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Leaching: Metal escaping into the water supply Having just received a letter from the city Health Department (because of the age of the house) suggesting the incoming water pipe should be inspected to see if it was made from lead reminds us that this is a good time to talk about toxic metals in your water supply.  This is particularly important if someone is pregnant or there are young children in the house. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tells us that if the levels of dissolved lead in our water exceed 15 parts per billion (ppb) then we need to...

Getting rid of Organic Solutes There are two mechanisms by which activated carbon removes contaminants from water.  The first one is called adsorption, which is not to be confused with absorption.  The second one is called catalytic reduction. Adsorption vs Absorption Since the spelling is very similar people often confuse these two terms.  When you clean up some spilled water with a paper towel, the moisture is absorbed, and travels inside the actual structure of the paper fibers.  That doesn’t happen with activated carbon. Activated carbon uses adsorption, a principle which is much more like flypaper because unwanted chemicals stick...

It sounds complicated… What is it? It really isn’t that difficult.  With activated carbon filtration, you may remember, it works because the carbon has an immense surface area.  An amount that would just cover your thumbnail possesses the same surface area as a full-sized NHL hockey rink.  Carbon filtration relies on the fact that the water (and the impurities within) comes into contact with the carbon surface and the impurities get trapped like flies on flypaper. KDF filters use a completely different principle.  Using high-purity copper and zinc alloys interspersed with brass granules creates a tiny little electric field resulting...

Not what the doctor ordered You may find this astonishingly hard to believe, but the FDA (yes, the Food & Drug Administration, of these United States) recommends washing your old drugs down the sink, or flushing your old drugs down the toilet!  In the case of the latter, it includes things like transdermal fentanyl patches (Isn’t that just terrific for your plumbing). Why do they suggest this?  Apparently not everybody has access to proper disposal facilities, they tell us.  They are so concerned with getting OxyContin and Percocet out of your medicine cabinet to make sure that someone doesn’t take...