Are you and your family being exposed to endocrine disruptors everyday by the water you drink? Here are some quick tips to avoid exposure.
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals and plastic by products that are now found in tap water that can interfere with human hormone systems at certain levels. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders in both young children and adults. Any system in the human body (both male and female) controlled by hormones can be derailed by these disruptors. Specifically, endocrine disruptors may be associated with severe attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, cognitive & brain development issues, body deformations, breast cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid and other cancers, and sexual development problems.
You’ve probably know by now that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been found in our water and environment and how these block the effect of our natural occurring hormones. Endocrine disruptors enter our water supply through a vast array of sources from industrial chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, as well as sub micron-sized plastics which contains BPA or BPA derivatives like BPS (often in “BPA-free” plastics) which is just as hormone-disruptive as BPA.
Pesticides, herbicides, pollutants, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, and phthalates all cause hormone disruption as well. Of course, drinking bottled water is not the answer as plastics of all kinds are very rich in hormone-disrupting BPA/BPS, so bottled water (which is made from the cheapest plastic that factories can find) will also have these endocrine disruptors.
So what can you do? Here are some quick tips to minimize your exposure to Endocrine Disruptors:
1. Wash your hands (this will reduce the amount of chemicals on your hands when you eat.
2. Don't use perfumes or fragrances. These are known to contain phthalates which is a known endocrine disruptor.
3. Avoid plastics at all costs. Drink from glass, like our Epic Escape Glass water bottle. Swap plastic food storage bins for glass. Get rid of all plastic cups in your kitchen and switch to glass.
4. No "canned" food: Cans contain BPA and even the ones labeled BPA are not safe. Go with fresh food or frozen food but just stay away from cans.
5. Try to eat organics foods. I know they are more expensive but your health is worth it. Organics foods are not coated with pesticides like standard foods you find at the grocery store.
6. Filter your tap water!!! Ya!! And use a solid carbon block like we do here at Epic Water Filters, this is the only way to remove endocrine disruptors from your tap water and remember, drink water out of glass containers only.
7. Last but not least, try to use better cleaning products around your house or make your own cleaning products.
At Epic Water Filters, we have tested all of our solid carbon block water filters for the removal of known endocrine disruptors. Please see our testing & certification page for product testing details. It is hard to avoid all of the potential exposures to endocrine disruptors but if you follow these tips, you and your family will limit your exposure.
Which material is better for water filters?
Which water filter type is better suited for Australian water? Water sources can contain contaminants that affect your long term health, as well as the taste & smell of the water and other microbiological contaminants that can actually make consumers sick shortly after drinking. Fortunately, there are water filtration products that remove many of these impurities from water. These filters often use carbon. Two dominant carbon filter choices are solid carbon blocks and granular activated carbon filters.
Filter Design
Granular activated carbon filters have loose granules of carbon that look like black grains of sand. Solid block carbon filters have blocks of compressed activated carbon that are formed with the combination of heat and pressure. Both filters are made from carbon that’s ground into small particulate sizes. Solid carbon blocks are ground even further into a fine mesh 7 to 19 times smaller than the granular activated carbon filters.
Less Contact Time
Flow channels also develop between the granules in the granular activated carbon filters, leading to less effective filtration as there’s less contact between the water and carbon. Solid carbon blocks are much tighter and won’t even let through microbial cysts like giardia and cryptosporidium. However, solid carbon block filters are so tight that they can often get plugged up with matter, forcing owners to replace them on a more regular basis. This is why when you are using a Brita water pitcher filter (granular carbon), the filter will keep going and going long after it has stopped removing any water contaminants. Why bother?
Better Filtration
The solid carbon block filters like the one used in the Epic Smart Shield remove more contaminants than the granular activated carbon filters due to the larger surface area and the tighter filters, this is why Epic Water Filters has standardized on the solid carbon block design for our water pitchers and our under the sink water filter. Granular activated carbon filters do not do enough to reduce contaminants and they are cheap to make. They are truly not "Epic" so that is why we have passed on this design and let our competitors like Woder, Brita, Pur, and Invigorated Water use these loose packed carbon filters for sub-par contaminant removal.
With solid carbon block filters the contaminants are in contact with more carbon for a longer period and therefore have more time to remove stubborn contaminants like lead (Epic Pure Pitcher 99.9% removal), fluoride (Epic Pure Pitcher 97.8% removal), and PFCs (Epic Pure Pitcher 99.8% removal). Carbon blocks can remove chlorine more effectively, eliminate undesirable odors, and removal endocrine disruptors like volatile organic compounds. The granular activated carbon particles move around, so the filter does not have as much uniformity throughout, unlike the solid carbon blocks.
Solid carbon blocks have millions and millions of different sized pores that cause the water to take a long slow path to get through the filter, increasing the contact time that the contaminated water has with the carbon. During this contact time is when contaminants adhere to the carbon and are removed from water. This happens during a process called adsorption, the other filtration method that carbon blocks use is called depth filtration where the thickness of the filter comes into play to help remove contaminants as they have to pass through this carbon walls.
Block vs Granulated
The granular activated carbon filters are cheap and simple to make which is why most water filtration companies (Brita & Woder) choose this method for manufacturing. Solid carbon block carbon filters on the other hand take longer to make and are more expensive but with this expense, you get better contaminant removal because the water has to take a tortured path before it reaches your family's lips.
When you purchase a gallon of milk at a grocery store, are you confident that you actually receive what you pay for? How do you know how much milk is in the jug? You know because you purchased milk using a uniform standard of measure, the U.S. liquid gallon, established by a governmental entity, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. These standards and testing against those standards, are key to consumers being confident that they are receiving what they are paying for while at the grocery store. The application of standards and testing is just as important in purchasing drinking water filters. It is the only (3rd party) objective means for the end customer to validate a drinking water filter product performance claims. There are countless drinking water filters and systems available in the market (especially Amazon), they include, filtered water bottles, whole house water filtration system, water filter pitcher or jugs, point of use water filter system, and conclusive product test results support the consumer’s ability to evaluate and differentiate among them.
Water filter testing conducted by a reputable and independent 3rd party testing laboratory is the only way to ensure unbiased test results. In the complex sciences of chemistry testing and toxicology testing that are applicable to evaluating the quality of tap water, awareness of the details behind the test results is critical to truly understanding a product’s capabilities. You cannot simply rely upon an Amazon listing or manufacturer claim; you must dive deeper and demand test results. The focus of this article is on identifying the standards that apply to the products that are commonly utilized for filtering tap water at the point of use, and on what is behind the standards that make standards compliance so important.
This article also outlines the testing process employed by the recognized leaders in testing for the water filtration industry, NSF/ANSI, IAMPO, WQA (Water Quality Association) Standards. This article also describes how a leading drinking water filter manufacturer, Epic Water Filters, employs internationally recognized standards and independent testing to help consumers evaluate and compare the company’s products to other brands in the market.
The Safe Drinking Water Act originally was passed by the United States Congress in 1974 to protect the public's health by regulating the nation’s public tap water supply. The law was amended in 1986 and 1996 and requires many actions to protect our national drinking water and its sources: rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and ground water wells. Safe Drinking Water Act authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set national health based standards for drinking water to protect against both naturally occurring and man made contaminants (like chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, etc.) that may be found in our tap water. The EPA, States, and public water utilities then work together to make certain that these standards are met and that the public is notified of testing. Founded in 1918, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a not-for-profit organization serving as the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization and the United States National Committee, the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC).
ANSI accredits and coordinates hundreds of companies and committees that develop standards for approval as American National Standards based in part on evidence of due process and consensus. ANSI provides the criteria and procedures for achieving due process and determining consensus, as well as other requirements for the development, approval, maintenance and coordination of American National Standards.
These ANSI criteria and requirements are accepted by each accredited standards developer as a condition of accreditation. NSF International (NSF) is one such ANSI accredited organization (Accreditation ID 0216). NSF was founded in 1944 as an organization devoted to public health safety and protection of the environment. Today, NSF is the leading global, independent third-party certification and testing organization for products that affect water quality and food safety. NSF is recognized as the leading authority in the development of consensus, establishing national standards that bring together experts from the regulatory, manufacturing, academic, scientific research, and consumer industries. These comprehensive standards provide the basis by which product manufacturers can demonstrate the quality, reliability and performance of their products, and through which buyers, consumers and health officials can be assured of their safety and benefits.
The NSF Drinking Water Treatment Units Certification Program for Point-Of-Use (POU) and Point-Of-Entry (POE) systems and components was first established in the early 1970s, beginning with the adoption of the first NSF Drinking Water Treatment Units Standard in 1973. Based upon Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) standards established by the EPA, and working within the auditing framework defined by ANSI, NSF sets the standards for compliance and testing for drinking water filters and systems. Today, a total of seven NSF Drinking Water Treatment Units Standards have been adopted, to which hundreds of companies have certified thousands of POU and POE systems and components used around the world to improve and protect drinking water quality.
At a regional level, a limited number of states enforce their own compliance standards for drinking water systems sold within the state. States with their own standards include California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. In most instances, states will recognize NSF certification as acceptable proof of drinking water system performance. NSF also is an active participant in testing and certification at the international level. Countries throughout the world are developing and adopting standards for the evaluation of POU and POE drinking water treatment units. For example, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has been developing such standards, also referred to as European Norms, for all of Europe.
What does NSF 42 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 42 covers point of use and point of entry systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants (such as chlorine, taste and odor, and particulates) that may be present in public or private drinking water. The scope of NSF/ANSI Standard 42 is to establish minimum requirements for material safety, structural integrity and aesthetic, non-health related contaminant reduction performance claims. The Standard applies most commonly to carbon filtration, but it also applies to other filtration media such as ceramic filters. It’s worth noting that a device may be certified under this and other NSF/ANSI Standards for specific contaminant reduction (e.g., chlorine) by meeting just the minimum level of reduction required by the Standard, not necessarily by removing all of the contaminant present in the source water. With regard to particulate reduction, several classes are used to define the level of particulate reduction, ranging from Class VI for those devices removing coarse particulates of 50 micrometers and larger, to Class I for drinking water treatment units that reduce the smallest submicron particles (i.e., 0.5 to 1.0 micron).
What does NSF 53 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 53 addresses point of use and point of entry systems designed to reduce specific health-related contaminants that may be present in public or private drinking water. NSF/ANSI Standard 53 establishes minimum requirements for material safety, structural integrity, product literature, and health related contaminant reduction performance claims. The most common technology addressed by Standard 53 is carbon filtration, and the standard includes both point of use and point of entry water filter products. Some products fall under the scope of both Standards 42 and 53 because they claim a combination of aesthetic and health claims.
NSF tests and certifies under Standard 53 if a filter system reduces a significant amount of a specific harmful contaminant from drinking water. Such hazardous contaminants may be microbiological (including filterable cysts), chemical (including disinfection byproducts, pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides), or particulate in nature. NSF may certify that a drinking water treatment units may be effective in controlling one or more of the health effects contaminants. By carefully reviewing the performance data sheet for a product, you will be able to determine whether the device is effective in reducing many pollutants or just a few.
Also Read: Solid Carbon Block Filters vs. Granular Activated Carbon Filters
Another consideration in evaluating performance claims is to be aware of the role a Performance Indication Device plays in NSF product certification. A Performance Indication Device measures the actual water usage and notifies the consumer when it is time to replace the filter cartridge. A product manufacturer may incorporate a Performance Indication Device into the drinking water system to be able to certify the same system with a higher capacity. It should be noted that a drinking water filter with a Performance Indication Device actually is tested to 120% of the capacity claimed. Without a Performance Indication Device, the filter is tested to 200% of the capacity claimed. In both instances, actual performance is the same. There are several other NSF Drinking Water Treatment Units Standards applicable to water treatment that rely upon technologies other than filtration.
What does NSF 44 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 44 – Applicable to water softener systems designed for hardness reduction and health claims. Standard 44 establishes minimum requirements for the certification of residential cation exchange water softeners. The scope of Standard 44 includes material safety, structural integrity, accuracy of the brine system, product literature, the reduction of hardness, and the reduction of specific contaminants from a known quality water source. The most popular claims made under Standard 44 are barium reduction, radium 226/228 reduction, and softener performance.
What does NSF 55 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 55 – Applicable to systems utilizing ultraviolet (UV) light to provide disinfection. Standard 55 establishes minimum requirements for the certification of UV systems. The scope of Standard 55 includes material safety, structural integrity, product literature, and UV performance. UV systems are categorized either as Class A (delivers minimum 40 mJ/cm2 UV dose and has an alarm) or Class B (delivers minimum 16 mJ/cm2). Systems may be POU or POE. Class A systems may claim to disinfect water that may be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, viruses, Cryptosporidium, or Giardia. Class B systems may claim to reduce normally occurring nuisance microorganisms.
What does NSF 58 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 58 – Applicable to systems employing reverse osmosis technology to address total dissolved solids (TDS) reduction and health claims. Standard 58 establishes minimum requirements for the certification of POU reverse osmosis systems. The scope of Standard 58 includes material safety, structural integrity, product literature, TDS reduction, and additional contaminant reduction claims. These additional contaminant reduction claims may include the reduction of cysts, barium, radium 226/228, copper, hexavalent and trivalent chromium, arsenic, nitrate/nitrite, cadmium, and lead.
What does NSF 62 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 62 – Applicable to distillation systems designed for TDS reduction and health claims. Standard 62 establishes minimum requirements for the certification of POU and POE distillation systems. The scope of Standard 62 includes material safety, structural integrity, product literature, TDS, and additional contaminant reduction claims.
What does NSF 61 mean?
• NSF/ANSI Standard 61 applies to drinking water treatment products, but it is focused at the component level rather than at the system level like the other Standards. Standard 61 typically is referenced in relation to material extraction testing conducted for municipal drinking water system components. Components certified to meet Standard 61 have been tested for material safety and, if applicable, structural integrity, but not for aesthetic and/or health claims.
The Water Quality Association (WQA) is an American based trade association representing the water filter industry in the USA. It has more than 2,500 members consisting of both manufacturers as well as dealers/distributors of equipment. The Water Quality Association was founded in 1974 from the merger of two trade associations, the Water Conditioning Association International which represented water treatment dealers and the Water Conditioning Foundation which primarily comprised water treatment equipment manufactures.
WQA represents the water treatment industry as a whole devoted to treating water for both residential and commercial/industrial use. Final barrier has become the industry standard preventing waterborne contaminants in treated water. WQA's member companies are committed to making sure that water safe following industry regulations.
• Water Quality Association’s Gold Seal - Certification Program is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Standards Council of Canada (SCC) to test and certify products for conformance with industry standards, including those published by NSF International.
• Water Quality Association’s Sustainability Certification Program is the only ANSI accredited environmental certification program in the drinking water industry. The Sustainability Certification Mark helps retailers and consumers recognize products that have been manufactured according to industry standards for recognized best practices in environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility. It helps show that the product is safe for both people and Earth.
April Jones
Blogger, hiker, clean living enthusiast, & water quality expert