To date, there only exists two methods of water purification ie: Distillation & RO. RO, also known as hyper-filtration, being the most effective, affordable & finest filtration available.
RO was developed in the late 1950’s by the USA Government for the use in the US Navy (as a method of desalination of seawater). It is the most common treatment technology used by premium bottled water companies and NASA also uses it for their manned space programs.
RO is effective in eliminating or substantially reducing a very wide array of contaminants, and of all technologies used to treat drinking water in residential applications, it has the greatest range of contaminant removal. Reverse osmosis will allow the removal of particles as small as individual ions. The pores in a reverse osmosis membrane are only approximately 0.0005 micron in size (bacteria are 0.2 to 1 micron & viruses are 0.02 to 0.4 microns).
Very cost effective in the long term, costing as little as 10c / L of pure water once purchase price, annual maintenance & water costs are factored in.
To reduce membrane fouling and to maintain optimal performance, it is important to ensure that scheduled annual replacements of filters are followed, while the reverse osmosis membrane should be replaced every 5-7 years.
How effective is boiling water?
Boiling will not provide any safeguard against other things such as heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals etc that may contaminate a water supply. It may remove chemicals which have a lower boiling point than water but what about the others? Neither does it remove turbidity, foul tastes and odours.
In short, boiling water does not purify your water. It is certainly effective at eliminating the target pathogens but will not be effective against other contaminants - you really need a decent water purifier for that. However, drinking boiled water is certainly better than dehydration.
With the growing number of toxic substances and the increase in sources of contamination, purified water is more important than ever for continued good health.
There are a few drawbacks to this method : It can require lots of fuel and cooking equipment, water cannot be used immediately, as it needs to cool down, since it is so hot, some of the water may evaporate before its use, and the water can still contain particles, so further filtering may be necessary.
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