What RO Treats

Reverse osmosis can treat for a wide variety of health and aesthetic contaminants. Effectively designed, RO equipment can treat for a wide variety of aesthetic contaminants that cause unpleasant taste, color, and odor problems like a salty or soda taste caused by chlorides or sulfates.


RO can also be effective for treating health contaminants like arsenic, asbestos, atrazine (herbicides/pesticides). fluoride, lead, mercury, nitrate, and radium. When using appropriate carbon prefiltering (commonly included with most RO systems), additional treatment can also be provided for such "volatile" contaminants as benzene, trichloroethylene, trihalomethanes, and radon. Some RO equipment is also capable of treating for biological contaminants like Cryptosporidium. The Water Quality Association (WQA) cautions, however, that while RO membranes typically remove virtually all known microorganisms and most other health contaminants, design consderations may prevent a unit from offering foolproof protection when incorporated into a consumer drinking water system.

When looking for a product to treat for a given health contaminant, care should be used to find products that have been tested successfully for such purposes at a quality testing laboratory.