Treatment facilities started safeguarding health through reverse osmosis . This meant that public well-being got a boost. But for a lot of us, home reverse osmosis systems became redundant, not to mention pricey: it repeated a step that had all ready been made.

People with brackish water live where public water treatment isn’t available, so they are forced to use a river or the ocean. In this case, families can improve their health through reverse osmosis. But this isn’t the only step that’s needed for their safety.

Marketing ploys for home reverse osmosis systems target individuals that are at highest risk from contamination. Pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems, families with children and all of the rest of us are told by the commercials that we can protect our health through reverse osmosis.

It makes me cringe, but television sales work that way - by defining their target audience and then using certain scenarios, music, and words that are proven to cause the emotional reaction they want.

The vocabulary we hear is “healthy,” “safe,” “pure,” and “clean.” Some companies use an additional method. They are widely known for other good products and they use that as a selling point for their home reverse osmosis systems.

In truth, the only people who gain better health through reverse osmosis are those suffering from kidney failure, because dialysis machines make use of the technology. Many industries use the technology as well, because it is most effective at removing one liquid from another, such as fluid waste from blood or water from tree sap.

Home reverse osmosis systems can purify your water of some things but not everything. They get rid of anything that is heavier than water - so a heavy metal like lead particles would be taken out. However, purifiers that work by ion exchange also remove lead ions and they are less expensive.

It’s also the case that home reverse osmosis systems filter out soil, some residues, and minerals. Salt can be removed from seawater if the correct sort of membrane is used.

The number of impurities that remain is much greater. Just off the top of my head, I can list in this category: microscopic creatures like parasites, protozoa, and bacteria; chemical pollutants, pesticides, and weed killer; chlorine, THMs, MTBE, cysts, and fine sediment. Generally anything lighter than water will be carried right through.

If you can achieve better health through reverse osmosis, because of dirt, trash and largish particulates, then, as I mentioned, you need additional steps. You need carbon filtration to remove chlorine and chemicals. You need multi-media blocks, which can be targeted to remove chemicals that get past the activated carbon. You need sub micron filtration to remove bacterial cysts. You might also need a method of disinfection and a re-mineralization step. Those are some of the additional steps used by treatment facilities and desalination plants.

It’s just not reasonable for most homeowners. You should always put your health and safety first, but home reverse osmosis systems are probably not necessary. Have your water tested and ask the laboratory if you will have better health through reverse osmosis.

Popularity: 1% [?]