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Are Brita filters bullshit? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 days ago by HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I have one of those pitchers that I mainly use to get rid of the chlorine taste in the tap water, but are the actual health claims about drinking filtered water actually true? There are claims that these dinky little passive filters can get rid of things like lead and PFAS which I honestly don't believe. Especially if you're using it with tap water which I'd assume would always have some kind of active filtration before it gets to your home, so the idea that whatever got past the industrial grade filter at the water treatment plant can be caught by a little plastic one sounds more than a little fishy to me. Anyone have knowledge about this.

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[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 32 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Activated carbon does absorb lead because it has a variety of binding sites that will bind to lead ions. The problem is, those binding sites are limited and will get quickly used up if you're having to actually deal with any significant amount of lead and if you have other metal ions (like copper) trying to compete for binding sites the whole profile looks worse. This means if you've got hard water with a ton of competing ions, the filter will likely do dick for lead. So the Brita filters do do something, but if there's an actual utility to what they do in regards to heavy metals depends on the water.