All About Drinking Water, Tap Water, Bottled Water and Filters

The Zero Water Filter Pitcher - On A Scale Between 1-10 Receives a Big Fat Zero!

First let me say that the Zero water filter company has an excellent marketing campaign. Their product claims "The only filtered water that meets FDA definition for purified bottled water". The product comes with a little testing gizmo called a TDS meter. In case your wondering, TDS stands for Total Disolved Solids (Minerals).

"Dissolved solids" refer to any minerals, salts, metals, cations or anions dissolved in water. Total dissolved solids (TDS) comprise inorganic salts (principally calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulfates) and some small amounts of organic matter that are dissolved in water. More on TDS's

I've researched the internet and I can not find one unbiased review on this product. Every site that I've found is also selling the product, So most of the reviews are positive. I did find a few unhappy customers in regard to the cost of replacement filters ($15.) which on average will need to be replaced every 1-2 weeks depending on usage. Amazon Customer Reviews

Also let me say that I have not used this product. (I dont need to, because I know the difference between contaminants and TDS's.)

I've taken an indepth look at the company's website and according to their own performance data fact sheets, this product has only been tested by NSF standards 53 for three (3) contaminants! Lead, Chromium & Mercury. Furthermore the product has only been tested under NSF stardards 42 for Hydrogen Sulfide, Iron, zinc, Aluminum and Chlorine Taste and Odor.

Many companies claim to remove contamination from drinking water. The fact is NO water filter removes any contaminant entirely or produces "purified water". Many manufacturers are making these claims when the truth is, very few water filters do anything more than improve the aesthetic value - taste, smell, and appearance of the water produced.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of contaminants, pesticides, herbicides, drugs, thm's (chlorinating by products) etc, that are found in municipal tap water.

High quality water filters reduce contaminants to safer levels. Cheaper systems such as most faucet mount or pitcher type filters such as the Zero Water Filter reduce chlorine and possibly a small degree of chemical contaminants but allow the vast majority of contamination to flow right thru the filter, including bacterial cysts.

Performance is the key factor in comparing any water filter. The effectiveness of any drinking water filtration device is measured by the performance of its filter. Most consumers, at no fault of their own, have no idea as far as how to compare filter performance. Hopefully the following information will give you an idea of how to compare quality and performance before purchasing your next water filter.

NSF International sets the standards for drinking water systems that can reduce harmful contaminants. NSF tests and certifies drinking water treatment devices to the standard appropriate for the technology of the product. For water filtration devices, NSF may certify the product to improve the aesthetics of the water (Standard 42), the health effects of the water ( Standard 53) or both.

Some systems are certified to reduce only one or two contaminants , and some are certified to reduce just a few, while others have been NSF tested and certified to reduce many contaminants of aesthetic and health concern under Standards 42, 53, and 58.

Hmmm.. lets see, what the hec does all that mean?
It means that the Zero Water filter falls short in terms of contaminant reduction, and does not give you "purified water" as they would have you believe.

Water filters are like everything else, quality costs money. Quality drinking water purification systems usually cost a few hundred dollars to purchase, but save money in the long run because they produce drinking water for a fraction of the cost as compared to cheap filters.

Cheap filters do little or nothing as far as purifying drinking water. One thing they are good for is costing the consumer a lot of money in purchasing replacement filters. A quality filter will give you years of service and save you money. As a rule of thumb If you need to change the filter more than once every 6 months, put it back on the shelf, and purchase a high quality water filtration device. You will save money in the long run.

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For the Love of Water: by:Irena Salina

I found this very interesting article with a video documentary and I want to share it with you!

Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century – The World Water Crisis.

To view the article, please go to:
Top Documentary Films 

To Cleaner Water

How do you know what's REALLY in your tap water?

I really love the Environmental Working Group. They have such terrific resources for consumers and they do a great job of educating people on all kinds of health issues.
Today they sent me a really great article worth sharing with you and your friends who have questions about what's really coming out of their tap water:
"Confused about whether you need to filter your tap water? And how to do it?
We all know that drinking plenty of good, clean water is important for a healthy body. Learn how to stay hydrated while cutting down on your exposures to common drinking water pollutants. We suggest that you:
1.Identify the contaminants in your home tap water
2.Find a filter that works
3.Skip the bottled water
4.Choose safer reusable water bottles

Tap water quality is local. To know what's flowing from your tap, you need to know what contaminants your local water supplier found when testing. The good news is that contaminant testing data is readily available because EWG compiled millions of state water reporting records to create a national tap water quality database. (www.ewg.org/tap-water/home ) It makes it easy for you to identify and understand the contaminants in your water.
What's the problem with tap water? For the chemicals that EPA regulates, water utilities complied with EPA's mandatory health standards 92 percent of the time.
The problem is we also know that there are many unregulated contaminants in our nation's drinking water. We recently identified 316 chemicals in tap water throughout the country, 202 of which aren't regulated. EPA's failure to protect drinking water sources from pollution and to develop enforceable standards for scores of common tap water contaminants leaves the public at risk.
For an in-depth look at this issue, see the top-notch 2009 New York Times series Toxic Waters. ( http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters )


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