Hexavalent Chromium?

Have you seen the latest EWG research?  They tested and found hexavalent chromium in 31 out of 35 cities.  Hexavalent chromium (or chromium - 6) is a cancer causing chemical.  There is no legal limit for this chemical, and water utilities are not required to test for it.

Just another reason I love our Berkey water filter.  

We recently changed out the PF-2 Arsenic and Fluoride filters for new ones.  The black Berkey elements on the top are still going strong, but these need to be replaced about once a year with as much water as we use.  We also have a shower filter that needed to be changed too.  I can totally smell a difference in the water when the shower is running!

You can read my extensive research on the topic at these links:

What's in my water? Part 1
What's in my water? Part 2
What's in my water? Part 3
Ewww...
Shower Filter Info

(You can click here to easily let your senators know that you support clean water!)

CSN Stores

I mentioned a while back that I would be reviewing some fun summer items in April. Here is the first one - a Step 2 WaterWheel Play Table from CSN Stores. CSN Stores has over 200 websites with a large range of items available. We chose to review the water table from Toys and Games Online. CSN Stores shipped the water table to me quickly and as soon as nap time was over we put it together.

It was easy to assemble, just a few parts to snap together -

Yes, those are our snow boots in the background! It was just starting to warm up when we got the water table. The girls had to wear coats, but I let them play because they were so excited to try it out.

By the end of the afternoon they were pretty wet and cold but had a blast! Here you can see the table is just the right height for them.

It comes with two boats, a cup, and a water wheel tower. Most of the pieces say that they are #5 plastic, which is a "safe" plastic. There is also a note in the instructions that the table is recyclable when you are done with it.

The girls love the water table and have played with it almost every day since we received it. The WaterWheel Play Table is also a big hit with any of our little friends that come to visit. I like that we can play with water and not get soaked! This will be a great summer toy, and we're already getting lots of use from it. Thanks CSN Stores and two thumbs up for the Step 2 WaterWheel Play Table.

Ewww...

We took apart the Berkey water filter today to clean it. The filters had gross orange stuff on them and after we cleaned them off and primed them again more orange dust came out. We've been filling the Berkey with our regular tap water, so if we weren't filtering our water we would be drinking that nasty stuff!

If you haven't already, you can read my research on What's In My Water? part 1, part 2, and part 3. The Environmental Working Group also recently updated their National Tap Water Database with some great information and research.

Chlorine Shower Filter

Back when we bought our Berkey water filter, we also got a chlorine shower filter. We weren't able to put it up right away, but with all my nesting and "to do" lists in preparation for the baby coming, it is finally up. Installation was easy enough. The only slight drawback is that we had a detachable hand held shower head and it didn't work with this filter. It was also a low flow shower head to conserve water, whereas this one is not. Otherwise the shower filter works great and we can tell a difference in the water. The chlorine smell is gone, and although it hasn't been up very long, I think it may be helping our skin not to be so dry.

I decided that we needed a chlorine shower filter after all of my research on water filtration. You can read the What's In My Water series part 1, part 2, and part 3 for more information. Chlorine is added to water in order to clean it, but is actually a toxic chemical. While I'm thankful for chlorine and its role in preventing diseases and providing clean water, I do think its worth removing the chlorine before drinking or showering with the water. You can receive 6 to 100 times more chlorine by breathing the air around a shower or bath than by drinking the water. Big Berkey Water Filters has an informative article here on their blog about chlorine.

The shower filter lasts about a year and removes or reduces chlorine, hydrogen sulfide, microorganisms, scale and water soluble heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and iron. It also kills bacteria and inhibits the growth of mold, algae, and fungi. In an enclosed area like a shower, the chlorine in water can vaporize and be inhaled. The shower filter works by converting chlorine into a water soluble chloride. The chloride behaves differently than chlorine in that it cannot evaporate or be absorbed by the skin. More is explained about the process here.

I highly recommend Big Berkey Water Filters - they have great customer service. The first shower filter that we received ended up leaking from the silver band once we put it up. After an email to Big Berkey Water Filters about the problem, I had a new shower filter shipped to me right away along with a postage paid label to return the old one. If you're interested in purchasing a shower filter or Berkey water filtration system, we have a code good for 5% off of your order "oneword5".

What's In My Water? Part 3

(read "What's In My Water?" Part 1 and Part 2)

In my posts "What's In My Water?", I talked about research I've done and why we chose the Berkey water filtration system. In this post I'll talk a bit about our experience with the Berkey in our home. After deciding that a Berkey system was the best option for us, I contacted Big Berkey Water Filters who agreed to send us a system for half price in exchange for a review. I had done plenty of research and had already chosen this system before being given the opportunity to review it. Remember too that from my calculations in Part 2, Berkey is actually cheaper per gallon than even a Pur or Brita system which many people have. Big Berkey Water Filters is offering my readers a discount code, free shipping, and a free item with purchase, so keep reading...

We set up the Berkey system on a day when Ross was here to help me figure out putting it together. I was a bit intimidated at first with trying to get it all set up correctly, but it wasn't hard. It took a while because we were careful to follow the instructions and be sure we were doing it right, but there wasn't anything difficult to understand. The filters have to be primed initially, and there are clear directions with photos on how to do this (here). We only have one place in the kitchen to place the Berkey because our cupboards all get in the way, but it has worked out fine. The system is tall, but overall doesn't take up too much space. The first week we had the Berkey set up, it started to leak from around the spout. We took it apart and tightened the washers and it hasn't leaked again.

The water does taste slightly different than our PUR pitcher water, but not bad. After a day we were all used to the new taste. Lucy and Julia both drink water all the time and never said anything about the water taste. Ross said that it reminded him of fresh spring water from his grandparents' cottage when he was little. At times when I'm filling up the Berkey I can smell the chlorine in the tap water and I'm so glad that we aren't drinking it any more.

There is a bit of a learning curve with figuring out how often to refill the system. I lifted the top half of the Berkey off a few times to see how much water was left, but for the most part I can tell when I need to fill it based on how much water we've used (if I've filled a big pot for cooking or something). The flow from the spout also gets weaker when there is less water in the system and is stronger when its full. The water takes quite a while to filter (which is a good thing, it gets more contaminants out the longer the water is filtered), so keeping track of when it needs more is important. We chose the Royal Berkey and it seems to be a good size for our family. If we need faster filtration as our family grows, we can always add two more of the filtration elements to our system.

We keep a pitcher on the counter that we use to refill the Berkey and another in the fridge with filtered water in it to drink. The pitcher I have in the fridge is a Lock and Lock brand plastic container with a lid. Although I would prefer to have glass, the pitchers I saw were heavy and I couldn't find one with a lid. This set-up seems to work well for us.

As far as other family member's reactions - well, Julia likes to put her face on the Berkey and look at her reflection, leaving fingerprints all over it. The fish thought there was another fish in the household and I had to move him away from the Berkey before he got too upset. Lucy and Julia were both excited about our new filter and couldn't wait to show it off to Grandma. I'm sort of waiting for Julia (age 2) to try filling her own cup or something and create a big flood with it. She hasn't tried yet thankfully.

Regarding our experience with Big Berkey Water Filters, they've been great. They are wonderful at responding to my emails and shipped the Berkey to me quickly. I felt like their website was very informative and their blog is continually updated with relevant articles. We received a sport water filtration bottle instead of the shower filter we had ordered. They let me keep the sport bottle and shipped the shower filter out right away. Big Berkey Water Filters offers free shipping, a free gift with purchase, and no sales tax. Use the code "oneword5" to receive 5% off of your order as well!

We ordered the shower filter after reading about how chlorine evaporates in the shower and can be inhaled. You can receive 6 to 100 times more chlorine by breathing the air around a shower or bath than by drinking the water. I'll be posting a review of the shower filter eventually. The other item we chose to add to our order was the PF-2 Arsenic and Fluoride filters to add to the Berkey system, which you can read more about here. You can also read more about fluoride on the Big Berkey Water Filters blog.

There you have it - all the information you ever wanted to know about water filtration and our new system. If you have any questions feel free to ask here or email Dan at Big Berkey Water Filters. Several of you have commented that you enjoyed the previous posts in this series; I hope this is helpful to you as well.

What's In My Water? Part 2

(read "What's In My Water? Part 1" here)

At this point, I knew for sure that we had to purchase a new water filtration system and continued my research to find the best choice. The prices I was looking at seemed high, so I decided to add up what I was already spending on my faucet mount filter and my pitcher filter:

My PUR pitcher cost about $10 for a filter replacement that lasts for 40 gallons. This equals 25 cents a gallon. Brita was costing me $20 for a replacement that filters 100 gallons at 20 cents per gallon. Over a year I guessed that we bought about 6 pitcher filters and 3 faucet filters totaling $120 ($10 x 6 + $20 x 3) This puts our kitchen water usage at 540 gallons a year - although I do tend to use the filters for a while after they are done before I get around to replacing them, so I'm sure we use more than 540 gallons a year. However, for my purposes, $120 was a good guess at what we were spending on water filtration each year.

Knowing what I was currently spending was helpful, but at the same time, I had discovered that there were contaminants in my water and I can't really put a price on that. Drinking clean water seemed like one of the most basic things I could do for my and my family's health. At some point I discovered the Berkey Water Filtration systems. I had researched and looked at many different systems and read all about how they filter and what they filter out. Over time I became convinced that Berkey was the system that removed the most contaminants.

The Black Berkey Elements (the parts inside of the Berkey that filter the water) are actually so powerful that they can remove food coloring from water, in fact that is one of the ways they tell you to test your system to see if its working properly. The Berkey Water Filtration system is used by UNICEF, the Red Cross, and missionaries worldwide to purify water - even raw untreated water. This system can be used in emergency situations to purify water, including chlorinated water from your swimming pool. Here is a list of contaminants removed and links to data from lab testing that was done. Black Berkey elements were tested with more than 10,000 times the concentration of pathogens per liter than is required by standard testing protocol. The test results showed absolutely no pathogens in the water, even when examined by microscope. The Berkey water systems are actually called water "purification" systems rather than "filtration" systems because of how powerful they are.

There were other filtration systems that I looked at, but many of them were made of plastic and could therefore be leaching harmful chemicals into the clean water. We liked that the Berkey system was available in stainless steel. Another bonus is that they do not need water pressure or electricity to operate, so having a Berkey system in my home meant that I would be prepared for an emergency situation as long as I could find water to pour into it.

Cost was a consideration, although it wasn't my big deciding factor. I was pleased to discover that Berkey was one of the more cost effective systems available. The initial price wasn't too high and the filters last for such a long time, that brought the cost down even further. Using the two filtration elements that come standard with a Berkey, the system can purify 6,000 gallons of water. Even if I used the high estimate of one gallon of water per person per day, that only gets me to 1,460 gallons of that used in a year. (365 days a year x 4 people in our household) Other systems I looked at were more expensive initially and required filter replacement at $100 each at least once a year. Brita and PUR were costing me 20 and 25 cents per gallon. Berkey comes in at 5 cents per gallon when you include the price of purchasing the system and only 1.6 cents per gallon if you're only figuring the cost of replacement filters.

This bring me to the end of part 2. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to sell you a Berkey water system, just sharing the research I did on the topic. In part 3 I will be sharing my review of the Berkey system in my own home as well as a discount code from Big Berkey Water Filters. If you're interested in reading more in the meantime, here are some great links:

Big Berkey Water Filters

Berkey Blog - tons of great articles on water contamination and further info on the Berkey

Berkey FAQ

What's In My Water? Part 1

Sometime this spring I started wondering "What's in my water?" and it sent me on a research mission. I already knew that we had lead in our water from old pipes - the water runs slightly orange every morning and very orange if we've been gone for a couple days. We had a Brita filter on the kitchen faucet and a PUR water pitcher in the refrigerator for this reason, but I started to wonder about the bigger water filtration systems and what was different about them.

I started by looking at the Brita and PUR websites and what contaminants their filters remove from the water. Brita simply states that "The Brita Faucet Filter removes microbiological cryptosporidium and giardia. It also reduces lead, TTHM, VOCs, lindane (pesticide), 2, 4-D, alachlor, atrazine (herbicide), chlorine (taste and odor) and sediment." PUR provides a more extensive PDF file comparing the different filtration options they offer and what contaminants each removes.

I then looked at other filters - Multi-Pure was one that first caught my attention. The list of contaminants that their filters remove was much longer than Brita or PUR's. You can see the performance data sheet here. Here is some technical data about the contaminants removed by Berkey water filters, another brand I was looking at. As you can see, there are some gaps when you start comparing lists - Brita and PUR just don't remove as much. I wasn't thrilled that there were all of these potential contaminants that could be floating around in my water because my filters weren't strong enough.

I also learned that how the water is filtered can make a difference. One website I was reading called water pitchers and faucet mount pitchers "feel good filters" because the loose carbon particles inside of them can become ineffective. The water creates a path through the carbon particles and therefore doesn't get filtered effectively anymore. The rate of flow through a filter can also affect what is filtered out. Water that is forced through a filter (like a faucet mount filter) at high rates of speed just doesn't get filtered as effectively. Filtration in something like a Berkey water system is designed in such a way that the water is in contact with the filtration media for long periods of time in order to be most efficient at capturing contaminants.

Looking at the different types of water filters, there are a few options that I knew wouldn't work. Reverse osmosis and distillation both remove beneficial minerals from the water and can be wasteful in the amount of water they use or cost a lot in electricity. Bottled water has been found to be no different than tap water and even less regulated (see the EWG research on this here). I've already said that I was unhappy with my faucet mount and pitcher filters.

I also began to wonder if I was making all of this up. I could look at lists of contaminants and choose the most effective filter available... but were all of these contaminants theoretical or was it really something to be worried about? I get a brochure from my water company every year that talks about how clean my water is and explains testing that occurs and that they have not had any violations of standards for clean water.

I eventually came across the Environmental Working Group's National Tap Water Quality Database. According to the EWG report, although a water company may be fully compliant with EPA standards, there were still 141 contaminants with no enforceable safety limits found in our drinking water. Furthermore, I can look up my water company and see a report of exactly what contaminants are in MY drinking water. Its definitely shocking to look at a list of industrial pollutants, water treatment byproducts, and unregulated chemicals that I've been drinking. The EWG Tap Water Database allows you to search by city for your water company and look at the report, click on contaminants, and learn about their health hazards. Comparing the list of what was in my water with the list of what Brita and PUR remove, it was clear that those filters were not doing the job I needed them to do.

Around the time of my research on this topic, I became pregnant with our third child. Being pregnant and having two little ones at home just made this issue all the more important to me. If a toxin is going to affect someone, its going to be the littlest people - my kids, and the tiny person growing inside of me. I'll end part one now and post again later this week with more about which filtration system we chose, cost comparisons I did, and lots more information.