Is water filtration really better than bottled?
It depends on your filter. Here's what we did:
1. We sampled water from the worst drinking fountain we’ve seen in New York City, supplying raw city water with high levels of contaminants such as lead, copper, nitrates, THMs and more.
2. Then we sampled water from the same fountain after filtration by a BETTER WATERS TX9000 - which had already been in use for four months.
3. We also sampled bottled water (Poland Spring) from a typical office water cooler.
For the three sources of water above, analysis was conducted by National Testing Laboratories: Sample Codes 8081280 (before filtration), 8100901 (after filtration), and 25214 (Poland Spring).
The table below shows the points of comparison among the three water analyses.
|
Factor
|
MCL* set
by EPA
|
Unfiltered fountain water:
|
Same fountain, after TX9000 filtration
|
Bottled water cooler:
(Poland Spring)
|
|
Chromium
|
0.1 ppm**
|
ND***
|
ND***
|
0.009
|
|
Copper
|
1.3
|
7.1
|
ND
|
ND
|
|
Iron
|
0.3
|
0.21
|
ND
|
ND
|
|
Lead
|
0.015
|
0.038
|
ND
|
ND
|
|
Manganese
|
0.05
|
0.070
|
ND
|
0.008
|
|
Zinc
|
5
|
1.1
|
ND
|
0.008
|
|
Nitrates
|
10
|
0.5
|
ND
|
0.5
|
|
Sulfates
|
250
|
7
|
ND
|
7
|
|
Total Dissolved Solids
|
500
|
62
|
52
|
47
|
|
Turbidity
|
1.0
|
0.5
|
ND
|
ND
|
|
Total THMs
|
0.080
|
0.057
|
ND
|
ND
|
* MCL The Maximum Contaminant Level established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
** ppm or (mg/l) = parts per million, except Turbidity measured in Turbidity Units.
*** ND Not Detected.
Exceeds MCL established by EPA.
Conclusion: Not only did a TX9000 filter reduce the contaminants found in “worst-case-scenario” city water to the level of "Not Detected", the result was actually purer than Poland Spring bottled.