You see, water purifiers for home-use are designed to remove chemicals, egg-like microscopic creatures known as cysts and other things that either the municipal utilities cannot remove, add in themselves or that get in after it leaves the plant.

You might say that water purification began in the United States in 1908. Before that time, typhoid fever killed one out of every thousand people in cities like Chicago and New York. What happened to reduce that death toll? Chlorination was introduced.

Chlorine disinfection was considered a major achievement. Public health benefits far outweighed any initial criticism. It wasn’t until 1970 that scientists learned about the disadvantages and we began to see the first rudimentary home water purifier.

Today, facilities may use either chlorine or bromine to chemically disinfect. When either is added to water containing living organisms such as algae, plant life and bacteria, a reaction occurs that produces a compound known as trihalomethane. THMs, as they are called are known to cause cancer. Most water purifiers for the kitchen and shower remove chlorine, but many do not remove bromine or THMs.

The Environmental Protection Agency limits the total amount of THM that is safe to 80 parts per billion. If you read your local water quality report, the contaminant will be listed as TTHM, which is just an abbreviation for “total” THMs. (I was confused at first and thought it was a different compound.) In order for a water purification system to effectively remove all of these compounds, a combination of granular activated carbon and multi-media blocks must be used.

In a water purifier, multi-media blocks are used to target specific contaminants. The best technology in water purifiers targets thousands of different chemicals that are known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including THMs, VOCs, pesticides, herbicides, industrial solvents, gasoline additives and many others.

Public water purification facilities can do very little to remove most of these. They target bacteria, of course, large objects, like trees, limbs, dirt and trash. They can remove toxic metals like lead at the sight, but they seep in as the water passes through the pipes.

Selecting the right water purifier for your home can be confusing. Prices vary greatly and the terminology is sometimes misleading. There is one product that uses the word “pure” on it’s packaging, but the company admits that the products are not water purifiers. They simply remove chlorine and odor, which means they only contain granular activated carbon and no media blocks.

I guess it depends on how you define “pure”, but to me anything called pure-water should be free of anything that could be harmful to me or my family. The most technologically advanced water purification systems are available and affordable. There is no reason to drink unfiltered or buy bottled.

William Manning has spent the last 3 years completing his PhD in Nutritional Science. His thesis focused on the deteriorating condition of the water supply and how that affects human health and well-being. Visit his water purification blog at http://www.absolute-pure-water.com to discover which water purification system he uses and recommends.