There are a number of water purification methods, many of which are used in industry and agriculture. Home water purification systems use a variety of technologies. But if you're interested in your health and your family's health, which water purification method is the best? Let's find out.
Before I launch in to the best methods, let's take a look at why you need water purification in the first place.
I'm sure you've heard all the disturbing news about the sorry state of our municipal water supplies. Most of our municipal water systems are horribly out of date--many are almost 100 years old, some older.
The problem with this is the water purification technology used 100 years ago is inadequate for today's pollutants. Even the main chemical used to purify water is suspect.
Most municipal water treatment plants work by letting the dirty water settle through a sediment filter to get out the larger impurities. Then they inject a certain amount of chlorine into the water.
There are a couple of glaring problems with this set up.
One: We live in a world made possible by over 80,000 synthetic chemicals that didn't even exist 100 years ago. Some of these chemicals are toxins--some carcinogens. And some of these harmful chemicals can pass through the type of sediment filter most water treatment systems use.
Two: Chlorine is used to kill harmful bacteria and viruses--and it does a good job with that, which is why we no longer have to worry about outbreaks of diseases like cholera. But chlorine itself is toxic, and it can combine with certain types of organic material to form highly carcinogenic compounds. Some scientists even believe the rise in cancer is partially due to our consumption of chlorine.
So, when you drink tap water you are potentially drinking things like pesticides, prescription drugs, and other toxins and carcinogens. You're also drinking trace amounts of potentially carcinogenic chlorine compounds.
All of this has fueled the explosion in the bottled water market that's occurred over the past ten years.
On the face of it, bottled water looks like a good alternative. I mean, it is safe...isn't it?
Not quite!
Bottled water companies spend billions of dollars each year trying to get us to buy into the nonsense that their water comes from a pristine glacier or a deep, never before touched by man, underground aquifer.
The truth of the matter is most bottled water comes straight out of a tap, just like your water at home. That's bad enough, but when you couple this with the fact that there are fewer restrictions covering bottled water than their are tap water, it becomes evident that bottled water is not going to be our source of pure, clean water.
So, since tap water and bottled water both are potentially unsafe to drink, the only conclusion is you need to filter your own water at home.
Now, let's talk briefly about water filtering technology.
There are a number of different technologies used in water filters. Some are more appropriate to industry or agriculture than home use.
Take reverse osmosis, for instance. Although some home water filters and purifiers work through reverse osmosis, it's not necessarily the best way to filter domestic water.
Reverse osmosis has two problems. One, it's very wasteful. You'll get only about one third of the water you put into the system. Two, it filters out minerals that naturally occur in water like calcium. We actually need these minerals for proper health and nutrition.
Some other water filtering methods include: granular activated carbon, metallic alloy, and microporous ceramic filters, along with carbon block resin and ultra-filtration membranes.
Carbon filters are often used, especially in those pitchers that purify your drinking water. These filters need to be changed frequently, or they quit working. Also, they just are not adequate to the spectrum of toxins found in our water today.
What really works is newer technologies that combine several of these filtration systems to filter out the bad stuff and leave in those all important trace minerals, like calcium.
