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Archive for the ‘berkey water filters’ Category
Berkey Water Filters For Emergency Situations And Daily Health
Friday, May 7th, 2010Over the past couple decades there has been a growing concern about the quality of the water we drink. This has helped to fuel both the sales of bottled water and home water filters. However, as consumers have become more educated about their drinking water, we’ve seen a clear movement to greener product choices. Many have recognized that continually buying bottled water becomes very expensive and also has dramatic impacts on the environment, leaving millions upon millions of plastic bottles across our land and in our dumps, rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Bottles Upon Bottles
In 2009, for the first time in bottled water history, the bottled water consumption uptrend took a pause, while at the same time there was an even larger increase in home water filter purchases. There are many different types of water filters available on the market these days, but one of the best available for your daily health and emergency situations is the Berkey water filter.
All Water Filters Not Created Equal
There are people who think that “a water filter is a water filter,” but that could not be farther from the truth. Simply put, there are water filters out there of basic quality, water filters of premium quality, and everything in between. The Black Berkey filter used in all our Berkey systems was specially formulated using the highest quality ingredients in balanced proportions to provide the highest in water purification quality. It’ shouldn’t come as a shock that the quality of your drinking water and ultimately your health is directly correlated to the quality of the water filter you’re using.
Many water filters on the market today are only capable of filtering treated water. If one were to try filtering untreated water from a source such as a lake or pond using one of these other filters, the end result may be water with residual pathogenic bacteria such as E-coli or Giardia. This is due to the fact that these other water filters use cheaper ingredients, is part of the reason why they need frequent replacements, and are not designed to remove the dangerous bacteria that is found in many rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds.
Water Filter For Emergency Preparation
During an emergency, or even a remote camping trip, treated water may not be available. In this situation, the Berkey water filter shines. The berkey is capable of taking raw water and removing bacteria and cysts to a Log 7 degree, which in lamens terms means water purification, a higher removal level than the term you typically read about; filtration. Even if you’ve never been camping or ever had a desire to, when an emergency strikes, it can take days and even weeks for an emergency management group to assist with basic needs like water. In these situations, you want to be fully sure your water is purified to the highest degree.
Flooding in Tennessee - May 2010
We have seen plenty of disasters in the United States over the past few years and even more recently around the world in Haiti and Chile. Just this past week we’ve had massive flooding in Tennessee that has disrupted the majority of well and municipal water sources in that region, and a major Massachusetts water pipe break that cut water availability to 2 Million people. As a result, BigBerkeyWaterFilters.com has experienced a sharp rise in orders for berkey water filters in both of these regions as residents deal with this problem head on. The Berkey water filter will not only keep you and your family supplied with safe drinkable water in events such as these, but can be used to support your friends, neighbors, and other citizens, giving you an opportunity to help others in need.
Berkey Water Filters For Peace of Mind
Even if you believe you will never be a victim of a disaster or an emergency situation, the Berkey water filter is still a great choice for daily consumption. Think about it this way; if the berkey water filter is capable of turning raw pond water into something drinkable, then just imagine how clean it will make your well or municipal water. Let’s also not forget about the fact that the Berkey does not filter out the beneficial minerals that your body needs. This is something reverse osmosis filters and distillers cannot claim.
Every time you drink a glass of water, your body washes out toxins, but it also washes out important vitamins and minerals. If you’re not putting these vitamins and minerals back into your body at the same rate, you will eventually become deficient and body function will suffer. Let me reiterate that the more water you drink, the more important it is that you feed your body with a dense nutritional diet high in vitamins and minerals to counterbalance this continual flushing. Berkey water filters leave the beneficial minerals in your water that your body needs.
The cleaner and healthier your drinking water is, the more your body will love you for it. Start enjoying peace of mind and the health benefits that the lineup of Berkey water filters has provided to countless people over many decades.
Berkey Water Filters Cannot Be Shipped To California
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010This past November 2009, California signed into law AB 1953 / SB 1334 & 1395 / HSC Section 116875 and as a result directly affected the sales of all water filter and purification systems to the state. This revised “no lead law” as it’s commonly known, went into effect on January 1, 2010. Currently this law prevents any Berkey water filter from being sold to the state of California, and canvasses all Berkey products that comes in contact with water intended for drinking. This would include upper/lower chambers, all filters, and sport bottles.
The law stipulates that any “end-use device intended to convey or dispense water for human consumption through drinking or cooking,” as well as each of their individual components, materials and “pipe, pipe or plumbing fittings, or fixtures,” or flux, must be “lead free” as defined by California law. Under SB 1334, certification MUST be performed by an “independent ANSI-approved third party testing organization.” It appears that even if a product and each component of that product has no metal alloys and if a purification system actually reduces lead, under Section 116875, it must be be certified. An example of this would be the Berkey sport water purification bottle.
The Berkey sport bottle body utilizes LDPE, which must be certified, even though it is common knowledge that LDPE contains no lead, is very commonly used by food and water companies, and is monitored under federal regulations. Further, manufacturers are expected to reveal proprietary information regarding their systems, suppliers and manufacturers, without an absolute guarantee that such proprietary information will be kept confidential. This is of utmost concern due to the fact that if such proprietary information is conveyed to competitors, we would have no recourse. It also worth noting that if Berkey water filters desires to change any of their suppliers after certification, it appears that permission must be obtained by the certifying organization and that re-certification is mandatory, all at the expense of the company. Change of suppliers is a common occurrence as improvement of the Berkey product line is continually occurring.
Research indicates that there are at least two different certification standards available, but there seems to be disagreement as to which standards are acceptable to the state of California’s review Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the agency in charge of reviewing products and their certification. There is further confusion regarding testing protocols. While DTSC has issued an outline, it appears that the final protocols have yet to be settled upon. Throughout Berkey water filters ongoing research on this issue, they were unable to get clarification on the above requirements, instead it was suggested that “lawyers review the wording of the law to determine” how “they interpret the scope of the mandatory certification…”. Unfortunately, many questions were not answered by the January 1st deadline and as such, “strict compliance with the law” was recommended and is now being adhered to.
Here’s an example of one of the requirements:
…Listee shall promptly furnish to CC, in writing, the street address, hours of operation, anticipated dates when plants will be temporarily closed or shut down, anticipated dates when plants will temporarily cease production and all local or state holidays of each plant where the listed product is being manufactured or to be manufactured by or on behalf of Listee, and each location where the listed product is warehoused or stored by or on behalf of Listee. Listee shall also provide the name and telephone number of a contact person for each such plant or storage location, both at the time of application for evaluation and in the event of any changes in this information. Listee shall provide such information for all plants and storage locations, whether foreign or domestic. If the product is imported or to be imported, Listee shall also provide the name, street address, telephone number and contact person of the importer and the consignee…
Note: Berkey Water Filters does not have manufacturing plants or warehouses in the state of CA
This revised law has put the burden of proof on the manufacturer and is understandable, however the great additional expense will be difficult for Berkey water filters to absorb into the cost structure. To be clear, Berkey products do not contain lead and testing results from NSF/ANSI certified labs show that these systems reduce lead in water. If every state were to establish their own specific overarching certification criteria such as CA, small companies like Berkey would not be able to meet these requirements and would be put out of business.
Big Berkey Water Filters will continue to monitor the situation and hopefully gain clarification on the issues for which there are currently no definite answers. While many water purification and water filter companies are ignoring the law due to it’s vagueness, there is no interest on Berkey’s behalf to go this route. Berkey water filters considers it a high priority to support the tens of thousands of current CA customers in addition to potential future customer who have interest in the product and hope to come to a resolution soon.
Dan DeBaun of Big Berkey Water Filters on the George Berry Radio Show
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010This past Friday 1/29/2010, Dan DeBaun, owner of BigBerkeyWaterFilters.com appeared for 1 hour on the George Berry radio show. Titled “Crash, Are You Ready?”, this show on the GCN network covers diverse topics ranging from food and water shortages to political and financial corruption.
George and Dan spoke about recent Haiti relief efforts and how Berkey Water Filters were being used by individuals and large relief organizations alike to provide potable drinking water in the region. Other topics covered were the degrading drinking water conditions here in the US and how the Safe Drinking Water Act passed by congress in 1974 has failed to protect the environment and the public’s drinking water. Click here to listen to the show, or right click and “save as file” to download and play in a media player of your choosing.
