You are what you drink… 

After all, your body is 60% water.

We filter our photos, our air, even our emails. But when it comes to the one thing our bodies need most—water—we trust blindly. 

Be warned: These facts will make you think twice about trusting unfiltered water.

Want to know exactly what’s in your tap water? 

Simply enter your zipcode here to get a free report that reveals the specific contaminants in your local tap water supply, risks associated with each, and personalized recommendations to protect yourself and your loved ones from the dangers flowing from your tap.

1. 46 million Americans are drinking other people’s pharmaceutical drugs. 

After all, there are no federal regulations for pharmaceuticals in tap water. So that’s where they can end up when they get dumped in the sink, improperly disposed, or excreted via urine. 

2. More Americans drink contaminated water than own iPhones. 

More than 200 million Americans are exposed to PFAS-contaminated drinking water each year, compared to ~155 million iPhone users in the U.S.

3. More than 7 million Americans get sick each year from diseases spread through water. 

4. Water can be up to 85% of a baby’s diet. 

Sadly, a Consumer Reports investigation found 41 of the most popular powdered formulas already contain a number of toxic chemicals, including lead, arsenic, BPA, and PFAS.

5. The U.S. EPA regulates fewer than one-third of detected contaminants in tap water. 

Of the 324 contaminants detected in U.S. tap water supplies, only 90 of them are regulated. 

6. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), U.S. tap water has contained:

• 93 chemicals linked to cancer

• 78 linked to brain and nervous system problems

• 63 that can harm fetal or early childhood development 

• 45+ linked to hormone disruption

7. Nearly 75% of the U.S. population drinks tap water that contains fluoride—the highest exposure rate in the world. 

Meanwhile, in Europe, 97% of countries do not fluoridate their tap water the way we do. 

8. Arsenic alone is linked to up to 6 types of cancer—and it’s been found in tap water in all 50 states. 

9. New contaminants are detected each year. 

According to EWG data, there was a nearly 30% increase in detected tap water contaminants from 2017 (250 contaminants detected) to 2025 (324 contaminants detected).

10. Cancer-causing PFAS (“forever chemicals”) have been found in the tap water of nearly half of all Americans.

11. Lead, which can permanently lower children’s IQ, is still legally allowed in our tap water today.

12. Brown tips? Yellow leaves? Contaminated tap water can literally kill houseplants. 

13. Coffee is 98% water. That means your morning cup can contain the very same dangers found in your tap water. Plus, beer and wine are mostly tap water too. 

14. Many fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides are legally allowed in U.S. tap water.

15. The primary chemical in rocket fuel (perchlorate) has been detected in tap water supplies across at least 26 states.

16. Prior to the 2024 addition of PFAS, the Safe Drinking Water Act hadn’t been updated to add new contaminants in more than 30 years—despite hundreds of new chemicals being detected since then.

17. The EWG has suggested that drinking tap water in the U.S. over a lifetime could carry a cancer risk that’s equivalent to smoking about 1.5 cigarettes per day.

18. Flint wasn’t a one-off: 

The Flint water crisis made headlines in 2014—but today, hundreds of U.S. cities still have lead levels as bad or worse than Flint. 

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a staggering 56% of the U.S. population drank tap water containing dangerous levels of lead between 2018 and 2020. 

19. 90% of drinking water violations, ranging from failures to test the water for contamination to exceeding contamination standards, faced no formal state or federal enforcement

20. Legal doesn’t mean safe: The EPA has admitted some drinking water standards are set as a compromise between health and feasibility—meaning water can be legally “safe” but scientifically dangerous.

21. In 2023, the EPA’s own Office of Inspector General admitted that the agency is not fully prepared to ensure nationwide drinking water safety, noting that EPA oversight is underfunded, outdated, and inconsistent, which hampers effective protection.