Does Your Water Contain an Unsafe Level of Benzene?

Today, I’ll continue my review of some of the more common drinking water contaminants with a look at Benzene. I’ll touch on how Benzene can affect water quality, and I’ll also share information on things you can do to minimize your family’s exposure to the contaminant.

Benzene, a colorless chemical with a sweet odor, is found in air, water, and soil. It typically gets into our drinking water supply from one or more of the following sources: 1) factories, 2) gas storage tanks, or 3) landfills. Consuming water containing Benzene at levels in excess of 0.00 mg/L can cause adverse health effects.

Fortunately, Benzene is one of the drinking water contaminants regulated by the EPA. This means public water companies are required to monitor their water supply for Benzene and work to ensure the water they provide their customers does not exceed the legal limit for the contaminant. However, even with this standard in place, it’s still possible for your tap water to contain excessive amounts of Benzene.

How Benzene Can Affect Water Quality and Your Health

Unlike other contaminants, which can occur naturally in water, Benzene gets into our water supply primarily through waste disposal and other actions by humans.

What is Benzene, exactly? Benzene is a chemical used in the production of various materials, including Styrofoam and other plastics, resins, and nylon, and other synthetic fibers. 

How can drinking water that contains Benzene affect your health? If you consume water that contains elevated levels of Benzene over many years, you may develop Anemia or experience a decrease in your blood platelet count, and you may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

At what level can Benzene cause health problems? Benzene is known to cause adverse health effects when its concentration in drinking water is above 0 mg/L.

In an effort to protect our health, the EPA established legally enforceable standards to limit the amount of Benzene in our drinking water. Public water companies are required to ensure the concentration of Benzene in the water they provide their customers is kept at or below 0.005 mg/L.

Given available treatment technology, water utility companies should be able to provide drinking water that meets this quality standard. However, a few public water systems violated the regulatory limit for Benzene from 2010 to 2019.

Does Your Drinking Water Contain a Harmful Amount of Benzene?

Public water companies are required to provide customers with an annual water quality report, also known as a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). Inside this report, you’ll find important information about your drinking water, including where it comes from, and whether it tested positive for any regulated contaminants like Benzene.

Most Populated Areas with Violations for Benzene from 2010 to 2019

Town/ Water System	Population Served
Rollinsford, NH Rollinsford Water Sewer Dist	1,688
Tignall, GA Tignall Water System	835
Mount Hope, WI Mount Hope Waterworks	181

If you’re curious to know how much Benzene was found in your city’s drinking water, grab a copy of the latest CCR and look for the section of the report that covers “Organic Chemicals.” Here, you’ll find test results for Benzene as well as other contaminants like Toluene and Tetrachloroethylene.

How to Interpret Your Water Quality Report

When looking at your water quality report, you can expect to see test results for Benzene reported in Parts per Billion (ppb). 1 mg/L equals 1,000 ppb, so 0.005 mg/L is equivalent to 5 ppb.

Will You Be Notified If Your Water Contains an Unsafe Level of Benzene?

In addition to providing you with an annual quality report, your water company is required by the EPA to notify you if they identify a problem with your drinking water.

If your water company delivers water that could negatively impact your health, they have to notify you of the situation within the timeframe set by the EPA. Depending on the severity of the issue, the company is given 24 hours to 30 days to provide this notice.

If your city’s water exceeds the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for Benzene, your water company must notify you within 30 days of the violation. Typically, you will receive this notice via the media or through the mail.

What Can You Do to Remove Benzene from Your Tap Water?

Fortunately, if you want to limit your family’s exposure to Benzene, there are several affordable yet effective options for removing the contaminant from your tap water.

But how can you tell which products work and which ones don’t? Well, if you want peace of mind, I recommend choosing a water treatment product that is certified by NSF International (NSF) to be effective at removing Benzene from water.

What does the NSF certification represent? When a product is NSF certified to remove Benzene, you can rest assured that:

• the manufacturer’s contaminant reduction claims have been verified;
• the system was tested to confirm it adds nothing harmful to the water;
• the system has been found to be structurally sound;
• the product’s advertising, literature, and labeling have all been verified as accurate;
• and there is testing in place to determine whether the quality of the product is consistent over time.

Do all NSF certified water filters work against Benzene? Water treatment devices can earn certification for meeting one or more NSF standards or protocols. But only those products that meet NSF standard NSF/ANSI 53 for Benzene are certified to reduce the amount of the contaminant that’s in your water.

One such product, the Clean Water Machine by Aquasana, is NSF certified to remove over 99% of the Benzene found in your tap water. The device sits on your countertop and does not require a lengthy installation process so you can set it up in a matter of minutes.

3 steps for selecting the right water treatment system for your family:

1. Review your area’s annual water quality report to find out what’s in your drinking water.
2. Determine which contaminants you’d like to reduce from your water.
3. Select a water treatment product that is NSF certified to work effectively against those contaminants you’d like to reduce from your tap water.

Just remember, no matter which water treatment product you choose, you need to make sure to perform the routine maintenance suggested by the manufacturer. This will help keep the device in proper working order and limit your family’s exposure to Benzene.