Water Filter System

When water reaches the water treatment plant, many pollutants and carcinogens are removed from the water by their water filter system. However, they add chemicals to the water to help purify it that can cause severe health problems chlorine and chloramine are two common purifying chemicals.
Cancer. Just saying the word strikes terror in the hearts of most people. We take great many precautions to help decrease our risk of getting cancer, including using sunscreen, not smoking, and eating healthier. All of these things are good, but how much thought have you put into the fact that your water may be a cancer causing substance as well? There are carcinogens in the tap water that you drink, unless you choose to use a water filter system.

When water reaches the water treatment plant, many pollutants and carcinogens are removed from the water by the plant's water filter system. And then they turn right around and add chemicals to the water to help disinfect it; these can cause severe health problems, starting with cancer.

What is chlorine?

Chlorine is abundant in nature and necessary to most life forms, including humans. In its natural state it is a salt, but when it's gaseous it's poisonous in large quantities. It's a powerful oxidant, making it useful for bleaching and disinfecting, the characteristic that has it added to water to destroy pathogens (disease-causing organisms). Chlorine was used by the Germans as a poisonous gas during World War I burning the lungs and eyes of the soldiers who were exposed to it. More recently, it has been found to cause cancer. These may be hints as to why you need a water filter system for your home to remove this poison from your water before you ingest it into your body.

What is chloramine?

Chloramine is a chemical compound from a reaction between ammonia and hypochlorous acid, and in its dilute concentration used as a disinfectant. In its concentrated form it's quite unstable, but diluted it's considered stable. It's use in water purification is increasing because it doesn't dissipate from water before reaching the consumer, the way chlorine does. It also exhibits less of a tendency to convert organic materials into chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, which are identified carcinogens. One advantage of chloramine is that id doesn't impart that distinct chlorine smell and taste to water.

So far, chloramine doesn't have any direct connections to adverse human health issues when chloramine-treated water is drunk because digestive enzymes break it down. It does create significant health problems when it enters the bloodstream. It does present health problems to aquarium fish, reptiles, people on kidney dialysis, and industrial water users.

 
 

What is the connection between chlorine and cancer? Chlorine is known to cause three different types of cancer: bladder, rectal, and breast cancer. In fact, studies have found that in homes where people drink chlorinated water they have a 93% greater chance to developing cancer than people who drink unchlorinated water. This is quite amazing and just reinforces the fact that your home needs a water filter system.

Don't get me wrong. Chlorine does help make our water cleaner for us to drink and incidents of illnesses dropped dramatically after the institution of chlorine for water purification. That point cannot be emphasized enough. However, that does not mean that the chlorine should stay in the water after it has served its initial purpose of purifying the water and keeping it clean as it works through the distribution system to your home. You can get the benefits of the chlorine by having purer water, but you can avoid the health problems associated with chlorine by using a water filter system to remove the chlorine from the water before you use it. A simple home water filter system can remove chlorine from your water and help prevent the health problems that are connected with ingesting chlorine.

Chloramine is not connected to cancer, yet anyway. There also is no connection to heart failure or asthma. For me though, the jury is still out. It can take years of exposure, research and collected statistics to learn what side effects will come from drinking chloraminated water.

Chloramine's advantage over chlorine is that fewer harmful by-products are created. But it's drawbacks include the formation of specific by-products related to chloramine that could have serious health impacts, the way rubber-like compounds become more brittle when exposed to chloramine, accelerated lead leaching, and increased nitrification (the biochemical oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate). Water conditioners that contain a de-chlorination chemical are one way to remove chloramines from your household water. Also filters that use high quality granular activated carbon will absorb the chloramine, removing it from your water. It cannot be removed from water by boiling water or with reverse osmosis.
 
 

Home water filter systems can be found in several different styles. From filters that connect to the water tap to whole house filters that purify all water that comes into your home, you can find a water filter system that fits both your need and wants. The biggest issue to address when making your filter selection is whether it will remove chlorine and chloramine. Keep all of this in mind when choosing your water filter system for your home. Be healthy.