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Finding A Water Treatment Solution |
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The best way to insure that your water supply is clean and healthy is to install a quality point-of-use (POU) or point-of-entry (POE) water treatment system.
Because the public has become increasingly aware of the need for such devices, the industry has created a lot of choices. Most systems perform as advertised and improve the quality of water to one degree or another. When describing their water solutions, it is common for manufacturers to focus on what their systems remove from water. But here is a very important hint.
The best way of looking at water solutions is not to look at what drinking water treatment systems remove from water, but what they leave in!
To eliminate confusion, begin by realizing that what you really want is not pure water, but healthy water.
Water is the universal solvent, carrying a variety of compounds in the form of dissolved solids, other water-soluble liquids, colloidal minerals and ionized salts.
Drinking water is an important source of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, selenium and germanium and provides them in an ionic form that the body readily absorbs.
Systems that utilize a process that removes nutrients along with toxic contaminants from water are counterproductive and unnecessary in the vast majority of cases. On the other hand, water solutions that do not remove certain contaminants are dangerous.
What makes most sense is water solutions that remove all (or nearly all) of the widest variety of the four basic classes of contaminants while retaining healthy nutrients.
Many technologies have been developed over the years to treat water. Some of the oldest are still the best for certain purposes.
The Romans would char the inside of wooden barrels for the drinking water they carried on their ships because the charcoal kept the water free of objectionable tastes and odors. Today, activated charcoal in granular or solid block form is still the best way to make water taste and smell good.
Always remember, just because water tastes good, doesn’t mean it is safe to drink. The Romans also used to store their wine in lead vessels because lead makes wine (and water) taste sweeter.
One of the reasons some people on wells think their water tastes so good is because some well-pumps older than 1998 models actually leach dangerous amounts of lead into the water supply from their internal parts. It makes the water taste pleasant, but ingesting such water creates a lot of damage to mental and nervous system functioning.
The problem is so widespread that the EPA has issued a warning listing pump models that are known for the problem. Most people with the problem are completely unaware of it.
By the same token, tap, well, or spring water can taste great, but contain dangerous levels of arsenic, nitrates, bacteria or cysts that can make you very ill, very quickly. Some organisms are so virulent that they can kill a healthy adult in a matter of a few hours — but the water that contains them may not taste bad or even "off." In fact, it may actually taste good!
City tap water (because of municipal treatment and disinfection methods) usually doesn’t taste very good. Unfortunately, since many public water suppliers have started to chloraminate, instead of chlorinate their water supplies, the problem has gotten far worse, and most filters don't solve the problem.
Perhaps you are one of those people who think your tap water is fine. If so, simply go to a store that sells LivingWaters™ Engineered Water Treatment Systems (or other water treatment devices that use a full cartridge of a media called Catalytic Activated Carbon. You can find them listed in the section called Product Reviews) Compare the tap water from the faucet to the water from the filter’s tap. You will be in for a real surprise!
Not only will these best-of-their-class water solutions make your water taste dramatically better, but everything you make with the water (coffee, tea, juices, soups, etc.) will taste better as well. More importantly, it will be healthier for you, because your body is the ultimate filter for everything you put into it.
Just remember that while high-quality water solutions remove a variety of contaminants that can affect the taste and odor of water from the tap, even low-quality filters can make a dramatic difference to how tap water tastes. That is why people like Pur and Britta sell so many pitcher and spigot mounted filters at places like Wal-Mart.
Carbon, in some form, still remains the most effective way to remove tastes and odors from water. That is why most systems use some form of carbon to treat water. But carbon, on its own, cannot remove other dangerous contaminants from municipal water. These include some of the disinfection by-products of chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, aluminum, arsenic, cadmium and lead.
Neither can carbon, in its granular form, protect against chlorine-resistant pathogenic cysts like Cryptosporidium and Giardia. Nor can any form of carbon provide protection against dangerous bacteria and other pathogenic microbes. In fact, they provide an ideal breeding ground for such organisms.
That’s why I’m not a fan of small faucet mounted devices and/or most water pitchers designed to filter water. There is just too much they leave in. Over time, they can actually breed harmful levels of pathogenic bacteria and add them into the water that passes through them!
HOW TO FIND A SYSTEM THAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS
The problem is that product claims can be confusing because each of the water solutions wants to present its strengths and minimize its weaknesses. It can become very hard for non-professionals to know which questions to ask in order to compare apples to apples.
Begin by checking out Lono's 10-Point Guide to Water Treatment Systems. For additional help, check out this Buyer's Checklist. It is designed to help you find your way through the maze so you can shop intelligently. If you are like most people, you will find it to be a very useful tool. It contains important questions many people would never think to ask about water solutions.
P. S. The first part of the checklist deals with treatment issues and the second part deals with value issues. Both are important.
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Got A Question?
Use this link if you have a question about water, treatment options, health issues, or want to make a comment about what you read on this site. |
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