Why Is Water Purification Essential?

Our national water purification system has essentially not changed since the late 1800s. We run water through a sand bed filtration and add chlorine to kill any bacteria. In other words, we strain out visible particles and add bleach—that's it.

The problem with this is that there are lots of contaminants that do not get filtered out of the water. In addition to some bacteria and other microorganisms tough enough to survive water purification, trace elements of over 2,100 toxic, cancer-causing chemicals can be found in the water from an average drinking fountain. The long list includes (among many others) lead, mercury, antibiotics, growth hormones, a wide range of pharmaceutical medicine (including antidepressants and birth control), industrial cleaning, manufacturing chemicals, agricultural fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

Health Dangers

One could argue that all these chemicals in our drinking water are harmless. They are only trace elements, after all, measured in parts per million, how much danger could consuming a small dose really pose? If you drank only a single glass of water, virtually none. The problem, however, is that we drink water from birth to death. Over the course of decades, those trace elements of toxic chemicals build up in our bodies until they can become harmful. A hundred years ago, one person in fifty developed cancer during their lifetime. Today, one person in three will develop cancer. Many things have caused that dramatic increase, but the contaminants in our drinking water are almost certainly a factor.

Given these facts, one would expect Americans to demand an upgrade of the national water purification system and provide safe drinking water to the general public. Water treatment companies, however, argue—rather reasonably—that only 1% of a household's water is used for human consumption. The other 99% is used in showers, sinks, toilets, laundry machines, water the grass and wash cars. Why spend huge amounts of money upgrading the water treatment infrastructure to purify ALL the water from the national water purification system companies are asking. The other question is why bother when only a tiny fraction of that water actually ends up in the human body? This argument has won out for decades, and there is no sign of the situation changing any time soon.

What To Make Sure Of

What this means is that if you want to make sure you are drinking pure, clean water, you need to filter and purify it yourself. There are many different types of commercial water filter technologies and designs. Distillation and reverse-osmosis filtering technologies is the most effective and very popular right now.

In addition to filtering out toxic chemicals, they also filter out some of the healthy minerals and nutrients found in drinking water, such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium. Carbon water filters strike a better balance between filtering out harmful chemicals while leaving the healthy minerals intact. Something else to look for in a water filter is one that uses a multi-stage filtration process. Water filters that only run the water through on a single pass may not eliminate all the bacteria and contaminants from the water.

Another concern is the design of water filters. The three most common designs are the filtered water pitcher, the faucet nozzle filter, and the undersink filter. Although ultimately which type of filter you choose is up to your personal taste and preference, some are better than others. Filtration pitchers can only produce a set amount of water at one time, instead of filtering a continuous stream of water from the tap. Faucet nozzle filters also achieve this, but many find them bulky, cumbersome and awkward to use.

Undersink filters and undersink water filtration systems have emerged as some of the most popular water purification systems for several reasons. These systems provide a continuous flow of water, is out of sight under the sink, relatively simple to install, easy and convenient to use.