Something in the water

Our neighborhood has a Facebook page that the neighbors use to keep up with each other. Usually posts involve questions about which roofer to use or to report a coyote sighting, but the other day someone posted about a concern he had about our town's water.

He has a reverse osmosis system, which (according to Wikipedia) is "a membrane-technology filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane."

Our neighbor said he has had a reverse osmosis system for several years, and for the first two years he changed the filters only once. They were slightly discolored, but nothing too alarming. But lately he has had to change filters every three months, and when he does so, the filter looks like this:

Wow. As a person who advocates drinking tap water and not much else, that picture is pretty alarming. What is that black stuff? Our body has a filter, too; is that what my liver looks like after filtering that water?

About three and a half minutes later we were on our way to Lowe's to be a reverse osmosis system for our sink.

It cost about $150 and took about an hour and a half to install. And the difference in the water is very noticeable. For one, it tastes nice and plain. And to me, it's...softer, or something. I swallow it easier. (For the record, my six-year-old son says that's "just me".)

If you need visual proof, check out the difference between the ice cubes made with unfiltered water by the ice maker, and the new "clean" ice cubes made in ice trays.

I like the crystal clear sparkly ice cube much better. According to the specs this system filters out sediment, chlorine taste and odor, lead, cysts, chemicals and total dissolved solids. It also reduces select contaminates such as arsenic, cysts, lead, radium and turbidity.

The other thing reverse osmosis systems filter out is fluoride, which initially caused me to pause. But just yesterday Darin Olien drew attention to this article stating that the EPA has changed its mind about the safety and validity of adding fluoride to municipal water supplies, saying that growing evidence suggests that excess fluoride can result in the breakdown of tooth enamel, pitting, and discoloration. "In addition, other studies have found excessive ingestion of fluoride capable of increasing the risk of brittle bones leading to fractures and debilitating bone abnormalities."

I didn't feel too bad about eliminating the fluoride after that. They get fluoride through their toothpaste and regular visits to the dentist.

From my perspective the bottom line is this: Brita filters only filter out the yucky taste, not metals or chemicals. Bottled water is basically filtered tap water that you pay for, and the plastic bottles are clogging our landfills. Reverse osmosis systems give you the next best thing to distilled water for about eight cents a gallon. I know from going through the Ultimate Reset that distilled water (the cleanest of clean water -- it's distilled to only the hydrogen and oxygen molecules) costs 88 cents a gallon.

More than 60% of our bodies are made of water, so why not make sure you're getting the best?

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