Best Water Filter To Remove Hormones UK

Each area of the UK has different unique characteristics of the water supply.

With that comes different challenges. Some areas have a problem with hard water. Other areas have water that is of poor quality due to a high concentration of contaminants.

• Pesticides and herbicides
• Microplastics
• Fluoride (Best Filter For Fluoride UK)
• Bacteria and viruses
• Lead
• Hormones
• Heavy metals
• Trace pharmaceuticals

Some of these contaminants are relatively easy to get rid of, and the most basic of water filters can do so.

Hormones are a bit different. Let’s take a look at what type of water filter is up to the task.

Introducing Best Water Filter To Remove Hormones UK

Let’s look at the issue of hormones in our water supply; and discuss the best water filter to remove them.

Micropollutants

In every country in the world, there are issues with micropollutants in the water supply. These include microplastics, lead, trace pharmaceuticals and hormones.

Even tiny amounts of hormones in drinking water can affect our natural hormone balance.

Are there hormones in our water supply?

Hormones like testosterone and oestrogen can end up in our water supply. They are present in wastewater which subsequently becomes surface water, which is where our drinking water comes from.

Hormones like oestrogen are found in contraceptive/birth control pills and other types of medication. They pass through the body and are excreted as waste. As a result, these hormones end up in the sewage system.

Aside from that, some people flush entire boxes of contraceptive pills, HRT medication, and other drugs down the toilet. Anyone doing so is causing a huge amount of hormones to be entering into sewage water.

Sewage treatment plants have extensive filtration processes but hormones are not entirely removed by this process. Some hormones end up in surface water and this water is used for our water supply.

That means that some hormones like oestrogen can end up in the water coming out of your tap.

Can hormones affect health?

Yes. An excess of hormones and endocrine disruptors are certainly harmful to human health. Our bodies have a natural balance of hormones; when this is disrupted it can cause health issues.

A significant change in hormone regulation and balance can result in birth defects, infertility and cardiovascular diseases.

A study by DEFRA (Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the Natural Environment Research Council found that as much as 50% of male fish in rivers are changing sex due to pollutants. 25% had damaged sperm, and nearly 50% had developed eggs in their testes.

The reason for such a major effect is that the hormone involved is a synthetic oestrogen, called ethanol oestradiol. It’s used for contraceptive pills, as well as HRT medication. It’s 50-100 times more powerful than natural oestrogen. It doesn’t break down easily, and sewage processing methods are poor at removing it from the water supply.

How much hormones are in the water supply?

It’s hard to say, since it’s hard to measure such low concentrations of a given substance.

But we do know that one scientific study found that EE2, found in birth control pills, was added to a Canadian lake to a concentration of 5 parts per trillion (ppt), a tiny concentration. Fish populations suffered huge problems, and the fathead minnow population was entirely eradicated.

It’s not know what effects there may be in humans for such concentrations, but negative effects on reproductive health are possible.

There is no specific requirement for water companies to test for hormones like oestrogen in the water supply. So it’s possible that some hormones are making it into drinking water.

The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 (England), specifically regulations 4, 16 and 27 discuss harmful chemicals in water, which includes hormones like oestrogen, but simply offer guidance rather than strict methods to follow.

Is there any water filter that can remove hormones?

Yes, yes there is.

We gave the game away earlier:

A reverse osmosis filter can successfully remove hormones.

There are three main types of water filter:

• Absorption filter
• Mechanical filter
• Reverse osmosis filter

Absorption filter

The absorption filter has a layer of carbon that catches and takes contaminants out of the water.

Activated carbon has an extremely complicated internal structure, a lattice network of carbon atoms. This structure is perfect for capturing contaminant particles and molecules, like chlorine.

This allows clean water to pass through, and harmful chemicals to be trapped.

The best activated carbon water filters are highly effective at capturing many types of contaminant.

However, this type of filter is not so effective at capturing very small-sized chemicals, like hormones. So hormones can still get through this type of filter.

Mechanical filter

The mechanical filter is most commonly found in items like a water filter jug. It provides a physical barrier that blocks large particles from passing through the water.

It can be a mesh structure or a much more effective ceramic filter, that blocks even very small particles.

A typical mechanical filter may have a 5 micron rating, which can remove most particles we can see. A 1 micron rating will remove even those particles that can only be seen with a microscope.

However, even though it can effectively stop even small particles, it’s not powerful enough to stop hormones like oestrogen getting through.

Reverse osmosis filter (AKA an RO water filter)

The reverse osmosis filter, finally, is a filter that can remove hormones from drinking water.

Water is pushed through a thick semipermeable membrane, with pressure. The vast majority of contaminants are removed by this process. The process involves several stages and through several different filters.

The result? An exceptional ability to clean the water and remove harmful chemicals.

Contaminants of all kinds are removed, including bacteria and viruses, microplastics, lead, calcium ions, and yes even hormones.

Reverse osmosis filters have such an exceptional ability to remove contaminants from water that some health-enhancing minerals, like calcium and magnesium are removed in too high a quantity. That’s why many of the best reverse osmosis systems have a further remineralization filter, which adds back these minerals.

This type of filter has a complex structure and with several different stages to the filtration process. As a result, it removes almost every impurity, even the smallest particles of hormones, like oestrogen. It’s the only type of filter that can do this.

FYI, we’ve written an article on the Best Reverse Osmosis System UK.

There’s a bottled water brand that puts its bottled water through reverse osmosis filtering, check it out on our list of the best BPA Free bottled water UK.

Finally, in our Berkey Water Filter Review, we discuss its excellent credentials for removing hormones.

Removing oestrogen from water

“How to remove oestrogen from water?” is a common question from people who are keen to make sure their water is as safe and healthy as possible.

The answer is, you’ve guessed it, use an RO water filter system.

Scientific studies in the US have shown that the amount of oestrogen in drinking water is much lower than harm-causing levels, but many people retain a legitimate concern that drinking water with a permanent low level of hormones over decades could cause harm.

The type of oestrogen that is most prevalent as a concern is a synthetic form, called Ethinyl estradiol (EE2). It’s most commonly referred to as estradiol, and it’s present in contraceptive pills. It can trigger the condition intersex in freshwater fish. The cost to clean up rivers contaminated by these synthetic hormones is around £30bn.

Summing Up Best Water Filter To Remove Hormones UK

We’ve explored the issues of hormones in water. Discussing how they can enter the water supply, and the damage they can cause to health.

We looked at the effects of hormones like oestrogen on the reproductive abilities of fish in rivers, even when found in the most minute traces in that body of water.

We looked at how much hormones are likely to be in the water, and what regulation are in place to limit their presence (or lack thereof!).

Finally, we analysed the different types of water filter and how much ability they have to remove hormones from drinking water. The only one that’s able to do is the reverse osmosis filter. We analysed how they are able to remove contaminants so effectively, far beyond the capabilities of any other type of water filter.

And we recommended our article which details the Best Reverse Osmosis Systems for eliminating hormones on the UK market.

if you like, you can check it out by clicking the pic below.