Drinking Water: A Most Precious Resource
The Earth is 75% water, of which only 2.5% is non-saline. Of this, only 1% is accessible for human use and consumption.
The rest are in cold places that receive snow all year, like Antarctica and Greenland, in glaciers, which can be found in the same area, and in icebergs, which mostly traverse the North Atlantic Ocean.
This leaves a mere 0.025% of the Earth's total water accessible to humans, and this figure still includes polluted rivers, lakes, and streams.
If all the water in the world were set to a scale of a million liters, the natural proportion of polluted and unpolluted freshwater would leave a mere 250 liters of freshwater for people around the globe to share!
In 2015, the United States of America's population made up 4% of the world's total population. If the 250 liters were distributed per capita, the USA would enjoy a mere eleven (11) liters!
The Cost of Water Pollution and Contamination
According to the United States Environment Protection Agency, more than half of the United States population relies on common water systems with surface water sources, such as rivers and lakes.
The distressing news is that as early as 2011, observations were made regarding freshwater sources in the United States: 47% of lakes, 45% of rivers, and 32% of bays are reportedly polluted.
A third of the population relies on common water systems with groundwater sources, while around 15% source most of their water from private groundwater wells.
However, despite its reputation as a perfectly protected water source, groundwater is also very susceptible to contamination from septic and storage tanks, hazardous waste manufacturers, landfills, and environmental runoff.
Exposure to and use of polluted water leads to harmful effects cause, leading to acute respiratory and stomach ailments, chronic illnesses such as cancer, nervous system problems, and reproductive and developmental disorders.
Water-borne diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis are spread when bacteria proliferate, and pyrogens (substances produced by bacteria that cause fever when introduced to human blood) are spread due to water pollution.
Regardless of the source of drinking water, whether surface, ground, or private wells, the risk of using and drinking contaminated or polluted water is very real and dangerous. This is why it is so important to get reliable home water filters.
Reverse Osmosis: Harnessing Nature and Reversing It
Reverse osmosis technology was discovered almost 400 years ago by French clergyman and physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet.
It remains an important water filtration method, integral to the water usage of countless households worldwide and various industries, from pharmaceutical corporations and bottled and flavored drink manufacturers to wineries and vineyards.
From its discovery in 1748 to 1949, osmosis was only observable through microscopes in biology laboratories, through which nutrients are delivered to cells.
However, modern technology has fashioned this amazing occurrence into the practical and familiar reverse osmosis water filter system, which could be attached to the end of your faucets in the comfort of your home.
So, how does reverse osmosis work? First, let's examine how intelligent design made osmosis work.
Osmosis is the passage or diffusion of water or substances that dissolve other substances (solvents) through a membrane that blocks some molecules of substances originally dissolved in the solvent (solute).
Simply put, osmosis allows water to pass through a semi-permeable membrane while trapping molecules of the solute. In a table sugar-water mixture, sugar is the solute, and water is the solvent.
Suppose you put such mixture through one side of a semi-permeable membrane, and on the other side is plain water. In that case, plain water will flow through the membrane to mix with the sugar-water mixture to create osmotic pressure, resulting in more liquid forming on the sugar-water mixture side.
Once the right osmotic pressure level is achieved, neither solvent nor solute can move further across the semi-permeable membrane.
Reverse osmosis occurs when pressure is applied to the side with a sugar-water mixture to counteract the natural osmotic pressure. Water flows through the semi-permeable membrane, leaving the sugar molecules on the other side.
Reverse osmosis has several industrial uses: the sugary substance from the maple tree sap is separated from the water, creating maple syrup.
Whey is separated from milk in the dairy industry to create cheese and other dairy products.
Acid, smoke, and even alcohol are separated from the other components of wine to create quality wines and wines with varying alcohol proofs.
Such is proof of the benefits of turning scientific facts into technological applications.
The same phenomenon harnessed to separate solvents from solutes, from particles such as human hair to compounds as minute as aqueous salts to elements such as high fluoride levels, is now available through reverse osmosis water filter systems.
The Best Alternative to Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis is not the sole method of purifying contaminated or polluted water.
Several other home water purification methods exist, including distillation, ion exchange, carbon adsorption, essential microporous filtration, and ultraviolet radiation.
Of all the methods mentioned, reverse osmosis technology has consistently been shown to be the most efficient, with distillation as its closest contender.
Against distillation, reverse osmosis is more energy-efficient, as distillation consumes a lot of electricity.
Reverse osmosis does not require expensive electricity like what distillation requires; it simply requires constant water pressure.
Reverse osmosis filters are compact, whereas distillation systems take up much space.
Distillation is expensive because of the equipment needed to change water into vapor and back to water again.
In contrast, reverse osmosis separates unwanted matter from the water, such as dissolved minerals, chemicals, and heavy metals, such as dangerous arsenic and mercury, without changing the water's state.
Ion exchange does not remove particles, pyrogens, or bacteria; it is more expensive than reverse osmosis in the long term.
Carbon adsorption causes carbon fines and thus is not environmentally friendly compared to reverse osmosis.
Microporous basic filtration does not remove dissolved inorganic material such as arsenic, mercury, and other elements and compounds from the water.
Ultraviolet radiation does not remove particles and colloids, unlike reverse osmosis.
The Best among the Better and the Good
Our Berkey Water Filter System is one of the top-performing water filters. It uses gravity to remove heavy metals and toxic elements from water.
Black Berkey® Elements dramatically reduce trihalomethanes, inorganic minerals, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, VOCs, petroleum products, perfluorinated chemicals, rust, silt, sediment, radiological, and more.
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