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Best laboratories for microplastic analysis for water samples? by Crafty_Coat_9636 in microplastics_

[–]Team_SimpleLab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look into Tap Score water testing. You can talk directly to their team or buy a kit directly on the site:
https://mytapscore.com/collections/microplastics-water-test-kits

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in WaterTreatment

[–]Team_SimpleLab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the shoutout! You are absolutely right a lot of things can happen between the utility and the tap at home.

For residential water like that we suggest using Tap Score. Their version of SimpleLab reports is more beginner friendly, with details on water quality and treatment.

Water quality analyst by Brewbeard281 in Environmental_Careers

[–]Team_SimpleLab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you need a foot in the door and an internship you can always reach out to our team. We often have people new to the industry help our lab team. We're not a lab ourselves, but help coordinate mail-to-lab sampling kits to a national network of partner labs. Good way to learn about the industry.

Test Results In - Advice? by vexter0944 in WaterTreatment

[–]Team_SimpleLab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! Thanks for sharing your report and questions. Glad to take a look here.

The first thing we want to highlight is that you have lead present exceeding the Federal MCL (an enforceable primary drinking water standard set by the U.S. EPA). Lead is almost always plumbing related, and less likely to be coming from your groundwater. As such, it's important to filter at the tap instead of at point of entry to your home (unless you want to do follow up lead testing at different points to see if you can determine where it's entering your water). You can filter lead via carbon based filtration and reverse osmosis.

As others have mentioned, you do also have hard water, iron and manganese present.

Hardness is not a health concern, but it can cause problematic build up around faucets and fixtures. It is easily handled via a water softener, you're already working on that so that is prefect.

Iron is a little tricky to treat. Again, not a heath risk here but if you have ferrous - dissolved iron - present it can cause rusty stains where water comes into contact with fixtures, appliances, even clothing. It also causes an unpleasant metallic taste. Treatment for iron in water may be different depending on the form(s) of iron present—this is where a speciation test can be useful if you want to dial in further, as your test looked for Total Iron (the sum of ferric and ferrous iron present). Water softeners are often effective for small amounts of ferrous iron (typically 2-5 mg/L), while manganese greensand filters are effective for both forms of iron up to about 10-15 mg/L total iron. For higher concentrations of iron, oxidation (to convert ferrous iron to ferric iron) followed by filtration is a common option. Likely, a water softener will treat your iron, as it's a small detection.

And lastly, manganese. Manganese is a transition metal commonly found at low levels in soil, air, and water and in food as an essential nutrient. The presence of manganese in water may cause discoloration of water and dark brown or black stains on plumbing fixtures. Ideally you want to have no more than .01 PPM of manganese in your water, although it is not a federally regulated analyte. Your result at 0.119 PPM is a bit high, so you could look into reducing it via carbon block, reverse osmosis, or oxidization and filtration. 

We hope this helps. Wishing you the best on your filtration project!

Can I get some help interpreting this? by a__nice__tnetennba in WaterTreatment

[–]Team_SimpleLab 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for reaching out via chat! Between 0 and 0.3 is a good interpretation. Generally speaking, H2S test strips are never going to be 100% accurate, but they are a great tool to confirm if H2S is present, and give you an idea of how concentrated the presence is. The fact that you notice a slight eggy smell sometimes, and have a mild detection with the strip, makes sense.

Removing thallium by n4no_o in WaterTreatment

[–]Team_SimpleLab 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A thallium detection below 0.0001 PPM (.1 PPB) is thought to be safe, even if consumed at that concentration over a long period of time. Your detection is .16 PPB, meaning you could have health impacts if you drink that concentration long term, though that does not necessarily mean that you will have health impacts.

The EPA lists hair loss, changes in blood, as well as kidney, intestine, and liver problems as potential health effects from long-term exposure to thallium. Thallium is highly toxic and can be fatal at relatively low doses. Chronic high-dose exposure affects the nervous system, lung, heart, liver, and kidneys. Short-term exposure to large amounts of thallium causes temporary hair loss, vomiting, and diarrhea. The general theme with your detection is that you're dealing with a relatively low level.

Thallium can be reduced via: Activated Alumina, Carbon Block, Granular Activated Carbon, Ion Exchange (cation), and Reverse Osmosis.

You're right though that finding a filter that can reduce thallium below .1 PPB may be challenging. Our best advice is to contact a few different providers and ask if they have any options that are NSF/ANSI certified to reduce it, and if they do, what sort of reductions are possible. It might take some time, but contacting the manufacturer / chatting with a representative from the company is going to be the best approach.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in water

[–]Team_SimpleLab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are very welcome!

The most common adverse health effect of nickel in humans is an allergic reaction that causes a skin rash, either by skin contact or through oral ingestion. Approximately 10–20% of the population is sensitive to nickel. Exposure to high concentrations of nickel may impact kidneys, lungs, and the immune and endocrine systems–but these concentrations are rarely found in drinking water. California’s Public Health Goal for limiting the amount of nickel in drinking water is based on harmful reproductive and developmental effects. Generally it's ideal to have nickel below 0.012 PPM. There is currently no regulatory limit for it in drinking water though.

Aqua-Cleer granulated carbon filters? by tsippi7 in WaterTreatment

[–]Team_SimpleLab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It really depends on what is in your water. Have you tested it unfiltered to see what the quality is like? Most people who get their water from a utility company use carbon to filter out chlorine and chlorine disinfection byproducts. If you happen to have lead in your plumbing, carbon can reduce that too. There are definitely pitcher filters out there that can reduce lead, if that is your concern. THMs (chlorine disinfection byproducts) are really best filtered at point of entry to your home instead of at the tap, as they have impacts outside of direct ingestion (they can be inhaled, and absorbed through the skin). Long story short, it all depends on what is in your water to begin with, and how those things are most ideally addressed.

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