Water Contaminants

Many of us have bought or plan to buy a water filtration system. A few things to educate yourself on before buying are as followed.

1. All systems are not created equal; Distillation, carbon filter, reverse osmosis, ionization and a combination there of, all produce different levels of clean water.

2. Many municipal water systems have up-dated their systems and are much more effective and consistent then 20 years ago. Wells and non-municipal waters need special treatment.

3. Read the EPA Website to see what contaminants are mandated to be tested by your municipality and their limits.

4. Cheaper filters are designed to improve taste and reduce turbidity (soil contamination) so the filtered water looks and smells better.

5. If you have old pipes in your house, you may have lead contamination. It is up to you to replace the pipes or filter the lead out of your water.

6. Learn the abbreviation; MCL = Maximum Contaminant level, MCLG = Maximum Contaminant Level Goal, TT = Treatment Technique

Example of what a filter can do.

Note: For those readers who don't like looking at numbers, the more zeros the less the contamination. e.g. 0.002 has more contamination and is a larger number then 0.0005.

Chemical in mg/L...........Municipal Water.............Carbon filter+Ionization Commercial Product


Alachlor.............................0.002....................................0.0005
Atrazine.............................0.003....................................0.0005
Benzene.............................0.005....................................0.0005
Carbon Tetrachloride.........0.005....................................0.0005
O-Dichlorobenzene............0.6........................................0.0005
P-Dichlorobenzene............0.075....................................0.0005

Some of these contaminants, in high concentrations, can cause kidney or liver "problems". Others can cause cancer. Every few years the EPA, due to new studies, adjust the quantity of the MCL. Usually the study shows that there needs to be tighter controls.

My thinking is that...

1. Why wait for the EPA to realize that there should not be any PCBs, Pesticides, Herbicides, etc in our water? I want clean water now. Even if some of the natural "good" minerals are taken out. Because I can get the same minerals in the food I eat, like Broccoli and other greens.

2. If I want to optimize my physical, mental and emotional capacities then this requires a balanced, diverse, and natural diet with clean water. A student can not get good grades if they can't concentrate or are constantly sick and home from school due to contaminated water or poor nutrition. An Olympic athlete can not win a gold metal if their livers and kidneys are not processing the water they intake at optimum levels. See book "Optimum Sports Nutrition".

3. And if clean water is good for those people who are above average then the average kid could derive benefits too. Everyone should have optimally cleaned water.