Do Activated Carbon or Charcoal Filters Remove Lead from Water?

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It’s distressing enough to see, taste, or smell a water contaminant. Except when your water looks fine, smells neutral, and has no unusual tastes… but is it completely fine? Spoiler alert: Not necessarily!

Some toxic contaminants can go unnoticed in your water for years and years right under your nose. For instance, you might not realize that your drinking water has been compromised with the toxic heavy metal lead.

Many folks are not even suspicious until the people or kids in the community start falling sick. But why is lead contamination such a nuisance and why isn’t anyone doing something about it? Well, there is, but more on that later.

The problem with lead contamination is that it begins once your water has left your city’s treatment plant. Therefore, we ourselves must strive to look for the best way of eradicating the problematic metal from our tap water, for example with the help of a carbon filter.

Key Takeaways

  • Activated carbon filters can remove lead from water.
  • Generally speaking, carbon block filters with a small micron rating (i.e. 1 micron) are more effective than GAC filters.
  • If you want to be sure, look for NSF 53 certifications specifically for lead reduction.

Do Carbon Filters Remove Lead?

This brings us to the crucial question: Does a carbon filter remove lead from water?

In short, not all carbon filters can remove lead. Only an activated carbon filter – with a sufficient amount and the right type of carbon – can reduce the amount of lead in your water significantly.

Even though lead does not adhere to carbon, filters that are rated at 1 micron or less do not let most lead pass through their tiny pores.

Granular Activated Carbon

That said, activated carbon filters can’t do a lot of heavy lifting on their own. Nevertheless, they are still the most commonly used water filters around, capable of removing a bunch of chemicals like pesticides, organic contaminants, and more.

To spare you the trouble, we advise looking for NSF/ANSI certifications when shopping for an activated carbon filter for home use. Ensure the filter is certified against NSF 53 for lead reduction.

Why is an NSF certification important? The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) is an independent organization that tests various types of consumer products for public health and safety. They have rigorous testing criteria and standards that ensure you trust only the best.

In summary: Look for a specialized carbon filter – preferably with a pore size smaller than 1 micron – with an NSF 53 certification to ensure it removes lead from your water.

What Is Lead?

Lead rarely occurs naturally in water. It is, in fact, a bluish-white heavy metal that only makes up 0.0013% of the Earth’s crust. And since it is easily extractable, lead usage has been fairly widespread.

The sturdy yet pliable metal is an ideal element for coiling, uncoiling, handling, and bending multiple times during a manufacturing process.

That’s why, for years, manufacturers have used lead to make several consumer products like paint, batteries, pipes, wires, and even lipsticks. This is precisely how humans have come into contact with the toxic heavy metal.

How Does Lead Get in Our Water Supplies?

Today, lead is present in our environment and all around us, thanks to man’s intervention. Whether soil, water, or air – you are constantly exposed to the notorious heavy metal. But how does lead enter our residential water supplies?

Most significantly: through aging lead pipes, and some of it also enters our water due to factories making lead products.

Industry Discharge

One part of lead contamination begins in factories where goods containing lead are made.

When irresponsible factory owners dump their discharge down rivers and lakes, lead eventually makes its way into our drinking water supply.

Pipe Leaching

Lead may also enter into your drinking water through a chemical reaction that takes place inside aged pipes containing the neurotoxin. The process is called corrosion.

It is essential to know that free-flowing water does not dissolve as much lead as water that stays in prolonged contact with lead pipes.

But why is lead used in plumbing materials at all?

Up until the year 1986, lead was commonly used to make pipelines. Later, Congress banned the lethal metal in plumbing materials after considering its adverse effects on human health.

Unfortunately, the government allowed those pipes under the ground and inside houses to stay in use.

According to EPA, there remain between 6 and 10 million lead service lines across the country. As water passes through the aging distribution channels containing lead solders or pipes, lead dissolves and flakes into it.

Likewise, when water passes through lead-containing pipes in your home, it becomes severely contaminated.

With that said, if you live in a town with a reasonably new water distribution network and your household has galvanized pipelines, you can rest assured your exposure to lead is likely minimal.

Health Effects of Drinking Water Containing Lead

According to the EPA, there is no safe amount of lead in drinking water. That’s because lead is a particularly nasty metal with numerous adverse effects on health. Also, since lead can accumulate in your body, even a tiny amount in your drinking water can expose you to multiple irreversible and chronic conditions.

Kids

Lead exposure can seriously harm the health of kids under the age of 6. This is because their growing bones absorb more lead; almost 3 to 4 times compared to adults. Since the symptoms are not very obvious, lead exposure often goes unnoticed for a long time.

Surprisingly over 310,000 US children (aged between 1 and 5) have elevated lead blood levels accumulated over months and years. If you are concerned about lead exposure in your kids, a blood test or screening is the only way to be sure.

It’s important to note that there are other sources through which kids can easily be exposed to lead: this includes old lead-based paint, soil, and old toys.

Here are a few problems that can arise if young kids are constantly exposed to lead.

  • Slowed development and growth
  • Learning disabilities
  • Lower IQ
  • Behavioral problems
  • Hearing and speech issues

Exposure to extremely high lead levels can even result in seizures, coma, and death.

two children drinking filtered water

Adults

Lead exposure in adults can potentially damage the heart, kidney, brain, liver, and reproductive system. Not exaggerating!

The most significant risk is to the brain, followed by the heart. Here are a few signs of symptoms of lead exposure in adults:

  • High blood pressure
  • Abdominal pain
  • Mood disorders
  • Difficulties with memory or concentration
  • Headache
  • Joint and muscle pain
  • Reduced sperm count and abnormal sperm

Pregnant Women

Pregnant women are also at high risk due to lead exposure. This is because lead, along with few other heavy metals, can cross the placental barrier. Here are a few complications that can arise:

  • Increased risk of miscarriage
  • Hurt the fetus’s brain, kidneys, and nervous system
  • Baby can be born too early or too small
  • Baby can be born with learning or behavioral problems

Removal of Lead Using an Activated Carbon Filter

Activated carbon filters are typically used in home water filtration systems to remove organic compounds and extract free chlorine from water. They remove contaminants through the process of adsorption.

Carbon filters date back to times when Egyptians first discovered their detoxifying abilities. They are presently the most common and economical water filters around that make your water safe to drink.

How Do Activated Carbon Filters Work?

As water passes through the carbon media, contaminants adhere to its surface. Think of it as a parking lot where impurities are parked as they try to pass through the filter element.

Carbon filters are incredibly absorbent and have an expansive surface area with pores all over, making them effective at reducing bad tastes, smells, and dissolved as well as solid particles in water, including a few heavy metals – such as lead.

Types of Activated Carbon

There are two types of activated carbon filters. Depending on the quality of your feed water, you can select the best one for your household.

  • Granular activated carbon (GAC): These filters are made using loose granules of activated carbon held together inside a cartridge or container.
  • Activated block carbon: On the other hand, block carbon is made by grinding activated carbon into powder form. This powder is then compressed to make a solid block.

Different Water Filter Cartridges and Membranes

While both GAC and block filters are made using carbon that has been ground into small particulate matter, the granules in a carbon block are generally 5 to 20 times smaller than the particles used in a GAC filter.

This is precisely why block carbon is far more effective at removing contaminants than its granular relative.

Moreover, water cannot move as freely through a carbon block, which enables a prolonged contact time. As a result, it takes much longer for water to pass through the filter cartridge. Thus, block carbon offers higher purification rates compared to GAC filters.

On the other hand, GAC filters last longer and provide for higher flow due to their loose nature.

What Else Do Carbon Filters Remove?

Activated carbon filters can remove a bunch of aesthetic and harmful contaminants from your water. Here are a few:

  • Chlorine
  • Chlorine byproducts
  • Sulfur
  • Herbicides
  • Pesticides
  • Volatile organic compounds
  • Waterborne pathogens (depending on filter’s micron rating)

What Do Carbon Filters Miss?

Here is what a carbon filter cannot remove from water:

  • Minerals
  • Salts like fluoride
  • Most dissolved inorganic substances
  • Some heavy metals

If you have any thoughts about the question, do carbon filters remove lead, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!

About the Author Gene Fitzgerald

Gene Fitzgerald is one of the founders of BOS and currently head of content creation. She has 8+ years of experience as a water treatment specialist under her belt making her our senior scientist. Outside of BOS, Gene loves reading books on philosophy & social issues, making music, and hiking.
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