By Jane Marsh
As a mum, you want your kids to be as healthy as possible. You may have heard that drinking filtered water is safer than drinking from the tap, but how much water does this theory actually hold?
If you live in a developed country, your tap water is most likely safe to drink. After all, it’s gone through extensive purification by the time it gets to your sink. However, there are still some benefits of using a filter.
1. Improving Taste
Your tap water might have a strange flavour depending on where you live. The taste of water doesn’t always correlate with how healthy it is, but your children will certainly want to drink more water if it tastes good. By drinking more, they’ll stay hydrated and be healthier overall. This is one of the main reasons you should consider using a filter.
2. Improving Colour
Kids can be picky. Tap water has a yellowish tint to it in some areas and children may think the water is dirty, especially if you just moved to a new location that has differently coloured water. Rather than causing a meltdown every time you pour them a glass, install a filter on the sink to get crystal-clear water. It’s either that or making a late-night run to buy bottled water because your kid refuses to brush their teeth!
3. Avoiding Lead
This one’s serious. Does your home have lead service lines or pipes soldered with lead? If so, trace amounts of the toxin might be flowing through your taps. There’s no known safe level of lead for children to drink. Specific filters known as NSF/ANSI standard 53 and NSF/ANSI standard 42 can remove the lead from your drinking water, protecting your children’s health.
4. Avoiding Arsenic
Long-term exposure to arsenic can lead to cancer and other medical problems. Especially if you use a private well or public water that comes from the ground, arsenic can leach into your drinking water.
Since there are two kinds of arsenic, you need to know which type your water system might contain to choose the best filter. NSF 53 and 58 filters can remove pentavalent arsenic. If you have trivalent arsenic in your water, you might need additional treatments to remove it.
