Take A Break From Toxins With Home Water Purifiers And Filters

There are many home water purifiers and filters being sold today. Choosing the right brand can be difficult and confusing. The prices cause even more confusion. What's the difference between a $40 system and an $800 system? That's the price range that you will see. Here's what you do and don't need when it comes to water purification.

I'll start with some of the things that you don't need. You don't need a bunch of expensive Japanese rocks. The claims made by the company that includes them are unverifiable.

You don't need reverse osmosis, if you are serviced by a public provider. Most of them already perform this step. If you have a well, find out what's really present in your supply and compare the products that will remove them. Reverse osmosis is often recommended but rarely necessary. It is also quite expensive and it demineralizes your water.

You should look for home water purifiers and filters that provide "selective" filtration. These systems provide effective contaminant removal, without removing the naturally occurring minerals that are good for your health and digestion. A trace mineral content is also fresher tasting.

Public supplies are known to contain a variety of contaminants. Treatment facilities remove many of them, but not all. Samples taken from homes and offices around the US have been found to contain high levels of weed killer and bug spray. There was an article about the tests in USA today not too long ago.

The most commonly used pesticides and herbicides in the US are known carcinogens. Many of them have been banned by the European Union. But, farms and lawn-care experts are spraying them freely in the US. Only a few home water purifiers and filters will remove alachlor, lindane and Atrazine, the most common weed and bug killers.

In recent news stories, we were informed that prescription drugs were found in tested supplies around the country. We were also informed that facilities are not required to publish the results of these tests. They believe that the public would not understand the results and might overreact. The only action that is necessary is to install a filter on your kitchen sink that will remove these drugs.

One type of contamination is caused by public treatment methods. Chemicals used for disinfecting (as well as other disinfection methods) cause the formation of a cancer causing compounds known as THMs (trihalomethanes).

The best home water purifiers and filters are certified to remove THMs. The inexpensive brands sold in department stores and on HSN reduce chlorine, but do nothing to remove THMs and where there is chlorine, there are high levels of THMs.

A multi-stage system removes the widest range of contaminants. The necessary stages include a carbon and multi-media adsorptive block, ion exchange and sub micron particle filtration. With these three steps, home water purifiers and filters can remove all of the hazards mentioned here, along with many others. The price may surprise you, since the best ones cost around $125.