Pure Water Occasional, November, 2024
 
In this wintery Occasional you will hear about how water is treated for 1, 4-dioxane, how to choose whole house and undersink residential treatment products, what turbidity is and how it is measured and treated, how fluoride added to municipal water dumbs down children (something we've known and chosen to ignore for a couple of decades), the immense benefit we're all getting from the water improvement resulting from the President's Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, how water pollution by plastics is reduced by recycling, how fighting wildfires pollutes the water with heavy metals, how climate change is worsening massive flooding in Spain and elsewhere, the discovery or the rediscovery of chloronitramide anion, a spin-off chemical to worry about, and, as always, there is much, much more.

Thank you for reading, and sincere thanks from Pure Water Products for your continuing support.  
 
Thanks for reading!

Please visit the Pure Water Gazette, where you will find hundreds of articles about water and water treatment, and the Pure Water Products main website, where there is much information about water treatment and specific information about the products we offer. On both of these information-rich sites, pop-up ads and other distractions are not allowed.
 
 
 

Larger Units Available. Bigger and Better
 
In addition to the Fleck 5600 softeners and backwashing filters on our website we now offer softeners and backwashing filters, including AIO air induction units, in larger sizes--up  to 21" tanks for some items.  Sizes start with standard residential units, but we can now accomodate high flow rate applications and much larger pipe sizes. Please inquire by phone or email.
 
No More In-House Testing
 
We regret that we've had to stop testing water samples. Our free basic water tests were a much-used service that we've been doing for a long time. Testing was also very time consuming and challenging, and we decided it's better to leave water testing to the pros. Speaking of the pros, we still offer tests from National Testing Labs.  See our website.
 
 
 

Residential Water Treatment for 1,4-Dioxane

by Gene Franks

 According to the Environmental Working Group, water supplies for more than 7 million Americans in 27 states are contaminated with an industrial chemical at levels higher than what is generally considered safe. The chemical, known as 1,4-dioxane (often  called simply dioxane), is especially troubling in certain areas of high concentration, most notably Long Island, NY, the Cape Fear River area of North Carolina, and Los Angeles county in California.
 
 
Although the EPA has set no formal standard for 1,4-dioxane (and don’t expect it soon), the current safe limit being used by most agencies is 0.35 ppb. That’s the level expected to cause no more than one case of cancer for every million people who drink the water daily for a lifetime. Contaminant levels much higher are being found in the areas mentioned and in other parts of the country. The EPA has classified 1,4-dioxane as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”  Dioxane is also listed in California’s official registry of chemicals known to cause cancer.
 
Dioxane is a man-made chemical mainly used (90%) as a stabilizer for another man-made water contaminant, the solvent TCE. The main source of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water is from leaking underground storage tanks at hazardous waste sites and from discharges from manufacturing plants. Other significant sources of exposure to the chemical include personal care products like shampoos, deodorants and lotions as well as laundry products and household cleaning products. 1,4-dioxane is in these products not as an intended ingredient but as a contaminant from the manufacturing process.
 
 
As with many contaminants, most of the research done on 1,4-dioxane treatment is focused on large applications like wastewater treatment plants and municipal water suppliers.  Often, methods that prove effective for large operations are impossible to apply to residential treatment. In the case of dioxane, advanced oxidation processes involving hydrogen peroxide with ultraviolet (UV) light or ozone and anion exchange with specialty resins are used with some success to treat 1,4-dioxane. These large-scale methods are not practical for residential users.
 
 
Information about 1,4-dioxane as a residential contaminant and how to treat it is scarce and inconsistent.  For residential treatment the old standby products carbon filtration and reverse osmosis seem to be the best things available, although very little actual testing seems to have been done to establish their effectiveness.
 
 
One North Carolina State University researcher says, “Most in-home water filters, including activated carbon filters, don’t remove 1,4-dioxane effectively. Reverse osmosis filters are better, removing a significant portion of the chemical from tap water, but still fall short.”  Not exactly helpful if you’re designing a home treatment strategy, but typical of the information available. One leading internet vendor recommends whole house reverse osmosis at $10,000. Between the lines reading of the not-very-helpful advice on residential treatment indicates that filter carbon works, but not as well as one would hope, that it works best if there is long contact time (large filters and reduced flow rates), and that nutshell carbon seems to work better than coal-based. As for reverse osmosis, everyone agrees that it is effective but no one has established any hard information about rejection percentages.
 
 
To plan residential treatment for any contaminant, one needs to consider first how the contaminant is taken in by humans. In this area, too, there is a disturbing lack of information and a lot of contradictory information about dioxane. Water contaminants can be ingested by drinking contaminated water, or breathed in as a vapor or taken in through the skin. Showering is a common hazard since the contaminant can be taken in through the skin or breathed in if it vaporizes.  Arsenic, to illustrate,  does not evaporate into the air and is not easily absorbed through the skin, so there is little need for “whole house” treatment. Chlorine, conversely, vaporizes easily in the shower and also penetrates the skin, so whole house chlorine treatment is important.
 
 
Information about dermal and inhalation exposure to dioxane varies so much that it is essentially useless. The consensus is that it evaporates so quickly that dermal uptake is minimal; but this, of course, makes it more likely that it is breathed in during showering. To complicate the issue, because so many bath products are possible sources of the chemical, it is hard to know how much exposure is avoided by treating the water itself. It certainly makes no sense to install an elaborate and expensive system to remove 1, 4-dioxane from the water you shower with and then use a shampoo that contains the contaminant.
 
 
 
Treatment
 
Our recommendation for residential 1,4-dioxane protection is the same as for contaminants like fluoride, arsenic, and chromium. Install a high quality reverse osmosis unit that has at least two carbon stages for drinking water. An undersink RO unit should be a standard feature in all homes.  For the whole house, carbon filtration, either as carbon block cartridge filters or a tank-style backwashing filter, provides broad protection against most contaminants and should reduce exposure to dioxane. We do not believe that installation of over-sized carbon tanks just to treat dioxane is advisable.

 

 
 
Leaking underground storage tanks at hazardous waste sites and discharges from manufacturing plants are important sources of 1,4-dioxane water contamination. Other significant sources of exposure to the chemical include personal care products like shampoos, deodorants and lotions as well as laundry products and household cleaning products. 
 
Article reprinted from the Pure Water Gazette.
 
 
 


 
 

 
 
What Is Turbidity, and How Is Ir Measured?
 
 
 
 
Turbidity in water is a measurement of the relative clarity. It is an expression of the amount of light that is scattered when a light is shined through the water. The more the light is scattered, the higher the turbidity reading.
 
 
In practical terms, turbidity is an aesthetic problem but it also is an indication of more serious problems, like bacterial growth or the presence of metals.
 
 
Turbidity measurement is confusing because it can be expressed in different terms.  Labs usually report turbidity in units called NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units), FAU (Formazin Attenuation Units), or FTU (Formazin Turbidity Units).
 
 
Although the three scales measure turbidity differently, they are essentially the same in value.  1 NTU = 1 FTU = 1 FAU.
 
 
For practical purposes, the EPA limit for turbidity in drinking water is 1 FTU. Anything above 1 FTU should be treated. Water can be very clear to the naked eye and have an unacceptable turbidity reading.
 
The most common treatment for turbidity is basic  filtration for sediment either with cartridges or granular media beds. In extreme cases, such as extremely small particles, chemicals may be used to help. 
 
 

In Our Age of Information, News About Fluoride and IQ in Children Is Hard to Find

by Hardly Waite, Senior Editor
 
Reprinted from the Pure Water Gazette, December, 2012
 
This piece from a 2012 Occasional is one of  a total of 17 printed in the Pure Water Gazette in 2012 alone on the subject of the fluoridation of water. Several were specifically about the mounting evidence that adding fluoride to drinking water lowers the intelligence of children. Now, a dozen years later, the mainstream media and health officials finally seem to be getting the message. The State of Florida just announced its official recommendation that fluoridation of the state's drinking water supplies be discontinued. Most of the world's advanced societies decided this some time ago.
 
Here's what we reported in 2012:
 
An October 2012 publication of research done at the Harvard University Department of Environmental Health  surveyed numerous previous studies and reached the conclusion that ingesting fluoride has an effect on children’s neurodevelopment and that, in fact, “. . .children in high­ fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low­ fluoride areas.”
 
 
As of October 2012, there were 36 major studies that linked fluoride with lower IQ in children.
 
The sad thing about the finding is that you probably aren’t going to read about it in your local paper or hear about it on the evening news.  And what’s doubly sad is that it isn’t news at all.  The Harvard researchers  (Anna L. Choi, Gufian Sun, Ying Zhang, and Phillippe Grandjean) made no startling discovery on their own.  They simply reviewed the findings of many previous studies that have shown similar results but that also had not been reported on the evening news.
 

The Fluoride Action Network had identified at least 36 previous studies that came to the same  conclusion.  Michael Connett and Tara Blank write:
 
 
As of September 2012, a total of 42 studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and human intelligence, and a total of 17 studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and learning/memory in animals. Of these investigations, 36 of the 42 human studies have found that elevated fluoride exposure is associated with reduced IQ, while 16 of the 17 animal studies have found that fluoride exposure impairs the learning and memory capacity of animals. The human studies, which are based on IQ examinations of over 11,000 children, provide compelling evidence that fluoride exposure during the early years of life can damage a child’s developing brain.
 

The relationship between fluoride and the dumbing down of children isn’t new and it isn’t secret.  It is surprising, though, how few people are aware of it.  The next time your dentist speaks out in defense of the fluoridation of the public water supply, ask him if he’s aware of the Harvard research showing that fluoride has a demonstrable bad effect on the neurodevelopment of children.  If he says that the Harvard research is part of a commie plot to ruin America’s teeth, look for another dentist.
 
Take this link to many more Pure Water Gazette articles on fluoride that have appeared over the years:
 
 

Water News for November 2024

 
 
 
 
 
Water Projects from the EPA
 
Water protection projects that will improve the nation's water quality for generations to come are resulting from President Biden's monumental bipartisan infrastructure law.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a new round of funding for American ports to help in electrification and pollution reduction. The $3 billion Clean Ports Program will upgrade infrastructure at 55 port projects across 27 states.  Once complete, this funding should reduce 3 million metric tons (3.3 million tons) of carbon pollution, which is the equivalent of over 391,000 homes’ energy use for one year.
 
 
On November 20, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a new, no-cost technical assistance effort focused on reducing exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other emerging contaminants in small or disadvantaged communities. This initiative is part of EPA’s Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) program. The Tackling Emerging Contaminants initiative will help eligible public drinking-water systems evaluate emerging contaminant issues, conduct initial water quality testing, and identify next steps in 200 small or disadvantaged communities over the next three years.
 
 
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has provided an unprecedented $50B to improve water infrastructure across the nation. Of this funding, $5B is dedicated to the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities (EC-SDC) grant program, which supports this latest technical-assistance initiative.
 
 
“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is providing a focused opportunity to help small and disadvantaged communities address PFAS and emerging contaminants to ensure that drinking water is clean and safe for residents,” said EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water Bruno Pigott. “By working hand-in-hand with local partners, the Tackling Emerging Contaminants initiative will help ensure that historically underserved areas have access to safer drinking water that is essential for healthy and vibrant communities.”
 
 
The More Plastics They Make, the More Plastic Gets in the Water
 

It should not take a team of experts to determine that the amount of microplastics found in water is directly related to the amount of plastic that is produced. What was surprising in a recent study, however, is that contrary to the research team’s expectations, no correlation was found between population density or land use and high levels of microplastics. It is suspected that recycling has something to do with it. Water Online. 
 
 
High levels of hazardous heavy metals found in products used to fight wildfires
 

A new study shows that sprays and retardants used to fight wildfires contain surprisingly high levels of toxic heavy metals, a “disturbing” finding at a time when wildfires are generally getting worse.
The paper, published Oct. 30 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, found that each of 14 fire suppression products examined contained at least eight of the ten heavy metals tested for, including chromium, cadmium, lead, and arsenic. Most of these metals or their derivatives are highly toxic, and known to cause a long list of diseases, including cancer. The New Lede
 

Millions of Americans Are Drinking PFAS-contaminated Water
 

More than 20% of the country’s population may rely on groundwater that contains detectable concentrations of PFAS for their drinking water supplies, according to a study published by the U.S. Geological
 
 
Devastating Flooding in Valencia
 

Spain’s worst flooding in almost 30 years caused the Magro River to overflow its banks, trapping some residents in their homes and sending cars and rubbish bins surging. The death toll in Valencia and the neighboring regions of Castilla, La Mancha and Andalucía stood at 95.  Valencia received a whole year’s worth of rain in a single day.
 
Agrochemicals and Prostate Cancer
 
New research adds to evidence that several types of agrochemicals — including the widely used herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate — may raise the risk of prostate cancer.
 

Possibly toxic chemical may be widespread in drinking water, study finds. Should you filter your tap water?

A new study found a possibly toxic chemical in drinking water in up to two-thirds of U.S. residents’ homes.

By Maura Hohman

Gazette Introductory Note: The irony is obvious. As an ever-increasing number of US suppliers switch to chloramine over chlorine as their primary water disinfectant because chlorination has been found to produce cancer-causing spin-off contaminants, we are now learning that chloramine, too, produces toxic byproducts. Part two of the irony is that the byproduct of chloramine in question has been known to water scientists since the early 1980s. 
 
The answer to the author’s question, “Do I need a water filter?” is yes, but not because of a new chemical that may or may not be in your tap water and that may or may not be harmful but because of the literally thousands of contaminants, known and unknown, that are present in our chemical-rich world.  The author also gives the standard bad advice about looking for a water filter with NSF certification. Our advice is to get enough basic understanding of undersink reverse osmosis units and adequately sized standard carbon water filters to pick a good one. NSF certification adds cost and usually needless complexity to the filter, but does not assure highest quality.
 

A previously unidentified chemical has been discovered in the tap water of about one-third of U.S. homes, a new study has found, and scientists are actively investigating whether it’s toxic.
 
 
The chemical, called chloronitramide anion, forms when “water is treated with chloramine, a chemical formed by mixing chlorine and ammonia. Chloramine is often used to kill viruses and bacteria in municipal water treatment systems,” NBC News reported.
 
 
About 40 years ago, researchers became aware of a chemical byproduct from water being treated with chloramine, but only with new testing have researchers been able to identify exactly what it is.
 
 
Chloronitramide anion has never been studied before, so it may be years before scientists are able to understand whether it’s dangerous to consume. The study was published to call attention to potential safety concerns and encourage additional research.
 
 
While there is currently no conclusive evidence to suggest chloronitramide anion is harmful to health, it has some resemblances to other “toxic molecules,” David Wahman, Ph.D., study author and research environmental engineer at the Environmental Protection Agency, told NBC News.
Part of the reason for the concern over the chemical’s potential toxicity is that it appears to be widespread in U.S. drinking water.
 
 
“We looked for it in 40 samples in 10 U.S. chlorinated drinking water systems located in seven states. We did find it in all the samples,” Wahman said. He added that it’s likely to be found in all water treated with chloramine, which about 113 million U.S. residents get in their taps.
 
 
The study also calls attention the possible health impact of using certain chemicals to treat tap water, not just chloramine. Some research has linked disinfected drinking water with increased rates of certain types of cancers.
“We don’t know what’s driving these. We have no idea if this compound is in any way related to those outcomes,” Julian Fairey, the study’s lead author and associate professor at the University of Arkansas, told NBC News. “But we have unexplained incidents of certain types of cancer from treated drinking water.”
 
 
However, treating drinking water with chemicals does reduce the presence of dangerous bacteria, especially those that cause cholera and typhoid, Alan Roberson, executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, said.
 
 
“The reason you’re adding the chloramine — you want to kill the bacteria and viruses, you have a real risk-risk trade-off,” he explained.
 
 
So, is tap water safe to drink? Is it time for you to invest in a water filter? Here’s what to know.
 
 

Do I need a water filter?

 
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend testing your home’s tap water for the presence of harmful germs or chemicals. Then you can purchase a water filter designed to remove what you found specifically in your water.
 
 
If your water does not have any harmful germs or chemicals, you may decide not to use a filter. The CDC also points out that most home filters, like those in your fridge or in a pitcher, do not remove germs and typically only remove heavy metals and make the water taste better.
 
 
If you get your water from a well or rain, you should test it regularly for the presence of harmful germs or chemicals. For people who get their water from a public system, your utility company must provide a water safety report every year.
Before purchasing a water filter, check for an NSF International certification to make sure the product works and the NSF International database to see what types of germs and chemicals your filter is certified to remove.
When it comes to chloronitramide anion, the chemical the recent study identified, you can check your utility company’s website to see if they use chlorine or chloramine. An activated carbon filter, found in many fridge and pitcher filters, may remove the byproducts of chemicals used to disinfect tap water, but more research is needed, Wahman said.
 
 
Article Source: Today


Undersink Filters
 

Pura Ultraviolet Undersink Unit
 
Pure Water Products features a full line of undersink water filters, all with standard sized components for easy replacement. These units are designed for easy installation, easy maintenance, and long years of effective performance. 

Black and White series. Our basic undersink units with single, double and triple housing versions. Ledge faucet, with several design and finish options available, and easy-to-install inlet kit are included. Many cartridge choices, all in standard size.
 

Simple Undersink units. Single, double,  and triple filters that dispense water through the regular sink faucet and require no countertop installation. No hole in granite countertop needed.  Standard-sized cartridges, with many choices available.


Pura Ultraviolet units.  Pura single, double and triple units featuring ultraviolet, sediment, and carbon block filtration. (See picture above.)
 

Our Enhanced Performance Undersink Fluoride Filter. A four-stage unit with double the fluoride capacity of standard fluoride units.
 

Replacement Parts and Replacement Cartridges.  We stock complete replacement parts for every undersink unit that we sell.

See them all linked from this page:

Undersink Filters from Pure Water Products  ​
 
 
 


 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Places to visit for additional information:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks for reading. 
Pure Water Products, LLC, 523A N. Elm St., Denton, TX, 76201.  www.purewaterproducts.com. Call us at 888 382 3814, or email pwp@purewaterproducts.com.
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