Quick Drips
A Notice From Your Water Utility: What Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 Mean
Two Midwest utilities sent notices days apart this month: a 24 hour boil water advisory in Kalamazoo and a 30 day PFAS notice in Pewaukee. The tier on a drinking water notice tells you how fast to act, and where a filter fits.
Does Boiling Water Remove Contaminants? What It Kills and What It Does Not
Boiling water kills bacteria and parasites but does not remove lead, PFAS, or other chemicals, and can even concentrate them. Here is the honest division of labor, and where a filter helps.
BPA turns up in toilet paper mostly through recycled thermal receipt paper, and testing has found PFAS markers in some brands. Exposure from paper products is small compared with food and drink, but here is the list of brands that tested clean.
PFAS can be removed from water with the right technology: activated carbon, solid carbon block, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange all work when properly designed. Boiling does nothing. Choose a filter with published third-party PFAS test data.
Standard Brita filters reduced PFAS by about 66% in independent EWG testing, and the Brita Elite managed 22%. If PFAS is the reason you are buying a filter, choose one specifically tested for PFOA and PFOS reduction and check the published test data first.