Do you know what is in your drinking water?

Home Sweet Home. There is no place like home. Home is where the heart is.

There are a lot of old sayings that show how you feel about your home. Your home is generally thought of as a safe place, a refuge. It is even considered your castle.

Unfortunately, between indoor air pollution and the water you and your family drink and bathe with, your home can be downright damaging to your health.

Reports from numerous sources, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), show that there are harmful chemicals in the water.

A report, “Contaminants in Drinking Water,” on the EPA site, lists the maximum allowable levels of chemical contaminants. The list contains:

• Inorganics: such as arsenic, fluoride, lead, mercury, and nickel.

• Radionuclides: such as uranium

• VOCS: such as benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene, vinyl chloride, and xylenes.

• SOCS: as Chlordane, Ethylene Dibromide, Pentachlorophenol, and Toxaphene.

• Disinfection by-products: such as bromate and chlorite.

In another CNN Health report, “Harmful Chemical Found in Tap Water of 31 US Cities,” researchers discovered the dangerous carcinogen hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium-6, in more US cities. Than expected. Millions of people may be exposed to the pollutant.

The study’s lead author, Rebecca Sutton, said she “didn’t expect it to be that widespread.”

Chromium-6 was the chemical around which the movie “Erin Brockovich” revolved.

The cities found with Chromium-6 are from states across the country: New York, Connecticut, Florida, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Wisconsin, California, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, and Georgia. For the full list, visit: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/20/carcinogen-found-in-31-of-35-cities-water-supply/

Research and evidence prevail. According to The Environmental Working Group (EWG), in a five-year span from 2004 to 2009, US water providers found 316 contaminants in the water they provided to the public. The pollutants included: 97 agricultural pollutants; 204 industrial chemicals; 86 pollutants from runoff and wastewater treatment plants; and 42 contaminants from by-products of the water treatment process and from water pipes and storage tanks.

And then there are also all the pharmaceuticals that make it into drinking water. It’s awful.

So what is the solution to the dangerous water situation? Bottled water?

Sutton, who is also a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), doesn’t think bottled water is a good idea. There is no way to know what contaminants are in bottled water. Suggest “an effective water filter.”

For added protection, Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya, GP and Ayurveda practitioner, recommends that in addition to filtering tap water, it should also be boiled. The boiling process allows some chemicals that are not trapped in the filter to dissipate through the steam.