Shower Head Filters: Chemistry In A Can

The cheapest shower filter on Google Products at this moment is a single, $10 filter – as advertised, it catches sulfur and chlorine in the water, keeping these chemicals from damaging skin and hair. But for only $379.90, you can remove sulfur, chlorine, as well as organic carbon compounds, and volatile organic compounds, as well as sediment particles one micron in diameter.

Some difference. Given a closer look, however, what do these contaminants actually mean? Are they just meant to sound fancy, to give the product legitimacy? Or is there an actual meaning to them?

Total Organic Carbon (TOCs)

Simply, Total Organic Carbon is used as a general metric of water quality. The total amount of carbon in an organic compound makes up the TOC count. More generally, a high TOC, it’s possible you might be getting showered with chemicals such as: detergents, decaying plant matter, herbicides, or pesticides. Although a little bit does get through, however, public water systems do a good job of making sure most of it is filtered out at the treatment facility.

VOCs

Volatile Organic Compounds are contaminants such as benzene or trichloroethylene that enter the water system due to spills or cracked pipelines. Accidental spills or inattentive workers might introduce chemicals such as trichloroethylene, for instance, into the ground water. Benzene entering the water system might be due to gasoline or oil spills. Usually these are watched pretty strictly by public water systems, but if you live in an old industrial or agricultural region, it might be smart to get your water checked every so often.

Chlorination

The old water treatment Chlorine is usually used to treat and disinfect water at treatment plants, making it safe to reintroduce to the public system. It’s one of the most effective basic disinfectants, and if you’ve ever been in a swimming pool, you’ve been exposed to a form of it – you might also have noticed a bit of discomfort on your skin and damage to your hair if you stayed in for a while: that’s the chlorine at work. Good for us, then, that chlorine is simple to remove – a simple, cheap charcoal filter will get rid of most signs of it in our shower water.

Most often, municipal water sources filter TOCs and VOCs very well – paying $400 to remove harmless trace amounts borders on wasteful. Those aside, the amount of chlorine in the water system shouldn’t be enough to worry you – unless you fret about perfect hair. However, if you do feel that a filter is absolutely necessary and you just can’t shake your worries, a cheap $60 filter will do a number on those, as well as neutralize the pH balance and remove heavy metals.

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