PSA: I dropped $300 on a home water test kit and it just made me more stressed

Everyone in here talks about cutting plastic use or going vegan, but I figured getting hard data on my own home's impact was the real move. I bought this fancy kit that tests for lead, microplastics, and a bunch of other stuff, thinking it would give me a clear action plan. The results came back last week and my tap water has trace levels of three different pharmaceuticals. Now I'm stuck. The filter system that would actually remove them costs over two grand, which I don't have. So instead of feeling like I was doing something, I just have this new, specific thing to worry about every time I fill a glass. It feels worse knowing the exact problem but being priced out of the fix. Has anyone else gotten data that just trapped them in a worse mental spot?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_johnson924d ago

Trace pharmaceuticals... that's a rough one to see on a report. I did a basic lead test on my old apartment's water once and just stared at the little pink strip for way too long. It's like you paid for a new, sharp kind of anxiety. I get wanting the hard data, but sometimes it just hands you a problem with no good next step.

hollyl2524d ago

Ever think about how our grandparents drank tap water without a second thought? Vera_johnson9 is right about that sharp new anxiety, but maybe some problems are just too small and spread out for one person to fix.

margareto2624d ago

Remember our grandparents had lead pipes and didn't know about a lot of the stuff we test for now. I mean, they probably had their own worries, just different ones. That "without a second thought" part might be a bit of a memory trick.