12 Jan Detoxifying Your Life Carbon Filtration Style

A study of 29 US cities’ water supplies uncovered all sorts of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides, as well as traces of prescription drugs.

Similar how detox diets release from your body ingredients that are unnecessary for human life, chlorine detox is necessary to release chlorine, herbicides, pesticides and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals). One of the best ways to remove chlorine from drinking water is to install a carbon filtration system. Chlorine in liquid form that is swallowed in the tap water can cause some serious detrimental effects on the human body. It can oxidize cells in the body, burning them internally. Drinking chlorine in tap water can produce many adverse effects on the body, including tingling or itching sensations all over the skin, burning or inflammation of the throat and esophagus and severe lethargy. If you will be going to use tap water to drink or cook, it will be necessary to remove chlorine from your water supply.

Here are five steps to chlorine detox your water:

Step 1:
Purchase a carbon filter or a carbon block. Carbon filters remove gaseous and low weight molecules such as chlorine, herbicides, pesticides and VOCs. Because of the excellent porosity, permeability and uniformity of the media in these filters, contact with the media is assured, allowing a very thorough adsorption of chlorine, THMs, TCE, vinyl chlorine, carbon tetrachloride, bad tastes and odors, pesticides, herbicides, VOCs and more. These molecules are some of the most toxic of chemical contaminants found in tap water, and they are not removed by reverse osmosis (the molecules are too small to be removed by the straining action of the ultra filtration feature, and due to their light weight, they not repelled by the selective permeability feature of the membrane). It is therefore, ideal to use carbon filtration in conjunction with reverse osmosis.

Step 2:
A pitcher water filter. These differ from the carbon mounted filters because they do not use compressed blocks of carbon. They use carbon fines or small flakes of carbon in the filter to remove chlorine and other harmful chlorine by-products from the water.

Step 3:
You can perform tests to determine how much chlorine is in your drinking water. Chlorine testing strips are cheap and easy to use. Take the chlorine strip and dip it in the testing water for several seconds. Then remove the strip and look at the color on the strip. Match the color on the chlorine testing strip to the color chart that comes with the instructions to determine how many parts per million (PPM) of chlorine are in your drinking water. You should ideally test the water after passing it through your chlorine filter to make sure the filter is removing all of the chlorine from your water.

Step 4:
Make sure you are replacing your carbon water filter as often as the manufacturer recommends. Carbon filters will eventually become clogged with chlorine and other by-products, reducing their effectiveness. If it gets to this point, you must buy a new filter or you may risk leaching some chlorine into your filtered water. Sink water filters last only a few months. You can install underneath your sink some of the more expensive filters which can last up to 6 months or more. To be safe, it is best to change the filter well within the recommended manufacture’s change interval and consult with a master plumber.

Step 5:
You may also remove pure chlorine from drinking water by letting water sit in an open container for over 24 hours…but who has time to wait? The chlorine will precipitate out of the water, but this process does not remove chloramines from the tap water. Many municipalities are now disinfecting water with chloramines instead of chlorine.

Questions About Carbon Filtration (h2)
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