How To Stay Healthy By Avoiding Toxins in Your Water – Part 2

Last updated: May 2026

This is part two of a four-part series on how to stay healthy by avoiding toxins. In Part 1, we covered avoiding toxins in food, with the main takeaway being that consuming as much organic food as possible is quite beneficial to your health. This article switches focus to avoiding toxins in your drinking water. The remaining articles in the series cover natural home furnishings and indoor air (including natural bed frames, organic mattresses, organic sofas, natural carpet, low-VOC paints, and using an air purifier), and avoiding toxins absorbed through your skin from body products.

What's Really in Your Drinking Water?

Modern American water treatment promises parasite- and bacteria-free water, a meaningful improvement over the untreated alternative. However, treated water still contains chemicals that, at small levels, are considered safe for human consumption. Chlorine and fluoride are widely regarded as safe, but increasing scrutiny is being brought to that belief. On top of that, treated water can still contain pesticide residue, PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances), heavy metals like lead, and even antibiotic residue.

Let's look at the most common contaminants one by one.

Chlorine: Pathogen Killer with Side Effects

Chlorine, which kills the pathogens we don't want in our drinking water, can also kill the beneficial bacteria in our intestinal tract. The intestinal microbiome plays a critical role in digesting food, producing healthy neurotransmitters, and supporting the immune system. An imbalance between "good" and "bad" gut bacteria can cause direct symptoms like irritable bowel syndrome and has been linked to depression, anxiety, and autoimmune diseases. Chlorine has also been linked to cancers, reproductive problems, and heart attacks.

Fluoride: The Most Controversial Additive

Fluoride is added to drinking water in the United States with the stated goal of reducing cavities. However, the research increasingly points to a more complicated picture. Fluoride is also:

• Neurotoxic — shown to reduce intelligence in exposed children
• Toxic to the kidneys
• Disruptive to thyroid function
• Linked to weakened bones
• Linked to accelerated female puberty
• Associated with decreased birth rate

Read more about the dangers of fluoride if you want a deeper dive. Regulating bodies convey to the public that the amount of fluoride in water and toothpaste is safe for daily consumption, but it's hard to know if that's truly the case. This National Institute of Health article is a good overview of the ongoing scientific debate.

PFAS: The "Forever Chemicals" in Your Tap

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are found nearly everywhere due to their widespread industrial use. They show up in human and animal blood, food products, and water sources. The EPA acknowledges that PFAS contamination is problematic, but maintains there is no current consensus on how harmful PFAS truly are.

At best, PFAS are associated with a wide variety of adverse health effects, including thyroid disease, elevated cholesterol, liver damage, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, low birth weight in babies, and impaired ability to breastfeed. For a more detailed discussion, see The Conversation's explainer on PFAS.

Lead: A Local Concern in Denver and Beyond

It's no secret that Denver's water contains lead. Due to this, Denver Water provides residents with water filters to help remove the lead, which is known to be neurotoxic to humans. Lead causes a multitude of problems in developing children, including developmental delays and learning disabilities. In adults, it's linked to high blood pressure, joint and muscle pain, difficulties with memory and concentration, headaches, abdominal pain, mood disorders, and reproductive problems.

If you live in Denver or any older urban area where lead service lines may still be in place, a quality water filter is essential — not optional.

The Best Way to Avoid Toxins in Your Water: Get a Quality Filter

The easiest, most effective way to avoid the toxins in tap water is to install a quality water filter that's been independently verified to filter out the chemicals you're trying to avoid. The gold standard for residential water filtration is a reverse osmosis system.

Reverse osmosis filters work by forcing water through a membrane with pores so fine that they capture dissolved chemicals, heavy metals, fluoride, chlorine, PFAS, pesticides, and most other contaminants. Many options exist on the market, but the system by Free Drinking Water has been independently confirmed to filter out 90% of PFAS, making it one of the strongest performers available.

What About Bottled Water?

Bottled water might seem like a healthy alternative to tap water, but the reality is more complicated. Much bottled water is distilled, and distilled water is chemically unstable — it tends to pull plastic compounds from the bottle into the water itself. So while you may be avoiding the chemicals in tap water, you're often consuming a significant amount of plastic instead.

For best results, stick to a reverse osmosis water filter at home, and use glass or stainless steel containers to drink from whenever possible. This is the cleanest option both for your body and for the environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is tap water safe to drink in the US?

It depends on what "safe" means to you. American tap water meets EPA standards for the absence of acute pathogens, but it still contains chemicals like chlorine, fluoride, PFAS, and sometimes lead — all at levels the EPA considers safe but that growing research suggests may have long-term health impacts. A quality filter is the simplest way to address those concerns.

What's the difference between a reverse osmosis filter and a regular water filter?

A basic carbon filter (like a typical pitcher or refrigerator filter) reduces chlorine, some chemicals, and improves taste, but doesn't remove fluoride, heavy metals, or most PFAS. A reverse osmosis system uses a fine membrane to remove a much broader range of contaminants, including fluoride, lead, PFAS, and pesticide residues.

Does boiling water remove fluoride or PFAS?

No. Boiling water kills pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites) but does not remove chemical contaminants like fluoride, PFAS, lead, chlorine, or pesticide residue. In some cases, boiling actually concentrates these chemicals as water evaporates. A proper filter is the only reliable way to remove them.

Is bottled water cleaner than tap water?

Not necessarily. Bottled water is often less regulated than municipal tap water, and many bottled brands are simply filtered tap water at significantly higher cost. Distilled bottled water in plastic bottles can also leach microplastics and plastic chemicals into the water itself.

Is fluoride really harmful at the amounts in drinking water?

The science is still being debated. Public health agencies maintain that fluoride at typical drinking-water levels is safe and reduces cavities. A growing body of research, however, links chronic fluoride exposure to neurological, thyroid, and reproductive effects. Many people choose to filter fluoride out of their drinking water as a precaution.

Up Next: Cleaning Up Your Home Environment

While it's relatively straightforward to avoid toxins in your water with a good filter, avoiding toxins in your home environment is a bit trickier. In Part 3 of this series, we'll cover how to avoid toxins in your indoor air, including the role of furniture, mattresses, carpet, and paint — a topic that's especially close to our hearts here at The Natural Sleep Store. We're passionate about natural furniture like natural bed frames, organic mattresses, and air purification.