Nature and safe drinking water

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Nature and safe drinking water
For any community, the access to safe, clean water and sanitation are two important issues that may determine the health situation and wellbeing of a community or country. Even though, it is commonly known that societies should try hard to achieve this goal, in reality it is a difficult task since water may contain various pollutants pause a health risk to people. Additionally, water may not be health threatening but the use of water might be discomforting to people due to the nature of that water including water that smells. Legal provisions from federal agencies, in various states and various counties call for the provision of safe drinking water to residents. This paper focuses on the potential health benefits and risks for a resident in New York, the cost and best method to purify water in a household.
Water is provided in New York in the form of tapped water to most homes in then city. In essence the drinking water is safe as there are virtually no reported cases of heavy metals like lead. Any contamination in water is thus, likely to occur based on the home location or the plumbing system in particular buildings. Old buildings with leaking pipes may however have lead contamination in the water.
Oversight agencies in the city of New York regularly test the water and report the results on a yearly basis. It can thus be assumed that the water is safe for drinking; generally there are no elevated levels of harmful chemicals and additives in the water system. Nonetheless, the city’s water has high artificial levels of fluoride. Fluorine is artificially added before being piped to homes based on the notion that fluoride lessens the likelihood of tooth decay. There is no conclusive evidence that elevated fluoride level has health benefits on the residents. The water is also chlorinated to kill harmful bacteria. Though, water comes from reservoirs, there is a possib...