What Is a pH Water Filter?

Most Americans are turned off to tap water, guilty about bottled water and confused when faced with the astounding array of water filtration schemes available for sale. One such water filtration device is called a "water ionizer" or pH water filter, and its manufacturers and purveyors claim that it can produce two separate types of water, each with its own health benefits.

History

• Different manufacturers of water ionizers have different stories about where this technology originated. Some say Russia, some say Japan, but nobody is saying how exactly the idea of water ionization has been conceived or tested. Online purveyors of water ionizers state that the machines were tested on plants, animals and then humans, but they do not cite any specific studies.

Devices

• There are several manufacturers of water ionizers, but they all adhere to the same basic system: tap water is passed between two platinum plates separated by a ceramic filament. An electric current is passed through the water, and the plates are said to draw positive ions to one side and negative to the other, thus creating acid water (low pH) from one spigot and alkaline water (high pH) from the other. Natural (pure) water has a pH of 7 (neutral). Manufacturers include Tyent USA, Jupiter, Life Ionizers and Enagic. Selling points range from the size and shape of the plates to the amount of power the machine generates to pass electrical current through the water.

Health Claims

• The claim is that alkaline water is healthful to drink because it "balances" the acid level throughout the body, allowing the body to heal itself of a number of ills and prevent others, up to and including such incurables as diabetes and arthritis. Furthermore, purveyors of pH water filters (water ionizers) claim that acid water can be used as a household antiseptic.

Pseudo-Science?

• Accusations of false advertising abound, not only between competing manufacturers, but from scientists outside the industry. There are legitimate concerns about claims that water can even be "ionized" due to its inherent neutrality. If it were possible to ionize water by passing an electric current through it, there is some doubt as to whether sufficient "acid" or "alkaline" water could be generated from a single tap.

Placebo Effect

• Finally, the science behind the idea of too much acid causing so many ailments, and an alkaline drink working to heal them, has not been proven but brought into serious doubt. The body has its own methods of getting rid of excess acid, and too much alkaline food or drink can also be harmful. If anything, critics like chemist Stephen Lower of Vancouver, British Columbia assert that any benefits derived from the use of a water ionizer are most likely a placebo effect -- we feel better because we believe in the treatment we have chosen, and we need to believe because we have spent time and money on it.