Radium is a naturally-occurring radioactive metal that forms when uranium and thorium – two other radioactive substances – decay in the environment.
Ra-226 and Ra-228 are the two most common types (isotopes) of radium in drinking water.
How Radium Enters Drinking Water
Radium occurs naturally in the rocks and soil and it enters groundwater from natural deposits in the earth’s crust.
Surface water, on the other hand, is usually low in radium.
In general, the deeper the groundwater, the more likely it is to contain radium.
Deep bedrock aquifers, for example, are more likely to have radium than shallow wells.
Mining and drilling activities can increase the risk of exposure by breaking radium deposits loose.
For this reason, you may be exposed to higher levels of radium if you live in an area where there is more mining and industrial activity.
Harmful Health Effects of Radium In Tap Water
What happens when you consume low doses of radium every day?
For starters, you may have an increased risk of getting cancer.
But cancer is just one side effect of radium in drinking water...
- Anemia
- Cataracts
- Fractured teeth
- Reduce bone growth
- Weakened immunity
- Cancer
- Pregnancy complications
The developing fetus is especially sensitive to radiation.
For example, radium exposure can cause impaired fetal growth, birth defects, and brain damage.
How the Body Processes Radium
When you drink radium-contaminated water, 80% of it immediately passes through the body and leaves in the feces and urine.
If you’re exposed to radium, several factors determine how bad the effects will be, including how much, how long the exposure is, other chemicals in the water, and individual characteristics like family traits, age and lifestyle.
Government Regulations on Radium In Drinking Water
In most parts of the United States, levels of radium in drinking water are less than one picocurie per liter of water, but higher levels of up to 5 picocuries have been found.
What the heck is a picocurie?
A picocurie is a way of measuring very small amounts of radioactivity.
They do not have separate limits for the different isotopes of Ra-226 and Ra-228, only for the combined level of the two.
But is five picocuries actually safe?
The fact is, federal drinking water standards are based on the cost and affordability of removing contaminants, not the most recent scientific studies on health effects.
In other words, if it’s too difficult and too expensive to remove a contaminant, they will keep the regulations the same.
The EPA set radium limits way back in 1976, and they haven’t changed much since!
Parts of the Country with Worst Radium Contamination
- Texas
- California
- Florida
- Illinois
- New York
- Arizona
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- Rhode Island
- Connecticut
- Kentucky
- Tennessee
- North and South Carolina
- Southeast Minnesota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
Texas has the most widespread contaminants, with about 80% of residents being affected.
California, on the other hand, has the most total people affected, with roughly 25 million people exposed to dangerously high levels of radium in tap water.
To try and get the problem under control, California created stricter health goals.
However, these are only recommendations, and there’s no way for state officials to legally enforce them.
If you have a private well, the EPA’s regulations don’t apply, and that means it’s up to you to keep your family safe.
This is bad news for homeowners, because radium contamination is much more common in groundwater.
When you install a drinking water well, the surrounding bedrock can contain radium that breaks loose and dissolves into your drinking water.
How to Make Sure That Your Well Water Is Safe
The only way to know for sure if your water is safe is to have your well water tested by an accredited laboratory.
Contact your local health department for a water sample collection kit.
Some states also have testing programs that send people out to collect the samples for you.
The agency will most likely test for uranium as well as radium.
They do this for a few reasons:
- Uranium and radium often occur together
- Data shows that uranium problems are more common
- A uranium test is less expensive than a radium test
How to Remove Radium from Drinking Water
So you tested positive for radium in your tap water…
If you have a radium problem, installing a point-of-use reverse osmosis (RO) filtration system will most likely take care of the problem.
When you’re shopping around, keep in mind that systems with ion exchange resins tend to be more effective than ones that don’t.
Cloud Water Filters combine the following stages:
- Sediment filters or remove dirt, rust, dust and debris
- Activated charcoal filters to remove chlorine and improve the taste of the water
- Ion exchange resins to remove excess heavy minerals
- RO membranes to eliminate hard-to-remove contaminants like arsenic, PFAS, and radium
- Polishing filters to remove any remaining pollutants
- Remineralization stage to add a healthy ratio of minerals back into the water
They also use built-in software to track and monitor water quality 24/7 through an app on your phone.
Ready to ensure clean, radium-free drinking water for you and your family?
