London Tap Water – Why You Don’t Want To Drink It

We have spoken about the importance of hydrating. It is important what you drink (hydrate with) since all water is not equal.

I am sure you know that fizzy drinks don’t hydrate. Very little of their content is actually water. Although just so you are clear, I will go into what happens when you drink a can of Coke, Diet Coke or similar in my next blog.

For now, I want to make you aware of some of the toxins tap water contains and how they can affect you .

There are three main elements:

• Toxins that are poisonous
• Chemicals that adversely affect one’s hormones and/or the way one’s body works
• Pharmaceuticals

Whilst it is easy to think that only the water you drink can affect you, it is easy to overlook that the skin is a wonderful absorber of what it comes into contact with. So long, warm baths in poor quality water will impact your health as well. In addition to water filters for drinking water, one can step up to a whole house system. It’s more expensive, but if your health is important to you over the long term, it’s worth considering.   A lot of the adverse effects from chemical-laden water take years to manifest themselves.

In 2012 the Guardian reported that Britain was facing a bill of £30 billion to clean up rivers, streams and drinking supplies because they were found to be contaminated with EE2 oestrogen from the contraceptive pill and from HRT¹.

EE2 or ethinyl Oestradiol is a hormone and a potent chemical. It is known to affect sperm production in fish and is possibly contributing to the fall in sperm production and fertility issues that are rising in males. Men may also develop breast tissue and their prostate function may be affected by oestrogen in the water¹.

A more recent article from 8^th Nov 2017 in the Mail mentions a study to be published in November by the Environment Agency showing that synthetic oestrogen is feminizing half of the male fish and causing them to change sex².

A study by the Medical Research Council found that Scottish men born since 1970 are 25% less fertile than men born 20 years earlier. Male fertility is continuing to drop by 2% per year².

Another concern of drinking oestrogen in your daily intake of water is that it can affect the sexual development of pre-pubescent children whose sexuality is determined by finely balanced hormonal levels.

It isn’t only oestrogen we find in our tap water. Studies in the USA and Europe have found a startling list of pharmaceuticals in tap water, including³:

• ACE inhibitors (heart drug)
• Antibiotics
• Antidepressants
• Beta-blockers
• Blood thinners
• Calcium-channel blockers (heart drug)
• Carbamazepine (anti-seizure drug)
• Digoxin
• Fibrates (cholesterol drugs)
• Naproxen (an anti-inflammatory)
• Paracetamol and codeine
• Tranquillizers

Our tap water also contains chlorine, which is used to treat the water. Chlorine in tap water has been linked to a rising number of allergies in people⁴. Chlorine is a toxin that should not be ingested and can lead to free-radicals within the body. Free-radicals are essentially carcinogenic⁶.

Chlorine isn’t the only chemical used to kill the bacteria and microorganisms in our tap water. Our water also contains:

• Fluorosilicic acid
• Aluminium sulphate
• Calcium hydroxide
• Sodium silicofluoride

Over 300 chemicals have been detected in tap water. But water is only tested for around 20 of these. They found amongst these 20 chemicals toxins such as⁵:

• DDT
• Simazine
• Atrazine
• 3,4 Benz pyrene (weed killers)
• Benzotriazole and Tolytriazole (from dishwasher tablets)
• Fluoride is also added to 10% of the UK’s water supplies

I will write about why chlorine and fluoride are toxic to the human body and should not be consumed in another blog.

Ideally you don’t want to be drinking London tap water, taking a shower or bath or cooking with it!

At the very least you want to install a water filter for your drinking water if you live in a city where water quality is questionable. I previously suggested the following can be easily stored under your sink: osmiowater.co.uk/water-filters/bmb-technology/bmb-20-alkaline-detox-pumped-quick-change-6-stage-reverse-osmosis-system.html

If you want to filter out chlorine and chemicals from all the water in your home you will need to invest in a whole house water filter system available from several companies online.

References

1. com/environment/2012/jun/02/water-system-toxic-contraceptive-pill
2. co.uk/health/article-105466/Fertility-timebomb-drinking-water.html
3. water-for-health.co.uk/our-blog/2015/05/sorry-did-you-just-say-there-are-hormones-in-my-tap-water/
4. co.uk/health/article-2242094/Chlorine-tap-water-linked-increase-number-people-developing-food-allergies.html
5. co.uk/the-truth-about-drinking-tap-water/
6. com/content/Chlorine.pdf