Do water filters remove fluoride?

Pengwuino

I noticed on the news a thing on tooth care and one thing they said was that drinking tap water is better than bottled water because of the fluoride in the tap water. That made me realize that a good portion of the water I drink is filtered using one of those Brita filters! So do filters, such as those by Brita (which I assume are simply activated carbon), remove fluoride? And is it true that I'm not getting fluoride when drinking bottled waters?

Borek

I can be wrong, but I doubt. These filters contain two active substances. One is some kind of ion exchange resin which removes calcium and magnesium carbonates to soften the water, other is activated carbon that removes organic impurities - these are relatively large organic molecules. Neither of these active substances should be effective when it comes to removing fluoride, so I would expect most of it to come through.

Dadface

One reason that tap water is healthier to drink is that it contains the carbonates.Is that correct?

Borek

Never heard about it.

Doesn't mean much.

chemisttree

From Brita's website...

Pengwuino

*facepalm*

I'm one of those people who can't just google something apparently :(

chemisttree

LOL! I thought the funny thing was the inference that all bottled water didn't have fluoride and that tapwater did. There are still tapwater sources without added fluoride. Most bottled water is just purified tap water so most bottled water should have as much fluoride as it's tapwater source.

OmCheeto

No! Not the fluoride controversy again!



hmmm.... That's weird. I just discovered we don't fluoridate our water here. I don't have to worry about it. (I've been carbon filtering my tap water for 20 years now).

I'll just keep brushing my teeth with fluoride toothpaste, as always.

marcusl

On the other hand, under-the-sink reverse osmosis units do remove fluoride.