Water Filtration

Water is essential for life and the human body is large made up of water. Water replaces lost body fluids and promotes cell metabolism and other vital functions. In fact, medical professionals say every adult should consume around 8-10 glasses of water every day. This need would vary depending on size, weight, and health conditions. Children need more water and fluids than adults.

Clean water prevents ailments and diseases. In industrial environments, clean water prevents contamination of process. World-wide water filtration systems are in use to ensure that clean water is available for human consumption. Filtered water is used not just for cooking and drinking but for bathing purposes, as well.

Drinking water comes from a variety of different sources: wells, rivers, lakes, ponds, springs, rain, snow and so forth. Natural water can be hard or soft and contain many pollutants from the environment. Very often the water gets contaminated by bacteria, viruses, organic and inorganic substances. Contaminants in water include: taste and odor causing contaminants, rust and sediments, bacteria, parasites, lead, and other chemical poisons, and these could cause diseases. To ensure that water is clean for domestic or industrial use water filters are routinely used for the following reasons:

1. Water filters remove dust particles from water.

2. Filtration also ensures that contaminants like fungi, cryptosporidium and protozoa gardia are removed from the water.

3. Filters are designed such that they remove harmful substances like lead from drinking water.

4. Bacterial and viral contaminations are also removed. Often water contamination is the source of wide spread gastrointestinal diseases.

5. The filtration process effectively removes excess chlorine, its by-products, and volatile organic compounds from water.

6. Filtration however does not remove trace minerals contained in water that are essential for health. Most water filtration systems encourage adsorption.

Among all water purification systems filtration is the least expensive and does not require huge amounts of electricity. Filtration is efficient and does not waste water. There are many kinds of filters: whole house filters; under sink filters; faucet mounted filters; countertop or canister filters and so on.

The World Wide Web has immense information on water and filtration systems. You can read articles and tips on water filtration and view the various options available online at websites that are solely devoted to water filters for domestic and industrial use. Always comparison shop and compare product efficacies as well as price. The internet brings you the convenience of being able to buy water filters for your home, office, or factory quickly and easily from your computer.

An Ezine Article

Americans spend billions of dollars each year on home water treatment units. According to the Water Quality Association, more than four out of 10 Americans currently use a home water treatment unit of one type or another. These units range from simple pitchers costing less than $20 to sophisticated reverse osmosis systems  costing hundreds of dollars.

Some people use a home water treatment unit to improve the taste of their tap water. Others treat their water because of health concerns, but regardless of why the water is treated, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the agency that sets and enforces national standards for the tap water provided by public water systems, says that drinking water in the U.S. can reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. As long as those contaminants are at levels no higher than EPA standards, the water is considered safe to drink for healthy people. ( Individuals with immune systems that are weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or transplant medications are more vulnerable to microbial contaminants in drinking water. Those who wish to take extra measures to avoid waterborne contaminants can boil their water for a full minute or use a point-of-use filter such as a reverse osmosis unit).

Before purchasing a home water treatment unit, consider local water quality, cost and maintenance of the unit, product performance and certifications to make sure that the unit will meet your needs.

Water filtration and purification are the processes used forremoving contaminants from a raw water source. The goal is to produce water for a specific purpose with a treatment profile designed to limit the inclusion of specific materials; most water is purified for human consumption (drinking water). Water purification may also be designed for a variety of other purposes, including to meet the requirements of medical, pharmacology, chemical and industrial applications. Methods include, but are not limited to: ultraviolet light, filtration, water softening, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, deionization and powdered activated carbon treatment.

Water purification may remove: particulate sand; suspended particles of organic material; parasites, Giardia; Cryptosporidium; bacteria; algae; virus; fungi; etc. Minerals calcium, silica, magnesium, etc. and toxic metals (lead, copper, chromium etc). Some purification may be elective in the purification process, including smell (hydrogen sulfide remediation), taste (mineral extraction), and appearance (iron incapsulation).

Governments usually dictate the standards for drinking water quality. These standards will require minimum / maximum set points of contaminants and the inclusion of control elements that produce drinking water. Quality standards in many countries require specific amounts of disinfectant (such as chlorine or ozone) in the water after it leaves the water treatment plant (WTP), to reduce the risk of re-contamination while the water is in the distribution system.

It is not possible to tell whether water is safe to drink just by looking at it. Simple procedures such as boiling or the use of a household activated carbon filter are not sufficient for treating all the possible contaminants that may be present in water from an unknown source. Even natural spring water - considered safe for all practical purposes in the 1800s - must now be tested before determining what kind of treatment, if any, is needed. Chemical analysis, while expensive, is the only way to obtain the information necessary for deciding on method of purification.