Are you concerned about lead in your drinking water? Lead in drinking water is one of the greatest environmental threats we face.
EPA has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero because lead is a toxic metal that can harm human health even at low exposure levels. Lead is persistent, and it can bioaccumulate in the body over time.
Water is normally lead-free when it leaves the water treatment plant. Contamination usually happens when the water enters your property. Many homes have lead pipes, or they have fixtures or solder that leach lead into the water.
Even if you don’t have lead pipes, lead can get in your water after leaching from faucets or solder on pipes.
Health Risk of Lead
Exposure to lead is known to present serious health risks to the brain and nervous system of children. The recent crisis in Flint, Michigan, has brought increased attention to the challenge of lead in drinking water systems across the country.
Over the past decade, epidemiological studies have consistently demonstrated that there is no safe level of lead.
In particular, studies conducted in diverse populations of children consistently demonstrate the harmful effects of lead exposure on cognitive function, as measured by IQ decrements, decreased academic performance, and poorer performance on tests of executive function.
Lead exposure is also associated with decreased attention and increased impulsivity and hyperactivity in children.
In adults, long-term lead exposure results in increased blood pressure and hypertension.
In addition to its effect on blood pressure, lead exposure can also lead to coronary heart disease and death from cardiovascular causes and is associated with cognitive function decrements, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and immune effects in adults.
Even though lead water pipes were banned in the US several decades ago, they are still used in water distribution networks that supply drinking water to millions of households across the country.
Corrosion of these aging lead pipes risks leaching lead into the water supply, putting children at risk of neurological and developmental disorders resulting from exposure to this hazardous contaminant.
According to a CNN report, 5,300 US water systems are tainted with lead, exposing approximately 18 million Americans to dangerously high lead levels.
Use the Berkey water filter for both drinking and cooking to limit your family's exposure to lead.
Does Berkey Water Filter Remove Lead From Drinking Water?
Yes, Berkey water filters can remove lead by at least 99.9% from drinking water. Berkey's activated-charcoal, self-cleaning filters take all the lead and nearly all the aluminum from the water supply.
Your best protection against lead is to have a water filter that provides purified water anywhere and is rigorously tested. Not all water filters have been tested to the extreme measures that Berkey Water Systems have.
To see what would happen in an unfortunate real-world crisis, Berkey Water Systems contracted a lab to set the pre-filtered water concentration of lead at the extreme contamination level of one part per million (ppm). The same lead concentrations had been reported at some residences in Flint.
At one part per million (1 ppm), the lead contamination level is about 67 times more contaminated than the EPA Lead Action Level. The above charts demonstrate that Black Berkey Purification Elements successfully reduce lead at these excessively high contamination levels by greater than 99.9%.
How Does Berkey Water Filter Work?
Several methodologies are used to produce the Black Berkey purification elements.
The first line of defense is that Berkey purification elements are composed of a proprietary formulation of more than six different media types, all constructed into a very compact matrix containing millions of microscopic pores.
These pores are so small that they produce what we refer to as a “Tortuous Path” that pathogenic bacteria, cysts, parasites, herbicides, pesticides, organic solvents, VOC’s, detergents, cloudiness, silt, sediment and sedimentary minerals, foul tastes, and odors must travel through.
These paths are so small that these pollutants physically cannot pass through them and become trapped, eliminating them from your drinking water. This process is known as microfiltration.
Secondly, our media formulation uses unique adsorption and absorption properties. Adsorption works to create an ionic barrier similar to surface tension. This barrier is perfectly suited to the micro-porous water filter because it effectively allows the tiny pores to block water contaminants smaller than the pore size itself.
Next, the heavy metals ions such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, aluminum, and other dangerous heavy metals are extracted from the water through an Ion exchange process where they are attracted to and transformed by electrically bonding to the media.
Finally, Berkey systems effectively remove contaminants from water because of the extremely long contact period. Other filtration systems rely on water pressure that forces water molecules through the 60-90 PSI elements. These water molecules come into contact with the filter media for a mere fraction of a second.
By comparison, water molecules passing through the structure of the Black Berkey elements are drawn gently by gravity and stay in contact with the media for a long period. This allows the filter media to be more efficient in capturing contaminants.
If you're not confident the drinking water in your home is lead-free, consider buying a Berkey Water Filter System for your home.
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