It can be hard sometimes to believe what manmade issues lie in wait for us in the normal day-to-day world. The vast majority of offending chemicals may have been created with good intentions, but all too often, they are out there and causing problems before they come to government and public attention.
These cases might make for engrossing TV and movies as the dogged whistleblower fights for the rights of the innocent, but the reality is distress and illness that is anything but exciting.
Take endocrine disruptors, for instance. It’s a term most people don’t recognize and don’t understand, so it’s easy to think it doesn’t apply to them. But look at this list of potential issues they can cause: fertility problems; early puberty; sex organ abnormalities in males; endometriosis (problems with the lining of the uterus), and more. There, in black and white, the risks associated with endocrine disruptors suddenly seem more real.
To really understand the subject, though, we have to delve a lot deeper into the plain facts behind the scientific terms, and here is where it all starts to get complicated. Often, that starts with the definition.
According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, endocrine disruptors (EDCs) are “natural or man-made chemicals that may mimic or interfere with the body’s hormones, known as the endocrine system”. Break out the dictionaries, everyone; we’re going to need a little help here.
So, they mess with hormones, a word everyone knows, but what are they exactly? Hormones are created by a network of glands throughout the body and released into the bloodstream to carry information and instructions to organs, telling cells what to do.
The glands, by the way, include fairly well-known names such as pituitary, thyroid, pancreas, testes (in males) and ovaries (in females). They have an effect on functions such as metabolism (how the body uses energy from food), growth and development, mood and behavior, and reproduction, so it is not just one aspect of human performance but matters affecting just about everything.
All these things we take for granted are being organized and arranged by the body itself, without our conscious influence, and we just get the benefit. Or suffer the consequences if the processes are disrupted. The human body is a wonderful thing when it functions properly, but tiny differences can cause major problems, and EDCs can do that.
Do Water Filters Remove Endocrine Disruptors?
This might seem like a drastic leap, going right to water purity as a potential source of contamination, but sadly, a significant way that endocrine disruptors enter the body is through water. They can be found in food and even in packaging, but if they are in the water, at least we have a good chance of getting rid of them before they get into the body and cause their havoc. In fact, water is susceptible to carrying a large variety of chemicals into the body, partly because of the way in which waste water finds its way back into the system.
This even applies to municipal water, supplied by government-controlled and monitored local water treatment bodies. While these companies filter out a huge quantity of contaminants, some impurities do get through and have to be dealt with further down the line. Given the nature of the water supply and those miles of pipes it goes through, it is logical for the consumer to take some responsibility for the quality and purity of their water.
If this can be said of municipal or “city water”, how much more important is it to get well water analyzed and treated? This stuff has found its way into a well after soaking through the earth and whatever chemicals may have been used on it or deposited on it. That can be anything from fertilizer and weedkiller to industrial waste and feces. Even water that looks sparkling clear can harbor foul and harmful contaminants.
But yes, there is good news: certain water filtration systems can completely remove or vastly reduce the presence of endocrine disruptors. Reverse osmosis (RO) systems can do it, as can some activated carbon filters, but not everything that calls itself a water filter can. That makes it vitally important to use a water purity company that looks at its work as a contribution to public health and safety, rather than simply as a remover of unpleasant tastes and smells.
How To Get Rid of Endocrine Disruptors in Water
If the issue of endocrine disruptors is important to you, the first step must be to contact a reputable water purity firm, tell them about your concerns, and ask what they can suggest. If the company is worth persisting with, they will tell you about reverse osmosis and explain briefly how it works. Here’s a quick overview to help you understand if these people know what they are talking about.
Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane to prevent dissolved impurities from continuing along the line. As usual with scientific material, even the explanation needs explanation: in this case, a membrane is a very thin sheet of manmade material which is porous (absorbent) to a certain extent, allowing some molecules through but blocking others. To the naked eye, this looks like what we would call clear plastic – and it is clear, and it is plastic – but we usually think of plastic as waterproof, and this material doesn’t block everything. That is what semi-permeable means. Permeable means it can be penetrated, so literally, this is half-penetrable; the scientists and engineers who developed it designed it to do a specific job.
Activated carbon filters work differently; the nature of the carbon attracts EDCs to stick to it, removing them from the water in that way
Incidentally, when you talk to the water purity company, don’t expect the person who answers the phone to be an expert. With a bit of luck, they will put you through to someone who knows the technical side. If there is no one there who can give you a convincing explanation, perhaps you should continue your search.
