Drinking Water Filter System – You’re Not Using One Yet?

November 9, 2011 | Posted by David

Drinking Water Filter System Youre Not Using One Yet?

Bob Hurley asked:

I don’t know a thing about you, but I’ll bet you didn’t know that the Ralph Nader Research Institute found that over 2100 chemicals-toxic chemicals-can be found in U.S. Drinking water. That’s why you should be using a drinking water filter system!

The chemicals in our water, including pesticides, are there as a result of the more than 80,000 industrial and agricultural chemicals in use in the U.S. The sad fact is that any chemical widely used will end up in our water supply. Most of the toxic and cancer-causing chemical in our water have very small molecules-and our planet’s normal filtering processes simply don’t work very effectively on them.

In addition to problem created by agriculture and industry, improper use and disposal of household chemicals like cleaning products, weed and bug killers, oil and gasoline, fertilizers and others, by individual households is a huge contributor to the problem.

The level of toxic chemicals in our water may be low, but some researchers nonetheless believe that they are responsible for the majority of U.S. cancers. A quality drinking water filter system can eliminate that risk.

You should be particularly concerned if you have small children. Children drink much more water relative to their body weight than adults do, and in addition their immune and other defense systems against these toxic chemicals are much less developed.

When you start thinking about a drinking water filter system, you’ll find a number of choices. There are two major types of system: reverse osmosis, and carbon filtration. Then there are whole-house systems, and so-called “point of use” systems for installation at the faucet, typically at the kitchen sink.

Like everything in life, there are tradeoffs. The whole house systems are more expensive to install, but lots less expensive to operate, and they protect you from chlorine in the shower, as well as at the dishwasher & washing machine. Chlorine gas released from the shower, dishwasher and washing machine is bad enough for you, but part of the chlorine breaks down into chloroform, which is even worse. I discuss all this in some of my other articles, but the bottom line is that a whole-house system is a better option. The leading system can supply the typical home for about $.50 a day, offset by lower detergent costs.

When I started looking for a drinking water filter system, I chose the leading multi-stage carbon filtration system, at the kitchen faucet. (I’m a little smarter now, and I’m soon going to add a whole house system from the same company-but that’s a story for a different article.)

Reverse osmosis systems for the home are an offshoot of systems developed for the industrial market, where they work just fine, but they’re not effective against the most of the toxic chemicals we’re discussing, which have small molecules which flow right through the osmosis membrane. For that reason reverse osmosis systems add an activated carbon filter-in which case, why not just use the simpler, less complicated carbon system in the first place?

Reverse osmosis systems tend to have high maintenance costs due to their complexity, and furthermore, the cost of the water from the reverse osmosis systems can be two or three times the cost of a carbon filter system.

Make no mistake about it-for good health, you need a drinking water filter system!