Some people think you’re crazy. “Don’t worry about the water–they wouldn’t let us drink it if it was full of bad things!” Your friend said this to you last week when she oversaw your Google search for “remove arsenic from drinking water.” When you tried to explain that “remove arsenic from drinking water” came up with a bunch of hits, and therefore you couldn’t be the only one worried about this, she replied “Remove arsenic from drinking water? I’m lucky if I remove the kids from bed in time for the bus. Stop worrying.”
Your friend is half right. It’s not productive to wring your hands over invisible ghosts and let worries like water purification ruin your day. However there is a very practical step that you can take to reduce things like chlorine, arsenic, and iron in water and achieve a healthier shower and/or hydration experience.
You’ve probably heard of Brita and Pur–what we’re recommending are just larger versions of that for all of your high volume water use fixtures. You have the option of investing in a whole home water filtration system, but which one to consider depends on your water source. In the U.S., 48 million people draw their water from wells, and so in this case you’re going to want to look into well water filtration.
If you’re part of the majority of people that get their water from a community water source, then looking into whole house filtration systems or shower head filters that minimize the mineral content in “hard water” and mitigate some of the chlorine may be a better fit. Taking out the chlorine and minerals in water will also bode well for your appliances, as these elements contribute to wear and tear on the mechanisms.
Basically what we’re saying is, you were right to Google. You were just Googling the wrong thing–don’t work yourself up into hysterics looking up all the horrible things that might (on the outside chance), be effecting your health daily. Start proactively searching for technology that will shield you from whatever you could fathom.