What's Really in Your Houston Tap Water

By Tracy Southwick 

Owner & Founder of Heights of Health

Master MBSR-P, ND, HHP, CNHP, CNA, AMP

We tend to think of water as the one clean thing we put in our bodies. But it is also one of the biggest ways hidden toxins get in, and not just from the glass you drink. Your skin is the largest organ you have, and it drinks too. Every time you wash your hands or stand under a hot shower, whatever is in that water goes into you. The heat of a shower opens your pores and turns chlorine into a vapor you breathe straight into your lungs, so a ten-minute shower can expose you to more than a glass of the same water would.

That matters a lot here, because Houston's water is not as clean as the "meets federal standards" label suggests. You can see for yourself. Go to EWG.org, type in your zip code, and pull up the report for your utility. Most people are stunned by the list.

For the City of Houston, arsenic shows up at levels EWG flags as hundreds of times above their health guideline. Then there's the chlorine and chloramine used to disinfect the water. They kill bacteria, but when they mix with organic matter they form byproducts called trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, and those are linked to cancer. Houston's water also carries hexavalent chromium, radium, and uranium.

Here's the part that should get your attention. The routine reports only cover a short list of regulated contaminants. They do not test for the pharmaceuticals that pass through people and back into the supply, the hormones, antibiotics, and antidepressants that treatment plants were never built to remove. Radioactive elements like radium and uranium are quietly part of the picture too.

So purifying your water is one of the highest-value things you can do for your health, and not all methods are equal. 

My first choice is at-home distillation. It boils the water, captures the steam, and leaves nearly everything else behind, from heavy metals to chemicals to radioactive particles.

My second choice is a five-stage reverse osmosis unit, which pushes water through a membrane fine enough to strain out most of what Houston's water is carrying.

My third choice, and the easiest to start with today, is the pitcher from Therasage. It sits right on your counter, and it pulls out virtually all of the contaminants I have been describing, without the plumbing the first two options ask for. You can find it here:  https://therasage.com/HEIGHTSOFHEALTH  10% Discount code is: HEIGHTSOFHEALTH

What I would NOT rely on is the filter in your refrigerator or a basic pitcher. Those only grab the large molecules, things like lead and chlorine taste. Everything smaller, including most of the chemicals that concern me, slides right through.

Clean water is the foundation everything else in your health is built on. If you want help choosing the right setup for your home and your budget, that is one of our favorite things to walk through with you here at Heights of Health.  Call 713 861 6777 to schedule an appointment.

Learn more about water from a previous Heights of Health blog: What You’ve Never Known About Water