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PHOTO GALLERIES
Easy Steps to a Healthier Home
Are there toxins in your water, linens, and toys? 18 ways to protect your family by Celeste Perron
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In the kitchen
POTENTIAL DANGER: Pollutants in tap water
The scoop: Here's something you can worry less about. "Tap water is more regulated than bottled water," says Dr. Paulson. However, it can vary greatly from region to region. An analysis of tap-water data from 19 cities by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), for instance, revealed elevated levels of lead, arsenic, and other hazardous chemicals.
Healthy-home fixes:
Find out what's in your water. Your community water department is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regularly review the makeup of local water supplies and publish those results. If you don't get a
report in the mail once or twice a year, call and ask for one. For a guide to understanding water-safety facts and figures, go to safe-drinking-water.org.
Test your own H2O with a simple kit from Everpure ($85; everpure.com). After sending in a sample of your water, you'll receive detailed results, plus the best ways to filter out any impurities that the test turned up.
And then, use a filter. "Many contaminants can be removed with a simple activated-carbon one," says Anne Steinemann, director of The Water Center at the University of Washington, in Seattle. These are the relatively inexpensive filters that attach at the faucet or below the sink.
However, there are some water contaminants (percholate, a by-product of rocket fuel, for example) that may require a reverse-osmosis filter. These under-sink units are expensive and waste some water in order to clean it, but they may be worth it if you live in an area with heavily contaminated H2O. Whatever type of
filter you choose, look for one labeled as meeting NSF/ANSI Standard 53, which means that the manufacturer's claims have been verified. You can find a more detailed explanation of water-filter options at waterfiltercomparisons.net.
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