Learning Center Categories:

Water And Health

Learn About Water Quality

Water Can Heal!

Contaminants Fact Sheets

Top Water News

Did you know?
Reverse osmosis is the finest water filtration method known. This process will allow the removal of particles as small as ions from a solution. It is used to purify water and remove salts and other impurities in order to improve the color, taste or properties of the fluid. R.O. uses a membrane that is semi-permeable, allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting other ions and contaminants from passing. This technology uses a process known as crossflow to allow the r.o. membrane to continually clean itself. This is the reason of why an r.o. element can last many years before clogging or need replacement. This water purification process requires a driving force to push the fluid through the membrane, and the most common force is household water pressure or pressure from a booster pump. The higher the pressure, the larger the driving force and efficiency.

What really happened to our tap water and underground water?
Clean water is one of the most important needs of our bodies. It is a sad fact that something as essential to life as clean drinking water can no longer be granted to us. Unsafe water is not just a third world problem. In fact, safe drinking water is even harder to find specially in industrially developed countries such as the U.S.

According to research articles and news, most tap and well water in the U.S. now are not safe for drinking due to heavy industrial and environmental pollution. We have reached to a point that, all sources of our drinking water, including municipal water systems, wells, lakes, rivers, and even glaciers, contain some level of contamination. Contaminants range from naturally-occurring minerals to man-made chemicals and by-products. While many contaminants are found at levels not enough not to cause immediate discomforts or sicknesses , it is proven that even low-level exposure to many common contaminants will, over time, cause severe illness including liver damage, cancer, and other serious ailments. Even the chemicals commonly used to treat municipal water supplies such as chlorine and fluoride are toxic and are known to have significant adverse effects on the human body.

Tap water may also contain traces of prescription drugs. An investigation by the Associated Press has revealed the presence of a vast array of pharmaceuticals in municipal drinking water including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. These drugs were found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans and in 24 major metropolitan areas - from Southern California to Northern New Jersey. The AP has mentioned reverse osmosis as a water filtration solution that removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants.

Can we depend on bottled water then?

The fact is that bottled water sold in the United States is not always filtered and not necessarily cleaner or safer than most tap water, according to a four-year scientific study recently made public by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The NRDC's study included testing of more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. While most of the tested waters were found to be of high quality, some brands were significantly contaminated.

About one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic (at least one sample exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled water industry standards or guidelines).
In fact, about a quarter of all bottled water is actually bottled tap water, according to government and industry estimates (some estimates go as high as 40 percent). details

Protect your family's health and future with a High Quality Water Filter.

A good water filter is the best and maybe the only solution nowadays. You can install and maintain the filters yourself and can ensure and feel safe about the water which you and your family drink. Just make sure the filter you choose removes the most spectrum of contaminants. Usually a professional filtration system worth invest-in is a 4 to 5 stage water purifier system. Each stage will remove certain types of contaminants, and all stages combined should protect you from just about every contaminant. A reverse osmosis water filter with activated carbon pre-filters, plus an ultraviolet light, are what we believe to be the most thorough and cost effective way to purify drinking water. Such a system will pay for itself within half a year and can last 10-15 years with easy annual filter changes.

Healthy and Money Saving!
Our Featured Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System

How America's Bottled Water Addiction fuels high Gas Prices

Most water companies use polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics to bottle their products. The manufacturing process of PET bottles requires a combination of natural gas and petroleum. It takes more than 17 million barrels of oil annually to create enough plastic to meet American's demand for bottled water. That is enough to fuel more than one million cars in the USA for 1 full year.

Another problem is the transportation costs of bottled water. Water is very heavy and it takes a lot of fuel to transport millions of tons of drinking water every day. When the time comes to recycle these plastic bottles, even more oil is needed as recycling plants require large amounts of fuel and clean water to operate. So even the recycling of plastic bottles becomes a major depletion of the Earth's precious natural resources.

Research from the Beverage Marketing Corp estimates that the average American consumption of bottled water has jumped from 1.6 gallons per person a year in 1976 to over 30.2 gallons a year in 2007. It's no coincidence that our gas prices have increased so dramatically along with our consumption of bottled water.

It is estimated that only about 15-20% of plastic bottles get recycled. The majority ends up in landfills, with a good portion making it out to the oceans where they will break down into smaller pieces. These plastic pellets absorb many toxic chemicals like PCBs and DDT and are often mistaken for food by all types of marine life. This adversely affects the entire eco-system of the ocean as sickness and death is passed up and down the food chain. Since people eat seafood, our health is also affected by the plastics that pollute the seas.

The truth is we can all make a difference in the world simply by making a small change in our lifestyle and reducing our dependence on bottled water. Filtering your own pure water at home and using a re-usable water bottle is a small step that can make a big difference for the environment.

Celebrities Making a Difference

Academy Award winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow cares about the environment and is a strong advocate of green products, including the benefits of drinking reverse osmosis water. You can visit her fun and informative blog Goop.com to learn about products that she recommends which are both eco-friendly and useful.

Some more facts on water pollution:

The World Desperately Needs Clean Water

According to the WHO and UNICEF, dirty drinking water kills 2.2 million people per year, over 1.5 million of whom are children under the age of five (WHO, 2000). Unfortunately, this means that contaminated drinking water is in a tight competition with diseases like AIDS and cancer to be the biggest killer of human beings on Earth. This is a tragedy because many of the world's water problems can be solved with education and technology.

Agua Muisne is a non-profit organization that believes firmly in helping impoverished communities develop the knowledge and infrastructure to maintain their own water purification solutions and deliver clean drinking water to their people. Learn more about the important work they are doing here.

Healthy and Convenient! Our Featured Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System

More Topics on Water Quality & Treatment:
General water treatment Water quality defined Hydrologic cycle of water Meteoric water and cycle Environmental factors of water Age of ground water Temperature of ground water Water quality of surface water Cistern water quality Summary of water quality and the environment	Hard water explained Hard water problems Softened water energy savings Hard water analysis Hard water and soap curd Ion exchange principles More on water softening Home water softener basics Water deionization Lime soda ash water treatment Water softener alternatives Truth about countertop & faucet water filters	3 Types of basic water TDS-Total dissolved solids Reverse osmosis treatment Alkalinity of water Reverse osmosis and pH Carbon dioxide in water Chloride and sulfate Fluoride in drinking water Hydrogen sulfide in water Nitrate/ nitrogen in water Oxygen in drinking water Silica in drinking water Sodium/methane/ phenol	Disease-causing organisms Micro-organism in water1 Micro-organism in water2 Viruses in drinking water Bacteria in drinking water Water disinfect methods1 Water disinfect methods2 Water disinfect-chlorine Dechlorinating filters Q&A Palatability of water Turbidity of drinking water Mechanical filtration Multi-media (depth filters) Color of drinking water

---

Self maintenance guideline for private well owners Water pressure matters Common water usage of a household Public water systems users The guardian-Safe Drinking Water Act The correct disinfection practice Facts on home water treatment	Experiment1-water cycle purify our drinking water Experiment2-pollution Experiment3-waster filtration Experiment4-build an aquifer Experiment5-pollution control by using carbon Experiment6-chlorination for disinfection Experiment7-organisms in source water	Lead in your drinking water? Arsenic in your drinking water Read the bottled water label Common bottled water treatment II State certified lab for water testing Earth water distribution A natural setting for fishs	Backcountry water drinking Cl2 resistant pathogens Common contaminants in the water system Microbes & water quality The origination of modern water filtration Define Spring water & the safety Water quality issues in Europe Seawater drinkable?