Looking For A Water Filter Pitcher That Removes Fluoride?

First, let's take a deeper look into fluoride. Fluoride, is it bad, it is good, or is it somewhere in between? And what is fluoride exactly? Most of us are familiar with the use of fluoride in our toothpaste, in the treatments we get at the dentist as a kid, and in our water sources. Growing up, we were told that fluoride helps to build strong teeth and strong bones. We were not initially aware of the potential risks of fluoride that have recently come to light. For example, a 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, researches found that increased levels of fluoride exposure during the mother's pregnancy were associated with declines in IQ in children. 

According to the American Cancer Society, fluorides are compounds that combine the element fluorine with another substance that is usually a metal, like sodium fluoride, stannous fluoride, and fluoride monofluorophosphate. Some fluorides occur naturally in soil, the air, and in water, and the levels of fluoride vary widely between each. However, almost all water contains some level of fluoride and it is also found in plant and animal food sources. Once fluoride is inside the body, it is absorbed into the blood via the digestive tract. As it travels through the blood, it tends to collect in areas high in calcium like in the bones and in teeth.

Fluoride has been added to our water for a few decades now. It began in some parts of the US in 1945, and in 1962, the United States Public Health Service recommended that all public sources of water have fluoride in them to prevent dental decay. Now, 3 out of 4 Americans have fluoride in their water supply, and the decision to add fluoride into the public water supply is decided at a local or state level. Why? Because water fluoridation provides frequent and consistent contact with between your teeth and low levels of fluoride. Also, community water fluoridation has been identified by state and local governments as the most cost effective method of delivering fluoride to everyone.

According to Harvard Public Health, dental cavities have decreased in both countries that use and do not use fluoride in their water sources, so it's hard to say if water fluoridation is really necessary, especially when one can get fluoride from other sources. In 2012, there was a study done to explore whether or not fluoridation can cause neurotoxicity in children and impact their neurodevelopment. The results supported the possibility that fluoride exposure may have an averse effect on children's neurodevelopment as children in high-fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low-fluoride areas. More studies need to be done in order to draw conclusive information about the potential harmful effects of fluoride, but why not be on the safe side?

United States Fluoride Drinking Water Statistics (as of 2016)

Total United States Population: 323,127,513
Total United States Population Drinking Fluoridated Water: 201,565,162

% of United States Population Drinking Fluoridated Water: 62.4%
State With The Highest % of Population Drinking Fluoridated Water: Kentucky 99%
State With The Lowest % of Population Drinking Fluoridated Water: Hawaii 11%

Not Related But....
Kentucky High School Graduate or Higher Rank: 85% or 45th in the country
Hawaii High School Graduate or Higher Rank: 91.6% or 12 in the country

Do Water Filters Remove Fluoride?

In order to remove fluoride, a filter must have a long contact time with water. That's why our pitcher filters remove more than our bottle filters do as the water in our pitchers sits in there much longer than it would in a bottle which you can sip through readily. We use activated alumina to remove fluoride, which is not to be confused with aluminum, which our filters do remove. Other potential ways of removing fluoride are by using bone char or resin, but those aren't always easily sourced or placed into pitcher and bottle filters.

This pattern of covalently bonded media provides the greatest reduction per contaminant in the industry. The blend of media is configured to coordinate various filtration methods for contaminant reduction, including adsorption, absorption, chemical bonding, and depth filtration.

So if you're looking to remove fluoride from your drinking water, be sure to get a filter that has a longer contact time with the water as this is really important in fluoride removal. Solid block activated carbon filters provide a longer contact time with water than do granulated active carbon filters, and we believe they are overall a much more reliable filter than GAC filters which is why use them at Epic! (See GAC Filters vs. Carbon Block Filters) There is still a lot that is unknown about the potential risks of fluoride, but as more awareness is created around it, more scientists aim to do further testing to see the truth behind various claims. But like we said, why wait to find out? Especially, if it's something that our bodies don't require on a daily basis to function optimally.

At Epic Water Filters, we have tested both of our water filter pitchers for the removal of Fluoride. We specifically designed our Pure water filter pitcher to target fluoride. Our Nano pitcher filter reduces fluoride but this pitcher was really designed to target virus, bacteria, and cysts (well water). 

Fluoride Removal:
Epic Pure Water Filter Pitcher 97.88%
Epic Nano Water Filter Pitcher 68% 

Fluoride Filter Water Bottle

You can find water filter bottles that remove fluoride but fluoride is not an easy contaminant to remove. At Epic Water Filters, we have tested a lot of different filter medias in a bottle format to remove fluoride. The issue with bottle filters is that the water does not have a lot of contact time with the filter itself. The water is generally in the bottle before being sucked through the filter and into the users mouth. For this reason, we have put our filters at the bottom of the bottle so that the filters will begin to work via water pressure inside the bottle before the user draws the water up into the straw. This added contact time allows for some removal of fluoride in a water bottle format with our Outdoor Adventure Water Bottle Filter.  You can find this filter in different bottle formats and it is completely interchangeable with our Urban filter. 

Epic Outdoor Adventure Water Bottle Filter 68%

References

JAMA Fluoride Study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2748634

Fluoride Statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/statistics/2016stats.htm

High School Rankings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment

Choi, Anna et al. (2012, July 20). Developmental Fluoride Neurotoxicity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. NCBI. Retrieved April 15, 2020 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491930/

Is Fluoridated Drinking Water Safe? Harvard Public Health. Retrieved April 15, 2020 from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/fluoridated-drinking-water/

Water Fluoridation and Cancer. American Cancer Society. Retrieved April 15, 2020 from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/water-fluoridation-and-cancer-risk.html