First, check out the Washington Post article at: http://wapo.st/fj647D
This is scary, but John Baethke & Son Plumbing is already on the job to discover how we can protect ourselves. Every day all over the United States we are discovering new things in our water to be concerned about. Remember, bottled water is not the answer. Over 40% of bottled water is just filtered tap water, and they can charge you as high as 10,000 times the cost of the water to filter it for you. You can filter your own water and have bottled water quality at the tap. Also, remember that many of the contaminants that you take into your body are from inhaling while showering, as well as absorption through your skin while showering. Buying bottled water obviously doesn’t address those concerns.
Back to the Washington Post article. This discovery is very disturbing because the only way to remove chromium is through reverse osmosis, and whole house systems of this type cannot be installed in our city. We can only install point of use systems. Although we have systems that remove the majority of carcinogens from our water, like chlorine and chloramine. I am still hard at work to bring to you the filter that can remove the metals. Look for more on this subject soon.
Subscribe to Baethke Plumbing's Blog
Comments
Sorry for the delay in my response. I have consulted with many water experts and it has been agreed that only through Reverse Osmosis can you remove that metal. I don't see how changing the PH would make a difference. Maybe you could give me a little more detail about your idea.
Good to hear from someone with some actual knowledge of the water industry on this. I have to say that as a chemist I am far from convinced that the extremely low levels quoted in the article actually represent any kind of health risk. But if it turns out that there is some kind of effect even from a few parts per billion of hexavalent chlorine, wouldn't it be possible to get rid of it just by temporarily lowering the pH somewhere in the water supply? That would very rapidly covert the chromium to the much safer trivalent form. That ought to be a cheaper option than reverse osmosis I would have thought?