Tap water should not harm the human body. Talking about its benefits, having available rusty dirty pipes, is generally not necessary. Most people prefer to boil, stand, freeze water before drinking or insist on beneficial minerals such as silicon or shungite. But ideally, this is not necessary. Healthy water should contain salts, be capable of oxidation, improve well-being and overall health.
Why is drinking water tested?
Liquid from sources is not all suitable for oral use. For example, wells located near chemical plants produce fluid saturated with toxic waste and compounds. They seep into the groundwater, and then enter the house. This can cause serious disorders, up to oncology.
People in high-rise buildings pay for a communal apartment, including water, therefore they have the right to quality services, but in most cases these are just empty words. Modernization of urban water supply requires considerable funds, including wastewater treatment before reuse. Therefore, people themselves must take care of their health.
An assessment of the quality of drinking water is needed in order to choose the right filter. Some indicators can only be determined by laboratory methods. Others, such as color, turbidity, are visible with the naked eye. This suggests that something is wrong with the source.
Key Quality Indicators
Regulatory indicators of the quality of drinking water are divided into physical and chemical. The first include:
- turbidity due to the ingress of effluents into drinking water, as well as the presence of silicic acids, sludge;
- transparency - is determined by the ability to read a text or see an object through a liquid in a glass;
- color - one of the most important indicators, which depends on the location of the source, the presence of iron compounds, humates or fulvic acids in it;
- smell - also depends on the presence of dissolved substances in the liquid, may indicate unsuitability for ingestion.
Chemical indicators:
- The amount of hydrogen ions. With a larger number of positively charged ions, the liquid is considered acidic; with negatively charged ions, it is considered alkaline. With an equal amount - neutral. All tap water is acidic, which affects people's health. It is proved that neutral or alkaline water is useful for the body - cancer cells and parasites cannot multiply in an alkaline environment.
- Hardness - due to the presence of elements such as calcium and magnesium. It can be reduced by boiling or filtering.
- Nitrogen - indicates the ingress of ammonia from wastewater into the source. Another way is chemical fertilizers from the fields or the vegetable garden. Strongly oxidizes the water in the source.
- Hydrogen sulfide - gives the liquid an extremely unpleasant smell, like rotten eggs. It has destructive properties - it can damage building materials, such as concrete and brick.
- Sulfuric acid salts enter the soil in the form of fertilizers, which are washed out by the rains into the lower layers and pass into groundwater.
- Oxygen - the benefit is determined by its dissolved amount.
Depending on the presence of microorganisms in water bodies, we can talk about a microbiological indicator. There are bacteria that live in the springs - katarobionts. Zaprobionts are the inhabitants of all other sources.
The main routes of infection into the human body are through airborne droplets or through a liquid.Cholera, hepatitis, typhoid fever, and fever could destroy entire cities in a short time until measures were taken to monitor the sources of water intake.
Dangerous bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and other types of colimorphic microorganisms living in the lower intestines of domestic animals or humans can be in the water. According to the documents regulating the quality of water, they should not be in drinking liquid.
Parasitological control is aimed at identifying and eliminating helminth cysts, giardia, clostridia, and ciliates in water bodies.
If liquid enters the house from an open source, it must be boiled. Another option is the use of membrane filtration technologies that do not allow microorganisms to enter drinking water.
Sanitary standards and documents governing quality
Sanitary rules and norms, abbreviated SanPiN, regulate the quality of the fluid supplied to the consumer. In theory, a person should not worry about his health by drinking tap water without prior preparation. It is possible that at the time of leaving the water treatment systems, the quality meets all standards, but after passing through the city pipeline, the liquid ceases to be useful. It's all about old iron pipes, in which colonies of microorganisms that produce toxins function, as well as mineral deposits on the walls that change the chemical composition of the liquid.
In the normative indicators there are criteria that determine the amount of heavy metals, stiffeners, nitrates, petroleum products, arsenic, cyanides and other elements per specific volume of liquid. Also indicated is the pH level acceptable for drinking water.
Methods for checking the quality of drinking water
The quality of drinking water at the site or in the water supply can be checked independently, but this will require some devices: ORP meter, pH meter, salinometer. In this case, you can get generalized indicators of water quality.
The ORP-meter device is designed to determine the number of negatively charged hydrogen ions. Useful is a liquid that has a lower rate than the ORP of the body’s fluid. In this case, we can talk about the antioxidant properties of water. Wherein:
- aging processes slow down;
- the body gets rid of toxins;
- immunity increases.
It is important to calibrate the instrument correctly before use. After taking measurements for a day, immerse the sensor in distilled water.
The pH meter allows you to determine the level of acidity. Valid values for the body are from 7 to 9 units. A score below 7 is considered unfavorable. For comparison: Coca-Cola has an indicator of 4.5-5 units - this drink should not be consumed in large quantities, since it causes premature damage to teeth and bones. To neutralize cola, the body is forced to give a large amount of calcium ions in order to absorb this product. Spring or melt water, as well as ionized coral sand, have a high pH. Such a liquid reduces the overall level of acidity in the human body and contributes to its self-healing.
Solemer - a device for determining the chemical composition of a liquid. The amount of dissolved compounds depends on the region and soil composition. The device is useful in the process of choosing a filter for everyday use. The membrane in the reverse osmosis filter is very sensitive to salt concentration, so the indicator of the device can be used to select a multi-stage cleaning system.
In Russia, the acceptable level of salt content is 1000 mg / l. In the US, this figure is half as much.
