Beneficial Minerals in Tap Water

We’ve been covering the many harmful contaminants that can exist in Hong Kong tap water, but we also want to share some of the beneficial minerals that can exist in our public drinking water.

From a Drinking Water Quality report by the Hong Kong Water Services Department dated October 2017 – September 2017, it is reported that the following beneficial minerals are found in our tap water: Calcium, Magnesium, Chloride, Iron, and Manganese.

How Minerals in Water Help Our Body

These are all helpful minerals to our body if consumed in the right amounts. Although they can also be found in foods, consuming them through water help to balance out our body’s needs for these minerals.

  • Calcium – beneficial for bone health, may also help prevent cancer
  • Magnesium – for heart health, digestion, relieves tension in muscles and nerves
  • Chloride – helps with body’s nutrient absorption and maintains blood pressure
  • Iron – increases hemoglobin production (for healthy blood) , improves brain functions, can cure chronic diseases
  • Manganese – for healthy bones, prevents osteoperosis, fights diabetes, contributes to lung & repiratory health

How to keep these minerals in your water

Distillation and reverse osmosis filtration processes deplete beneficial minerals from water and can also make the water acidic. Moreover, these filtration methods produce a lot of water waste.

Some bottled waters found in stores do add minerals back into their distilled water, however, drinking bottled water is hugely damaging to our environment as it leaves behind a trail of plastic waste.

However, our WaterChef carbon block filtration systems allow beneficial minerals to remain in your drinking water while simultaneously removing harmful contaminants like chlorine, chloramines, lead, pesticides, herbicide, cysts, petroleum byproducts and more.

To find out more about our water filters, browse our shop.

Sources:

https://www.livestrong.com/article/550898-what-minerals-should-you-add-to-distilled-water-before-drinking/

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health/article/1250684/tap-water-may-be-better-bottled-variety

Filtering Cysts from Drinking Water

Water is a vital source of life to many organisms, some good, some bad. The water that we drink can harbour harmful microorganisms like microbial cysts, which can cause us to become ill. Find out a bit more about cysts and how to filter them out of your drinking water.

What are microbial cysts?

Microbial cysts are parasites, bacteria or viruses that exist in a specific, almost egg-like, state. The most common ones that are of concern when it comes to drinking water is Cryptosporidum and Giardia lamblia. These microbes can enter into our water supply from run off of contaminated organic material like animal feces.

The major problem is that these two waterborne parasites are highly resistant to the chlorine typically used by public water treatment facilities to treat our drinking water.

Public water treatment uses chlorine to disinfect our drinking water. However, chlorine has proven to be ineffective to removing certain cysts like Cryptosporidum and Giardia lamblia as these particular organisms have developed a hard outer layer that allows them to survive in tough conditions.

Effects of Cysts in our Water

If you drink water that contains cysts, your stomach acids break down their hard shell and they release their protozoa into your gastrointestinal track. There, they have the ability to reproduce, sometimes to the millions.

Consumption of water contaminated with these microbes can cause gastrointestinal complications, such as stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, dehydration, fever and weight loss. For people with wearker immune systems, such as children or the elderly, these infections could lead to larger issues.

How to filter Cysts out of Water?

WaterChef filters are proven to be effective in removing cysts such as Cryptosporidum and Giardia lamblia from our drinking water, as the public water treatment facilities are unable to fully do so.

Find out more about our drinking water filters here.

Sources:

http://blog.waterfilters.net/blog/what-are-cysts/

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/gen_info/filters.html

Lead in Hong Kong Tap Water

In 2015, Hong Kong faced one of its worst drinking water scandals when high levels of lead were found in the water supply of many public housing estates. The government has worked to fix those incidents but the issue of lead in water inevitably remains.

Even though the amount of lead in tap water may now fall below the WHO safety limits, scientists have agreed that no level of lead in tap water is actually “safe”, for children or adults.

Lead can still get into our water through corrosion in the pipes it passes through to reach our tap, and is especially likely to happen when the water has high acidity or low mineral content. Even our faucet fixtures may have lead solder which can cause lead to leak into our water, particularly when using hot water.

Health Effects

The health effects of lead exposure through water are significant. In children, exposure to lead has been linked to nervous system damage, learning disabilities, hearing problems and anemia. In adults, lead can cause cardiovascular problems, kidney damage and reproductive problems.

It’s also important to note that the same amount of lead which may not affect adults can be extremely dangerous to children.

How to Remove Lead from Tap Water

WaterChef water filters are capable of removing lead from tap water. In fact, our patented carbon block technology is able to remove 99% of contaminants from drinking water. To find out more, browse www.waterchef.com.hk.

Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-about-lead-drinking-water
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2083874/how-safe-hong-kongs-water