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ion_avenger
03-18-2008, 05:51 PM
There is a practical home water purification process that can eliminate 99% of pharmaceuticals and dissolved contaminates such as arsenic, sodium, lead, and more from your water - It is reverse osmosis.

This process eliminates 99% of pharmaceuticals and dissolved contaminants such as arsenic, sodium, lead, and more. The Process of reverse osmosis starts with the water from a liquid with a high concentration of dissolved solids being forced to flow through a semi-permeable membrane, the heart of the reverse osmosis system, to the low concentrate side where this water can be stored & then distributed. The process is achieved by applying pressure on the liquid to overcome the natural osmotic pressure on a membrane.

The semi-permeable membranes used in the process are engineered to mainly allow the passage of water molecules and smaller. The semi-permeable membrane allows water molecules to pass through while blocking larger molecules. Water molecules penetrate the thin layer of the membrane and diffuse through it molecule by molecule. Dissolved salt ions do not diffuse through this layer because the solubility of the salt ions is much less than that of the water. Thus, the water moves through more readily and separation from the other molecules present occurs. The driving force is furnished by both the pressure and the concentration differentials across the membrane. For water, the pressure effect is the most important, and for dissolved mineral ions the concentration difference is most important. Therefore, increases in pressure increase the product water flow without a corresponding decrease in the quality of the product water.


In nature, osmosis pushes a liquid with a low concentration of dissolved solids (usually water) through a semi-permeable membrane into a solution of higher dissolved solids concentration. It continues until the osmotic pressures of both liquids have equalized. The natural osmosis process, therefore, works great in pushing the more concentrated tree sap up to the tallest leaves of an oak tree, but it uses up pure water to do it. This process is great in theory, but it does not work properly in liquid purification process for drinking water. For this to work for drinking water, the osmosis process needs to be reversed to produce high quality results. Now there are many options for products that include reverse osmosis filtration. These products produce high quality water for safe consumption and better taste.

Talk to your local certified water specialist about protecting yourself from pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

greg-cws
03-20-2008, 12:24 AM
This is the WQA's official release about pharmaceuticals in drinking water:-

As news reports about pharmaceuticals in water circulate, here are several facts for consumers to consider:

eugenelfiorenzil
10-28-2010, 11:53 PM
This is an awareness to us citizen because it is about our health and the future generation will follow on this.

klosemich
12-03-2010, 04:15 AM
Gents, good morning,
you are right..... the effluent control of any pharmacuetical plant in respect of traces is not really an issue worlswide. It is an issue with biologicals, where alle the dangerouse water has to be autoclaved before sent to drain .
At the moment the authorities look much more on the water they use ( PW and WFI) than on the pollution possibilites.

WendellT
01-21-2012, 08:25 AM
With reverse osmosis filtration, how quickly do the membrane filters become clogged? Is this type of filtration usually combined with another filtration system to get most of the contaminants before they make their way to the membrane filter and clog it? I would be curious to know the trace levels of pharmaceuticals in public water throughout the US.

ion_avenger
01-21-2012, 11:42 PM
Membranes on cross-flow-style reverse osmosis don't plug very quickly since there is always some water going to drain. This drain water scrubs across the membrane to keep it cleaner. If you add sediment prefiltration at 1 micron before the RO and if you soften or use scale-stop it makes the membrane last longer. Fast-flushing the membrane makes it last longer too. I bet carbon filtration would help to knock out some of the pharmaceuticals before it hits the RO. If you're real paranoid you could run two RO's back to back with one RO feeding the other.