As a political action committee, we cannot and do not promote or endorse any particular product or commercial entity. However, many of our members have inquired seeking information about filtration systems. Some of our members have done research on their own into various filtration options and are willing to share their information and what they have discovered. Some of our members are actually in the water filtration business and are eager to be able to communicate with those members who are looking for filtration information/solutions.

In order to keep this kind of communication off of our normal communication lines (our announcement list) but still give interested members an opportunity to connect up on this topic we have established this page. It is broken down into three sections.

• Member research conducted by Citizens for Safe Water members who have done their own research on filtration and are willing to share information, and are NOT selling filtration products.
• Filters for sale lists people who ARE promoting/selling filtration products.
• Sources of fluoridated bottled water

Member Research
I’M NOT SELLING ANYTHING! I’m a writer in the health field. I’m also the person who developed the fluoridation education seminars that were given at the Clearwater East library.
Fluoride is a very difficult element to filter out of the water. Basically, here’s the scoop on your options.

• Faucet Filtration
• Whole House Filtration

Faucet Filtration
For DRINKING water filtration, reverse osmosis (R/O) and distillation are both effective in removing a significant amount of fluoride, as well as other pollutants. (Of course, they will also remove nutritive minerals, which I believe should be replaced with a liquid mineral supplement added directly to the water.). You can get a portable, over-the-counter or under-the-counter R/O unit for a few hundred dollars. I’d look for one that also has a pre-filter and carbon filter and a good quality R/O membrane. While this will take care of filtering your drinking water, you’re still left with the necessity of filtering your bath/shower water, as fluoride may be efficiently absorbed through the skin, as are many other pollutants.
For this reason, you’re faced with having to get a whole-house unit. Whole-house R/O WILL remove fluoride from your bath water — also from your toilet water and everything else. The down side is that it is very expensive (both purchase and maintenance), especially if you have a large house. If you can afford a whole-house R/O system, it is a viable choice.

Whole House Filtration
The alternative is to get a whole-house filter that targets just fluoride. Here you have three options: bone char, alumina or a special fluoride ion exchange resin. Bone char only removes about 60% of the fluoride and so is not your best option. Alumina is the most commonly used, but has two drawbacks as I see it: (1) It uses a form of aluminum, a toxic metal (2) It needs to be either totally replaced about twice a year or back-flushed with a very caustic chemical, which makes for costly (and messy) maintenance that can only be done by someone licensed to handle the chemicals needed to do the cleaning. The last option, the fluoride ion exchange resin seems to be the best option. It works on the same principle as a water softener, uses salt and also a special polymer resin. The only maintenance involved is periodic addition of salt. You will find that most local water companies are using alumina or alumina gel. I DO recommend dealing with a local company that can and will provide maintenance and on-going service of their equipment. If you buy out-of-state and have problems or need maintenance, it will be very costly to ship the tanks back. I WILL tell you that with the ion exchange resin, you will also have to purchase a tank of catalytic carbon to remove the chloramines; otherwise, they will degrade the fluoride ion exchange resin. This is not a bad thing because you DO want to get rid of those chloramines anyway, AND the carbon will remove a number of other pollutants, as well. I am only aware of one local water filtration company that has researched and is offering the fluoride ion exchange resin system. Their information is posted on this site.
If you live in an apartment or condominium, it may not be possible for you to install a whole-house system of any type. In this case, you have no way to get the chloramines and fluoride out of your shower water. A shower filter may help to reduce these, but not significantly. Boiling your water is not an option, as it will concentrate fluoride even further. Check with a water treatment professional to learn your options.
Susan Stockton, June 24, 2004

Filters For Sale
DECO filtering showerhead Reduces fluoride and heavy metals in municipal water. It also reduces chloramines and organics.
For more information, go to Diamond Edge Company.

Advanced Water Services
Reverse Osmosis Rental Unit: $45/installation - $20/month thereafter. NO contract. He handles all maintenance - repair, changing membranes, etc. Serves Pinellas, Hillsborough & Pasco counties. Telephone 727-799-7854 or e-mail Mr. Ron Gerhardt.

[Former Admin’s note: I found this service on my own and I checked BBB (he is NOT a member, but they have not had any complaints at time of this research), Licensing Board, BPR and Consumer Protection on this co. and it came up clean.]