Contaminants in Drinking Water | Why You Need a Refrigerator Water Filter

Refrigerators with water dispensers are increasingly popular among homeowners. Owing to the water dispenser on the fridge door, we can enjoy chilled and tasty drinking water whenever we want. However, there are also many contaminants in water that can infiltrate the water system in the refrigerator through a variety of ways which can pose serious health problems. To minimize the risk of drinking contaminated water, we’d better install a refrigerator water filter and replace it regularly.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Chlorine

Chlorine can bring strong and unpleasant odor in your water and even pose threat to our health. This is because the reaction between chlorine organic compounds, a very common material in water, can produce trihalomethanes (THMs), a harmful by-product which can lead to bladder cancer or other serious diseases.

Chlorine has long been used to disinfect drinking water, as it not only kills bacteria and viruses effectively in water, but also is much cheaper than other disinfectant. Therefore, it’s common that there exists chlorine in our drinking water.

A safe and convenient way to remove the excessive chlorine and even trihalomethanes from our refrigerator is to install a refrigerator water filter.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Lead

As a toxic heavy metal, lead can cause high blood pressure as well as kidney damage in adults and delays in physical or mental development in children.
The lead in our drinking water has usually arisen from the corrosion of water pipes, faucets or other fixtures that contain lead. Since we are not sure whether or not these fixtures contain lead, or the lead would leak into the water, the best way to set our heart at rest is to adopt a water filtration in our home, including our multifunctional refrigerator.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Mercury

Mercury is regarded by WHO as one of the top ten chemicals or groups of chemicals that has toxic effect on human health. Some studies indicate that mercury can cause serious health issues to our kidney, lung as well as skin, and damage the nervous, digestive, circulatory and immune systems. Moreover, Exposure to mercury may affect the development of the children in womb and early in life.

The mercury in our drinking water mainly comes from the waste discharge from factories and refineries, runoff from landfills or croplands as well as the erosion of natural deposits.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Cadmium

Cadmium is also a type of heavy metal that can bring about health risk. Most of the cadmium we ingest is stored in the liver and kidney, which can remain there for lots of years. Although our body can turn the cadmium into a harmless form, too much cadmium can make it difficult for the kidney and liver to digest it, and thus give rise to health problems. Furthermore, long-term intake of lower levels of cadmium may also cause kidney disease.

Similar with mercury, cadmium can leak into our drinking water by the waste batteries and paints, erosion of natural deposits, corrosion of galvanized pipes and discharge waste from metal refineries.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Thallium

Being exposed to too much thallium can result in dangerous effect in the liver, kidney and even human reproduction. It may also lead to diarrhea, vomiting or other symptoms. What’s worse, once the thallium is swallowed, most of it is taken in and quickly spread to various parts of your body.

The thallium in our drinking water are mainly caused by the improper discharge from factories and mineral processing sites, or glass and obsolete batteries.

For your peace of mind, nowadays many refrigerator filters are invented to remove the thallium in our fridge water, such as whirlpool refrigerator water filter.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Nickel

As one of carcinogenic metals, nickel can bring many health risks, which can not only cause damage in liver as well as kidney, but also have a close association with breast cancer. Besides, nickel can be mistaken for the estrogen, which may give rise to fertility, miscarriage or birth defects.

The discharge from factories and refineries as well as runoff from landfills and farm are the main reasons nickel appears in our water. So, don’t hesitate to equip your refrigerator with a water filter.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Pesticides

As we all know, pesticides are poisonous to human, which can not only pose threat to our kidney and liver, but also cause developmental as well as reproductive effects, and endocrine disorder. In addition, it may result in hazardous effect on the development of the children in utero and early in life.

Pesticides is invented to kill pests, rodents, weeds, bacteria and others, which is nowadays widely-used in agricultural fields, and even our house, park, or road. They are used almost everywhere, which also means pesticides can easily find their way into out drinking water. Therefore, investing a refrigerator filter to eliminate the pesticide in our water has huge significance.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Pharmaceuticals

Researches point out that there are pharmaceuticals in our drinking water, which get into our water mainly through two ways. One is that people flush their drugs down the toilet. The other is through peoples’ urine or feces.

Although the aftereffect of these pharmaceuticals remains unknown, we should treat them with caution. In case we ingest harmful pharmaceutical, we can’t ignore the importance of installing and replacing the refrigerator water filter.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Microbial Cysts

A microbial cyst is a resting or dormant stage of a microorganism. Cysts is resistant to some disinfectants, like chlorine, so that some parasites and bacteria can survive and have a chance to multiply in our body. These microorganisms can cause nausea, stomachache, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, intestinal issues or more.

A most effective way to remove microbial cysts from our drinking water is to apply a water filter, whose activated carton can trap cysts immediately once it flows through the filter, along with the water.

Contaminants in Drinking Water: Benzene

According to World Health Organization, exposure to benzene can lead to a range of diseases, including cancer. Benzene can also cause anemia by damaging and decreasing the red blood cells, and affect the nervous system, which can lead to drowsiness, dizziness, headaches as well as confusion.

The source of benzene in our drinking water is mainly the leakage or improper discharge from the oil refining industries. A reliable way to eliminate benzene from the water in our refrigerator is to adopt a refrigerator water filter with activated carbon, which can absorb benzene effectively.

In Conclusion

Except the contaminants mentioned above, there are others we haven’t introduced or discovered. Sometimes, we can not guarantee whether our drinking water is contaminated, but we can reduce such risks by wisely applying the water filtration system to our most indispensable refrigerator, or other water supply sources. For the health of you and your loved family, don’t hesitate to bring a refrigerator water filter home! And read this refrigerator filter buying guide to choose a suitable fridge filter.