Both
RO (Reverse Osmosis) - and
distillation - treated
waters have comparable low TDS (total dissolved solids)
levels. Distilled waters have been used on board ships
and in seaside communities to produce safe and palatable
drinking water.
Notably, some major cities have natural TDS (total
dissolved solids) levels in their delivered municipal
drinking water actually lower than that from typical
RO (Reverse Osmosis) water
treatment systems. In the United States, for
example, the TDS in Portland, Oregon, is 23 mg/L (milligrams
per liter), 50 mg/L in Lake Tahoe, California, 64 mg/L
in Boston, Massachusetts, and 41 mg/L in parts of New
York City.
Such low mineral levels in water do not cause ill health,
and will not deprive the body of minerals necessary
to good health. There are four main functions of water
in the human body:
- To serve as a transporter of materials
- To act as a regulator of temperature
- To lubricate joints and other tissues, and
- To participate in our body's biochemical reactions
Demineralized water is a good source to satisfy all
these physiological functions. On the other hand, the
body takes in the nutrients and minerals necessary to
good health through eating foods - not through drinking
water. The human body's own control mechanism (homeostasis)
regulates the mineral content of the body fluids and
the discharge of different types of ions from the body
whether individuals are drinking water with low or high
mineral content.
The amount of mineral nutrient obtained from water
is truly insignificant. One cup of milk, for example,
provides the mineral equivalent of several gallons of
ordinary hard water. In warm-weather exercise, for example,
the greatest danger is that of dehydration, and the
proper advice to ward it off is to drink lots of plain
water.
There are many examples of real-world situations in
which large populations have been and continue to be
provided exclusively with low TDS water, without any
reported unusual or ill health effects. This establishes
the safety of people consuming reverse
osmosis treated and other similar low-TDS water.
It's important to note that no public health organization
with authority over the drinking water quality anywhere
in the world has enacted or even proposed a minimum
requirement for total dissolved minerals in drinking
water.
www.wqa.org
WQA News Fax - June 24, 2002
