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| Cloudy water may be a sign of unsafe contaminants. |
Aria Bendix
Our senses are valuable
tool when looking for contaminants in drinking water.
Water that's safe to drink should ideally be clear with no
odor or funny taste.
If your tap water tastes metallic, smells fishy, or comes
out cloudy, it could signal the presence of unsafe contaminants.
When residents of Flint, Michigan, turned on their taps back in
2014, they encountered an unpleasant brown sludge that tasted like metal.
The discolored liquid was an
early sign that something was amiss with the city's water supply, which had
recently been switched from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the
Flint River.
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The new water source had corroded the city's aging pipes, allowing toxic levels of lead to seep into residents' drinking water.
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The new water source had corroded the city's aging pipes, allowing toxic levels of lead to seep into residents' drinking water.
What followed was one of the
worst health disasters in US history, wherein around 10,000 residents were effectively
poisoned in their own homes.
.
The crisis, though an extreme example of water contamination, wasn't a one-off occurrence.
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The crisis, though an extreme example of water contamination, wasn't a one-off occurrence.
Every year, millions of
Americans get their drinking water from a source that violates
the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The best way to tell exactly
what's in our water is to have it professionally tested, but there are a few
ways to screen for contaminants using our senses.
.
Here are some signs that your tap water might not be safe to drink.
.
Here are some signs that your tap water might not be safe to drink.
A
good rule of thumb is to check for cloudiness.
One way to tell if water is contaminated is to
look for turbidity, or cloudiness.
While cloudy water isn't necessarily dangerous
to your health, it could signal the presence of unsafe pathogens or chemicals.
Also
check to see if your hands feel slimy after washing them with soap and water.
Hard water is often characterized by a buildup
of substances like calcium or magnesium, which can leave deposits on your
sink, faucet, or drinking glass.
It might also be the reason why your hands
feel slimy after washing them with soap and water, or you have to use more
laundry detergent to clean your clothes.
Hard water isn't a sure-fire sign that your
water source is contaminated — in some cases, it's caused by an excess of
calcium or magnesium, which shouldn't pose any harm — but it might be an
indicator of metals like aluminium, manganese, and lead.
Yellow,
orange, or brown water is never a good sign.
It might also be a sign of a buildup of iron,
manganese, copper, or lead.
If your water comes from a public system,
check to see whether the yellow tint only appears
while running cold water, which could be a sign that your utility is
simply clearing out its pipes.
Water that's orange or brown could also
contain excess iron, manganese, or lead, or signal the presence of rust, which
can breed bacteria.
Water
tinged with green or blue could contain elevated levels of copper.
Though copper isn't bad for you in small doses,
high levels of exposure can produce health problems such as anemia and liver and
kidney damage.
If
your water smells like bleach, be wary of excess chlorine.
One of these byproducts, a group of chemicals
known as trihalomethanes (THMs), has been linked to kidney problems and increased cancer
risk.
Another, known as haloacetic acids (HAAs),
causes skin irritation and could also increase cancer
risk.
Low levels of chlorine in the water system can
also expose people to a parasite called giardia that
causes diarrhea, cramps, and nausea.
Water that smells like bleach could be a sign
of excess chlorine in your local system.
The
smell of rotten eggs means your water could contain hydrogen sulfide.
When this gas is exposed to certain bacteria,
it converts into sulfate, which can cause dehydration or diarrhea.
If
water smells fishy, it could be a sign of barium or cadmium.
When barium is present above the EPA's
recommended levels, it could cause increased blood pressure, muscle
weakness, or kidney, liver, and heart damage.
Water that smells fishy might also contain
cadmium, a chemical found in lead and copper ores, which often leaches
into pipes through industrial waste.
Exposure to elevated levels of cadmium in
drinking water can cause kidney, liver, and bone damage.
One helpful way to check if your
water is safe is to pour a glass from the tap and move to
another room.
After swirling the water around, if it still
smells like fish, it could mean that contaminants are present.
A
metallic taste could signal the presence of excess iron or copper.
This foul flavor helped alert Flint residents
to the presence of lead in their drinking water, but in some cases it's merely
a sign of a low pH.
Other
contaminants are invisible.
A number of contaminants, including arsenic
and nitrates, are hidden to the naked eye.
"We're never exposed to just one
agent," said
Jamie DeWitt, an associate toxicology professor at East Carolina University.
DeWitt said even a reverse osmosis system —
the one recommended by Erin Brockovich — can trap contaminated water in its
filters.
Though she uses a filtration system in her own
home, she said it's mostly to remove the bad taste of chlorination byproducts.
Her main advice is to know your water
source and read water quality reports from your local utility — even before you
smell, taste, or see something bad.
Aria Bendix is a Senior Reporter at Insider, covering urban
and environmental science.
She writes about the
environment (nuclear energy, climate disasters, environmental toxins), urban
inequality (housing, homelessness, basic income), and agricultural
technology (water shortages and eliminating food waste).
She was previously an
Assistant Editor at The Atlantic and an in-house journalist at New York
University. She holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard and a Master of Fine
Arts from The New School.
Email her at
abendix@businessinsider.com.
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