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THE
FACTS ABOUT WATER FILTERS
BY TRACY FERNANDEZ RYSAVY
You may think that one water filter is as good as another, but think
again. The filter you buy on impulse may not be keeping your family
safe.
Beverage companies have made a fortune on marketing bottled water on the
premise that it’s “pure,” from “pristine, natural sources,” and thereby
safer than tap water. Bottled water marketing campaigns have been so
successful in making people suspicious of their tap water, that sales
skyrocketed 700 percent between 1997 and 2005. Skyrocketing as well—the
environmental degradation, landfill waste, and human rights abuses
associated with bottled water. Plus, studies have shown that it’s no
safer than tap water.
There’s a much better option for ensuring that the water you and your
family drink is as safe as it can be: a water filter. Putting a water
filter in your home is less expensive and far less environmentally
damaging than bottled water. And if you choose the right filter, you can
minimize or eliminate the contaminants of highest concern in your area.
Here’s what you need to know…
HOW SAFE IS PUBLIC WATER?
Under the Safe Water Drinking Act, the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is responsible for setting national drinking water
standards. The EPA regulates over 80 contaminants—including arsenic,
e-coli-cryptosporidia, chlorine, and lead—that may be found in drinking
water from public water systems. While the EPA says that 90 percent of
US public water systems meet its standards, you may want to use a water
filter to further ensure your water’s safety.
A 2003 study by the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
found that due to a combination of pollution and deteriorating equipment
and pipes, the public water supplies in 19 of America’s largest cities
delivered drinking water that contained contaminant levels exceeding EPA
limits (either legal limits or unenforceable suggested limits) and may
pose health risks to some residents. So even though it may test fine at
its source, public water may still pick up contaminants on the way to
your house.
Contaminants that sneaked into city water supplies studied by the NRDC
include rocket fuel, arsenic, lead, fecal waste, and chemical
by-products created during water treatment.
“Exposure to the contaminants [sometimes found in public and private
drinking water] can cause a number of health problems, ranging from
nausea and stomach pain to developmental problems and cancer,” notes
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in its booklet, Drinking
Water: What Health Care Providers Should Know. PSR estimates that up to
900,000 people get sick and 900 die in the US per year from contaminated
public and private drinking water.
Despite the problems with public water, it’s still just as safe as
bottled water, despite the billions of dollars beverage companies spend
to make you think bottled is better.
STEP ONE:
ASSESS YOUR TAP WATER
There isn’t a one-type-fits-all kind of water filter: not every filter
type will eliminate every contaminant. You’ll save money and ensure that
you’re targeting the contaminants of concern in your area by doing a
little research up front.
“Most people purchase the wrong equipment because they skip this very
important step, and then they’ve wasted money and resources on a system
that isn’t making their water any safer,” says James P. McMahon, owner
of Sweetwater, LLC (866-691-4214, www.cleanairpurewater.com), which
provides consulting and products for people wanting to purify their air
or water.
To start, check your water utility’s “Consumer Confidence Report,” which
it must mail to you each year before July 1 by law. The report details
where your drinking water comes from, what contaminants have been found
in it, and how contaminant levels compare to national standards. You can
also call your utility and ask for a copy, or visit www.epa.gov/safewater
to see if it’s online.
For help reading the report, visit NSF International’s Web site:
www.nsf.org > Consumer > Water Quality/Consumer Confidence.
While your report can tell you what’s going on with the water in your
area, only a test of the water coming out of your tap will tell you what
you and your family are drinking for sure. To find a state-certified lab
to test your water (which will charge a fee) visit www.epa.gov/safewater/labs
or call the EPA’s Safe Water Hotline at 800-426-4791.
If your water comes from a private well, it’s not regulated at all by
the EPA, so you should have your water tested annually in late spring
(when pesticide runoff will be at its worst), and anytime you notice a
change in your water.
STEP TWO: FIND THE BEST TYPE
Water filters come in a dizzying variety, from plastic pitcher
filters and built-in refrigerator filters, to faucet and under-the-sink
filters, to whole-house models that combine a variety of media types and
treat all of the water in your house. What type you want depends on your
needs.
If, after examining your Consumer Confidence Report (or, preferably,
your current and several past reports), you find that your water
regularly tests better than EPA levels, you may just want a filter that
can remove the chemicals your local utility uses to treat the water.
These chemicals may or may not show up on your report. Call and ask your
utility if it uses chlorine, a suspected respiratory and neurological
toxin, or chloramine, a suspected blood and respiratory toxin. Chlorine
combines with organic elements during the water treatment process to
produce carcinogenic by-products.
The best type of filter to remove chlorine and its byproducts is a
combination carbon/KDF adsorption filter (not to be confused with
“absorption”), which range from shower and faucet filters to sink and
whole-house filters, like those from Sweetwater and BestFilters.com. A
regular carbon filter won’t remove chloramine, so look for a catalytic
carbon filter instead (Sweetwater and the Water Exchange, 888-297-4887,
www.thewaterexchange.net, offer these).
If you only have one or two contaminants, a smaller unit, such as a
countertop or under-the-sink filter, may meet your needs. To find a
filter certified to remove the contaminants you’re most concerned about,
visit the NSF’s online database: www.nsf.org/Certified/dwtu.
Finally, if you find your water has serious safety issues, consider a
multi-stage filter that can tackle a variety of contaminants. Many
combine a variety of filter types. Sweetwater sells multi-stage
whole-house or sink filters, for example, that combine KDF and carbon
adsorption with ultraviolet light, among other steps—and it also sells
customized filters. BestFilters.com and Gaiam (877-989-6321,
www.gaiam.com) sell multi-stage sink filters that combine a variety of
media types.
STEP THREE: LOOK AT THE LABELS
Some experts recommend looking for a filter certified by NSF
International, a nonprofit organization that conducts safety testing for
the food and water industries. NSF tests and certifies water filters to
ensure that hey both meet NSF safety standards and are effective at
removing contaminants as claimed by the manufacturer. Underwriters
Laboratories and the Water Quality Association also offer similar
certification, based on NSF standards.
NSF has different certifications, so when you read the label, first make
sure it says the filter will remove the contaminants you’re most
concerned about. A filter certified by NSF to remove chlorine isn’t
going to be helpful if you need it to remove nitrates. Then, look for
the NSF seal, Underwriters Laboratories’ “UL Water Quality” mark, or the
Water Quality Association Gold Seal for added assurance that your filter
will actually do what the box claims.
BETTER WATER FOR THE FUTURE
Filters aren’t perfect—they can be expensive and energy intensive
and the filter cartridges are nearly impossible to recycle. But when you
compare throwing away a couple cartridges to the billions of water
bottles we toss each year, filters are a preferable option. When it
comes to ensuring better water for the future, here are the most
important steps:
First, we need to stop drinking bottled water. It’s not any safer than
tap, and it wastes a mind-boggling number of resources.
Then, we need to ask companies to take back and recycle their
cartridges. Besides using up resources, filter cartridges trap and hold
contaminants. If the cartridges are not disposed of in a sealed
landfill, those contaminants could end up right back in the environment.
Brita—which sells a popular carbon adsorption pitcher filter,
faucet-mounted filters, and cartridges for refrigerator filters—used to
accept its used cartridges for recycling in the US. However, a
representative for the company says “that program has been discontinued
until further notice.” Brita does take back its cartridges in parts of
Europe for recycling. Call Brita (800-24-BRITA) and tell the company you
want to see it restart its US recycling program. If you buy a filter
from another manufacturer, let them know you want them to recycle their
used filter cartridges.
Finally, US water treatment and distribution systems date back several
decades, and they need repairs and upgrades to make water safer for
human and environmental health. While the EPA won’t attach a dollar
amount, Dale Kemery at the agency says more money is needed to make
these upgrades. Food and Water Watch is demanding that Congress increase
funding to secure our public water system. To help, visit
www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/americaswater.
That said, public utilities will be using treatment chemicals well into
the future, and our systems may never be perfect. Take responsibility
for your family’s health by carefully considering whether you need to
take additional steps to make your water the healthiest it can be.
WHY BOTTLED WATER ISN’T BETTER
US consumption of bottled water reached 29.8 billion bottles in
2005, an astonishing seven times the 3.8 billion sold in 1997, according
to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI). That enormous rise in
bottled water consumption wasn’t just more expensive for consumers—who
the CRI says pay 240 to 10,000 times more for bottled water than
tap; it also came with some hefty social and environmental costs. Here’s
why bottled water isn’t worth the price many pay for it:
• NO SAFER: A four-year study conducted by the nonprofit National
Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 1999 found that “bottled water
regulations are inadequate to assure consumers of either purity or
safety.” Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees tap
water standards. FDA testing for bottled water is more lax than EPA
testing for public water—tests are conducted less often, and for fewer
contaminants. For example, the FDA does not mandate testing of bottled
water for cryptosporidium, a parasite that poses a serious health threat
to those with weakened immune systems and the elderly. Tap water is
regularly tested for cryptosporidium. The NRDC study authors also tested
1,000 bottled water samples from 103 brands, and found that one-third
contained contaminants that exceeded FDA-mandated levels.
• NOT ALWAYS FROM A PRISTINE SOURCE: The NRDC found that one-fourth of
bottled water is actually just tap water, with or without extra
filtration (labeled “from a municipal source.”) FDA rules allow bottlers
to label their water “spring water,” even though it may be treated with
chemicals or mechanically pumped to the surface. And there’s no
guarantee that the spring itself is a pure one: One brand of spring
water traced to its source by the NRDC came from a spring that bubbled
up into an industrial parking lot, adjacent to a hazardous waste site.
• WORSE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: The production and transport of bottled
water unnecessarily uses large amounts of fossil fuels. (Fiji-brand
water, for example, is transported to the US from Fiji, over 6,000 miles
away.) And the plastic water bottles Americans use and toss in one year
use up more than 47 million gallons of oil, the equivalent of taking
100,000 cars off the road and removing 1 billion pounds of carbon
dioxide form the atmosphere, says CRI. Sadly, about 84 percent of those
bottles aren’t even recycled.
• BAD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Today, more than one billion people do not have
access to safe drinking water. Bottled water corporations are
exacerbating the world water crisis by privatizing aquifers around the
world and pumping them dry. For example, Nestlé has been criticized by
activist for heavy water extraction in areas of Pakistan that suffer
from severe public water shortages. For more on how specific bottled
water companies affect communities—and how to join consumer campaigns
fighting this practice—visit our RepsonsibleShopper.org database.
FILTERS BY TYPE
Here’s a brief overview of the different filter types:
• ADSORPTION: These filters run water past an adsorbent medium—like
carbon, charcoal, KDF (a copper-zinc formulation), and ceramic—to which
liquids, gases, and dissolved or suspended matter will adhere. These are
best at removing organic contaminants and chlorine, and they may also
make your water taste better. They won’t remove nitrates, some heavy
metals, and fluoride, and they can become bacteria havens if you don’t
change your filter cartridge regularly. Types: Whole-house and
point-of-use kitchen-sink, shower, and faucet filters, as well as
pitcher filters like Brita and built-in refrigerator filters.
• DISTILLERS: These systems heat water to the boiling point and then
collect the water vapor as it condenses, leaving many of the
contaminants behind, particularly the heavy metals. Some contaminants
that convert readily into gases, such as volatile organic chemicals, may
be carried over with the water vapor, so some distillation systems also
use carbon filters to remove some of those contaminants. These are best
at removing inorganic contaminants, like heavy metals, nitrates, and
hardness (i.e. calcium and magnesium). They can remove some bacteria.
Some consumers complain that the water tastes “flat” after distillation.
These filters won’t remove chloramines. Types: Point-of-use sink
filters.
• FILTER MEMBRANES: These consist of a membrane or series of membranes
that trap particles above a certain size and allow everything else to
pass through. The filtration openings are generally larger than
reverse-osmosis membranes, and they can be used in conjunction with
other filter types, such as UV. A “1 micron” filter will remove
particulates and most bacteria, cryptosporidia, and viruses. Types:
Point-of-use and whole-house filters.
• REVERSE OSMOSIS filters use normal household water pressure to force
water through a semi-permeable membrane, which separates contaminants
form the water. These are best for removing bacteria. However, for every
three gallons you run through the filter, you’ll only get one gallon of
water. You can redirect the waste water to a graywater system. Types:
Point-of-use kitchen sink filters.
• ULTRAVIOLET TREATMENT filters use ultraviolet light to disinfect water
or reduce bacteria. They’re great for removing bacteria and viruses, but
they won’t remove chemical pollutants. Types: Whole-house filters, and
point-of-use sink filters.
Reprinted from Real Money. Published by Co-op America • 1612 K Street
NW, Suite 600. Washington, DC 20006 • www.coopamerica.org
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