Study finds contaminants in U.S. drinking water [video]

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14 points·mgh2··3 comments

I highly recommend using a four-stage reverse osmosis system at home with these caveats:

1. Wash the pitcher weekly in soap, preferably in your dishwasher, otherwise bacteria can grow. Rinse off the soap extra well, otherwise it will upset the stomach.

2. Replace the filters on schedule, before they are completely spent, otherwise they will output worse water that can upset the stomach.

3. Use a pH adjustment cartridge. Test the output pH. It must be at least 8. Below 8, bacteria grow in the wet cartridge. If a cartridge isn't used, you will begin to feel unwell due to very lower minerals. Test the output biweekly or monthly using an electric pH meter or pH testing fluid.

4. The pH cartridge is insufficient to replace natural minerals. Supplement at least an additional 400 mg calcium and 200 mg magnesium per day for adults.

Ensure that the last stage filter of the RO unit is an activated carbon filter. This ought to capture theoretical nanoplastic leakage of the polyamide RO filter.

When I go to the office, I take my coffee and drinking water with me for the entire day in steel bottles.

Overall, drinking RO water has lowered my acid reflux somewhat which was in part allegedly being caused by harmful chlorination byproducts.

Good reporting will choose at least one of these good questions:

1. Does drinking water include bottled water? How much do we know about it by comparison?

2. What laws are broken if these results are unacceptable? What does the responsible party have to say for themselves?

3. If our current system can’t engineer a minimum level of control on this, maybe we learn from other places who’ve figured it out?

Bottled water is highly profitable so if bottled water were safe we would know all about that. It has less safety regulation and is contaminated with micro plastics.

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