The 2000 movie Erin Brockovich put a spotlight on the quality of our nation’s drinking water; and one fearsome culprit; Hexavalent Chromium, or Chromium 6 which is a hazardous carcinogen. The EPA’s legal limit is 100 parts per billion of total Chromium; (50 ppb in California currently; because higher ppb’s can cause skin irritation); but the California Environmental Protection Agency cites the total Chromium levels should be set at a “much lower” goal of less than 1 ppb; 0.06 ppb for public safety.
Chromium 6 is found in much higher amounts than the proposed 0.06 ppb “safe” level in much of the country’s drinking water.
A 2010 study by Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that of the 35 cities tested; Chromium levels were higher than the proposed EPA limit in 25 of them; with Norman, Oklahoma topping the list at a whopping 12.9 parts per billion. Norman was the only city tested in Oklahoma.
Volunteers fanned out all over these 35 cities taking samples of the water at court houses, malls, schools; and various other places. The red dots on the map cover the areas where Chromium 6 was found in higher degrees than deemed safe by the proposed California EPA standards; with Norman showing the largest dot. No wonder there are so many commercials on TV, with ads on how to deal with the effects of Crohn’s Disease; a common malady cited in the movie Erin Brockovich. This map from the Environmental Working Group’s report attempts to show the amounts of Chromimum 6 in all the other counties in the United States, but this “other” information on the map was supplied by the water providers. There is no way to validate the accuracy of the reporting areas outside the 35 cities studied in the report.
Drinking water is always open to new contamination; from normally occurring events like the recent flooding in Nowata, Oklahoma.
Aging water treatment facilities, outdated EPA guidelines, agricultural and commercial run off, and even chemical agents used to clean the water may pose a risk to health; but the copper and lead leaching heavy metals from your city’s pipes, or your own pipes and water heater can pose a risk too. This is why you should NEVER drink hot water from your faucet; and this is why you should never use warm tap water to mix your baby’s formula.
It seems most people are so afraid of their tap water today; many of us have been buying bottled water from the store; the breakdown of the bottles in the ocean into a toxic “food”; leads to disastrous effect on marine life.
Is bottled water safer to drink?
Not necessarily. Bottled water is held to the same minimal EPA standards for drinkability as tap water; and bottles leach chemicals into the water. Setting water loses some of it’s “fresh running” quench. Something we call “stale”.
Filters like Britta, Pur and others; carry a Class 1 Particulate reduction of contaminants; of one half, to one micron. One problem of such filters is that they are only able to filter one or two or three hundred gallons of water until they must be changed. Older Britta pitchers had a lid that fit inside the pitcher its self which allowed bacteria to grow between the pitcher and the lid; and water filters themselves can grow bacteria inside.
Until recently, in-line, under sink water filters were either bulky, complicated or expensive; but a new product which began to sell exclusively on the Amazon.com in September, is a Class 1, NSF under the sink filter with the ability to remove 99.99% of contaminants in all the cold water from your kitchen sink for three years, or at least 10,000 gallons– a far cry from the 200 gallon to 300 gallon capacity of many other filters. Great for cooking, drinking, rinsing fruit and vegetables, and washing dishes. Coffee and tea will taste so much better.
Currently the New York based company sells the filter for $64.95 with free shipping. It’s called the Woder 10k filter, for the amount of water it purifies. There is also a 5k filter for refrigerators that serve ice and water from the door.
Idan Granit, owner of Woder Filters (http://woder.biz/) determined to build a better filter.
In a blog report by Press Jungle earlier this year the filter was said to work by;
“actively filtering out contaminants before they reach the OEM (other equipment manufacturer) filter. The water stays free from mercury, chlorine, lead, heavy metals and toxic VOCs; (Volatile organic compounds) as well as ensuring that water and ice is 100% safe.”
The filter is also purported to be silver infused; to keep bacteria from growing inside; and has a built in defuser to keep the water flowing evenly through it with no reduction in water pressure.
The 2013 McAlester water quality report warns that infants, the elderly, those with cancer or other health problems should not be drinking unfiltered tap water, but should you?
We all seem to be water connoisseurs these days; but in the final analysis, fresh, cold, pure water, tastes just like — nothing else.
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About the filter listed in this article;
Filter set up is easy. The following link shows you how:
It can be ordered from Amazon here:
(http://www.amazon.com/Under-Sink-Water-Filter-System/dp/B00MPGRUNW/).
(The water will have a slight “New Filter” plastic taste, for the first few days after installation). Not meant to filter hot water.
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