Does A Berkey Filter Arsenic?
What is Arsenic?
Arsenic is a natural mineral that is found in soil, rocks, air and water, but also can be found through industrial and agricultural means. Arsenic is toxic and its inorganic form, which is arsenic combined with sulfur, oxygen and chlorine, can cause arsenic poisoning over time.
Arsenic lasts a long time in the environment and previously was used for other purposes like lumber preservatives, pesticides and even poultry feed.
Health Risks of Arsenic in Drinking Water
While arsenic is natural, the health risks are for this contaminant are very real. Its inorganic form, which can be found in drinking water, is more harmful than the organic form and can change the functions of cells or replace them altogether.
Exposure to arsenic long-term increases your risk of cancer, diabetes, arsenic poisoning, cardiovascular disease, cognitive development issues for adolescents and even death. As a result, the EPA set a new standard for arsenic levels in drinking water in 2001 to 0.01 mg/l or 10 parts per billion (ppb), which is the standard we use today.
Is Arsenic in Your Drinking Water?
There are numerous ways arsenic can get into your drinking water. Industries release chemicals in the air, including arsenic. Industries can also release chemicals like arsenic into fresh water sources that can end up into drinking water.
In the United States, the west, midwest and northeast have high levels of arsenic in water, but arsenic is found in water sources in all 50 states, serving 108 million Americans.
How To Filter Arsenic From Water
There are two ways you can filter arsenic from water: Reverse Osmosis and Ion Exchange.
Reverse Osmosis is process where a high-pressure pump that forces water through a semi-permeable membrane. It removes heavy metals, and other contaminants, but also removes minerals and nutrients your body needs. This gives you pure water, but at the cost of keeping the good.
Ion Exchange is the method Berkey Filters uses to filter contaminants, heavy metals, and other contaminants out of the water. A carbon filter attracts ions from less desirable contaminants to it and switches it out with one of another charge, bonding the old ions to the carbon filter. This process allows the good minerals to stay in the water and keeps out the contaminants you don’t want.
The Berkey Filters are unique in that it uses the ion exchange process. The systems are designed to filter out more contaminants. This is done by integrating miniature pores in the carbon filters, blocking heavy metals and chemicals. The gravity flow nature of the system itself, which slows the process down, is just enough to filter more contaminants out of the water.
Does the Berkey Filter Arsenic?
Based on test results from accredited third-party labs that have reported that the elements exceed EPA Drinking Water Standards and ANSI/NSF (Std. 53) protocol, Black Berkey filters address over 99.9% of arsenic from water. With that in mind, it is recommended to take this filtration process a step further by using the Berkey Fluoride water filter (PF-2™), which filters Arsenic III and V (pre-oxidized), alongside with Black Berkey filters.
Using both types of Berkey Filters at once is recommended because, over time, carbon elements that can filter fluoride and arsenic, like Black Berkey Filters, can lose efficiency over time. Using Fluoride Filters allows the filters to work together so that the quality of the Black Berkey is consistent over time.
Big Berkey Water Filters are one of several Berkey systems that can use these both of these filters at once for the best water filtration. Browse the Berkey Filters to find the ideal product for your family.