Water softeners only remove the minerals calcium and magnesium to deal with hard water; they do not filter water or remove contaminants. Even if you already have a water softener installed, you will still need to use a water filter to remove impurities so that water is safe for drinking, cooking, and showering.
We all need to drink water on a daily basis. We all consume it because it is essential to our survival. The first step in taking care of your body is what you put inside of it.
Many individuals believe that drinking water merely flushes out toxins that have accumulated in your body. However, consuming water might actually keep you strong and healthy! Our health and wellbeing depend on drinking water, but it’s crucial to know what you’re getting when you open the faucet.
Do water softeners remove contaminants? is one of the questions we at Homeopolics are asked quite frequently. Yes and no, is the response.
Some toxins in your water may be removed by water softeners, but not all of them. Hard water is treated using a water softener to get rid of minerals and certain metals. Other elements in the water, such as bacteria, viruses, and other microbes, are not removed by it.
Additionally, water softeners won’t get rid of substances like PFOA and PFAS (found in Teflon goods), which are proven carcinogens and can accumulate in your body over time even if you consume low-level amounts on a regular basis for many years. Let’s examine what a water softener will and won’t remove from your water in more detail.
A water softener is what?
A device known as a water softener uses salt to eliminate hard minerals from water. In residences, workplaces, and industries, they are employed. Water softeners are frequently utilized in irrigation and drinking water systems, but they can also be used in industrial processes (such as cooling towers).
The most popular kind of water softener physically exchanges sodium ions with calcium, magnesium, and iron ions present in hard water using ion-exchange resin beads or resins.
What Contaminants could be in my Drinking Water?
Many vital minerals and nutrients can be found in your drinking water, but they can also be contaminated.
You can use the EPA’s helpful tool “Tap Water Quality Information” to search by zip code if you’re wondering what’s in your city water.
For more information, you can also contact the municipality or utility company that supplies the water services. If you are a homeowner with a personal well, you must sample and test your own water regularly.
One of the most prevalent contaminants in municipal drinking water is bacteria, which often originates from human and animal waste as well as specific industrial operations. Healthy adults are harmed by this contamination, and those with weakened immune systems or newborns who consume formula manufactured with contaminated tap water may also be at danger.
Our drinking water contains chlorine to fight germs and other illnesses. Although it works quite well, there are some negative side effects.
For instance, chlorine can irritate your skin and burn your eyes when you use it in the shower or when you swim in a chlorine-treated pool. If you consume too much of it, it can also irritate your stomach and make you sick.
Overexposure to chlorine can cause asthma episodes or possibly cancer, which are more severe long-term effects. Trihalomethanes (THMs), which are naturally occurring compounds in water, can also react with chlorine to produce haloacetic acids (HAAs). You can be more vulnerable to its effects if you have a weak immune system or an underlying renal problem. It is not advisable for anyone who has certain disorders to use chlorinated tap water.
Organic substances called nitrates are found in soil on a regular basis. They may also result from fertilizer runoff into lakes and streams that feed a town’s water supply from upstream agricultural areas (like ours).
If there are high nitrate concentrations in drinking water, breastfeeding or bottle-feeding infants with formula manufactured with nitrate-rich bottled sources like well water or rainwater collection systems can make infants under six months unwell if they consume too much.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which affects specific kidney proteins, can prevent calcium from being absorbed. Nonstick cookware, carpet, apparel, paper goods, and firefighting foam all contain PFOA. It has been connected to a number of illnesses, including thyroid issues and cancer.
Polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are another class of pollutants. Cancer and liver damage are just two health issues that PFAS has been connected to. Numerous products include these chemicals, including nonstick cookware, takeout containers from fast food restaurants, takeaway burgers, cleaning supplies, carpeting, and furniture upholstery.
If your well has a lot of manganese, it could cause rashes, hair loss, and irritated skin. For drinking water, the EPA’s maximum contamination limit is 0.05 mg/L. (5 ppb). However, if you suspect that your well may be contaminated with manganese or other heavy metals from nearby mines or rock formations that contain ore deposits, it would be wise to have a professional test performed by an accredited lab.
This way, you can be sure of what kind of treatment system will work best for removing the contaminants from your water source.
You should also check your drinking water for any dangerous metals like lead or arsenic. These metals affect how well our bodies function as a total system rather than simply as individual sections, thus if ingested over time, they may be hazardous (like bones).
Do Water Softeners Remove Water Pollutants?
Water softeners do indeed remove some impurities from your water. By substituting sodium ions for magnesium and calcium in the water, a water softener creates a low-mineral solution that is simple for your skin and hair to absorb. This method also makes it simpler to remove toothpaste smears, soap scum, and other deposits from your home’s touch surfaces.
The important thing to note here is that the contaminants being eliminated are related to the minerals in hard water and not just any chemicals that might be present in well or city water supplies at random. This implies that dissolved solids like calcium and magnesium are the two major sorts of impurities that you need to be concerned about in order to determine whether or not your softener will be helpful.
Water softeners can remove certain impurities from your water, but extra treatment tools are required to completely eliminate other contaminants.
Water treatment systems typically come in the following varieties:
-
Water Softeners
These systems use a resin bed containing media particles to convert magnesium and calcium into sodium (like beads). The technique successfully lowers hardness levels but leaves behind no additional contaminant types.
-
Reverse Osmosis Systems
In this system, the feed water is forced under pressure across a semi-permeable membrane that removes dissolved particles like salts and minerals while letting pure H2O molecules pass through unaltered.
While reverse osmosis is an efficient way to get rid of many impurities, it also gets rid of vital minerals like calcium, which are crucial for keeping bones and teeth healthy.
ALSO SEE: Do Water Softeners Remove PFAS?
-
UV Light Treatment Systems (Ultraviolet Light)
In order to prevent further damage later on at the point when it enters our bodies, UV light kills bacteria by causing their DNA to break apart into worthless bits that can no longer replicate. This effectively kills them off before they can multiply sufficiently within your home’s plumbing system.
To get rid of germs, chlorine, iron, PFOA, PFAS, and other contaminants, you’ll need extra treatment equipment.
Minerals like calcium and magnesium can be eliminated by water softeners, but bacteria, chlorine, iron, PFOA, PFAS, lead, arsenic, or pesticides cannot be.
Other types of treatment equipment, such as a carbon filter to remove chlorine and other chemicals from tap water, a UV light to eliminate bacteria, or a reverse osmosis system for drinking and cooking, must be installed in order to lessen the toxicity of your water supply.
Other areas of the United States contain a wide variety of pollutants. And although though it’s hard to discuss all of the potential solutions here, we hope this post has provided you with some concepts to think about independently.
Please get in touch with c and j water right away if you have any queries about water softeners or other equipment for your home’s treatment; we’re happy to help.