PUR faucet water filter/are they good enough for DC water?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Associated Press came out with a huge investigative story about this last March. This caused me to do a ton of research and figure out which water source, filter, system... was best for my family.

And your conclusion?

[Anonymous]

To get spring water delivered.

[Anonymous]

Do you really think it's enough to affect children? I googled it and it sounded like only trace amounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you really think it's enough to affect children? I googled it and it sounded like only trace amounts.

My kids drink almost nothing but water, so it wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

[Anonymous]

spring water? really? it's my understanding that spring water is not necessarily tested or regulated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you really think it's enough to affect children? I googled it and it sounded like only trace amounts.

My kids drink almost nothing but water, so it wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

No, I'm not judging your decision, I really want to know if you think it's enough to affect children. I ask because I thought one of my kids got a terrible reaction to our water filter, but maybe it was to the pharmaceuticals in the water that the filter wasn't made to filter out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:spring water? really? it's my understanding that spring water is not necessarily tested or regulated.

Things have changed. They actually required to do tests every quarter, but most companies do testing more frequently than that. They want people to know that they are safe and reliable. I would stick with the bigger companies. Deer Park gets it's water from a spring in Maine, and Crystal Springs gets there from a spring in PA.

As far as the meds in the water, I don't know what the chances are that things will effect my children in the short term, but I wonder what type of lasting effect it will have as these things build up in their systems.

I also wanted to approach things in the greenest way possible. While renting or buying a reverse osmosis system would have provided me with clean water, we would have needed magnesium supplements. Not a huge deal. The biggest thing was the amount of waste water that was produced. It didn't make sense to take three gallons of water and make it into just one gallon of clean water.

I could have gotten small bottles of spring water in cases from Costco. The big problem with those is that there is too much waste. Yes, I would recycle them, but there would be so many to recycle. The petroleum that is used, and how far the bottles are shipped, anywhere from across the country to half way across the world, is just too much of an impact for me.

I found that the five gallon bottles used by the home delivery companies are used 50 times or more, and then recycled. Since the two big companies in our area get water from relatively close areas, there I wasn't as worried about the carbon footprint.

I also don't care for fluoride in the water. I also don' trust that we don't question that the government is dumping it into our water, without any care as to weather or not we want it there.

[Anonymous]

The problem with bottled water is that it does not have fluoride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with bottled water is that it does not have fluoride.

She doesn't want fluoride. (I don't, either.)

[Anonymous]

If you're concerned about fluoride, get a flouride tooth rinse. I have actually read some things suggesting that flouride is sketchy, even though it makes me feel like Citizen Kane... You know, they're after my precious body fluids and poisoning me with flouride! Maybe he was onto something.

Interestingly enough, this was all on the Colbert Report last night. I haven't read his research directly, but there was a scientist on there talking about this exact issue, and he mentioned the Potomac directly, and said that there IS a discernable effect on children already, with an increase of 7 percent in the amount of boys with undescended testicles. Damn! I don't know how many cases of this there are in the first place, but that was a sobering number.

My husband and I were going to get a filtration system for under our sink, but it seems like that might not be enough. You all think Spring Water is better? Maybe that's the way to go. We have been trying to be so good about not using plastics. You know, that's another thing, though, are the spring water bottles safe enough, given the fact that they are encased in soft plastic, which may also be a concern? Do you use glass bottles?

[Anonymous]

9:29 here -- and with that post, I've officially exposed myself as one of the millions of people getting their news from Comedy Central...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're concerned about fluoride, get a flouride tooth rinse. I have actually read some things suggesting that flouride is sketchy, even though it makes me feel like Citizen Kane... You know, they're after my precious body fluids and poisoning me with flouride! Maybe he was onto something.

Interestingly enough, this was all on the Colbert Report last night. I haven't read his research directly, but there was a scientist on there talking about this exact issue, and he mentioned the Potomac directly, and said that there IS a discernable effect on children already, with an increase of 7 percent in the amount of boys with undescended testicles. Damn! I don't know how many cases of this there are in the first place, but that was a sobering number.

My husband and I were going to get a filtration system for under our sink, but it seems like that might not be enough. You all think Spring Water is better? Maybe that's the way to go. We have been trying to be so good about not using plastics. You know, that's another thing, though, are the spring water bottles safe enough, given the fact that they are encased in soft plastic, which may also be a concern? Do you use glass bottles?

Don't forget the general from Dr. Strangelove!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're concerned about fluoride, get a flouride tooth rinse. I have actually read some things suggesting that flouride is sketchy, even though it makes me feel like Citizen Kane... You know, they're after my precious body fluids and poisoning me with flouride! Maybe he was onto something.

Interestingly enough, this was all on the Colbert Report last night. I haven't read his research directly, but there was a scientist on there talking about this exact issue, and he mentioned the Potomac directly, and said that there IS a discernable effect on children already, with an increase of 7 percent in the amount of boys with undescended testicles. Damn! I don't know how many cases of this there are in the first place, but that was a sobering number.

My husband and I were going to get a filtration system for under our sink, but it seems like that might not be enough. You all think Spring Water is better? Maybe that's the way to go. We have been trying to be so good about not using plastics. You know, that's another thing, though, are the spring water bottles safe enough, given the fact that they are encased in soft plastic, which may also be a concern? Do you use glass bottles?

No, I use the plastic bottles. I use the water company that has a closer delivery, and I know that between the source and here the water isn't left in the truck for hours upon hours in the sunlight. I also like that I live right down the road from the distribution center, and I get my water first thing, so it hasn't been sitting on that truck all day either.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the spring water from all major companies is delivered in 5-gallon bottles made of polycarbonate, which is the type of plastic that contains BPA. The BPA leaches out of the plastic even under the best of conditions, but more so when the plastic is older or heated.

Unfortunately there is no perfect option for drinking water. It's really appalling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9:29 here -- and with that post, I've officially exposed myself as one of the millions of people getting their news from Comedy Central...

Me too, 9:29. But to be fair to both of us, the guest who talked about this topic was Nicholas Kristof.