Keeping Your Water Clean: Make Water Filters a Priority

Renegade Water Secrets with Mike Adams, founder of naturalnews.com.

Kevin: Let's switch gears here and this is probably an even bigger topic. I get so many questions about filters and that's one of the reasons why I decided to put together this program, because people are really confused about water filters. They're confused about distilled water. They're confused about reverse osmosis. They're confused about carbon filters. Let's talk a little bit about all of those and what have you seen that’s working in terms of the specific types of filters and then we'll talk about the different brands that maybe you've done some independent research on.

Mike: Okay.

Kevin: What are the pluses and minuses of each one?

Mike: Okay, sure. Well, the most important thing in all this, I think, is just use some filter. Let’s just start there. Some people end up hesitating, a deer in the headlights situation and they don't buy any filter, because they don't know which one to buy. That’s worst case, because you definitely want to filter. The second thing is, don't forget the shower. I think we actually absorb more toxic chemicals from the water and the shower than we would drinking tap water and that's because first of all, there is lot more water rushing over your body, because I might take a shower in 10 gallons of water, but you're sure not to drink 10 gallons of water. Secondly, the hot water, of course, opens your pores. So it makes your pores able to absorb all the chlorine and all these other chemicals that could be in the water. So I think for many people, the shower is if not the first place to start it certainly should be high in list. You've got to have a shower filter and then of course, a drinking water filter at the same time. So I think there’s two filters that are necessary. In my own home, Kevin, I use reverse osmosis in my kitchen and then I use basically, a carbon block filter from Aquasana, which also has some material that in it that absorbs the VOCs, the volatile organic chemicals and that takes care of everything I'm concerned about the shower and I’ve also started to carry a shower filter with me when I travel. As you go to a hotel or resort -- I was saying in a condo in Florida a couple weeks ago doing some work there and I brought a shower fertile filter with me and it was a good thing, too, because they use a lot of chlorine down there.

Kevin: Okay.

Mike: So pack it in your luggage and bring it with you and you can quickly install it in a hotel. Just be sure not to forget and leave it there. Take it back home with you.

Kevin: The thing about the shower filters, they’re not that expensive.

Mike: Not at all. No. I mean $70 or $80?

Kevin: Yeah.

Mike: The cartridge usually lasts a year?

Kevin: Yeah.

Mike: Which is amazing to me that they can absorb that much material over that long of a period of time.

Kevin: I know.

Mike: The cost is really quite low.

Kevin: Why did you choose reverse osmosis?

Mike: Well, I like the way the system is configured, because it can generate water ahead of time.

Kevin: Okay.

Mike: Then there's a tank under the sink. I also like the fact that RO gets the particulate matter in the water down to very low number. For me, I think it's down to 40 ppm right now and that's a pretty good number. It means to have a base water to work with, because I don't expect my water to really have minerals and it and if I'm going to add minerals I'm going to blend it with some organic celery, for example, or other super fruits and things like that. That's how I get my minerals. I don't really want minerals in my water. I could have gone with water distillation, but the reason I don't like that, Kevin, is it takes so much energy to distill water and I think it's bad for the environment.

Kevin: Okay.

Mike: You think about the energy it takes and the electricity it takes and how much coal is being burned down the road, just to boil that gallon of water. That's too much. I know some people would say well, what about reverse osmosis. It wastes so much water. It wastes 5 gallons of water, typically, for every 1 gallon that it produces. I understand that, but that's a conscious decision. I think that wasting water is less bad for the environment than burning coal to boil water. You really can't waste water. I know you can waste fresh water, but that water isn’t gone. It goes back in the environment and it comes back around later. We can still drink it later.

Kevin: It's not like you're adding anything to it that would poison the environment more.

Mike: Exactly. It's not like it's leaving the planet. It’s here.

Kevin: Right.

Mike: We just have to clean it again.

Kevin: Right. You're not shipping it off to Mars.

Mike: Right. If we were losing water we'd be in real trouble on earth.

Kevin: Yeah, I know. I know some people can’t afford the high ticket filters. The $300 and $400 and $600, $1,000 filters. What do you think about some of the stuff that you can buy at the store? Say you go to Kmart or something like that and there’s a Brita filter or something like that.

Mike: I think it's a great place to start. I really do.

Kevin: Okay.

Mike: There's not a lot of stuff that Kmart or Wal-Mart that I recommend, but this is one of them. Pur or Brita is the other popular brand. These are great. They really do work. They remove a lot of these dangerous chemicals. On the issue of money, Kevin, I don't want some blunt or inconsiderate or insensitive, but the fact is people can afford these things. It's just a question of priorities. I've had people come into the health clinic and they've spent $15,000 on in vitro fertilization with drugs and needles and it didn't work and then they complained about having spent $60 on acupuncture that might actually restore their fertility. People spend money on Starbucks coffee, $1000 a year. People spend money and all kinds of crazy stuff. You've got the money, believe me. You’ve got the money to buy water filters. It's just a question of whether it's important to you. That's all. If you think you can't afford it, well, disconnect your cable. You save $50 or $60 a month right there. Disconnect cable and get yourself a water filter. It's better to not poison your body than it is to poison your brains from cable TV, isn't it?

Kevin: I haven't had TV in years.

Mike: I know. Who has time?