If you were not aware, the water that pours from your home faucets is not as clean as it appears. There are hundreds of chemical, biological, and physical elements in that water and some of these contaminants can pose a serious risk to your health. Consuming contaminated water could lead to gastrointestinal illness, typhoid, or even neurological conditions. Children, pregnant women, elderly people, or people whose health has been compromised by conditions such as cancer or AIDS are highly susceptible to illness from certain water toxins. Access to clean water is very important to our overall health and wellbeing and a lot of people have turned to water filtration as a solution to this problem. Berkey water filters serve as the last line of defence between the contaminants present in water and your body. Let’s have a deeper look into some of the contaminants that a Berkey water filter can remove from your water.
1. Waterborne Viruses
Most people have had a common cold or the flu at least once in their lives. It’s very difficult to forget the running nose, coughing, fever, and sore throat that comes with such illnesses.
What’s even more difficult is understanding how an inactive and microscopic bacteria cell is responsible for having you skip out on a date or a few days of work or school. Examples of more viruses that could be in your water include rotavirus, norovirus, caliciviruses, and polioviruses.
Waterborne viruses enter our bodies through drinking or existing wounds that leave our skin open. This can happen when you’re cleaning the wound or when taking a shower. Effective water filtration can help you avoid the risk of getting infected. However, many water filters claim to purify water but do not meet the appropriate performance specifications.
Berkey water filters can remove at least 99.99% of pathogenic bacteria and viruses from the water you drink. The Berkey filter system has been tested by EPA and state-accredited labs with the conclusion that Berkey water filters greatly exceed the performance standards.
2. Fluorides
Fluorides are compounds that combine with metals with fluorine. With some fluorides occurring naturally in soil and water, its easy for people to consume fluoride. But the issue of fluoridated water has divided opinions over the past 70 years.
In 1945, Grand Rapids in the state of Michigan was the first globally to add fluoride in tap water. Soon, other cities and towns took up water fluoridation with scientific studies at the time indicating low rates of cavities in school kids.
However, modern scientific experiments have indicated that the research done earlier was immensely flawed. This begs the question, is drinking fluoridated water safe for you?
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), drinking water with excess fluoride can lead to a condition known as fluorosis that affects the bones. Moderated fluoride has been scientifically proven to cause dental issues with severe skeletal conditions associated with long-term use.
The good news is that the Berkey water filter can remove over 99.9% of the fluoride in your drinking water. It is worth pointing out that the efficiency of the water filter does subside after filtering a few hundred gallons of water.
To further reduce the amount of fluoride in such an instance, you need to use extra post filters known as the Berkey PF-2 elements that will combine efforts with the filters already installed in your filtering system. A single set of Berkey PF-2 elements can clear inorganic fluorides from up to a thousand gallons of water.
3. Lead
Lead is a toxic metal harmful to human health but how harmful it is, depends on how much lead gets into your body. There is absolutely no amount of lead exposure that can be considered safe. High levels of lead can lead to neurological problems, convulsions, and organ failure; all of which can easily prove fatal.
Drinking water is the most common source of lead. Lead enters drinking water when plumbing material such as lead pipes or faucets or that contain lead happen to wear away as a result of corrosion. Young kids, foetuses, and infants are especially vulnerable to lead. A dose of lead that would have little effect on an adult can have a significant impact on a child’s health.
The best approach to have against lead is to use a water filter that has been thoroughly tested as the Berkey water filters have. They are able to remove lead by no less than 99.9% from the water you drink thanks to the filter’s self-cleaning activated charcoal.
4. Pesticides
The term ‘pesticides’ is an umbrella word that encompasses the chemicals used to either maim, control, or destroy pests. These chemicals are used largely by farmers to protect their crop plantations against insects and weeds or any other form of pests.
Pesticides provide tremendous benefits in food production but they are also toxic to humans. Depending on the level of contamination, they can have either acute or chronic health effects. Carbamates damage the central nervous system while others are carcinogens.
A lot of pesticides are soluble in water which makes them invisible to the human eye if there is no coloration. This makes it easy for people to consume pesticides through their drinking water.
Berkey water filter has both been tested and proven to remove 99.9% of pesticides from your drinking water. Examples of such pesticides include chlordane, dieldrin, atraton, bromacil, toxaphene, endrin, and prometron, as well as many others.
5. Arsenic
Arsenic is a naturally-occurring compound found in soil and rocks deep inside the earth. It is very common through the western side of the United States. It is a rather useful element in agriculture and across various manufacturing industries. However, it has very serious effects on human health when consumed through drinking water.
The compound gets into drinking water through natural arsenic deposits or arsenic runoff from mining, industrial, or agricultural processes. High levels of arsenic exposure include diarrhoea, stomach upsets, vomiting, or numbness as a result of damaged nerve function. It can also cause darkening of the skin or wart-like growths either on one’s palms or on the soles of their feet.
Children exposed to arsenic could have difficulties with their body immunity capabilities or respiratory functions. Scientific studies on the effect of high levels of arsenic on children from China and India have indicated that it also lowers their intellectual capacities.
The strongest source of arsenic is drinking water, especially untested and untreated water drawn from wells. Like most contaminants, arsenic is both tasteless and odorless. This makes it hard for people to know whether the water they’re drinking has arsenic or not.
As a precautionary measure, you can use a Berkey water filter which removes 99% of the compound from drinking water. The filtration system in the filter uses black Berkey filters, fluoride water filters, and PF-2 Arsenic water filters that target and extract any arsenic oxide anions and cations that are present in drinking water.
6. Pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceuticals are natural or synthetic chemicals present in medicinal drugs. Pharmaceutical products are manufactured with substances meant to have pharmacological effects on the user.
The Environmental Protection Agency has classified pharmaceutical drugs as emerging drinking water toxicants. The reason they’ve been recognized as ‘emerging’ is that there currently exists little information about the effects of these elements on human health.
The products can be introduced into water sources through sewage, effluent discharge, or wastewater. Although contaminated water is treated before reuse, you’ll find that perhaps the water was too concentrated with pharmaceuticals. Over 200 million pounds of pharmaceutical waste is believed to be flushed every year.
As a result, there is a growing concern among people regarding the presence of drug substances in drinking water and the potential effects they might have on the hormones and overall body wellbeing of people.
The Berkey water filter can remove pharmaceutical drugs and hormones in the drinking water by 99.5%. Examples of pharmaceuticals that the Berkey can remove include caffeine, ibuprofen, triclosan, and acetaminophen.
Better Your Water, Better Your Life
There is no doubt that water is critical for life. Our bodies are mostly made out of water. However, drinking directly from your tap might mean that you’re drinking a bit more than water. Tap water could have microscopic bacteria, chemicals, and metals that can make you and your family very ill.
The quality of water piped into your house also matters. The quality is dependent on the plumbing materials used or which season of the year it is, among many other factors. Berkey water filters can help purify your water. Berkey products have surpassed industry standards to make sure the water you drink will not compromise your health or your family’s.
Since water filtration is dependent on the size, charge, and amount of contaminant particles, Berkey water filters are diverse in their abilities depending on the needs of the user. If you are not responsible for the production of the water you use, then you are not in control of that water. However, with a Berkey water filter, you can have peace of mind knowing your water is purified to the highest industry standards.
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