Question from J. L.
I just bought a water filter and I’m not sure I bought the right one. What should I be looking for in a water filter?
Debra’s Answer
This is a big question. There is a whole chapter on choosing water filters in Home Safe Home, and I’m also in the process of writing a how-to guide for the website.
Here’s a simple place to start.
Most water filter advertisements say they remove a whole long list of pollutants. But what is more important to know is what pollutants do you want to remove from your water?
The first thing to look at are two key pollutants: chlorine and fluoride.
In the past, the standard disinfectant was chlorine, but it is fast being replaced by chloramine. Chlorine combines with the natural organic matter in water such as dead leave and humus in soil, silt, and mud, to forms trihalomethanes, or THMs, the most common of which is chloroform. According to the EPA, trihalomethanes were present in virtually all chlorinated water supplies in the United States.
So chlorine is now being replaced by chloramines. If your water is not yet treated with chloramines, it probably soon will be. Chloramine is
