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Learning Center Categories: Water And Health Learn About Water Quality Water Can Heal! Contaminants Fact Sheets Top Water News       Did you know? Reverse osmosis is the finest water filtration method known. This process will allow the removal of particles as small as ions from a solution. It is used to purify water and remove salts and other impurities in order to improve the color, taste or properties of the fluid. R.O. uses a membrane that is semi-permeable, allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting other ions and contaminants from passing. This technology uses a process known as crossflow to allow the r.o. membrane to continually clean itself. This is the reason of why an r.o. element can last many years before clogging or need replacement. This water purification process requires a driving force to push the fluid through the membrane, and the most common force is household water pressure or pressure from a booster pump. The higher the pressure, the larger the driving force and efficiency.

Water And Health   Learn About Water Quality     Water Can Heal!   Contaminants Fact Sheets   Top Water News Bottled water tested with contaminants Unsafe tap water for Californians Studies find 40 chemicals & 20 pesticides in water— Yet officials claim no health threat! Filters best way to clean tap water Novel Forward Osmosis Desalination Water sources of Dasani-pure? Question the safety of bottled water Unsafe water vending machines? Turn humidity into drinking water Perchlorate pollution for 20 million people Perchlorate and its health risks Water shortages:poor management of water resources & soaring water usage Dying for a drink of clean water New WHO report tackles fluoride Pollution from Sewage Spills Lead in school's drinking fountains Latest Chromium pollution Lettuce contaminated with Perchlorate Intersex fish signal presence of pollutants Cooking tips to avoid Bacteria infection Water Pollution News- Latest Chromium 6 Pollution LA TIMES -- Tests Find High Chromium 6 Levels Throughout Los Angeles County By: ANDREW BLANKSTEIN LA TIMES STAFF WRITER Report: Tap water was examined at 110 government facilities. Highest level was at Burbank Health Center, official says. Tests of tap water at 110 Los Angeles County government facilities showed levels of chromium 6 at up to 8 parts per billion--more than 40 times the suggested limit, according to a study to be released today. The tests recorded the highest level at the Burbank Health Center, 1101 W. Magnolia Blvd., said a county official who saw the report. Other high readings were at the county library in Hacienda Heights, a day care center in Palmdale and a county library in Rosemead, the official said. Although there are no formal standards for chromium 6, it should not exceed 0.2 parts per billion in drinking water, according to the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which first proposed steps to cut levels of the chemical two years ago. But substantial uncertainty exists over what the limit should be. And one high-ranking state health official said late Wednesday that people shouldn't be concerned about the findings of the county study. "The people who are drinking the water that was tested should not be alarmed with these results," said Kevin Rielly, acting deputy for prevention programs at the state Department of Health Services. "I have not seen the report," he added. "We are conducting tests around the state to try to determine what the chromium 6 levels are in state drinking water supplies." Chromium 6 was the chemical at the center of a famous pollution case in Hinkley, Calif., which was the basis for the film "Erin Brockovich." Concentrations in that case were 24 parts per million, 3,000 times higher than the highest levels uncovered by county testing over the last few weeks. Chromium 6, a byproduct of metal-plating and other industrial activities, is classified as a carcinogen when inhaled as particles or fumes. Some scientists argue that it should not be present in water at all, while water officials insist that their water is safe because of insufficient scientific evidence linking chromium 6 in water to illnesses. County officials tested tap water at more than 20 sites--including health clinics, courthouses and fire stations--in each of the five supervisorial districts. On Wednesday, it was unknown how many of the 110 sites had water that tested above the proposed chromium 6 standard of 2.5 ppb and how many had water that tested below it. The tests found the chemical present at levels of up to 7.84 ppb at Burbank Health Center, according to the official who saw the report. The official said chromium 6 levels of 4.99 to 7.65 ppb were found at the Hacienda Heights Library, 16010 La Monde St.; Palmdale Primary Care Center, 1529 E. Palmdale Blvd; Rosemead Library, 8800 Valley Blvd.; La Puente Health Center, 15930 Central Ave; and Alhambra Health Center, 1612 W. Shorb St. County officials would not publicly comment on the report, citing a planned news conference on the issue. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who proposed the county tests following stories on chromium 6 in The Times, also declined to comment Wednesday. But one official who saw the report said it noted that the high levels could have been a result of chemical treatment of the water with chlorine, which can elevate levels of chromium 6 (also known as hexavalent chromium). The issue is complicated because the state doesn't have a current standard for chromium 6, but instead limits levels of total chromium as an indirect means of cutting chromium 6. The state's current standard for total chromium is 50 ppb, and the federal standard is 100 ppb. The proposed new "public health goal" of 2.5 ppb is now being studied by the state health department. Standards Are Too Lax, Critics Say Although the county tap water that was tested falls within current allowable limits for chromium, critics say those standards are still too lax because some studies suggest that chromium 6 can cause cancer. In the absence of a formal chromium 6 standard, the state hazard assessment office identified a safe level for drinking water of 0.2 parts per billion, said Alan Hirsch, an agency spokesman. At that level, he said, an estimated 1 million people could drink about 2 liters of water a day for 70 years--and only one would contract cancer resulting from exposure to chromium 6. Chromium 6 concentrations above 0.2 ppb are in a "gray area," Hirsch said, declining to flatly call them unsafe. Corine Li, the drinking water regional office chief for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, had no comment on the county report. But she said the agency was following the chromium testing being conducted in Los Angeles County. "We continue to support the total chromium standard of 100 parts per billion for safe water," Li said. "We believe additional collection of chromium 6 occurrence data would be useful to evaluate health effects from ingestion of the chemical." State health officials would not comment on findings of the report, saying it was up to the health department to examine or discuss them, Hirsch said. The Times reported Aug. 20 that the health department was still reviewing the hazard assessment office's recommendation to toughen chromium standards, more than two years after it was first proposed. In response, legislation was passed and signed last week by Gov. Gray Davis. SB 2127 gives the state health department until January 2002 to assess the threat of chromium 6 statewide and report to the governor and Legislature. It also directs the agency to study the amount of chromium 6 in the San Fernando Valley aquifer, which is a major source of well water for Los Angeles and other cities but has been polluted for decades by industrial contamination. Tests on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wells in the Valley found levels of chromium 6 as high as 4.65 ppb, said Pankaj Parekh, the DWP's manager of regulatory compliance. But Parekh and others say that water is blended and that chromium 6 levels in tap water are well below that found in the wells. County officials tested tap water at 100 Los Angeles County offices for chromium 6. These six locations had the highest levels of the chemical, ranging from 5.5 parts per billion to 7.8 ppb. The accepted safety standard is 0.2 ppb. Chromium 6 Facility Location level Hacienda Heights Library 16010 La Monde St. 7.69 Burbank Health Center 1101 W. Magnolia St. 7.84 Palmdale Primary Care Center 1529 E. Palmdale Blvd. 6.62 Rosmead Library 8800 Valley Blvd. 6.60 La Puente Health Center 15930 Central Ave. 6.08 Alhambra 612 W. Shorb St. 5.49 Health Center San Fernando 919 1st St. 5.44 Valley Muncipal Court, Monterey 201 Centre Plaza 5.19 North Valley Court 900 3rd St. 5.00 El Monte Library 3224 N. Tyler Ave. 4.99 Source: LA Times. Environmental Toxicology Labratory of the Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures Dept.

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