Most of America's tap waters are not very healthy. According to Elson M. Haas, M.D., "Many local treatment plants use a very old process of settling tanks, filtration through sand and gravel, and then chemicals to clean up the water so it is fit for human consumption."
Chemicals and minerals, used for "purification" by treatment plants, may not clear from drinking water pollutants like animal wastes, fertilizers and insecticides, chemicals from tons of drugs, flushed down the toilet, industrial chemicals and wastes, lead and radon - besides recent concerns: asbestos and uranium.
Unlike some other countries, in which the biggest threat is infectious water (polluted by bacteria), our main concerns are toxic chemical and farming wastes, and heavy metals - all the results of modern technology.
At the same time, adding fluoride (which does prevent tooth decay but also causes serious health problems), is still in use while European countries removed fluoride from water years ago, after studying the consequences closely.
Home Water Purification/Filtration
Water purification means removing of contaminants from water to produce drinking water. By law, "purifier" has to remove 99.75 percent of incoming bacteria. A few millions of home water filters are sold every year in U.S. alone and there are several different water filter systems to choose from.
Boiling of water destroys most of the microorganisms but does not remove technological wastes or heavy metals.
Different Kinds of Drinking Water Filters and what They (don't) Do
Granulated Activated Carbon (activated charcoal, active coal) has a large surface on which contaminants from the water attach themselves. Active carbon can only filter cold water and is relatively effective in removing larger bacteria and microorganisms, chemicals, and toxic minerals with higher molecular weights. Activated loose carbon filters are not very highly recommended by leading nutritionists because they might collect bacteria and dump them back into the water. Although granulated carbon filters are economical, they are short-lived and their safety uncertain.
Solid Carbon Block water filter does not breed bacteria and traps more pollutants than granulated carbon filter. To prevent dumping bacteria and chemicals back into the water, they need to be changed regularly. Solid carbon block purifiers are economical, effective and highly recommended by leading nutritionists also because they leave in the water natural trace elements, beneficial to our body.
Reverse Osmosis water filtration is considered by many to be the most effective way of purifying drinking water. The pores in special membranes let pass through water molecules but stop larger, organic and inorganic materials. This process under pressure is followed by carbon filter and basically all the organic particles are removed along with almost all the minerals.
Distillation means turning water into steam first and in the separate chamber cooling it down and turn back into liquid. This procedure supposedly removes all the chemicals, minerals and organisms from the water. Although, there are many concerns regarding distillation. One of them is that regular intake of distilled water can cause mineral deficiencies. In addition, pre-filtering by solid carbon is necessary - to remove evaporating chemicals. On top of everything, distillers are quite expensive and inefficient.
Clean water is the essence of life and our ultimate human right. Therefore, we should know what our drinking water contains to make quality decision about proper filtration or proper water source.
Solid carbon block filter seems like our best choice. It's cost effective and removes out of our tap water most of bacteria, chlorine and other chemicals. But only reverse osmosis also removes fluoride ions.
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