Question from guspvt
Hi Debra!
I want to purchase a filter that eliminates (or at least reduce) Fluoride / Hydrofluorosilicic Acid in my tap water and I don’t want to use a Reverse Osmosis or Distillation filter.
So, I narrowed my search down to 5 filters, of different brands, and they all claim they eliminate Fluoride / Hydrofluorosilicic Acid using Aluminum (or Activated Alumina).
Concerned about Aluminum/Alumina leaching into the water, I asked the manufacturers if this leaching would occur, and they all said it wouldn’t. But Debra, my main concern (and the reason I’m asking for your help) is: How can I rest assured that the Aluminum/Alumina will NOT leach into the water I’ll be drinking? Do you know if this leaching will NOT occur? I’m afraid I might be exchanging Fluoride for Aluminum, and that’s not a good trade-off at all in my opinion.
Thanks!
Gustavo
Debra’s Answer
First of all, fluoride is NOT easily removed from water. There are only a handful of ways to remove it.
We make a combination granular activated carbon / reverse osmosis / deionization filter that is exceptional removing fluoride and all other contaminants. But the original post asked about something other than RO or distillation, which you are correct limits choices (even RO won’t remove ALL fluoride). In regards to activated alumina, it is a very effective method and leaches very, very little in normal water pH ranges. Once you get below about pH 6 you will start to get some leachate. An article I found recently has more details, but doesn’t offer any info regarding what the acceptable ranges of pH are. So consider if your water is near pH 7 (say 6.5 – 7.5) you can expect the activated alumina to be relatively inert. It seems the EU finds any leaching in normal conditions to be well below what they consider “safe” levels for human consumption. Still, it does appear there is an extremely small trace (parts per billion level, or micrograms) of aluminum ions when using activated alumina. Also, the source is important, has it been rinsed, etc.
See http://www.purewaterproducts.com/articles/activated-alumina (the link to the actual PDF was a monster, so I found a site that reprinted it. Though I hate to link to a competitor.)
I would personally not use bone-char without additional treatment.
What about BERKEY WATER FILTERS? They have flouride filters and I seem to hear good feedback from them.
COMMENT FROM DEBRA:
Berkey water filters have been discussed extensively on several posts: Berkey water filter search results
Yes, the bone char conundrum. Latest research I’ve done leads me to believe that one should make sure the bone char used is NSF certified. There seems to be an issue with contaminants being in much of the available bone char. In certain applications, it appears to not matter, but in our drinking water…! This is a most serious concern. I would not just leave it to my bone char provider to say “it’s clean”. The source must provide testing certification with EVERY shipment or there is no proof. And likely, most bone char is not clean.
Haven’t connected with my Brimac contact in a while. Will do so when able. We were working on developing a block form of bone char cartridges using NSF certified bone char. Tried to connect Jerry at Promo Life with Brimac but don’t know if that happened. (This isn’t my field, just an aware water consumer.) Don’t know if Brimac dropped the project. I had several people testing the cartridges in their home water systems in municipalities that fluoridate the water. Seemed to work as well or better than the granular bone char version and didn’t muck up the other filters following the bone char.
Not sure how long bone char works efficiently. One would really need a testing kit to test it regularly.
As to the treatment of cows…I’m not convinced that any of the sources would really know and I now doubt the veracity of the India positive cow treatment stories. Even Brimac, a major player in the field, gets their bone char from the best available source at any time. That could be India, South America, or elsewhere.
I don’t “think” prions will be an issue. I read research showing that the bones were heated at such high temperatures that the prions couldn’t exist.
Debra and all – thank you for this invaluable forum! I’ve done a lot of research (as is seems other have also done here) regarding fluoride removal, bone char and alumina.
Based upon especially Bruce’s recommendation here, I was set to buy the Promolife 4-stage bone char setup (3 bone char filters plus one carbon block), but then my wife asked a very good question…where does this bone char come from? I asked Promolife and they sent me a PDF of the bone char they use “HA2 Supra-L”, which is the same bone char that Pure Earth technologies uses (another bone char based fluoride filter company) as they sent me the same PDF. On the PDF the company who manufactures (or more likely, resells) the bone char is Carbon Link. Their website doesn’t work and phone/emails have gone unanswered. Maybe I have caught them at a bad time. When I called, I heard a hushy machine message “you’ve reached (a woman’s name) and Carbon Link”, which sounded a bit unprofessional to me.
In the comments below, Bruce said (he’s forgotten the details) that he found that most of the bone char comes from India and a secondary source in Argentina. Guspvt said Promolife says they get their bone char from South America, and this comment was from 2011. Promolife is now saying they get their bone char from Carbon Link, based in Illinois.
Bruce – our issue is similar to yours. We are not vegetarians but we do aim to buy/use animal products that are raised with respect and kindness. If truly the bone char being used in the USA is mostly coming from India from cows not raised for meat and let lived to the end of their natural life, that seems pretty good to me. Not that I have anything against cows being raised for meat, but in the USA, most of it is pretty scary, with the farmers and producers having no meaningful caring connection to the animals. In India (only read about it, not been there myself), cows are not eaten and roam the streets and are seen by the general public as sacred animals. Seems like a wonderful source for cow bones for char.
Promolife has been excellent in responding to my questions. Most recently, they admit they themselves still have not received a real answer from the bone char producers as to how the animals are treated. They said they are considering offering two sources of bone char, one from Carbon Link (current) and another from Brimac Carbon Services (based in the UK, which Bruce has recommended on this comment section). I’ve sent emails to Brimac and hope to hear from them more of the details of the source of their bone char. I’ll post an update here once I find out more.
PD – I’m no bone char expert as I’m only beginning my journey with it. I’ve constructed a personal homemade berkey filter, with an extra bucket conatining to containers of an activated carbon and bone char mixture. I purchased from a seller that said the bones come from india where the cattle are not bred for slaughter. Additionally, spines and skulls are not used (in case of prions, although there seems to be debate that the heat used to char the bone would kill prions).
Additionally, an excerpt on promolife’s website warns about the HA2-Supra L char because it is ground too fine and may clog filters http://www.promolife.com/cart/air-water-purifiers/water-purifiers/fluoride-removal-filters
I hope that info provided some help, although it seems my comment is posting quite some time after yours.