Water

Today is World Water Day (who knew?). For most of my life I didn't really think much about water. You just turn on the tap and get a drink, right? That's how it is if you live here the good old US of A, but in much of the world, drinking water is not taken for granted. According to a little news snippet I ran across today, more people in the world die every year from water-born illnesses (drinking unsafe water) than from violence. And those of us with chemical sensitivities know that even in the US, not all water is safe for us.

For example, chlorinated water is really a problem for me. I avoid it whenever possible. That pretty much precludes living on a public water system. But even with our own well, I know that our water is full of antibiotics, other prescription drugs and pesticides, because that's what other people flush down their toilets and what settles into the ground water from the farm fields around us. So we have our own filtering system, first, where the water comes into the house (who wants to take a shower in someone else's drugs?) and second, at the kitchen sink, where we get all of our drinking water. And, though the environmentalist in me balks at the thought of it, I drink only bottled water when I am travelling (and not the cheap stuff that was obtained from a municipal water source).

So, do you know what's in your water?