Saturday, January 23, 2010
Is Tap Water Cleaner Than Bottled Water Sold At Stores – Read To Find Out
We all know about the problems that we continue to have with contamination in our drinking water system, and we also know that there is nothing that the water treatment facilities can do about it. The water that they are able to supply us is too polluted for us to safely drink despite their best efforts to clean it.
The EPA has even set up an established “safe” limit on the number and level of contaminants that are allowed to be in our drinking water at any given time. That fact alone is enough to make you think that the question, is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores, seem utterly ridiculous.
Before we go any further though I think that you should know that the EPA also has regulations in place for the bottled water companies that allow them to have certain levels of contaminants in their water also. Since some of you out there might not believe that this is true, let me tell you a little story.
The answer to our question, is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores, might get a little clearer when you hear about the recall of Perrier spring water a few years back. You see the water that had gone out to stores across an entire region had to be brought back because it contained too much Benzene in it.
Now think about what I just said there. The shipment of Perrier didn’t get recalled simply for the fact that it had the carcinogenic chemical in it. The only reason that it was recalled was that the level of the Benzene that was found to be in the water was 15 times more than the EPA regulations allowed.
Perhaps to put the final nail in the coffin as far as is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores is the fact that Aquafina flat out admitted that all that they were giving us was packaged tap water. Dasani, Pure-life, and others also draw their water from a public source.
So you see, sometimes questions that would seem to have obvious answers aren’t quite as cut and dry as they at first seem to be. If you take what a company tells you at face value and don’t check out the facts behind the claims that they make then it could get you into trouble as is the case here.
So in answer of what seemed to be the easily answered question of is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores I would have to answer, how could it possibly be because it’s the exact same thing. If you want to be sure your water is pure you should be using a home water filter system that removes all contaminates.
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Best Way to Purify Your Water
Water purification technology might still be in the early stages of development. A lot of the methods of water purification used today have been around for decades, some for centuries. As time goes by, researchers may come up with newer and better treatment options.
What we have provided here is a brief overview of some of the popular methods of water purification used in homes and treatment facilities around the country. Some could be considered modern water purification technology, while others need to be improved or possibly scrapped.
Distillation is one of the oldest methods of water purification. Heat is used to vaporize water, but not elements with a higher boiling point. The result is a de-mineralized liquid that may still contain many chemical contaminants. The disadvantages to distillation include increased cost and energy use.
Reverse osmosis or RO is sometimes advertised as advanced water purification technology, but to tell the truth, it was developed over fifty years ago. In industrial settings and large scale facilities with the need to remove large contaminants and most of the mineral content, this system works perfectly. For home use, however, there are better ways to purify your water, because of RO's disadvantages.
In order for RO to work, pressurization is necessary, so additional pumps and electricity are needed. At least three gallons of water are wasted for every one gallon that is cleaned. The more effective products waste the most. Less waste means more maintenance and shorter filter life. In today's world, wasting any natural resource must be avoided. Less than 3% of the earth's H2O can be consumed, at all. We have to protect the rest.
Both reverse osmosis and distillation methods of water purification emit a substance that may not be good for your health. Drinking de-mineralized liquids on a regular basis causes stomach problems and eventually leads to symptoms of mineral deficiencies, such as bone loss and osteoporosis. Plus, neither of these water purification processes can remove chemical contaminants and RO does not remove all bacterial contaminants, so chlorine must typically be added and then a carbon filter used to remove it before drinking or showering.
Disinfection by chlorine is the water purification technology that stopped epidemics of cholera and typhoid in this country. It has been used for nearly 100 years. In an emergency situation, like a hurricane or a flood, household grade chlorine bleach can be used to clarify and kill bacteria.
The problem is that prolonged exposure to chlorine and its by-products is believed to cause several different types of cancer. During a shower, your pores open up and absorb even more of the chemical than by drinking it. That's why we say that whenever chlorine is used, it must be removed before showering or drinking.
UV light is a relatively new development in purifying water. It can kill germs and bacteria, at the source, but there is still a question of bacterial contamination and algae growth in the pipes.
Treatment facilities use a variety of different methods of water purification. In the home or at the point of use, the most important thing to have is activated carbon or carbon block systems for the kitchen tap and the shower. Carbon is not really new water purification technology, since it was developed in WWI to counter the affects of chemical weapons, but it is still the best choice that we have for removing hazardous chemicals.
To learn more about home water filters visit my web site at http://www.home-water-filter-site.com/
Monday, August 17, 2009
Should You Buy a GE Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System?
Are you beginning to think that the new GE reverse osmosis water filter system is the right choice for you and your family? I think that before you make the final decision about a reverse osmosis filter there are a few things you should know. I just don't want you to throw your money away.
The only reason that you would possibly find it necessary to own a GE reverse osmosis water filter system is in the unlikely event that you are out of range of the public water treatment facilities service area. If you are drawing water from a brackish source like a well or a canal, then it would absolutely be necessary.
What you have to remember is that RO filters are little more than water de-mineralization devices. They are not the type of filter that you need if you want to protect yourself and your family from the hazardous chemical and biological threat that we are facing in our water supplies today.
You are going to need to have something other than the porous membrane filters that the GE reverse osmosis water filter system utilizes in order to stop these kinds of contaminants. Even if they can do as advertised - filter particles down to 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
RO filters can only remove particles from the water, but it cannot remove any kind of impurity with a molecular weight equal to or lesser than that of water itself. This means that all of the liquid chemical agents, and many microscopic parasites and bacteria slip easily through.
f you do happen to be receiving service from the local water treatment facilities then a GE reverse osmosis water filter system is a complete waste of your hard earned dollars. This is because the treatment facilities us a reverse osmosis type of system also. So why would you feel the need to run the water through the same type of filtering system one more time?
The GE reverse osmosis filters cost far too much and eat up too much electricity to be allowed to simply sit at you house removing absolutely nothing more from your drinking water. You would still need to invest in a more sophisticated multi-level filtering system in order to truly make the water flowing into your home safe to drink.
No, the GE reverse osmosis water filter system cannot do the job alone. You need additional filters in order to stem the tide of chemicals that are coming through your pipes such as granular activated carbon and multi-block filters. Then there are still the parasites and bacteria that you have to worry about.
A high quality sub micron filter will take those nasty little bugs right out of your water. Add an ion exchange filter for metals and you're all set. So, put the GE reverse osmosis filters back on the shelf where they belong, and join the world with a 21st century answer for combating impurities in your water. The GE reverse osmosis water filter system is simply not worth your time or your money.
Instead check out my home water filter web site to see the filters I trust from Aquasana. You can find lots of good information at http://www.home-water-filter-site.com.
Monday, July 20, 2009
How to Remove Drugs in Tap Water and Other Dangerous Contaminates
There are many contaminates in our drinking water. The Ralph Nader Research Group says, "U.S. drinking water contains more than 2,100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer." That's a powerful statement, and also a scary statement. Others studies show there are drugs in tap water.
Where do these contaminates come from? From all over - the pesticides and herbicides come from the runoff of our lawns and our agriculture fields, dry cleaning solvents, come from dry cleaners, drugs in tap water come from many different sources, and etc.
One of the sources for drugs is when we use for whatever reason; we excrete them in our waste products, because not 100% of the drugs we take our absorbed into our bodies. Thus these drugs come from us - you and me, since all of us at one time or another have taken a drug, even if it is just an antibiotic to help us ward off an infection.
I am not suggesting we never take another antibiotic or other drugs that may save our lives or help us to live a pain free life. But we do need to do something about the drinking water we drink that is contaminated, whether it is drugs in tap water or deadly chemicals.
To purify our water we need to use a home water filtration system. There are many available. Let me explain a few of the most popular ones to you, and let you decide which is the best for you.
You can buy a water pitcher that will take some of the contaminates from your water. When using a water pitcher, the media used to filter out the contaminates is usually only a few inches long. The water does not come into contact with this type of filtration method for a long enough time to filter out all the contaminates in the water.
The same goes for the smaller units you can screw unto your faucet. A better water filtration unit is one you put on or under your counter, that has more than one media to filter the water. The best water filtration units will filter through many different types of filters.
The filters you should look for are: · A granular carbon filter · A multi block filter · A sub micron filter · An ion exchange filter
To remove all the dangerous contaminates in water, including drugs in tap water I use a water filtration product that utilizes all the above filters together. Just one type of filter is not enough. One filter alone will not remove everything. The contaminates will compete with each other and the more predominant ones will be removed, but the others will still be in the tap water.
Don't wait for your city water supply to get better. It is too costly for them to do the job. Arm your self with a home water filter system today. A good unit will cost you about 9 cents a gallon for fresh pure clean water. Your health needs it. Don't delay.
Check out my web site at http://www.home-water-filter-site.com to find out which one I use.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Brita Water Filters - What Don't They Remove
How safe is the water you are drinking? If you use one of those pitchers with Brita water filters in it you may not have as safe of water as you could get using a different filtering method. Of course using any filter is better than drinking water right out of the faucet, but wouldn't you rather have all unhealthy substances removed, than just a portion of them.
You may be using Brita water filters because they are the best selling filters you can buy. Notice I did not say they were the best water filters you could buy, only that they are the best selling. One of the reasons they earn that title is they sell more filters than anyone else. And one of the reasons they sell more is the initial cost to purchase one is less.
The initial cost may be less expensive, than other brands and models, like an Aquasana countertop model, but that is where the cost savings ends. It costs about 22 cents a gallon to purify a gallon of water in those Brita pitchers, but it only cost 9 cents per gallon in the Aquasana counter top model.
Plus the Aquasana filter removes more dangerous contaminates. Those water pitchers remove some contaminates, but the filters are so small they cannot possibly filter out all the dangerous chemicals in our water supply today. They don't filter out the THM's, or chlorination byproducts. These harmful THM's trigger the free radical production in our bodies, which are highly carcinogenic and cause damage at the cellular level in the form of cancers.
So don't just look at what models are the least expensive in the beginning to buy. Look at the long-term cost of operating and look at the performance data sheets to find out what they remove from your drinking water.
If the performance data sheets don't list a certain contaminate on their sheet, you can almost always be assured the dangerous chemical is still in your water after it goes through their filter. If in doubt write them or email them and ask them if you are in question of any particular contaminate.
What ever water purification product you use, whether it be Brita water filters, Aquasana home water filter systems or any other method of purification check out their web sites and compare total costs, both initial cost and cost of filters including how many gallons of water they filter. Also find out the percentage of removal for all contaminates and decide for your self which system is best.
And just remember, just because Brita water filters are the best selling, they are not the best at filtering out dangerous contaminates.
Visit my web site at http://www.home-water-filter-site.com to find out more about the home water purifications system I think is the best.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Does Reverse Osmosis Make Water Safe to Drink? - Here Are Some Startling Facts
Today we are going to go over the large number of disadvantages of reverse osmosis. People are constantly asking me, does reverse osmosis make water safe to drink? Despite what you may have been led to believe, no it does not.
The disadvantages of reverse osmosis are obvious even at the level of the water treatment facilities. The R.O. system was originally designed for de-mineralizing water for industrial purposes, and was recruited to clean up our water supplies a few years later. People were dying in large numbers from waterborne diseases, and R.O. was the only answer that we had.
So am I backtracking on my answer to does reverse osmosis make water safe to drink? Absolutely not, it simply makes water safer to drink than if we had no filter at all. The water treatment facilities and the EPA both have stated that with the number of contaminants still in the water after treatment that we should switch to bottled or buy a home purification system.
That should tell you everything you need to know about the disadvantages of reverse osmosis. The EPA and the treatment facilities don't even believe in the system's ability to make our drinking water safe. To better clarify exactly why they feel this way, allow me to explain.
R.O. systems were designed strictly for de-mineralization, which means that they remove silt and sediment from our drinking water and nothing more. The porous filters that are used are only capable of removing contaminants that have great molecular density than the water that carries them. Does reverse osmosis make water safe to drink? Not with that kind of limitation.
All chemical matter that is in the water that is in a liquefied state passes directly through the membrane filter, and is carried by the water to your home. This is not the only problem that we face. Another of the disadvantages of reverse osmosis is that it also cannot stop biological matter that is microscopic in size.
You see, despite chlorine disinfection many microbes live on. Parasites and bacteria that are immune to the chlorine's disinfectant power pass on to you for ingestion. This can lead a person to severe intestinal distress, and to the very old, young, or the immune impaired it could lead to much worse.
Does reverse osmosis make water safe to drink? Not with the number of limitations that you've seen here. Additional filtering is required in order to end the risk that we face from the impurities in the water that R.O. is not sufficiently able to handle. That is why the EPA and the treatment facilities are telling you to purchase a home water purification system.
As you can see the disadvanatges of reverse osmosis are many. I would certainly never depend on a home R.O. system to adequately protect my family from the hundreds of impurities in our reservoirs, and neither should you. Purchase a quality home water filtersystem today, and guarantee that your family will remain healthy and happy.
Check out my website at http://www.home-water-filter-site.com to find more information about water purification and to find why I prefer Aquasana water purification systems.

