Tap Score Is Calculated Based On Personal Health, Not The Cost of Treating for a City

Water safety standards in the USA are called MCLs or Maximum Contaminant Levels. MCL’s are set by federal and state governments for all public water systems (utilities) in the USA and are based on the health risks of each contaminant but also on the practical costs of treating water for your entire community. A public water system can range in size from 15 households to more than 1 million.

For many reasons, some contaminants can be dangerous but simply too expensive to treat at scale so federal MCLs are often higher than levels known to have an impact on your health.

Therefore, your tap water may be fully within legal limits for a variety of contaminants but still be considered a health risk. We believe you have a right to understand exactly how the contaminants in your water might affect your health, and make your own decisions about treatment.

Regulations Take Too Long and Don’t Include The Newest Stuff

Many new and potentially dangerous chemicals are introduced to our water supplies every year. New pharmaceuticals, newly engineered materials, waste products, chemicals from spills, and the remains of crumbling infrastructure have all been found in our water. It can take many decades for a new chemical contaminant to be regulated by the US EPA. As a result, the water quality testing performed by public water systems is not required by the federal government to include these new potential risks.

Public Water Systems Sample In Strange Ways And Not In YOUR Home

You may have seen your Public Water System’s Consumer Confidence Report in front of you, showing you sample concentrations of various chemicals in your neighborhood water. However, these reports can be subject to substantial bias since the same organization that’s treating your water is the one responsible for detecting problems. Moreover, the Consumer Confidence Reports only include contaminants which the government requires testing for.

SimpleLab Health Analysis

SimpleLab invested hundreds of hours of research into gathering the most thorough toxicological and epidemiological studies about every contaminant we test. Where there is an authoritative and up to date Public Health recommendation in place, we use the most stringent one of those. For the many cases where a contaminant is so new or so poorly studied that there are no such recommendations, we draw from our own internal expertise and our partnerships with leading academic institutions to set appropriate limits that protect our customer's health according to the best available information.

We're working with leading researchers from the University of California and Boston University to improve these health guidelines even further. Every Tap Score report stays updated as our heath analysis improves, so that you know if something that was previously considered safe is now considered a health risk, or vice versa.