How to Remove Lead From Drinking Water 

In my last article, you learned about the cause of lead in tap water and the health problems associated with exposure to it. Here you will learn about the two methods for removing it. 

ü  Reverse Osmosis 

For many years, reverse osmosis was considered the most effective method of home purification. Today, it is not the method of choice for many reasons. 

Although effective for removing lead, copper, minerals and particulates, reverse osmosis does not remove chemical contaminants like chlorine.

Chemicals are a big problem, too. Exposure to chlorine byproducts increases a person’s lifetime risk of cancer. So, a person who installed a reverse osmosis purifier would still need a system for removing chemicals. 

Other disadvantages of reverse osmosis include expense, high maintenance, noise, space requirements, energy usage and wastewater disposal. Technological developments in recent years have all but rendered the systems obsolete. 

ü  Ion Exchange 

The better home purifiers include an ion exchange step to address the issue of copper and lead in tap water. With ion exchange, ions of heavy metals are exchanged for ions of electrolyte minerals, usually sodium and potassium. Not only does this improve the safety, it also improves the taste. 

In order to get ion exchange, you will need to look for a multi-stage selective filtration system. 

ü  Multi-Stage 

The term multi-stage should be relatively easy to understand. Basically the companies that make multi-stage devices include steps that remove chemicals, particulates and traces of heavy metals. Yet, they are able to keep the package small enough to fit on a countertop or attach to a showerhead. Filtering the shower-water is recommended because lead and chemicals can be absorbed through the skin. 

ü  Selective 

Although you want to get rid of the lead in tap water, you do not want to remove naturally occurring minerals. They are good for your health and change how the water tastes. Reverse osmosis is not selective. It takes out the good and the bad. Ion exchange systems are set to recognize hazardous heavy metals, but they ignore healthy minerals. 

ü  Filtration 

Filtration is relatively simple. Particles large enough to be trapped are filtered out by a sieve-like micron sized channel. Chemicals that could not be filtered out are trapped on the surface of carbon granules.  

The lead in tap water cannot be filtered out even with a submicron filter. That’s why ion exchange is necessary. The pores in the membranes of a reverse osmosis filter do remove some, but not all traces of lead. Ion exchange is actually more effective. 

ü  A Complete System 

Since there are so many different kinds of contaminants present in publicly treated water supplies, a complete system makes the most sense. Why address only one issue when it is just as easy and affordable to address them all? 

The only way to know the amount of lead in tap water is to have testing conducted. As I mentioned in my last article, testing is expensive. It becomes even more expensive to test when you are concerned about a variety of different contaminants. You pay for each test. It makes sense to me to assume that all of the contaminants are present and use the money you would have spent on testing to buy a good home purifier.   

Here is the one we highly recommend.