Protect your Safe Haven with Water Filtration
Easy access to pure water is part of having a safe and functional home. But whether you live in the city or get water from a well, there is no guarantee what comes out of your unfiltered tap.
The plethora of possible toxins, which can migrate from air and ground, through pipes and into your home is too vast to be contained by national water safety standards. With bottled water being no better than average tap water, more homeowners are seeking safe, good tasting water solutions.
Water filtration systems, once seen only in more affluent homes, are becoming common and necessary household hardware. There is everything from basic faucet attachments to whole house water filtration systems. Even refrigerators come equipped with water filters. There are, it seems, as many water solutions in the market as there are sources of possible water pollution. While you can’t control what seeps into water outside your home, you can control the flow of water inside your home.
The Things Unfiltered Water Brings Home
Water, the universal solvent, absorbs everything it comes in contact with. Toxic emissions, from factories to cars, leech through the ground and rain down acid into water sources all across the globe. But modern technology also makes it possible for you to remove impurities and purify water at the source of your home tap or point of home entry. While quality water filtration makes water taste and smell better, it is also necessary technology for water safety and health prevention. Water processing plants are not equipped to test for the hundreds of thousands of possible chemicals, gases and particulates absorbed and carried by water sources.
Even if your home plumbing is pristine, municipal plumbing is not. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates distribution pipes to be in need of over $77 billion in infrastructure repairs. Municipal pipes—corroded and caked with deposits of heavy metals, toxic minerals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, PCBs and parasites—carry water into your home’s pipes.
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The chlorine and fluoride used to treat contaminated water are themselves problematic, linked to a range of diseases.
According to the EPA, chlorine is defined as a pesticide used only for killing living organisms. Meanwhile, chlorine is linked to many types of cancers. Women with breast cancer show over 50% higher levels of chlorine byproducts in their breast tissue.
Fluoride, universally categorized as a poison and also linked to cancer and other diseases, is controversial for being added to water supplies with claims of tooth decay prevention.
With so many unseen possible pathogens coming out of faucets, more people value water filtration in their homes.
Why Water Filtration Beats Bottled Water
Bottled water ends up costing more than most water filtration systems, but what many consumers don’t realize is that most bottled waters tested by microbiologists are equivalent to tap water. There are currently no established manufacturing standards or regulations for bottled water.
Drinking distilled water over a long period is a dangerous alternative since, being so pure it absorbs and leeches crucial minerals from the body.
Water Filtration Options
Water filtration systems come in a wide range of designs, some, which use more than one type of filter.
Most home water filtration solutions are carbon based, with varying degree of effectiveness. The best activated carbon filters will remove heavy metals, pesticides and industrial chemicals—as well as chlorine. Quality carbon filters also effectively reduce cancer-causing PCBs and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
Carbon filters do not eliminate toxic minerals like fluoride or chloroform. Nor do they remove micro-biological contaminants like viruses or bacterias. But, they do retain beneficial minerals.
Activated carbon water filters are easy to install and maintain. They come in countertop mounts, filtered faucet and under-the-sink units. They can be used with a second pre-filter for taking out sediment and other particulates.
A Reverse Osmosis water filtration system removes fluoride, ferrous iron, lead and other dangerous minerals and metals. Reverse osmosis filters come in a range of designs, removing varying degrees of contaminants as extensively as distilled water, which can mean removing beneficial minerals as well as harmful ones. Reverse osmosis purifies efficiently, but wastes as much as 4:1 of unfiltered water to produce clean water.
Reverse osmosis units can be used alone or in conjunction with carbon filters. They are easily installed as in-line faucets or under sink units.
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Water ionizers are another cutting edge water filtration technology to consider. They produce alkaline water with antioxidant effect through electrolysis technology.
Whole house water filtration systems are more expensive, but increase home energy efficiency. Pure water used in laundry, for instance, requires fewer cleaning products for cleaner clothes.
Find a Water Solution to Fit Your Home
Water filtration technology provides convenient access to safe water in your home. An array of filter types and designs can be integrated seamlessly into your kitchen and plumbing. No single system does everything and some water filtration systems might take out too much of a good thing. Look at the variables of each product and have your water tested if possible, though water content in many areas can vary by the hour. But even a basic carbon filter helps protect you from the worst water hazards. More homeowners are discovering and demanding the long-term benefits of advanced water filtration systems in their home.
QUICK TIPS
• There is no guarantee what comes out of your unfiltered tap, whether you get water in the city or from a well.
• Water filtration systems, once seen only in more affluent homes, are becoming necessary household hardware for health safety.
• Modern water filtration technology makes it possible to remove impurities and purify water within the home.
• Water is a universal solvent, absorbing everything it comes in contact with—including all toxic industrial emissions, which leech through the ground and rain down acid, into water sources all over the globe.
• Even if your home plumbing is pristine, municipal plumbing is caked with water deposits of organic and inorganic pathogens—including heavy metals, chemicals, toxic minerals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, PCBs and parasites.
• The chlorine and fluoride used to treat contaminated water are themselves problematic, linked to a range of diseases.
• Drinking water alternatives can be expensive and problematic—bottled water tests comparable to tap water, while distilled water is known to damage health due to acidity and its tendency to leech minerals from the body.
• Most home water filtration solutions are carbon based—the best of which remove heavy metals, pesticides and industrial chemicals—including chlorine.
• Reverse Osmosis water filtration systems remove fluoride, ferrous iron, lead and other dangerous minerals and metals, but they can also remove beneficial minerals.
• Whole house water filtration systems are more expensive, but increase home energy efficiency.
• No single system does everything—but more homeowners are discovering the long-term health, cost and aesthetic benefits of protecting their water supply with advanced filtering systems.
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