All of us have played some role, however small, in polluting our environment. All of us should play a role in drinking water treatment. We put the “stuff” in there. We should be willing to do our part to get it out.

Depending on where you live, your community probably organizes a group of volunteers to clean-up the local streams and creeks. If not, then get some of your friends together and do it yourself. The first step in preventing drinking water contamination is cleaning up the environment. Those streams may not feed into your reservoir, but they probably end up in someone’s, somewhere downstream.

We have relied on drinking water treatment plants to prevent epidemics of waterborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid for over a hundred years. The use of chlorine to kill bacteria and disinfect was a major step towards public safety. Now, that chemical has become just another case of drinking water contamination.

The over use of anti-bacterial soaps, antibiotics and disinfectants has resulted in newer stronger strains of microbes, including strep, staph, Legionella and cryptosporidium. A recent study showed that Legionella, for example, was more active when drinking water treatment involved hyper-chlorination. In other words, the tiny organisms seemed to “like” the chlorine and the more, the better. Legionella are the bacteria that cause Legionnaire’s disease.

Larry L. Taylor is a dedicated advocate of living a healthy lifestyle and diligent researcher of water purification systems. Visit his site at: http://www.CleanWaterPure.com to discover which water filtration systems Larry recommends after extensive comparisons. This article may be reprinted on a blog or website if this resource box is included.

There have been many incidences of drinking water contamination that have led to illness and death over the years. In Milwaukee, in 1993, 403,000 people became ill because of cryptosporidium in the water-supply. Over 100 died. In 2007, there were 230 cases in Idaho, 1600 in Utah and hundreds of others throughout the Western United States. There have been outbreaks in other parts of the world, as well, including Sydney, Glasgow and Galway.

Cryptosporidium is a parasite that is resistant to chemical disinfection methods of drinking water treatment. In most people, it causes stomach cramps, fever, diarrhea and dehydration. It is most dangerous to the very young, whose immune systems are not fully developed. In persons who are already ill, the infection puts too much strain on their overtaxed immune systems, so they simply can’t fight it off.

Immediate illness is not the only threat that arises from drinking water contamination. Constant exposure to low levels of chemical contaminants is believed to pose a threat to our future health. Chlorine, pesticides, herbicides and other man-made chemicals cause cancer in laboratory animals and human beings. While no one immediately develops cancer from drinking their tap-water, it is the future that is at risk.

You can call for better, newer methods of public drinking water treatment, but you should also do your part by cleaning up wherever you can and installing an advanced filtration system in your home. The best ones can remove everything that eludes the facilities.

Larry L. Taylor is a dedicated advocate of living a healthy lifestyle and diligent researcher of water purification systems. Visit his site at: http://www.CleanWaterPure.com to discover which water filtration systems Larry recommends after extensive comparisons. This article may be reprinted on a blog or website if this resource box is included.