Drinking Water & Water SoftenersHistory of Potable Water
What are the most common problems caused by water softeners in drinking water and why you should know about it? Even though the history of water treatment goes as far as 2000 B.C., water softeners didn’t exist until early 1900’s. Today softeners are widely used across the US and around the world and, yet, a great majority of the world population is completely uneducated concerning the risks that such invention puts in drinking water. This page will focus on the most common types of problems caused by softeners in drinking water and, they are the followings: Sodium-related problems, absence of minerals, plumbing issues, contaminants removal and health safety. Sodium-related problems:
Even though most softener manufacturers state that their equipments use low quantity of salt to treat and soften drinking water, the fact is that, people who are on restrict diets and must have a no salt menu, otherwise, they will have health problem when drinking or cooking with softened water. The reality is that, softening salt base water should not be used for drinking or cooking means because of the health risks that one might suffer from doing so. For example: hypertension and heart problems.
Absence of Minerals:
Why absence of minerals is bad? What minerals should be removed and what minerals should be kept in drinking water?
The most common types of minerals are: calcium and magnesium. It has been published by many institutions and experts worldwide that the presence of calcium and magnesium in the water may be effective in reducing blood pressure in hypertensive individuals. It is also known that when adding calcium into the drinking water can also be as beneficial as magnesium and can also help decrease heart disease but further studies are still needed to provide more proof for such a claim. Also, epidemiological studies suggest that low mineral consumption with water may be a risk factor of hypertension and coronary heart disease, gastric and duodenal ulcers, chronic gastritis, pregnancy complications among others potential health risks.
Plumbing Issues:
Any water with low level of minerals will become highly aggressive and in order to regulate its mineral level, it will absorb the mineral of any metal that comes in contact with, such as: copper and galvanized pipes.
What happens to the piping system when water takes its minerals? The metal becomes really weak and only after a few months, pipes will likely to have pin holes and consequently, it will result in water leakage. Now, if this reaction happens with metals, what could likely happen to us when drinking water with low concentration of minerals? The blood will likely get thinner because the water will also absorb the minerals from our blood. So, if water with low minerals is bad for metals, is it good for our blood? I believe not.
Contaminants Removal:The most common types of contaminants removed by water softening systems are: arsenic, fluoride, microbes, nitrate, radium, uranium, selenium, antinomy, sulfate, iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium, potassium and phosphorus. In order to determine or find out which contaminants are removed by your water softener, you must read your owner’s manual. Most water softeners will remove just a few contaminants but not all the contaminants listed above.
Health Safety:
Whenever water is low mineralized, the water become very aggressive to metals that comes in contact with.
The water can easily absorb the minerals from those metals. The presence of magnesium and calcium in the water works as antioxidants which mean that helps prevent the absorption of some toxic from the intestine into the blood circulation.
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