[Tip new] How to filter lead from domestic water
Lead-contaminated water has serious health effects on the whole family. Eating boiled and hot water does not filter lead from the water.
For many years, lead-contaminated water has been a painful story and a concern for many households in big cities. Concerns about lead-contaminated water lead to other worries about health safety and the risk of poisoning in children, pregnant women, and adults. That’s why it is crucial to know how to filter lead from water to prevent your family from getting health issues.
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Causes of lead-contaminated water
One of the causes of lead poisoning in domestic water is the plumbing system. The outlet water of the water plant can ensure the quality and meet the hygiene and safety standards; however, the national and local plumbing, even of households, are potentially unpredictable.
The old pipeline system has been degraded over time; The system has many repair welds; systems that are rarely washed and renewed are at risk of rust and corrosion, thereby releasing lead and heavy metal ions into the water.
Lead is dissolved in water, invading the body mainly through drinking water and cooking water. Lead is a very toxic metal, potentially carcinogenic.
By sight or smell, we can not detect the content of lead in drinks and food. Besides, the “boiling and drinking boiled food” has no effect in treating or removing lead in the water.
The impact of lead-contaminated water on the body
The harmful effects of lead-contaminated water on children
For children, 40% -50% of the lead in the water will be absorbed and accumulated in the blood, soft tissue and bone. Meanwhile, this figure in adults is only about 3-10%. Thus, a certain amount of lead may not affect adults much, but can have a significant and long-lasting effect on young children.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the safety standard for lead content in drinking water is 0.015 mg / L because, for children, the level of lead in the blood should be guaranteed to always be below 0.05 mg / L.
Lead levels of 0.1 to 0.25 mg / L may have had a negative effect on a childs brain function. An alarming level of 0.7 mg / L will cause behavioral disorders, the risk of dementia and even convulsions, deep coma leading to death.
In fact, the human body is capable of excreting lead through the system of excretion such as urine, sweat … However, the time for the lead to self excreted from the body is very long, usually 10 months. Contaminated lead in the bloodstream normally takes at least 10 years to be removed from other organs in the body.
According to Health Sina, which specializes in health and community education in developing countries, lead poisoning affects children more severely than adults, especially children under 6 years of age, because the nervous system is still young and the bodys ability to detoxify is not fully developed.
People who become infected with lead can be completely cured without complications, but children with low lead can also have permanent sequelae, which can take a long time to recover from.
The harmful effects of lead-contaminated water on pregnant women
For pregnant women, lead toxins can cross the placental barrier and expose the fetus. This can have serious consequences, including: limiting fetal growth, increasing the mothers risk of preterm birth.
The most common sequelae of lead infections are a decrease in both central and peripheral nervous system function, blood cell function, memory capacity, and IQ. When infected with lead, children often present with anemia, nausea, excessive hyperactivity, difficulty concentrating, low IQ, and slow growth.
Supply water in residential areas and apartment complexes is often concentrated in local drinking water treatment plants. However, if the plumbing system from the factory to the household or the plumbing inside the household is made of an alloy containing lead, the possibility of lead from the wall of the plumbing will be contaminated.
Tap water supplied to households may be re-contaminated with lead. Below are some methods to help reduce or eliminate lead content in household drinking water:
Methods to filter lead from water
Mechanical method
- If the tap at home is not used for at least 6 consecutive hours, it is recommended to flush for 15 – 30 seconds before using water for eating and drinking.
- Distiller: Distilled water machine is also considered as an effective device to remove lead from water. The principle of operation of a water distiller is to use electricity to boil water;
water vapor is condensed in the device and condensed water is stored in the tank of the device.
- Condensate water is clean water; dirt will be trapped in the device during boiling and condensing steam. The cost of buying a water distillation unit is much cheaper than a RO water filter, but the operating cost is higher because of the high electricity required to boil water and stop steam condensation.
Chemical method
- Chemical precipitation method combined filtration method.
This method precipitates chemicals based on the chemical reaction between the substance put into the water and the metal to be separated, at the appropriate pH will precipitate.
The precipitated cotton will be deposited and removed from the water in the form of mud or filtered by simple water filtration.
This method is cheap but difficult to apply in households due to the determination and adjustment of the pH of the water.
Use materials that are insoluble solids that contain ions that can exchange with lead ions in water.
The pH scale
Note, for this method, if the pH of the water is between 7 or more, the lead usually exists in the form of precipitate without charge, in this form, the ion exchange method is not practical.
If the pH of water is between 10 or more, the lead exists in a negatively charged form; the ion exchange method effectively separates and holds lead ions on the surface of the ion exchange material layer.
This method is simple, easy to use but consumes energy and processing costs.
- Reverse Osmosis (RO)
The RO filtration method uses a reverse osmosis membrane that has a pore size small enough to retain contaminants in water and is very effective in removing inorganic contaminants, including lead. However, RO water purifiers are often quite expensive.
- Redox method
This is a common method to treat water containing heavy metals when microbiological methods cannot be performed.
The principle of this method is based on the transition from one form to another by the presence of additional electrons or electrons.
Read more: Experience in choosing a good water filter between Karofi, Kangaroo, A. O. Smith, Geyser, Coway
- By sulfate-reducing bacteria (KFS)
This method is based on the ability to reduce sulfate ion (SO42-) and oxidize organic compounds (lactate, acetate, ethanol, methanol) to create sulfide ions (H2S, HS-, S2-) of KFS bacteria. Sulfide ions react with toxic soluble metal ions to form a metal precipitate in the form of a stable sulfide.
Lead removal reaction of KFS bacteria using lactate:
2CH3CHOHCOOH + 3SO42- -> 3H2S + 6HCO3-
Pb2 + + H2S -> PbS ↓ + 2H +
The advantage of this method is the appropriate treatment cost, without creating secondary chemicals causing secondary pollution, the amount of residue generated from sulfide precipitate is negligible. Lead precipitate in sustainable sulfide form is not only environmentally safe, but also recyclable and recyclable.
- Adsorption method
Adsorption is the process of evaporating or dissolving in liquid waste onto porous surfaces. Materials capable of adsorbing heavy metals such as activated carbon, peat, inorganic materials such as iron oxide, manganese oxide, ash and slag, by polymer or biopolymer materials.
This method can be used to handle heavy metals in low concentrations, easy to use, but the processing cost is quite high.
Use a water filter (highly recommended)
Currently on the market there are many different types of lead water filters. You can use and install lead water filters such as RO water purifiers; Nano water filter to treat tap water before using water for drinking or cooking.
Water quality testing before filtering lead from water
Household water samples should be tested for water quality periodically, at least every 6 months, to determine if the lead content in household drinking water is within the allowed limits.
Water samples can be tested at the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health.
Lead water can be extremely harmful for your health, as a result, lead water filters or other methods of removing lead from water are recommended. Hopefully Axiosreview give you useful tips for using clean water.
