Pharmaceuticals in drinking water

[Guest guest]

We recently purchased a water filter system. We bought an Aquasana undersink

system

for the kitchen, and a showerhead filter as well. Total cost about $205. I did

a fair

amount of internet research, but I would not claim to be an expert. We've had

the system

for a couple of months and it is handy and unobtrusive, and our St. city

water tastes

great. We signed up for automatic shipment of replacement filters every six

months,

because their effectiveness definitely declines, and they can become little

habitats for

nasty critters.

I decided to stay away from RO systems because of the need for a good range of

minerals

in drinking water.

Today I received an e-mail from Aquasana regarding filtering out

pharmaceuticals. Here's

the intro to what they had to say:

" Drugs in drinking water causes a frenzy with consumers.

" With all the media focus on the recent testing of major municipal water

supplies and the

realization that most, if not all, contain numerous prescription drugs and

pharmaceuticals… our Aquasana call center has been overwhelmed. These compounds

obviously pose significant health concerns and should not be ingested.

" The question of the day is " Does Aquasana remove these pharmaceuticals? " While

the

answer is yes, it also calls for an explanation. There are no current test

standards for

" pharmaceutical " and therefore there are no certifications offered for the

removal of these

contaminants. However, most good quality home water filters will filter them

out.

According to the U.S. EPA, the vast majority of these compounds are Synthetic

Organic

Chemicals (SOCs) and/or Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs). Consumers should look

for

filters that are certified for VOCs, THMs and Chloroform as these are

representative of the

vast majority of prescription drugs. Aquasana is certified for all 3.

" Drugs get into our water supplies from recycled waste water and livestock

run-off.

Standard municipal water treatment does not remove them and therefore they are

in most

tap water and should be removed at the point of use. "

Aquasana filters are certified by Underwriters Labs. It is interesting that,

since there are

no recognized standards regarding pharmaceuticals in drinking water, there can

be no

official certification of filters to remove them. So understanding what kind of

chemicals

the pharmaceuticals are, and how they can be removed, is the best we can do at

this

point.

There is more on drugs in drinking water at the Aquasana site:

http://www.aquasana.com/contamination_drugs.php?discountcode=nobottle

There is a comparison of leading brands and commentary on RO systems at

www.waterfiltercomparisons.com.

Take care, Tom Hunter