Which Water Filter Pitchers Filter PFAS? How to Check

It's roar time for h2o filters, ever since the EPA announced that arsenic galore arsenic 10 percent of US h2o systems whitethorn person unsafe levels of PFAS, besides known arsenic “forever chemicals,” successful the water. Lead pipes are inactive each implicit the place, adjacent if they're nary longer successful Flint, Michigan, arsenic of July 2025. Heck, determination are possibly dense metals successful the groundwater, depending wherever you are, and bottled h2o risks excess microplastics.

I don't accidental this to panic you. Your drinking h2o is astir apt successful compliance with national standards, and lone astir 4 percent of h2o systems extremity up with unsafe contaminant levels, according to an EPA survey successful 2020. This said, section h2o systems won't person to comply with the caller national PFAS and PFOA maximums for drinking h2o until 2031.

In effect to worries astir the h2o supply, a full caller procreation of h2o filters are making wondrous promises astir reductions successful contaminants: chlorine, PFAS, dense metals, stray pharmaceuticals similar acetaminophen, fluoride if that's a interest for you. Some of these are whole-home oregon under-sink reverse osmosis systems. Others are elemental countertop systems, gravity-fed done mesh oregon c oregon different filters.

So however bash you benignant retired which h2o claims are credible? I've been investigating h2o filters since 2024, often utilizing chemic indicators and equipment, and tin attest that it isn't ever easy. Here's a speedy usher to checking up connected that h2o filter that caught your eye.

What Are NSF/ANSI Water Filter Standards?

The archetypal main sources of comfortableness for maine erstwhile assessing h2o filters are certifications and autarkic testing. Vague claims of 99 percent simplification successful chlorine oregon PFAS oregon arsenic are harder to spot if the investigating is interior to the institution itself. To beryllium credible, immoderate claims of third-party investigating should besides intelligibly place the laboratory that conducted the testing.

The astir reliable, standardized signifier of certification is investigating against NSF/ANSI standards. The NSF, formerly called the National Sanitation Foundation, is simply a Michigan-based, nongovernmental nonprofit founded successful 1944 that develops and verifies adherence to a fig of antithetic investigating standards—including those for h2o filters. ANSI, oregon the American National Standards Institute, is an autarkic nonprofit that accredits accreditation and investigating organizations similar the NSF.

There are 3 main NSF/ANSI standards that use to filters for location drinking water.

• NSF-ANSI 42: Drinking Water Treatment Units—Aesthetic Effects.
  This certifies removal of substances that aren't considered harmful but whitethorn impact cosmetics oregon sensation of the water. This includes the chlorine and chloramine utilized by cities to disinfect drinking water.
• NSF/ANSI 53: Drinking Water Treatment Units—Health Effects
  This certifies removal of immoderate fig of compounds thought to beryllium harmful, including lead, arsenic, PFAS, and others. Each compound is tested individually, among much than 50 imaginable contaminants.
• NSF/ANSI 401: Emerging Compounds/Incidental Contaminants
  This certifies filtering of compounds that are “emerging” arsenic imaginable concerns, including pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and pesticides.

If you person the point successful hand, these whitethorn beryllium marked connected the box. But don't presume certification is the norm. Among ablution h2o filters successful particular, lone 1 filter received certification from NSF for escaped chlorine removal: the Weddell Duo.