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Do water ionizers remove fluoride?

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The question of whether water ionizers remove fluoride is a bit misguided. Water ionizers, by themselves, don't really remove anything.  A water ionizer is an electronic device whereby incoming water has a voltage applied to it through a method of electrolysis that causes the splitting of that water into alkaline and acidic streams. The actual water ionizer machine is not responsible for contaminant removal at all.

Therefore, a more proper question would be, "Do the filters inside a water ionizer remove fluoride?" The answer to that is... well... mostly "no".

The reason I say "mostly" is because lab testing has shown that fluoride contained in the incoming water happens to "stick" to the acid water stream, and the concentration in the alkaline drinking water side is lessened.  The fluoride is attracted to the positive charge of the acid water, and will be partially eliminated.  But, when we are speaking of fluoride, "partially" is not good enough.  We want to be able to eliminate as much of the fluoride as possible.

What Is Fluoride
When most people speak of "fluoride", they speak of it as it was a single identifiable compound. In reality, the term fluoride is a catch-all name given to many different compounds containing the element Fluorine.  Fluoride added to our water supply will be some compound of Fluorine plus other elements – most often a hazardous byproduct created during commercial fertilizer production or other chemical process.

Of all of the elements, Fluorine is the most electronegative.  In simple terms, that means it is the most active element when it comes to seeking out other elements with which to bond.  Once it makes that bond it doesn't want to let go, and when introduced to water it is highly soluble.  All of this comes together to create fluoride compounds that are difficult to remove from water.

Why Remove Fluoride?
Up until the early 1940's, fluorine's effect on life was always deemed  poisonous. It was proven to be altering enzymes used by living organisms to carry out a multitude of essential processes. Fluorine, the most reactive element on the planet, is also the strongest free radical. Scientists in the 1930's and 1940's experimented with this element to create the most deadly nerve gasses, rocket fuel, and radioactive U235 for the bomb. As a wood preservative, rodentcide and insecticide, fluorine compounds are second to none.

Chronic doses of fluoride, like arsenic and lead, accumulate in our bodies causing a blockage in the way cells breathe and leads to the malformation of collagen. Cancer, diabetes, thyroid and neurological disorders, hormonal imbalances, heart disease, arthritis and osteoporosis have all been linked to chronic fluoride ingestion. We are now exposed to increasing doses of fluoride from toothpaste, rinses, water, food, medicines, showering, bathing, and even the air that we breathe. Our environment has become a literal fluoride dumping ground.

A recently-published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have "significantly lower" IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas.

Studies have shown that fluoride toxicity can lead to a wide variety of health problems, including:

  • Increased lead absorption
  • Disrupts synthesis of collagen
  • Hyperactivity and/or lethargy
  • Muscle disorders
  • Thyroid disease
  • Arthritis
  • Dementia
  • Bone fractures
  • Lowered thyroid function
  • Bone cancer (osteosarcoma)
  • Inactivates 62 enzymes and inhibits more than 100
  • Inhibited formation of antibodies
  • Genetic damage and cell death
  • Increased tumor and cancer rate
  • Disrupted immune system
  • Damaged sperm and increased infertility

Removing Fluoride From Your Water
Fluoride is one of the most difficult contaminants to remove from our drinking water. Even though the most truly effective way to remove fluoride from your drinking water is to demand the removal of fluoride at your next city council meeting, here are some helpful tips to remove fluoride.

Reverse Osmosis
A reverse osmosis system (R.O.) is effective at removing about 90% of fluoride from your tap water. For those wanting to install a water ionizer downstream of an R.O. system, SnyderHealth carries the Reverse Osmosis System for Water Ionizers.

Activated Alumina Pre-Filters
Activated Alumina, or AAL for short, is an effective way to remove about 85% of fluoride from your drinking water.  AAL can also remove arsenic and lead. The only drawback is that the water flow must be slowed down for the AAL filter to work properly, and the media's efficiency can be effected by the pH of the incoming tap water. You can purchase an external AAL pre-filter cartridge (plus housing) here.

Internal Fluoride Filters
If you own an AlkaViva Athena or Vesta, which are dual-filter systems, you can now effectively remove fluoride from your drinking water. For the Athena, you can get a Jupiter Ionizer Fluoride Filter. And for the Vesta you can get an AlkaViva UltraWater Fluoride-Arsenic Shield For Vesta. Either of those two filters are meant to go into position #1 of your machine.