Neither.
It makes sense to filter your tap water, not only because of the chlorine or chloramine that's added at your local municipal water plant, but also because of the ever increasing amounts of dangerous heavy metals, synthetic chemicals and microbiological organisms that have made their way into all of our reservoirs, lakes and rivers, as well as deep underground wells.
Most Bottled Water is simply filtered tap water in a plastic bottle with a fancy label on it, regardless of where and how you buy it. No health claims are ever made that are credible or scientifically verifiable, and Bottled Water causes an incredible amount of plastic bottle waste. In fact, the plastic from Bottled Water has been shown to migrate into the water itself. In the very near future, Bottled Water will be thought of as one of the worst ideas in history. Besides, it's very expensive and a pain in the you-know-what to lug from the store! If you view these clips from the upcoming movie "Tapped the Movie" I seriously doubt if you'll ever feel good about drinking bottled water again. http://www.tappedthemovie.com/
So, why not filter your own water at home and get "better than bottled water quality and taste" without the hassle and plastic bottle waste? You'll have an unlimited supply for drinking, cooking, washing fruits and veggies, and save money, too.
The key factor is to look at the long term cost, quality and taste of the water produced by any water filtration system you are considering. Reverse Osmosis Systems remove all of the potentially beneficial minerals, thereby making the water taste flat and acidic, take up a ridiculous amount of space under your kitchen counter, are extremely inefficient (RO systems typically waste 80% of the water going through the membrane down your drain), are expensive to buy, install and maintain. They are also prone to leakage and microbiological contamination within the storage tank. I witnessed all of this first hand when starting out in the water treatment business over 10 years ago, and RO systems have not changed much since then. If you happen to get a cheap one, you can be sure that it has very inexpensive, inadequate or inappropriate filters in it and is likely constructed from Asian components. For all the hype about them, no RO System, regardless of the cost, is rated for use with microbiologically unsafe water and cannot be relied upon to remove 100% of live viruses (more about waterborne viruses below). The reason that high-pressure RO salesmen give to unsuspecting customers about RO's removal of beneficial minerals is that "we don't get our trace minerals from water, we get them from food and supplements. Our "experts" tell us that you cannot get enough trace minerals from water anyway ". Preposterous! First, RO systems are NOT SELECTIVE for the contaminants they remove and CANNOT work in any other way BUT to remove the beneficial minerals, hence the false, reverse logic. Second, the human organism was designed over millions of years to receive supplemental sources of trace minerals from drinking water, and removing this source of minerals, however minute it may be, can have cumulative, negative health consequences especially to the human digestive, skeletal, and circulatory systems. According to the World Health Organization "Hard water is a reliable and stable source of calcium and sometimes magnesium although the absolute and relative concentrations will vary greatly by source. Consumption of moderately hard water containing typical amounts of calcium and magnesium may provide an important incremental percentage of daily intake. Inadequate total dietary intakes of calcium and magnesium are common worldwide. Therefore, an incremental contribution from drinking water can be an important supplement to approach more ideal total daily intakes. Moreover, hard water can reduce the losses of calcium, magnesium and other essential minerals from food during cooking. If low mineralized water is used for food and beverage production, reduced levels of Ca, Mg, and other essential elements would also occur in those products. Low intakes would occur not only because of the lower contribution of these minerals from water used in beverages, but also because of the high losses of the minerals from food products (e.g., vegetables, cereals, potatoes or meat) into water during cooking. The group concluded that there is sufficient epidemiological evidence of an inverse relationship between calcium and magnesium concentrations in drinking water and ischemic heart disease mortality, and that consumption of water containing calcium and magnesium, and therefore also the reintroduction of Mg and Ca into demineralized water in the remineralization process would likely provide health benefits in those consumer populations. There are no known harmful human health effects associated with the addition of calcium and magnesium within a large range and the nutritional benefits are well known. In addition, limited but suggestive evidence exists for benefits associated with other diseases (stroke, renal stone formation, cognitive impairment in elderly, very low birth weight, bone fractures among children, pregnancy complications, hypertension, and possibly some cancers). Adding calcium and magnesium to the demineralized water would be a relatively inexpensive preventive intervention that does not require individual behavioural change, and it is already done as part of many water treatment processes. The intervention could not only provide health benefits but also help reduce medical care costs. Epidemiological studies in the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, Russia, and France and research on changes in calcium/phosphorus metabolism and bone decalcification provide information about drinking water levels of calcium and magnesium (and water hardness) that may provide beneficial health effects. It has been suggested (Kozisek) that reduced cardiovascular mortality and other health benefits would be associated with minimum levels of approximately 20 to 30 mg/l calcium and 10 mg/l magnesium in drinking water. The percentage of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium and magnesium provided by drinking water at these minimum levels will vary among and within countries. Thus, lower levels in water may be sufficient to provide health benefits in some areas, but higher levels may be beneficial in others. Some limited information suggests that the desirable levels may be higher in some circumstances. Overall health benefits will be dependent upon total dietary intakes and other factors in addition to water levels. Because the exposure-response information is limited, further analyses, and possibly additional studies, are needed to determine the levels of calcium and magnesium that may provide most favorable population benefits in each location." Source: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/en/nutrconsensusrep.pdf Along with Bottled Water, wasteful Reverse Osmosis Contraptions for the home will also be thought of as one of the worst ideas in history. Here is a link to a web page of a company that specializes in and sells RO Systems. They are being honest by giving you a fairly complete list of everything that can go wrong with them. They call it "Troubleshooting RO Systems": http://www.roconn.com/troubleshooting.html Here's another RO seller honestly showing you the exact amount of waste water produced by a modern RO System: http://www.plumbingsupply.com/ro.html Recovery, at best, is 20-25% when the RO membrane is NEW. This figure will go down to 15-10% after the membrane has been used for just a short time, because of membrane clogging. If you don't think ROs take up a lot of space under your kitchen sink, think again: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/h2oqual/watsys/ae1047w.htm And, this is a SMALL RO System. There's a lot of good independent information on RO Systems here. Yes, go ahead and install it in the basement, all of you handymen and handywomen. Run the tubes up through holes in your floor and kitchen cabinets. It's easy! NOT! Very little has changed for the RO since this study was done. Here's the most recent, independent study available: http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1490/build/g1490.pdf Read this study VERY CAREFULLY if you have ANY inclination about installing an RO System in your home.
Again, proper UV sanitation of your drinking water supply is completely unnecessary if you are running off of a municipal water supply. All microbiological contaminants are monitored frequently and are already dead from the added chlorine or chloramine. It is already microbiologically safe. Microbiologically safe means that there is an infinitesimal amount or no live organisms or viruses in the water according to EPA protocol.
Only in a worst case scenario, when the water supply is known to be microbiologically unsafe, that is, when high levels of live disease-causing organisms or viruses are present in the water, should UV light sanitation be considered. Again, reliable UV light systems are very expensive, must be installed by an expert, use electricity and must be constantly monitored to constantly show you they are operating in the effective range. You will also have to change the bulb every year because UV light performance deteriorates over time. Lastly, a UV light, if working properly, only kills live microbes and viruses, It does not remove the dead bodies, nor does it remove any other contaminants which you may have in your source water. Therefore, it can be considered a "sanitizer" of sorts, but not a filter or a purifier.
It is interesting to note that most harmful bacteria are greater than 0.4 micron in size. A correctly engineered, sub-micron filtration system will remove disease causing bacteria like E. Coli, Fecal Coliform, and Salmonella through the combination processes of selective sub-micron sieving, electro-kinetic attraction and physical adsorption. Great advances have been made in the last several years in compact, water purification systems that utilize elite quality carbon block nano-technology. Such systems are low cost and low maintenance and employ selective sub-micron straining to 0.1 micron, electro-kinetic attraction and physical adsorption to vastly improve the purity and taste of your tap water without the removal of beneficial trace minerals. To have a very good understanding of these processes, you can read: http://www.kxtech.com/App_Docs/Extruded%20Carbon%20Block%20Provides%20Microbiological%20Reduction.pdf
http://www.kxtech.com/App_Docs/AXIAL%20VERSUS%20RADIAL%20FLOW%20TECH%20BULLETIN%2011%2018%202008.pdf
http://www.kxtech.com/App_Docs/Frank%20Brigano%20Article%20WQP_FO_Filtration_Rp1008.pdf
http://www.kxtech.com/App_Docs/WQP_WaterSuppliesSafe_Rp0308.pdf
http://www.carbonblocktech.com/pdfs/CB_Tech_Quality_Assurance_Plan.pdf
Additionally, viruses cannot function and will quickly die outside of a host organism. So, waterborne viruses, which infect bacteria and other microorganisms, will easily be removed by selective sub-micron sieving, electro-kinetic attraction and physical adsorption when the host organism is removed. However, since viruses are much smaller than bacteria, it is theoretically possible for them to slip through on their own. Thus, in the interest of absolute safety, and to minimize liability claims, ALL water purification device manufacturers, including RO and UV manufacturers, only recommend using their products with microbiologically safe, potable water supplies. If your source water is from the "Amazon River", proper pre-treatment or post-treatment with chlorine, chloramine, iodine, boiling or ozonation is always recommended, no mater what purification system you're using.
A popular scare tactic used by unscrupulous water filtration manufacturers and dealers is to claim and highlight bacteria and virus removal in an effort to have the unwary consumer believe that their filter will remove all the other contaminants. Fortunately, bacteria and viruses are NOT the major problem in municipal water systems. Mercury, lead and carcinogenic chemical residues are the main concerns. A water purification system that removes high levels of dangerous chemicals like Arsenic V, Chloramine, Chlorine, Pesticides, Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), Ploychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB's), Trihalomathanes (THM's) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's), and harmful microorganisms like Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba and Toxoplasma, and very high levels of both Lead AND Mercury along with other harmful heavy metals, and preserves the potentially beneficial minerals are the most important factors to consider in choosing any water filtration system. Further, if the system takes up a small amount of space, is easy to install and has a low long term cost, it's even better. Always look for independent EPA Protocol scientific testing to verify the claims made as well as the product meeting or exceeding NSF standards 42 & 53.
U.S EPA listed Drinking Water Contaminants: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/index.html#primary
Note: Calcium, Magnesium and Phosperous ARE NOT on the list of contaminants!
Another great list showing U.S. National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/consumer/pdf/mcl.pdf
You will find that cheaply made "faucet mounted" or "carafe" systems will have high long term costs and produce relatively poor quality water. The amount of material or "filtration media" in such a tiny, little filter element is so minuscule, you may actually end up replacing it every 30 days. Remember, filters don't work to reduce contaminants once they're used up, and long term costs start to rise very quickly with these initially cheap systems.
Calculate the average cost per gallon as well as the quality of water produced by any Water Filter System you are considering. Having a Lifetime Guarantee on the system housing is also vitally important. Please see my web site at www.supremeh2o.com and contact me if you need more information.
Neil
