds formed by reactions between naturally occurring organic matter in the water and the added chlorine, concerns have arisen concerning their impact on human health. The benefits of preventing many serious diseases continue to outweigh the potential risks vastly. 

Pregnancy and Chlorination DBP

The Environmental Working Group has been conducting and compiling drinking water test data for all states since 2005, explaining that exposure to DBPs, such as trihalomethanes (THMs), may occur through ingestion, inhalation, or dermal absorption. Dermal absorption occurs during cooking and washing, showering and bathing, fluid intake, and swimming. For other DBPs, such as haloacetic acids, ingestion is the primary exposure route.

The approach employed in studies to assess the exposure of pregnant women to chlorination DBPs has been mainly based on the water source or treatment and the concentration of total THMs in the municipal water source of the subject. This ignores the individual variability in the fluid intake and showering, bathing, and swimming patterns of pregnant women, which may be important determinants for exposure to chlorination DBPs.

The good news is that most filter products on the market use one or a combination of three primary technologies: carbon filtration, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange. At Torres Water, we offer a Free Water Analysis (valued at $125). Give us a call today to discuss pure water for your home.