Why are Brita Filters SO Popular?

here in North America we're told time and time again that we have some of the cleanest most accessible beautiful water in human history this has been the case for decades and yet companies like Brita have convinced more than three quarters of the population that we need to buy additional filtering for our water so is there actually some legitimacy to this or is it all just marketing laughs now if you're wondering if this is a repeat of a subject that we've already done we did in fact make this video over on another channel that we launched a while back called future proof Health that channel is no longer operational and the full dramatic story of that can be found on a podcast episode that we have broken down over on our patreon page patreon page is where you can get access to full length podcast episodes discussing relevant subject matter relating to the things we talk about on this channel and it's a way to support us and what we do here so consider that now let's get back into Brita now right off the bat I think we need to address how sensitive of a subject this can be water and access to water is a basic human right and yet there is a disturbing number of people around the world who do not have access to it in this video we're going to be talking about U.S water specifically because that is where the majority of our audience is and also there's just a lot of places in the world and we don't have time to cover them all now filtering water for safety or flavor reasons is not a new idea it is likely that we started learning to filter far earlier than this but we have records dating back to 4 000 years ago detailing water purification techniques many old school methods are still in use today and would involve things like boiling filtering through sand or gravel or using some kind of additive to kill bacteria now back in the day that did things a little differently Greeks and Romans would mix alcohol into their drinking water to make it a little bit safer which is more fun than the modern day chlorine and we also used to drink a lot more alcohol in general because it was considered safer than water at the time two shots of vodka and one of my favorite ramifications of this is in Portland Oregon where they actually put in free public water fountains in order to get people to drink more so they would sober up they're really cute too they call them bubblers and they're just kind of all over the place and they just bubble all the time which is great it's like the only positive backside of like a history of alcoholism now it seems that humans have long had some sort of inkling that clean water was important but it wasn't until the 19th century that a British epidemiologist Jon Snow linked contaminated water to a cholera outbreak and yes that Jon Snow is the Jon Snow that inspired the character in Game of Thrones crazy did not know that and it's definitely true winter is coming today it just seems obvious that you know water can spread disease but this was a pretty major breakthrough in the world of medicine since then municipalities around the world have started taking filtration a lot more seriously saving countless lives in the process today it is just the norm that if you live in a wealthier place you are going to have clean reliable tap water in your house and yet despite this plentitude of disease-free drinking water at our disposal domestic water filters are at an all-time high and continue to spread to the point where a solid majority of Americans currently use these devices Brita is now just a household name but does it deserve to be now funny enough uh Brita actually got its start in what is listed as one of the countries with the cleanest tap water in the world Germany Brita was actually the name of the Founder's daughter which is not particularly relevant but it is super freaking cute Britta started off as a very simple family business making filters in their backyard to demineralize water for car our batteries apparently but then in the 1970s the family introduced the world to a Brand New Concept the water filtration jug the filtration system of course looks a bit different now than in the 1970s and today you can get a huge variety of filters from Brita and other brands but generally speaking these things are pretty much exactly the same typically these things pass water through an activated carbon granule melange of some sort which sponges up stuff like chlorine Mercury and Lead leaving your water relatively heavy metal free that's the idea now by the time Brita came to the United States in 1988 there was already a market for this kind of thing and competitors were selling similar jugs in this market Brita had to fight for its place this side of the Pacific and in fact almost was forced to emit defeat but smart marketing saved the day and here we are decades later making a YouTube video about them their success hinges on three main Claims One tap water is poison two tap water tastes gross if it isn't poison and three Brita is helping you save the planet so let's brick those down one at a time so first off let's examine the claim that tap water will murder you and your family and we've got great results both at the box office and from streaming britta's entire existence kinda depends on people believing that their water is at at least to some level a bit dangerous they are very much incentivized to drill this idea into the hearts and minds of the public and together with the media they have done a very good job of it one recent estimate suggests that almost 60 million Americans have access to regulated tap water and don't drink it it's like a flat water loss you know anything you got is good yeah we have out of the faucet like from a hose tap water what country is that from oh my God and yet if you ask the CDC the states has one of the safest and most reliable Drinking Water Systems in the world not as good as Canadian tap water of course but you can't have everything if you're the country that invented Mountain Dew Code Red it's likely your water systems aren't going to be very good it's based on your desire to invent beverages of that color now of course this is excluding a bunch of uh rather disastrous situations like Flint Michigan similarly in Canada we have indigenous water crises all across the country which has been going on for decades and there's still 29 long-term water drinking advisories in 27 different communities in this country chances are though statistically speaking if you're watching this video you're in our audience demographic which means that you live somewhere in North America and your local government does something fairly similar to what we're about to describe in the U.S Public Water Systems have been protected under the state Drinking Water Act since 1974. basically this act gives the authority to the EPA to set National standards to make sure that you don't get cholera or lead poisoning from your public water supply to this and the EPA regulates the presence and amount of over 90 different contaminants in public drinking water to be fair not all tap water is regulated by the EPA as many people Source their tap water from private wells in that case it is the owner's responsibility to ensure the water is safe by having it lab tested every now and then however in the case of the vast majority who have regulated water these standards help protect us from sewer runoff pesticides and like uranium to be clear everyone seems to acknowledge that even water that passes the EPA standards has its risks but there are two main narratives about said risks on one hand much of mainstream medicine insists that the danger is minimal contaminants will be present sure but they are considered mostly harmless and not super worth fretting over this is the kind of advice that you will get from places like Healthline and the CDC not everybody buys into this narrative all right there's definitely been a few cases of doctors who adopt a more holistic approach that have warned about tap water we'll have five of those please no sorry can we have four Attack Mode what the argument here is sure the EPA regulates 90 contaminants but there are literally hundreds of unregulated contaminants that most people don't want to be drinking either it's not really contested that tap water can contain things like car emissions you know flame retardants and other people's Pharmaceuticals stuff that might just get into the waterways that isn't on this list in the vast majority of cases these things are not going to kill you instantly or anything but water pollutants have been linked to health problems including cancer and autoimmune diseases and stuff like that it can be very risky especially for people who have pre-existing health concerns even things like fluoride and chlorine which have been added to many water supplies specifically for health reasons come with documented risks this is understandably a part of the story where people can get triggered right there's a lot of people who are justifiably concerned or skeptical about the chemicals in our water and then there's headlines like this that make those concerns seem pretty valid our water systems are built and monitored by humans and humans make bad choices and mistakes and they also make Mountain Dew Code Red which was probably also a mistake now we are not going to get into the fluoride chlorine debate here it is way too complicated to justify spending uh you know half of an 11 minute video just on that one subject because we're talking about Brita filters okay we have a bunch of sources down in the description if you want to check out where we got this information at any time on any of our videos but back to Brita regardless of those other things I just don't think the Brita is the answer to those concerns let me show you my thinking here either Healthline and the CDC are right and all of these things that are in our water are in relatively manageable amounts and we're going to be fine or our tap water is slowly killing us and in that case we probably need something a bit more substantial than a glorified water pitcher to deal with it in the first scenario Brita is redundant at best and damaging at worst these kinds of filters are designed to sponge up contaminants not kill bacteria some studies indicate that this can actually lead to more bacteria in your drinking water because the filter just kind of collects all of them in this little bacteria breeding ground in your picture now I'm guessing that it's not that harmful because most people who own Brita filters probably don't replace the filters when they're supposed to I mean maybe I'm wrong but that's my guess a little friendly reminder here gritters with dirty filters don't clean your water like at all it's just a placebo effect at that point if it even makes the water taste better but even if you use a griddle properly I hate to say it but it's not the best filter out there their standard filters don't even deal with lead which is one of the main things that people are worried about and only their faucet version addresses select pesticides and pharmaceuticals in general their filters are only designed to reduce pollutants not eliminate them entirely which might not be aggressive enough for some of you Brita is one of those products that we tend to just buy on a whim because we're familiar with it and it sounds like a nice thing that maybe will make us healthier but if we're seriously concerned about ingesting toxins from our water it might behoove us to spend a bit more time to intentionally choose something that solves our specific needs now you can actually test your own water to help figure out what you need to do or what you don't need it's as simple as going down to your local hardware store and picking up a test kit and in some cases you might be able to get one of them for free from your local government but it's a small print kind of detail that Brita might not want to emphasize they like to talk about all the crazy Gunk that might be in your water but the reality is you don't know what is in your personal water supply until you test for it in fact your water might have totally different issues than the water your next door neighbor has because your house has different piping once you know what you're dealing with you can choose a filter that addresses your needs or maybe I don't know you learn that your water is completely fine and you don't need anything but Brita doesn't want you to know that there are so many of these filters out there nowadays each one with its own raging debate on its efficacy and we just don't have the time to delve into it all but a few things are here for you to look out for ideally you want to pick something out that's NSF certified to filter what it says it'll filter NSF is a product testing organization that verifies what these companies say about their products is true keep in mind that certified to NSF standards does not mean the same thing as NSF certified it just means that the company is trying to emulate NSF standards by doing their own testing which doesn't really mean the same thing we would also probably recommend steering away from water pitchers in general not only do they not work as well as some more robust filtering systems but they're kind of precipitated on the idea idea that they're also helping Save the Planet by reducing the number of plastic bottles right but the thing is in most cases Brita water filters are not replacing bottled water they're replacing tap water on top of this picture filters usually need to be replaced more frequently and use more plastic than other filter types and often these filters aren't recyclable in britta's case you can mail off your filter to be recycled but in all likelihood that's just an extra step that no one is going to do countertop or under the sink filtration systems may require the most upfront costs and a bit of insulation but if you're not needing to buy filters all the time it will save you money in the long run and save the planet from all that extra trash too but whatever you choose we hope that you got something out of this and that you are drinking your water responsibly so thank you so much for watching subscribe if you want to see more we'll see you next week for another episode thank you [Music]

Channel: Future Proof

Views: 254,775

Keywords: brita, water filter, filter, water, brita water filter, brita filter, brita water bottle, brita water filter installation, water filtration, water bottle, home water filter, water filter system, water pitcher, pitcher filter, water pitcher filter, plastic water filter, pitcher water filter, mineral water, minerality, toxins, water toxicity, h2o, educational, explainer, health, wellness, nutrition, education, future proof, north america

Id: b4UaxYgcYPU

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2023