Why filter your water?
Although the European Union has had a policy in place for several years to improve water quality, we can see that these measures are wholly insufficient to guarantee healthy water throughout the continent. It is therefore essential to filter your water.
The water is polluted
In Europe, drinking water sources come mainly from groundwater (65%), surface water (25%) and various sources (10%).
However, increasingly frequent analyses carried out by various bodies and associations are revealing worrying levels of pollution in terms of the frequency, concentration and diversity of the pollutants encountered.
This concerns both tap water and bottled water.
Where do these pollutants come from?
Consumption of goods is on the increase throughout the world, along with population growth. As a result, we are seeing natural environments polluted by an ever-increasing variety of substances.
Although a very small proportion of water pollution can be attributed to natural causes, the main source of this pollution is linked to human activity. It is a direct threat to rivers, lakes, seas, oceans and groundwater.
Among the causes of this deleterious pollution, we can cite :
- Domestic pollution, through waste water discharges
- Agricultural pollution, through the use of pesticides and fertilisers
- Industrial pollution, through the discharge of chemicals.
What are these pollutants?
Micropollutants, heavy metals, micro-organisms, waste or physico-chemical discharges: the range of pollutants present in water is increasingly wide and significant.
Pesticides / Herbicides and biocides
Conventional farming uses almost 350,000 tonnes of pesticides in Europe. The Netherlands consumes the most, with almost 10 kg per hectare.
As they diffuse into the environment, pesticides remain one of the main causes of water contamination. Apart from their intrinsic toxicity, active substances can break down into one or more other molecules known as ‘metabolites’.
Once released, these substances present real dangers to human health through their persistence, possible interactions with other molecules, their accumulation and, finally, the cocktail effect acting in concert with other toxic products.
As a result of this pollution, the majority of water catchments intended for human consumption are polluted by pesticides or their metabolites. Despite water treatment, not all pollutants are eliminated. Even if their concentration is considered ‘acceptable’, this takes absolutely no account of cocktail effects, or the bioaccumulation of certain substances in the human body.
Some pesticides are very persistent in soil and water. This is particularly true of DDT, which has been banned from land-spraying since the 1970s, but is still found in groundwater.
Among the most widely used herbicides, glyphosate is by far the most widely used active ingredient in Europe.
Our filter is 99% effective on average against the main pesticides found in tap water.
See the Ultimate Star Filter® efficiency results for pesticides / herbicides for more details.
Medicines and drug residues
Medicinal substances in water come from a number of sources.
They are the direct consequence of several causes:
- Domestic effluents (urinary or faecal elimination of a person undergoing medication)
- Disposal of unused or out-of-date medicines in wastewater pipes
- Effluents from manufacturing sites
- Treatments administered to animals on farms (mainly antibiotics, but not exclusively).
As with pesticides, some of these molecules are not eliminated by treatment at sewage plants, and end up in the water. The cocktail effects of these different molecules are a major risk that is not taken into account in the various water analyses and public reports.
Our filter is 99% effective against the main drug residues.
See for the results of the Ultimate Star Filter®'s effectiveness on drug residues.
Various substances from industrial or domestic use
These are a variety of substances found in water through the domestic use of certain products or through their manufacture. They include detergents, plasticisers (phthalates, bisphenol), flame retardants (PBDEs), electrical insulators (PCBs), combustion products (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - PAHs, dioxins, furans), plastics, glues, fuel additives, antibacterials (benzenes, ketones, perfluorocarbons - PFCs), phenols... and the list goes on.
Most of these substances are not very biodegradable, and over time can become concentrated in living tissue, contaminating the food chain. This is the case, for example, with PCBs, which have been banned since 1987 but are still present in the environment.
The special case of PFAS
A scandal that came to light several years ago, PFAS pollution (see this topic for details) affects the whole of Europe and the water we drink.
Most tap water, but also bottled water, is contaminated with these ‘eternal’ pollutants, and is particularly polluted with TFA (trifluoroacetic acid), which is present in most European rivers. This toxic molecule was found in 94% of tap water samples and 63% of bottled water during a recent analysis campaign (2024) carried out by the European NGO PAN Europe.
Our filter is over 99% effective against PFAS and TFA in particular.
Heavy metals
Although they occur naturally in small quantities in water, their presence is largely due to human activity, through industrial discharges or agricultural spraying (copper). Other causes include atmospheric emissions from waste incineration and rainwater run-off from roofs.
As metals are not biodegradable, they accumulate in the natural environment, with serious consequences for living organisms. By accumulating in sediments and concentrating in living tissue, they cause contamination of the food chain, with deleterious effects, especially as their toxicity can occur at very low concentrations.
In Europe, lead, mercury and cadmium are the main heavy metals found in water.
Our filter is over 99% effective against many heavy metals.
See the results of the Ultimate Star Filter® on heavy metals.
Pathogenic micro-organisms
Whether through wastewater discharges, livestock effluent or certain industrial processes, water can become contaminated with germs (often of faecal origin) that can cause serious illness. Some viruses can also spread through drinking water (as in the recent case of the COVID pandemic). Despite the treatment carried out in sanitation facilities, there may still be pathogenic micro-organisms in the water you drink, and in sufficient quantities to pose a health risk.
Our filter, tested on 3000 litres, is over 99% effective against bacteria, salmonella and viruses.
See the results of the Ultimate Star Filter®'s effectiveness on microbiology.
What can be done about water pollution?
Our filter is a good way of protecting yourself from all this pollution by filtering your water efficiently, simply and independently. It's good for your health, good for the environment by avoiding the need to buy polluting bottled water, and saves you money by offering a litre of healthy filtered water for just two cents a litre.
Find out more about all the benefits and guarantees of our Ultimate Star Filter®.