If You're Tired, You are Probably Lacking This
If You're Tired, You are Probably Lacking This
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With all the different types of water out there and all the hype that goes with each, it can be very easy to get confused about which types of water are really best for your health. And, if you find yourself struggling with the environmental concerns of bottled water versus the dangerous chemicals in tap water, I understand.
That's why I created this page to help clear up some confusion and help you take control of your health.
Since most of you are no longer tuned in to your bodies the way your ancestors were hundreds of years ago, you may be overlooking your body's many cries for water.
There is a silent and growing epidemic of chronic dehydration. So many suffer from it yet are simply unaware of the symptoms.
Are you one of them? The major symptoms of dehydration are thirst, dry skin, dark colored urine and fatigue but take a look at some commonly overlooked symptoms of chronic dehydration.They are:
- Digestive disturbances such as heartburn and constipation
- Urinary tract infections
- Autoimmune disease such as chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple sclerosis
- Premature aging
- High cholesterol
- Weight gain
When it comes to water, there's more to choose from than simply tap versus bottled. Let's closely examine each so you can make informed decisions about your water and your health.
Plain old tap water: It's easy. It's convenient and it comes right out of your kitchen faucet. However, as I'm sure you've heard, most tap water is contaminated with a host of pollutants that increase your risk of serious health problems. Let's take a look at some of these contaminants and how they can adversely affect your health and that of your family.
Arsenic
As I've been stating in my articles about water since 2001, the level of arsenic in US tap water is incredibly high. This poisonous element is a powerful carcinogenic, which has been linked to an increased risk of the development of several types of cancer. In 2001 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lowered the maximum level of arsenic permitted in drinking water from 50 ug/L to 10 ug/L due to the established cancer risk.
The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates as many as 56 million Americans living in 25 states drink water with arsenic at unsafe levels. For more information, see the USGS website, which offers maps showing where and to what extent arsenic occurs in ground water across the United States.
Aluminum
You may have heard how aluminum increases your risk for Alzheimer's disease, but did you also know that the aluminum found in your municipal water supply can cause a wide variety of other health problems?
- Hyperactvity
- Learning disabilities in children
- Gastrointestinal disease
- Skin problems
- Parkinson's disease
- Liver disease
Fluoride
If you still believe fluoride in your drinking water prevents cavities and helps build strong teeth, you've fallen for a cleverly devised mass-deception.. As this recent study done on children in India shows, fluoride is anything but a cavity fighter. fluoride is a well-known toxin that actually leads to an increased risk of cavities and can cause a wide range of health problems, including weakening your immune system and accelerating aging due to cellular damage.
Prescription and OTC Drugs
You may have been told that if you dispose of your unwanted or expired prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs in the trash instead of the toilet that you do not run any risk of it ending up in the water supply. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
As I mentioned in this previous article, water that drains through landfills, known as leach rate, eventually ends up in rivers. Although not all states source drinking water from rivers, many do.
According to studies, human cells do not grow normally when exposed to even minute amounts of prescription or over-the-counter drugs. Some drugs that were never meant to be combined are mixed together in the drinking water you consume every day. Millions of people have drug allergies. Are you among them? If so, how do you know the strange symptoms you've been experiencing are not due to ingesting small doses of the drugs you're allergic to from your water?
Pregnant women should be especially wary. The toxic substances you take into your body from tap water will have a negative effect on the development of your unborn child.
Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs)
Most tap community water supplies are treated with chlorine and although it may not be the healthiest element you can consume, it is far better for you than what is left behind. In my video, "Tap Water Toxins – is Your Water Trying to Kill You?", I interview water filtration pioneer Robert Slovak about the dangers of disinfection byproducts.
Disinfection byproducts are the result of disinfecting water with chlorine. It is important to note that while consuming chlorine is certainly not healthy, DBPs are TEN THOUSAND TIMES more dangerous!
In addition to being a powerful carcinogenic, DPBs have also been linked to liver, kidney and nervous system problems.
If you're thinking you're safe from all of the harmful contaminants I listed above because you drink bottled water instead of tap water, I'm afraid I must be the bearer of some bad news:
40 percent of bottled water is bottled TAP WATER!
Yes, you read correctly. As I stated in my article about the deceptions of bottled water, 40 percent of bottled water is just bottled tap water, which may or may not have received additional filtration. Remember the arsenic and DPBs you were trying to avoid from tap water? Well, an independent test done by the Environmental Working Group found these and 36 other harmful pollutants hidden in bottled water.
Also, drinking from plastic bottles is not a good idea. Plastic bottles contain a chemical called bisphenol A or BPA, which is a synthetic hormone disruptor that has been linked to serious health problems such as:
- Learning and behavioral problems
- Altered immune system function
- Prostate and Breast Cancer
- Risk of obesity
- Early puberty in both genders
Aside from the health risks, the devastating impact bottled water has had on our ecosystem is staggering!
Some health conscious people have been misled into believing that distilled water is healthy for them. As I've stated before, this is simply not true.
The problem with distilled water is that it is boiled and evaporated away from its dissolved minerals. The water then becomes acidic and seeks to balance itself by drawing minerals right out of your body. It will also draw out contaminants from the container it's stored in for this same reason.
What's worse, any contaminant in the water that vaporizes at a lower temperature than the water, such as volatile organic compounds, like disinfection byproducts that are thousands of times as toxic as chlorine, will be condensed and actually concentrated in the finished distilled water. So what you end up with is water that contains even more dangerous contaminants than what you started with!
I only recommend using distilled water for a short period of time and only for the purpose of detoxification, as this water can help pull toxins from your body. Drinking it long-term, however, will most likely invite health problems.
In my interview with water filtration expert, Houston Tomasz, I asked for his thoughts on the growing use of alkaline water. There are several potential problems with alkaline water.
First of all, most water ionizers and alkalizers are marketed by multi-level marketing (MLM) companies with questionable ethics
Some people experience an initial "high" when they start drinking alkaline water. This can easily be attributed to detoxification, and the fact that they are likely just becoming better hydrated.
Detoxification is about the only benefit of alkaline water, and this benefit is limited to very SHORT TERM USE (no more than a week or two). An additional concern is that many individuals have stomach dysfunctions like GERD or ulcers that are largely related to having too little stomach acid. Long-term use of alkaline or Ionized Water can interfere with your body's natural digestive process by reducing the acid needed to properly break down and absorb food. This could then lead to an upset of your body's good bacteria, which can then open the door to parasitic infection, ulcers and malabsorption.
For more information, please review my special report on this topic.
If you've recently switched from soda to vitamin water because you believed it to be a healthier choice, you may be disappointed by what I have to say about them: Vitamin waters are nothing more than a clever marketing scheme designed to promote a product that is just as unhealthy as soda!
Vitamin waters often contain dangerous high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), artificial colors, additives, preservatives and caffeine. What's even worse is these manufacturers use distilled water to make their products, which, as you've read above, is one of the worst types of water you can put into your body!
Now that you know which types of water to avoid, let's take a look at the water you should be drinking for optimal health!
The most economical and environmentally sound choice you and your family can make is to purchase and install a water filter for your home. I recommend three different types of water filters and weigh the pros and cons of each. Let's take a brief look below.
Reverse Osmosis Filter
In addition to removing chlorine, inorganic, and organic contaminants in your water, an RO filter will also remove about 80 percent of the fluoride and most DPBs. The major drawback is the expense of installing an RO filter as most need a plumber to get up and running.
Ion Exchange Filter
Ion exchange is designed to remove dissolved salts in the water, such as calcium. This system actually softens the water or exchanges natural-forming mineral ions in the water with its own ions, thereby neutralizing their harmful effect of creating scale build-up.
The ion exchange system was originally used in boilers and other industrial situations before becoming popular in home purifying units, which usually combine the system with carbon for greater effectiveness.
Granular Carbon and Carbon Block Filters
These are the most common types of counter top and under counter water filters.
Granular carbon filters and carbon block systems perform the same process of contaminant removal, adsorption, which is the chemical or physical bond of a contaminant to the surface of the filter media.
Granular activated carbon is recognized by the EPA as the best available technology for the removal of organic chemicals like herbicides, pesticides and industrial chemicals. However, one of the downfalls of granular carbon filters is that the loose material inside can channel--the water creates pathways through the carbon material, escaping filtering.
Carbon block filters offer the same superior filtering ability but are compressed with the carbon medium in a solid form. This eliminates channeling and gives the ability to precisely combine multiple media in a sub-micron filter cartridge. By combining different media, the ability to selectively remove a wide range of contaminants can be achieved.
Ideally, you want a filtration system that offers a variety of methods to remove different contaminants. Most systems do not address a combination of organic, inorganic, cyst, sediment and metals.
I'm pleased to announce that I have located a family of filters that I believe are the best filters on the market in terms of effectiveness, value, and ease of use. They are all manufactured in the U.S. under exclusive contract with a company specializing in advanced water treatment products, and will include both countertop and under-counter filters.
In choosing the right type of water for you and your family, you want to aim for pH balance. Distilled water is too acidic and Alkaline Water is too alkaline. The ideal pH of your water should be between 6.5 to 7.5, which is neutral.
Mountain spring water is in this ideal range. It is some of the healthiest water on the planet because it is "living water". Living water, like "living food is in its raw, natural state the way nature intended.
One of the main reasons I am such an advocate for eating raw, organic vegetables is because these "living foods" contain biophotons, small units of light stored by all organic organisms, including you.
Gravity-fed spring water is alive in much the same way. When you take this vital energy into your body, you are re-charging it with health and encouraging it to return to a whole and balanced state.
Now, when I mention mountain spring water, I don't mean the two-gallon jugs you see sitting on your grocery store shelf. I'm talking about water you bottle yourself from a gravity-fed spring. There's a great website called FindaSpring.com where you can find a natural spring in your area. This is a great way to get back to nature and teach your children about health and the sources of clean water.
The best part is that most of these spring water sources are free!
It is important to bring either clear polyethylene or glass containers on your trip to collect the water so no unsafe chemicals can contaminate your pure drinking water on the way home. If you choose to use glass bottles, be sure to wrap them in towels to keep them from breaking in the car.
So, how much pure filtered or spring water should you drink per day? Six glasses? Eight?
Well, here's a good rule of thumb:
You should be drinking enough water to turn your urine a light-colored yellow.
If you are outside on a hot day or engaging in strenuous activity, it is advisable to increase your water intake as needed. It is also important to note that as you age, your thirst mechanism works less efficiently. Older adults need to pay more attention to the color of their urine to see if their water intake is adequate.
As I mentioned in a previous article, coconuts are an excellent source of fresh, pure water and electrolytes. Coconuts are also rich in lauric acid, which is known for its immune-boosting as well as its antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties so it's an ideal choice when you're sick.
An even better pure healthy water is vegetable juicing. I recommend buying pesticide-free, organic vegetables for optimal nutritional benefit.
I can't say enough about the health benefits of drinking pure water. Here are only a few of the many health benefits you and your family will enjoy once you make the switch to pure water, it will help you:
- Maintain a healthy body weight
- Properly digest food and absorb nutrients from food
- Have healthy, glowing skin
- Decrease muscle and joint inflammation
- Have better circulation
- Detoxify your body naturally
Finally, the extensively researched and fascinating book, Your Body's Many Cries for Water, should be required reading by all, and definitely belongs on every health care practitioner's bookshelf.
General
Bottled Water
Tap Water
Distilled Water
Alkaline Water
Water Filters
Vitamin Water
Coconut Water
Vegetable Juicing
Water Bottles
Water Videos
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Less Water, Better Sleep
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Myth Buster: Eight Glasses of Water ... plzchuckle
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Realizing that I'm 70% water, I considered this my most important investment in ME. I readReadREAD, i pondered, I even prayed about this one!
Finally, it dawned on me that God made water and He made it H2O. What gives you H2O with no additives? A distiller! I ordered a Waterwise 9000 and started distilling my own. I do not drink enormous amounts of plain water. I put 1 drop of wild Turkish oregano in each gallon, I put a very sparce pinch of Sea Salt in every glass full, I use it to make hot lemonade that I drink instead of coffee now and to make herbal teas. (btw, I threw away the carcoal filter that came with mine ... What do I need to filter out of steam????)
My understanding of the minerals that distill water leaches from the body is that it's only minerals that the liver has in storage (in the joints causing things like Arthritis ... in the veins causing things like hardening of the arteries ... etc etc etc), that you cannot leach out minerals that are being assimilated by the body.
My understanding of reverse osmosis is that the straining of the water through membranes can cause molecular distortion. This might be ok for bathing and washing clothes, but I'd just as soon not drink it, ty.
ALL filters add things to water, so consider carefully ... investigate carefully.
(NaturalNews) To understand something as important and beautiful as pure water we need to understand consciousness because pure consciousness and pure water have many things in common. Though absolute, pure water does not exist outside of a laboratory except as a concept, pure consciousness is not a concept, but it is rarely experienced or perceived in its pure form.
"Ask yourself what the world's most precious commodity is, and you might say gold; you might say diamonds. You'd be wrong on both counts. The answer is water. If by "most precious" we mean what's most desired by most people, nothing comes close to water -- fresh, clean water, that is." - Michael McCarthy
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Pure consciousness, what is that? It is much easier to say what it isn’t than what it is. If we sit down in meditation and relax until we do not feel our bodies, then slow our minds down till there are no more thoughts to think, and calm our hearts until there is no more emotion, no feeling, no hearing, and no images in our imagination, what do we have left? Nothing but our very own pure consciousness; pure awareness is what is left and this is the foundation of everything that we are.
Water and consciousness are both remarkable substances. Water for example, although we drink it, wash with it, fish and swim in it, and cook with it, we tend to overlook the special relationship it has with our lives. Without water, we would die within a week. Now consider pure consciousness, without it we die in a nano-second. We use it all the time for the most basic life processes, to think, imagine, feel, plan, touch, taste, see and hear with, yet we pay it no attention.
Pure consciousness is an idea that a physicist would be more comfortable with because the best comparison to it would be the black light of space. We normally look up into the nighttime sky and see the blackness of space in-between the stars thinking that space is absent of light. Such thoughts are foolish because in each square centimeter of black space is all the light of the universe. So intensely full of light is space that we cannot see it because it would burn our retina in an instant.
Most of us are not familiar with the dynamics of our own consciousness nor do we bother to train ourselves in meditation to perceive the pure light within for it is an intensely dynamic space that is difficult to pin down. In that space we call pure consciousness, even one thought crashes us out of it, like being kicked out of heaven. But back we can go when we re-silence the mind, which we can do if we train ourselves to do it.
As it is with consciousness it is with water. Anything added makes it impure. One very small drop of mercury will destroy many gallons of pure water, polluting it terribly. The pure is highly vulnerable to the impure. This is the most basic similarity between water and consciousness as is the fact that both immediately take the shape of anything. The thought arises in consciousness and consciousness takes the exact shape of the thought. Water will fit into any vessel and it will accommodate any chemical, any poison, any heavy metal in its breast. Dirty water and dirty consciousness seem like cousins and they are. Those who would dirty our waters by adding poisons to the water like fluoride are dirty and indecent in their consciousness as well. And those who would sell us filtering equipment that does not remove this cancer-causing agent are playing a game that puts their commercial interests above their responsibility to protect our children and ourselves from harm.
We are water and we are consciousness and the purer we can keep both the better off we are. To ensure our families the best health possible we have to be dedicated. We have to invest our consciousness in subjects like water and learn to be wise about it. So many of us take our water for granted just as we take our consciousness for granted.
"Each year in the U.S., lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children and 560,000 cases of hypertension in adult males." - U.S. EPA
The cost of distancing ourselves from the purity of consciousness and the purity of water are astronomical. Only when we care about purity will we really contemplate on our absolute need for the purest water possible. When we do sit down and concentrate our consciousness on pure water we come to see it as a powerful medicine for prevention and treatment of disease.
"In 1994 and 1995, 45 million Americans drank water from water systems that fell short of SDWA standards." - Environmental Protection Agency
Pure water is a most basic medicine though it can contain health and life giving substances like magnesium and calcium and still be considered pure, at least by the meaning we are putting out here. It is the same with pure consciousness as well. A person can be in touch with their pure consciousness and this does not mean that the person will never have a thought running through their brain.
The funny thing about pure water is that it can be full of impurities and still look pure. That’s why we can so easily deceive ourselves and drink life destroying water from our taps, wells, and yes even bottled water. And we find the same in human consciousness. A person can be all dressed up in lily white garments and say all the right words and behave most of the time correctly yet still hurt people.
The pure water that we will be studying, achievable through various treatment/filtering approaches, is dynamic and is dependent on water inputted into our filtering systems and what we do to that water. As with consciousness, it is with water. We need to understand the impurities to reach understanding of the pure. When it comes to our approach to the best water possible we have to pay attention even to what we store the water in. Plastic, as we will see, is just the next disaster waiting to happen to our water, our lives and to the ecology of the entire planet. The chances of water remaining pure stored in some kinds of plastic are close to zero.
"35% of the reported gastrointestinal illnesses among tap water drinkers were water related and preventable." - Center For Disease Control
Some scientists believe that for every outbreak of poisoning from water reported in the United States, another ten may be occurring. One such study found that as many as one in three gastrointestinal illnesses -- often chalked up to "stomach flu" -- are caused by drinking water contaminated with microorganisms. It was only ten years ago that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the EPA advised that people with weakened immune systems should consult with their doctors and consider boiling their drinking water to kill any cryptosporidium.
Detoxification is probably the single most important component to long-term health and this has become increasingly true each year, as environmental chemicals have built up all around us. Successful detoxification and chelation are totally dependent on an adequate intake of good water. Water is our body‘s only means of flushing out toxins. The more water we drink, and the purer and more alkaline that water is, the more we allow our body to purify itself.
Since almost all degenerative diseases are the result of toxins, water becomes and is the most basic and essential medicine we have to employ. Thus the quality of the water we drink is equally as important as the amount. If water already contains chlorine and other chemicals‚ it has less of an ability to carry toxins out of our body. If we consume water that contains traces of synthetic chemicals‚ then we force our liver and kidneys to be the filter. It makes much more sense, if we care about our health, to externalize the filtering of water with one of the three basic types of filtering systems widely available. Instead of ultimately damaging or destroying our liver and kidneys and destroying healthy cell environments we let the filters do the work for us. Money is well spent on filtering our water. Bottled water, on the other hand, is a poor and insecure substitute for the care we must individually put into our own water supplies. With an abundant intake of clean‚ healthy water we allow our body to perform all the healing processes that it is naturally capable of and this makes all the difference in the world with all the other medical or naturopathic treatments we employ.
When you bring things down to the very simple level of the pure it becomes crystal clear that healing is about bringing a person back to a relatively purer state. What it comes down to is this. What do you think would be better when you are sick and run down? What would you put down your throat, some poison or something pure in its ability to cleanse you of the impure? In reality there are many people who think a little poison will do the trick. Most of these people who believe this are of course doctors, dentists and nurses and hundreds of millions of people who worship at the allopathic alter and have no problem swallowing the toxic drugs and medicated water recommended to them.
"Unhealthy drinking water affects children in different ways than it does adults. There is cause for special concern for the health of children who do." - Natural Resources Defense Council
Water is what we make it out to be; for we as a society pollute and treat it and we are the ones who can treat it again inside of our own homes. We can protect our family and drink pure healthy water but to do this we have to treat the water ourselves. Most people buy a cheap carbon filter and think they're protected when they are not. If we are using tap water, no matter where in the world we live, it is safe to assume that every time we go to the faucet for a drink or take a shower we are taking toxins into our bodies. Point-of-use water treatments systems today (filtration, Reverse Osmosis, Distilled) are extremely viable and readily available means by which water of extremely high quality can be provided. In today’s world with water supplies being what they are, any good home based water treatment method is much better than no treatment at all. When we get into comparing one type of water processing system with another, disagreements break out about which is the best or healthiest water to drink.
"As to carbon filtered and reverse osmosis (RO) water, these are better solutions than tap water or mineral water, however they still fall far short of the standard set by distilled water." - Dr. Ron Kennedy
If we consider that a good carbon filtration system can remove above 95 percent of all water impurities, we can consider them as a viable and convenient option. Yes reverse osmosis and distilled water will be purer and thus in need of some kind of re-mineralization treatment for optimal healthy water. Filters can be used with confidence as long as one does not push the life cycle of the carbon and one's selection of filter takes out most of the fluoride, which many do not.
When it comes to water, we cannot afford to be lazy. We have to take a good look at what is in our local water supply and decide what we are going to do about it. We cannot allow our public water officials to pull a rug over our eyes. We cannot afford to fall back on crude beliefs and basic assumptions but have to examine all sides of the issue and look into the facts. It’s a fact that William K. Reilly, Administrator of the EPA under the first Bush Administration, classified drinking water contamination among the top four public health risks posed by environmental problems.
Why don’t we hear our present health and medical officials warning us about our water? Some experts estimate that 560,000 people become moderately to severely ill each year from consuming contaminated water. About 10,700 bladder and rectal cancers each year may be associated with Trihalomethanes (THMs) in the water and their chemical cousins. That translates into about thirty cancers per day and that estimate is from fifteen years ago or when there were literally billions of tons less of chemical poisons in the environment. All we hear from the CDC is their fears of the bird flu to justify even more vaccines with which to poison the public with.
When it comes to the concept of pure water, it is just accepted that nothing can compete with distilled water for purity but some RO systems do come quite close. But some doctors, despite the fact that distilled water has been used by spas around the world for serious detoxification programs, complain that going for 100 percent purity with water has its disadvantages. The worst option is to drink tap water with the second worst option being bottled water sold in plastic.
Dr. Masaru Emoto has demonstrated that the relationship between water and consciousness is not a joke. Dr. Emoto took samples of water from various sources, froze a few droplets, examined them under a dark field microscope and photographed them. He experimented first with water from a pure source in Japan. The picture revealed a beautiful crystalline form. He then did the same thing with water from a nearby-polluted river. The result was a muddy, smeared pattern with very little structure. He then asked a priest from a temple to offer a prayer to the polluted water sample and repeated the experiment out of curiosity. To his surprise, another beautiful crystalline structure appeared. The Crystalline structure produced by "Thank you" in Japanese and the crystalline structure produced by "You make me sick, I will kill you." strikingly showed the difference in their final form.
To deal effectively with pure water, we in fact have to become the manager of our own water treatment plant. After all who are we going to trust? Those who put poisons like chloramines and fluoride into the water or ourselves? To take responsibility for our own water is an important act of love. Pure consciousness and purified water are bound together by love. It is the unloving among us that pollute our waters and the indecent who deliberately put poisons into the waters thinking they are doing us all a favor.
It is our obligation to strive for the purest water possible. Deciding what system is best for our needs is a very individual and personal process and there is no filtering system that is best for everyone. If we want pure water we have to put our devotion to it, our spirit, and some financial resources but we shall be surprised at how little a reasonably good system can cost. In a world with inequalities of wealth, we have to pause and consider what we can afford in time, energy and financial resources. Very few can afford the kind of systems that can handle every problem with water but for very little we can do some amazing things to the water we drink.
Note: Beware of the quick and uninformed opinion about water. There is tremendous disagreement here as everywhere. Everyone in the water business is going to try to sell you something. - Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
About the author
Mark A. Sircus Ac., OMD, is director of the International Medical Veritas Association (IMVA)http://www.imva.info/. Dr. Sircus was trained in acupuncture and oriental medicine at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Sante Fe, N.M., and in the School of Traditional Medicine of New England in Boston. He served at the Central Public Hospital of Pochutla, in México, and was awarded the title of doctor of oriental medicine for his work. He was one of the first nationally certified acupuncturists in the United States. Dr. Sircus's IMVA is dedicated to unifying the various disciplines in medicine with the goal of creating a new dawn in healthcare.
He is particularly concerned about the effect vaccinations have on vulnerable infants and is identifying the common thread of many toxic agents that are dramatically threatening present and future generations of children. His book The Terror of Pediatric Medicine is a free e-book one can read. Dr. Sircus is a most prolific and courageous writer and one can read through hundreds of pages on his various web sites.
He has most recently released his Survival Medicine for the 21st Century compendium (2,200 page ebook) and just released the Winning the War Against Cancer book. Dr. Sircus is a pioneer in the area of natural detoxification and chelation of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. He is also a champion of the medicinal value of minerals and is fathering in a new medical approach that uses sea water and different concentrates taken from it for health and healing. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, his first published work, offers a stunning breakthrough in medicine, an entirely new way to supplement magnesium that naturally increases DHEA levels, brings cellular magnesium levels up quickly, relieves pain, brings down blood pressure and pushes cell physiology in a positive direction. Magnesium chloride delivered transdermally brings a quick release from a broad range of conditions.
International Medical Veritas Association: http://www.imva.info/
by: Mark Sircus Ac., OMD, citizen journalist
Pure Water, Pure Consciousness: Finding a Water Filter That Works
Spring Water Test, Daniel Vitalis plzchuckle
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Robert Slovak has devoted himself to the Science of water chemistry and water treatment for thirty years. He and his brother were among the early developers of Reverse Osmosis technology.
In this video, he explains how attempts to disinfect your water may actually be killing you.
I'm sure you received many valuable health tips from this small segment of the expert interview. To hear the full version of this and other interviews I do with world-renowned health experts, it's easy... Simply sign up for the affordable Mercola Inner Circle and receive them monthly, with zero effort on your part. Take this small step -- and take control of your health -- 2,671 other Mercola Inner Circle members can't be wrong!
Sources:
New Scientist January 12, 2009
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
In this video, Robert Slovak, one of the pioneers in water filtration systems shares his extensive insider knowledge about one of the more recently recognized threats discovered in your water supply -- disinfection byproducts, or DBPs.
If you have not heard of DBPs before, you need to pay close attention as it turns out that DBPs, not chlorine, are responsible for nearly all the toxic effects of chlorinated water. Chlorine by itself is relatively harmless, but its side effects, by producing DBPs, is what causes nearly all of the problems.
As it turns out, DBPs are over 10,000 times more toxic than chlorine, and out of all the other toxins and contaminations present in your water, such as fluoride and miscellaneous pharmaceutical drugs, DBPs may be the absolute worst of the bunch.
Enormously Important to Know
Unfortunately, few people are aware of this toxic threat, and those who are aware may still not realize that not all water filtration systems are capable of filtering out DBPs. In fact, there is currently no point-of-entry, whole-house water filtration system that is certified to filter out these toxins.
If you fail to understand this fact, it is virtually impossible to make a wise choice when selecting how you filter your drinking water. There is a high likelihood you are unaware of this, and the deceptive marketing of the industry may lead you to make choices that are actually NOT protecting you and your family.
In Slovak’s next video segment, coming up in within the next two weeks, he will explain which three water filtration options can effectively filter them out.
How are Disinfection Byproducts Created?
The most common disinfection techniques used at water treatment facilities today involve the use of chlorine, chloramines, and chlorine dioxide to kill harmful, disease-causing microorganisms in the water, making it safe to drink.
Unfortunately, over the years scientists have discovered that toxic chemical byproducts form when these disinfectants react with natural organic matter like decaying vegetation in the source water.
The most common disinfectant byproducts formed when chlorine is used are:
~ trihalomethanes (THMs)
~ haloacetic acids (HAAs)
The EPA takes the dangers of THMs -- which are measured in parts per billion -- very seriously and regulates these compounds. The maximum annual average of THMs in your local water supply cannot exceed 80 ppb (parts-per-billion), and the maximum annual average of HAAs permitted by EPA regulations is 60 ppb.
However even though these are allowed, ideally it would be best to have zero. These levels have been regularly adjusted downwards over the years as Science progresses and gains a deeper appreciation of their true toxicity.
As usual, cost is one reason -- and probably the sole reason -- water companies managed to prevent this EPA standard from being reduced even further. Water companies felt it would cost too much to remove a greater amount of these DBPs from their water, so they pushed for an elevated standard.
Nevertheless, it's important to note that the EPA sets the goal for some of these byproducts at zero because they are so dangerous, but unfortunately the EPA goal would be impossible to enforce.
Hence, if you are on a public water system -- meaning a utility company supplies your water -- it's extremely likely it contains chlorine and disinfection-byproducts and you will definitely want to consider purifying your family’s water with a water filtration system that can effectively remove DBPs.Slovak recommends requesting a water quality report from your local water purveyor at least once a year, to see how well your municipality maintains the EPA standards. Keep in mind however that the EPA’s recommended goal is zero! So if your municipality is on the high end, your water may be more hazardous than you’d like to imagine.
If you are like me and obtain your water from a private well, then DBPs are a non-issue as they are only produced when chlorine is added, and it’s highly unusual to add chlorine to most all private well water systems.
How Can DBPs Harm Your Health?
Trihalomethanes (THMs) are Cancer Group B carcinogens, meaning they’ve been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
DBPs have also been linked to reproductive problems in both animals and humans, and human studies suggest that lifetime consumption of chlorine-treated water can more than double the risk of bladder and rectal cancers in certain individuals.
One such study found that smoking men who drank chlorinated tap water for more than 40 years faced double the risk of bladder cancer compared with smoking men who drank non-chlorinated water.
A second study found that rates for rectal cancers for both sexes escalated with duration of consumption of chlorinated water. Individuals on low-fiber diets who also drank chlorinated water for over 40 years more than doubled their risk for rectal cancer, compared with lifetime drinkers of non-chlorinated water.
As the vast majority of the U.S. population continues to receive and consume disinfected or chlorinated drinking water, we can assume that Americans are consuming disinfection byproducts every single day, and the number of related cancer cases could be substantial.
DBPs are Even More Dangerous Through Skin Exposure!
As bad as it is to consume DBPs, they may wreak even more havoc when they’re absorbed through your skin!
A study published in the Journal of Environmental Sciences last year found that swimming in a chlorinated pool presented an unacceptable cancer risk.
They concluded that the cancer risk of trihalomethanes from various routes in descending order was:
1. skin exposure while swimming
2. gastro-intestinal exposure from tap water intake
3. skin exposure to tap water
4. gastro-intestinal exposure while swimming
But the cancer risk from skin exposure while swimming was over 94 percent of the total cancer risk resulting from being exposed to THMs!
THMs formed in chlorinated swimming pools have also been linked to spontaneous abortion, stillbirths and congenital malforma..., even at lower levels.
This is one of the primary reasons I rarely ever dip in a pool. I far prefer to swim in a lake or the ocean.
The ocean is my favorite, and fortunately I get to do that regularly when I am in Maui over the winter. It always surprises me though how few people swim in the ocean, relative to spending their time in the pool right next to the ocean. Seems people would rather soak up these dangerous DBP toxins than swimming in natural healthy salt water.
Other Dangers in Your Drinking Water
As reported in New Scientist, a comprehensive survey of U.S. drinking water reveals that your drinking water is also likely laced with a wide variety of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.
The 11 most frequently detected compounds were:
Atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease
Atrazine, an organic herbicide banned in the European Union which has been
implicated in the decline of fish stocks and in changes in animal behavior
Carbamazepine, a mood-stabilizing drug used to treat bipolar disorder
Estrone, an estrogen hormone secreted by the ovaries and blamed for causing
gender changes in fish
Gemfibrozil, an anti-cholesterol drug
Meprobamate, a tranquilizer used in psychiatric treatment
Naproxen, a painkiller and anti-inflammatory linked to increases in asthma
incidence
Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant used to treat epilepsy
Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic
TCEP, a reducing agent used in molecular biology
Trimethoprim, another antibiotic
So, What are Your Healthiest Water Options?
Your best bet for ensuring your water does not contain DBPs and various pharmaceutical agents is to filter your own water, at home, using a reverse osmosis filter.
While installing a filter to purify your drinking water is a wise decision as it will eliminate virtually all of the drugs and DBPs, it may not be enough. Your skin absorbs both water and chemicals -- as illustrated in the study on swimming pool contamination and cancer risk mentioned above – so you could still be exposing yourself to dangerous levels of contaminants when you:
1. Shower or bathe
2. Wash your hands
3. Wash laundry
4. Rinse fruits and vegetables
5. Wash dishes, glasses, and other utensils
The biggest risk here is your shower. You can easily absorb as many toxins in one shower as you would by drinking tap water all week long.
So, with that in mind, please keep your eyes open for the next video segment from my Inner Circle expert interview with Robert Slovak, where he will discuss the three most effective ways to ensure the water supply in your home is as healthy as possible.
Related Links:
Chlorine Alternative Makes Tap Water More Deadly
How Water Companies Harm Your Water--and You--in the Name of "Treat...
The Dirty Little Secret Behind the Chlorine in Your Water
Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?
© Copyright 2009 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Dr. Mercola is required.
(NaturalNews) Picture this: Three guys go into a bar. The batender asks, “What’ll you have?” "A beer", says the first guy. Second one says, “Whiskey” and turning to the third guy asks, “what about you?” “Oh me, I really need a good strong kick, one with lots of punch to it... Yep, I think this day calls for a big one on tap! Hey bartender, how about some of your tap water!”
It was hard not to hear about the mess our water supply is in; the March AP (Associated Press) story was picked up by almost every media outlet imaginable. Members of a “National Investigative Team” reviewed reports and talked to over 200 officials and scientists for a five-month period. The AP writers’ conclusions struck fear into many a thirsty American, who was suddenly told he was drinking urine. Not any urine either, but drug-filled urine, possibly from their neighbor up the road.
The first to feel the effects were the water filter companies, who have received many inquiries from
consumers. Even though a less widely published story came out in 2000 after the U.S. Geological Survey’s research, apparently few in the industry have run tests on their products to find out if they could filter out pharmaceuticals. Those that did run checks only tested a few drugs.
The EPA hasn’t responded either, as to this day there are still no minimum standards detailing how many parts per million of drugs to water is tolerable. Nor does anyone know the long-term effects on our bodies from drinking such pharmaceutical cocktails on a daily basis. Research on fish and other animals shows many ill effects, which suggests we will be affected as well, if only by eating the fish.
It was pointed out that this problem did not only pertain to the U.S., but recent studies have found similar drugs in the water supplies of Canada, Asia, Australia, Europe, and even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea. Other studies have found them in Brazil and South Africa.
The article also made it clear that bottled water is no solution, as it can pick up the contaminants from the tap water from which it is filtered, or the natural springs from which it is collected. Virtually no water source is safe, since the problem has not yet been thoroughly addressed.
Many opinions and old surveys no longer relevant are cited, but after a critical look at the article, we aren’t enlightened much. The writers state that when it comes to water filters, reverse osmosis models do the best job. No evidence for this is given, however.
A little deeper investigation highlighted the problem of Antibiotics . Since bacteria can adapt to them and nullify their effectiveness, the constant exposure of Antibiotics in the water will give the many bacteria strains ample time to mount their resistance.
There are additional issues to those highlighted by the AP’s article. Besides the overwhelming conclusion that our world has become too enamored with pharmaceuticals for our own good, the question still should be asked: Why do most local governments prescribe large doses of one drug equally distributed to every man, woman and child without regard to need and without any scientific basis?
The drug is fluoride. Many readers know it as a chemical waste product of the fertilizer industry that is problematic environmentally in regard to how to dispose of it. So the government and the industry figured out that putting it in our drinking water would solve the problem. For more Natural News articles on fluoride, go to: ((http://www.naturalnews.com/GoogleSearch...) .
Many states voted to require fluoridated water, but in a few states it is up to the local water company. Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water is an example of one group which has actively opposed the fluoridation. They feel that the fluoride itself is bad enough for health, but its negative effects are multiplied because fluoride compounds are contaminated with lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and other toxins.
Not only that, but studies have shown that fluoride can pull lead from pipes and add that to the poisonous mix coming from our taps. That might be the reason fluoride also seems to bring copper and aluminum with it as well as the lead.
Animal studies have demonstrated evidence of fluoride’s toxic effects on brain tissue. These include brain cell damage, reduced lipid content, impairment in anti-oxidant defense systems, increased aluminum uptake, and the formation of beta-amyloid plaques. These are the plaques which are indicative of Alzheimer’s Disease. Maybe this explains why many dogs seem to prefer to drink from puddles than their own tap-filled water dishes.
Complicating the ability to control the level of fluoride is the presence in many rivers of “naturally
occurring fluoride”. It has been hard to find research on the source of such “natural” fluoride, but it possibly could come from the same source as the pharmaceuticals, or from fertilized soils along the stream banks.
It appears that, whatever the agenda of the AP for its wide dissemination of the news that the presence of pharmaceuticals in our water supply is alarming, it would have done us all a service if a result is that citizens become more aware of the problems with fluoride.
At least, most kinds of water filters will filter out the fluoride and chlorine in the tap water. A more difficult problem is filtering out the other pharmaceuticals.
In-home filters come in several basic types: Reverse osmosis, carbon filters, and distillation models. Until the levels and standards have been set, comparing the abilities of the different types for filtering out drugs will be difficult.
The Reverse Osmosis (RO) filters have been very successful at filtering out toxins and contaminants and possibly will work for drugs. The problem with them is that they require good water pressure and a large volume of water, 75% of which is wasted.
Not only that, but this waste water takes in the contaminants, resulting in a much more highly condensed brew. This water goes back down the drain and into the water supply and the cycle repeats. The best way to deal with this might be to drain this water into a storage tank to be used for irrigation of one’s garden or lawn or drain it directly to an irrigation hose.
Shane Ellison, an organic chemist and author of The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol Lowering Drugs, (www.thepeopleschemist.com) , favors the five-stage RioFlow Reverse Osmosis filter, priced at about $169. When asked if one could safely run the leftover water out to the garden to irrigate fruit trees or veggies, he stated “Cellulose acts as a pretty good filter, stopping drug uptake. But I've never tested this personally. Most plants only take up water and a bit of nitrogen... Using the sun, they then make all the nutritional components ‘in-house’ so to speak... It's quite miraculous when you consider it...”
Carbon filters are used in a variety of water filters. A few carbon filter systems, depending on the makeup of their filtering material, have been certified for the removal of lead, asbestos, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), cysts, and coliform. The inorganic chemicals would not stick to the carbon, however. Another downside is that carbon filters have to be cleaned often and/or replaced to be effective.
One maker, Aquasana, states “Pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs are virtually all Synthetic Organic Chemicals (SOCs) or Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) and are effectively filtered out by our filters. The coconut shell granulated activated carbon used in all of our filters is recognized by the EPA as the best available technology for the removal of SOCs and VOCs.” They failed to mention what happens to the few inorganic chemicals, however.
Distillation units work by steaming the water and separating out the contaminants from the water. This type provides very clean water, but a charcoal filter needs to be incorporated, since toxins like chlorine can both vaporize and re-condense along with the water being cleaned. Beneficial liquid trace minerals will be lost in the distilling process, so they will have to be added back in. Electricity is also required for these units.
The best choice will probably be a combination of reverse osmosis filter augmented by pre- and post-
activated carbon filters. The filter will definitely need several stages and different kinds of filtering media. There is even a product which adds a special ceramic filter to it and attempts to incorporate the best of all three methods. It is the kind that is used by NASA in our space program.
Another consideration is whether or not to filter ALL the water in the residence, or just the drinking water. Whole house systems are expensive, but shower filters are also effective in removing chlorine and other toxins. It is even possible to find filters that work with the tub faucet so bath water can also be chlorine-free.
In the next few months, it can be anticipated that water filter companies will be running tests on the
abilities of their filters to remove pharmaceuticals. Water companies will be fending off questions from consumers and preparing statements. It is doubtful that water companies and cities will be able to improve water quality very quickly.
Since the earlier studies, small pilot programs and one-day pickups of unused drugs have popped up in the Northeast, California, Washington, Florida, and elsewhere.
At least one state, Illinois, is now calling for a testing of water supplies for drugs. Illinois already has a disposal program for unused drugs, in an attempt to cut down the amount disposed of in toilets etc. The Illinois EPA has removed six 30-gallon drums of pharmaceuticals from its pilot program so far.
In this program, recommended by the EPA, solid waste agencies in four locations collect unused drugs from senior centers, retirement complexes, and convalescent centers in their areas. The state EPA collects unused pharmaceuticals at its twice-yearly household hazardous waste collection events. In addition, many hospitals, pharmacies and police departments offer programs to collect and dispose of unwanted drugs.
Maine recently started a four-county program in which pharmaceutical buyers will take home prepaid mailers in which they will send drug leftovers to a way station. From there, most will be picked up for transport to incinerators. Organizers intend to eventually extend the program statewide.
To dispose of unused drugs, the EPA suggests putting them among coffee grounds or kitty litter in a non-permeable container such as a coffee can before bringing them to the collection site. Some drugs should be flushed down the toilet; if so, the label should so indicate.
Montreal plans to be the first large metropolis in the world to disinfect all its waste water using
ozonation, a cutting-edge technology that uses high voltages of electricity to charge oxygen molecules. This produces ozone gas which will remove bacteria, viruses, drugs and industrial chemicals dumped into the St. Lawrence River, partly by a large number of pharmaceutical plants. Although many cities already use ozonation, it has not been done with this large a volume.
In other studies, ozonation with advanced oxidation processes were found effective to reduce or eliminate the drugs in drinking water. Different pharmaceuticals require different levels of ozone applied. Ozonation plus activated carbon filtration is best for more of these. Though ozonation is cheap, the problem with using it alone is that the ozone’s effect wears off quickly.
For some drugs, like Antibiotics , a good alternative is membrane filtration by RO. Nanofiltration and RO filtration were found effective in Arizona and California studies. Other research found that pre-filtration and final RO filtration was effective. Granular activated carbon combined with RO is even better.
Overall, it can be concluded that ozonation and AOPs (Advanced Oxidation Processes) are promising processes for the efficient removal of pharmaceuticals in drinking water. If all sewage treatment plants added more time for the sludge to sit, the results could be even better, as the sludge-eating micro-organisms would have more time to do their preliminary work.
If manufacturing companies must pay fines for releasing toxins into our environment, it is logical that the pharmaceutical companies should fund the cleanup of drugs from our water supply. Since the likelihood of that happening is doubtful, the consumer will bear the responsibility for providing their own filtering systems so they can feel they are doing the most possible to ensure the greatest health for their families.
Local governments will have to adopt programs such as that in Illinois. After all, the problem left untreated will only get worse. Every drug that gets filtered out re-enters the water supply by one route or another, further compounding the problem.
Researchers have made progress, though more needs to be done to find the least expensive system that will do the necessary job of delivering water that is fit to drink.
Resources:
((http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/ecol...)
(http://planet.wwu.edu/articles/gender-bender.html)
((http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2003/Pha...)
(http://books.google.com/books?)
((http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/...)
((http://www.care2.com/greenliving/carbon...)
(http://www.multipureco.com/appressrelease.pdf)
((http://www.mercola.com/2005/nov/17/phar...)
(http://www.aquaspace.com/)
(http://www.purefilter.net/USRO5-60-QC.asp)
About the author
Cathy Sherman is a freelance writer with a major interest in natural health and in encouraging others to take responsibility for their health. She can be reached through www.devardoc.com.
A Deeper Look At Drugs In Our Tap Water
“Bottled Water Matters” is a front group for the International Bottled Water Association. Some time ago, they began releasing YouTube videos.
In the latest video, available at the link below, their star performer takes to the streets and urges consumers to join the movement and fight those who wish to get rid of bottled water.
“There are people who want to take your choice away,” she says. “People who want bottled water off store shelves because they think it’s unnecessary. But you know that’s not true.”
Ecorazzi sums up the problem with this nicely:
“Let’s not even talk about the fact that besides polluting the world in a big way, bottled water is often less regulated than tap and, when compared, consistently loses tastes tests.”
The Mystery of Water
plzchuckle
12 y
4,146
By Dr. Gabriel Cousens
Quote “…This piece of information makes it clear to us that the most natural and healthiest water is the most hydrogen donating water, which is the water that has the highest amount of electrons. This is distilled water because it is a highest hydrogen donating water.
…Distilled water is definitely like the rainwater in the sense that it has been heated and destructured. Because of the heating of the water most of the frequencies of possibly toxic chemicals are destroyed. Distilled has the least amount of toxic frequencies of any water. The next step is to restructure it so it will hold new healthy frequencies. One thing I use for this is Crystal Energy, which is created by
Dr. Flanagan. …
…The message here is the best way to get our minerals is not from water, but from food. … The other addition to water is angstrom minerals … or a minimal “smidgen” measuring coop of either Celtic, Himalayan, or Real Salt which are all around
82 mineral ionic salts….
…The final step is creating vortexes in the water by rotating the jar of water which stimulates the water experience in a river. Then blessing the water wit healing vibrations, and letting it sit outside in nature to reprogram with the fragrances of nature for at least 4 hours. I believe this is the healthiest, most vibrationally full, high electron hydrating water. This information is from my 2005 book entitled
“Spiritual Nutrition.”
(NaturalNews) Every day in the United States more than 240 million people turn on their faucets in order to drink, bathe, and cook, using water from public water systems. But more people are arriving to the point where they will not let a drop of water touch their lips in their own homes unless that water comes from a bottle shipped from a fresh water source. And even then we still have trouble in the home. Researchers at the University of Texas found that showers and dishwashers liberate trace amounts of chemicals from municipal water supplies into the air [i].
"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives." - American Indian Proverb
Squirting hot water through a nozzle, to produce a fine spray, increases the surface area of water in contact with the air, liberating dissolved substances in a process known as "stripping." So if we want to avoid those chemicals drinking bottled water is not enough. Chemically sensitive individuals would also have to wear a gas mask in the shower, and when unloading the dishwasher if they want to avoid chemical contamination. And even then the skin will absorb directly in the shower chemicals like fluoride so we cannot assume we are safe from the contaminants even if we are drinking pure water. The majority of people still take the purity of their tap water for granted when they shouldn't.
When we look deeper we can see that even in a rich country like the United States, we all have reason to be concerned about not only drinking, but even bathing in water that comes from public treatment systems. Albuquerque, Fresno, and San Francisco are examples of cities that have water that is sufficiently contaminated so as to pose serious potential health risks to pregnant women, infants, children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, according to Dr. David Ozonoff [ii]. What we find in these waters are contaminants that occur with surprising regularity, regardless of location, such as chlorination by-products, lead, and coliform bacteria. Other contaminants, such as Teflon and rocket fuel occur less frequently but pose major health concerns. If we include the fact that fluoride is actually poisonous we have water that is slowly killing some Americans and depressing the health of almost everyone who drinks and showers in it.
And the problems with water just do not end. In August 2005 we learned that common household brass plumbing fixtures may release far more lead into drinking water than previously believed. As a result, even new homes built with brass fixtures like ball valves and water meters could end up with potentially unsafe lead levels. In a report trumpeted by the National Science Foundation, Virgina Tech researchers charged that the standards used to certify the brass plumbing supplies found at most hardware stores may be inadequate to predict lead contamination of water. This contradicts years of assumptions that lead contamination primarily comes from old leaden pipes or public water systems with lead contamination problems [iii]. Contrary to popular belief, many plumbing supplies sold today are not lead-free but contain up to 8 percent lead content in brass fixtures [iv]. Lead makes brass and other metals more malleable, helping manufacturers create intricate shapes.
The consequence though is extraordinarily high for exposure to lead in drinking water which results in delays in physical and mental development, along with slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. In adults, it can cause increases in blood pressure. Adults who drink this water over many years could develop kidney problems or high blood pressure according to the American EPA [v]. The Romans had their engineers turn the populace into neurological cripples when they started using lead in their water systems but they did not have to deal with either fluoride or mercury. The three together, mercury, lead and fluoride become a kind of devil's triangle of chemical toxicity that is only made worse by aluminum and a host of other hostile chemicals that are clogging up our bodies.
Water pollution by drugs is an emerging issue that is extremely important. Pharmaceuticals are now attracting attention as a whole new class of water pollutants. At the recent American Chemical Society conference, Chris Metcalfe of Trent University in Ontario reported finding a vast array of drugs leaving Canadian sewage treatment plants. Padma Venkatraman, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins concluded that antidepressants, anticonvulsants, anticancer drugs and antimicrobials are among the pharmaceuticals most likely to be found at “toxicologically significant levels” in the environment.
These drugs and many more [vi] are finding their way into public water systems because pharmaceutical industries, hospitals and other medical facilities as well as households dispose of unused medicines and even human excreta can contain incompletely metabolized medicines. Millions of doses of prescription drugs that Americans swallow annually to combat cancer, pain, Depression and other ailments do not disappear harmlessly into their digestive systems but instead make their way back into the environment where they may contaminate drinking water and pose a threat to life, according to researchers at John Hopkins medical center.
These drugs pass intact through conventional sewage treatment facilities, into waterways, lakes and even aquifers. Discarded pharmaceuticals often end up at dumps and land fills, posing a threat to underlying groundwater. And farm animals also are a huge source of pharmaceuticals entering the environment because of the massive use of hormones, Antibiotics and veterinary medicines used in their care. Along with pharmaceuticals, personal care products also are showing up in water. Generally these chemicals are the active ingredients or preservatives in cosmetics, toiletries or fragrances. For example, nitro musks, used as a fragrance in many cosmetics, detergents, toiletries and other personal care products, have attracted concern because of their persistence and possible adverse environmental impacts. Some countries have taken action to ban nitro musks. Also, sun screen agents have been detected in lakes and fish.
It is hard to tell which is worse, the toxic chemicals and drugs that are leeching into the public water systems or the noxious chemicals deliberately put in the water by public health officials. Standard water treatments result in health threats yet health officials are loath to admit any problem that we should beware of. Chlorination of drinking water supplies virtually eliminates most disease or bacterial contamination, but creates traces of several toxic by-products in drinking water -- such as chloroform, trihalomethanes and other chlorinated organic compounds. In recent years municipal water districts across the United States are changing the way they disinfect public water supplies. Many are adding ammonia to chlorinated water to produce chloramines [vii], or chloraminated water. They are doing that in order to meet standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While chloramination has been used as a way to lower the level of carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) created by chlorination, it has led to extreme water toxicity. Chloraminated water kills fish and reptiles and there is no reason to believe it is safe for human consumption.
“I almost died,” Denise Kula Johnson of Menlo Park said the day after chloramines were added to her water supply. “I was in the shower and suddenly I could not breathe. I passed out on the floor. I was terrified.”
“The government is hiding the fact that the drinking water is not usable,” says medical scientist Dr. Winn Parker who tells us that the most at-risk groups from chloraminated water are the fetus in the first trimester, children to age three, people over age 60 and those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Women in the 35-45 age group are at risk of recurring rashes on the inner thighs and chest, he added. Parker is calling for government funding of alternative disinfection methods, such as ultra-violet and reverse osmosis, which would make harmful chemical disinfection methods obsolete. “We need to amend the Constitution,” Parker said, “to give the people in each state the right to vote on what goes into their water.”[viii] A recently discovered disinfection byproduct iodoacetic acid, found in U.S. drinking water treated with chloramines, is the most toxic ever found according to Dr. Michael J. Plewa, a genetic toxicology expert at the University of Illinois [ix].
"Individuals who consume chlorinated drinking water have an elevated risk of cancer of the bladder, stomach, pancreas, kidney and rectum as well as Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma." [x] - Dr. Michael J. Plewa
When Washington DC changed in 2000 to chloramines, this newly treated water reacted with the lead in the pipes to poison the drinking water. Lead levels were found in Washington’s water 3,200 times the EPA’s “action level” and 4,800 times the UN’s acceptable level for the toxic heavy metal. Americans have been conditioned to believe that the problem with lead has mostly disappeared but nothing could be further from the truth. According to the Washington Post, “In New York City, the nation’s largest water provider has for the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water was safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the city has withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would have raised lead levels above the safety standard in two of those years.”[xi]
“The drinking water lead crisis in Washington D.C. poses serious public health risks to thousands of residents of the national capital area, and casts a dark shadow of doubt over the ability, resources, or will of federal and local officials to fulfill their duty to protect our health,” said Paul D. Schwartz, National Policy Coordinator, Clean Water Action [xii].
After switching to chloraminated water, children in Washington ingested more than 60 times the EPA’s maximum level of lead with one glass of water [xiii].
Jim Elder, who headed the EPA's drinking water program from 1991 to 1995, said he fears that utilities are engaging in "widespread fraud and manipulation. It's time to reconsider whether water utilities can be trusted with this crucial responsibility of protecting the public. I fear for the safety of our nation's drinking water. Apparently, it's a real crap shoot as to what's going to come out of the tap and whether it will be healthy or not."
Cities across the country are manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk. - Washington Post [xiv]
Underground aquifers can become contaminated with bacteria and viruses because of insufficient topsoil layers to filter rainwater as it trickles down to recharge the groundwater. Livestock manure, human sewage sludge, fertilizers, weed killers [xv] and pesticides seep down into groundwater supplies. The intensification of agricultural practices -- in particular, the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides -- has had a huge impact on water quality. The main agricultural water pollutants are nitrates [xvi], phosphorus, and pesticides. Rising nitrate concentrations threaten the quality of drinking water, while high pesticide use contributes substantially to the direct poisoning of our water supplies.
The Netherlands National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM, 1992) concluded that "groundwater is threatened by pesticides in all European states.” WHO (1993) has established drinking water guidelines for 33 pesticides but an awareness is growing that in all matters water related we are not being protected from serious harm. There really is no limit to the concerns and chemicals that make drinking public water a bad idea.
There really is no end to the serious problems with tap water that are being seriously underestimated. The National Academy of Sciences has concluded that arsenic is so dangerous in drinking water that stringent levels set by the Clinton administration and later suspended by the Bush White House were not strict enough. For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency set an acceptable arsenic level of 50 parts per billion in drinking water. But recent studies suggested that this level was too high and increased the risk of bladder and lung cancer. A report by the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 said the standard should be made stricter "as promptly as possible." President Bill Clinton ordered the limit to be lowered to 10 parts per billion in 2006 and scientists doubt if even this low level of concentration is safe [xvii].
References:
i. (http://www.agonist.org/story/2005/8/4/44118/79781)
ii. National Resources Defence Council. Ozonoff is chair of the Environmental Health Program at Boston University School of Public Health and a nationally known expert on drinking water and health issues ((http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/usci...)
iii. (http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C29130.html)
iv. Drinking Water Act in 1996 banned plumbing devices with pure lead pipe but still allows low levels of lead. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder. However, new homes are also at risk: even legally “lead-free” plumbing may contain up to 8 percent lead. The most common problem is with brass or chrome-plated brass faucets and fixtures which can leach significant amounts of lead into the water, especially hot water.
v. (http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/index.html) Amendments made to the federal Safe
vi. Detected contaminants include caffeine, which was the highest-volume pollutant, codeine, cholesterol-lowering agents, anti-depressants, and Premarin, an estrogen replacement drug taken by about 9 million women. Also chemotherapy agents were found downstream from hospitals treating cancer patients. Final results from the study are expected to be released in the fall. For additional information about the U.S.G.S. study check the website: (http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc.html)
vii. Chloramine is a disinfectant put into many municipal water supplies. In recent years it has often replaced chlorine for two main reasons. The first is that it is much longer lasting, so it continues to provide a disinfectant action in supply pipes, where chlorine typically loses its capacity to disinfect. The second is that it does not react with organics nearly as readily as does chlorine. The reaction products of chlorine and organics (chlorinated organics) are very toxic to people, and water supply operators elect to use chloramine to reduce this toxicity.
viii. Bollyn, Christopher. The Unhealthy Consequences of Chloraminated Water. ((http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/c...)
ix. ((http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...)
x. Sep 2004 ((http://www.watertechonline.com/News.asp...)
xi. (http://www.americanfreepress.net)
xii. US House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform
Hearing on the District of Columbia’s Lead Contamination Experience
Statement of Paul D. Schwartz, National Policy Coordinator, Clean Water Action
May 21, 2004. (http://www.dcwatch.com/wasa/040521i.htm)
xiii. From April 2 to May 8 of 2004, utility officials switched back to chlorine, a yearly change intended to rinse bacteria from the pipes before summer. During that time, officials said yesterday, lead level test results in homes with lead service lines were 25 percent to 30 percent lower than they would have predicted. ((http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar...)
xiv. ((http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar...)
xv. The weed killer atrazine affects the levels of a number of hormones needed for normal development and function of the reproductive system, including estrogen, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, and follicle stimulating hormone. Atrazine has been linked to sexua| malformations in frogs that were exposed to water containing just 1/30th as much atrazine as the EPA regards as safe in human drinking water. Sanders, Robert. Popular weed killer atrazine feminizes native frogs across Midwest, could be impacting amphibian populations worldwide 30 October 2002. University of Berkely. ((http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/rele...)
xvi. Nitrate in drinking water is also associated with increased risk for bladder cancer, according to a University of Iowa (UI) study that looked at cancer incidence among nearly 22,000 Iowa women. The study results suggest that even low-level exposure to nitrates over many years could cause increases in certain types of cancer, said Peter Weyer, Ph.D., associate director of the UI Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC) and one of the study’s lead authors. The study was published in the May 2001 issue of the journal Epidemiology. “From a public health perspective, source water protection is a main concern. Sources of nitrate which can impact water supplies include fertilizers, human waste, and animal waste,” Weyer said. “All of us, rural and urban residents alike, need to be more aware of how what we do as individuals can impact our water sources and, potentially, our health.” ((http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/O...)
xvii. New York Times September 11, 2001
About the author
Mark A. Sircus Ac., OMD, is director of the International Medical Veritas Association (IMVA)http://www.imva.info/. Dr. Sircus was trained in acupuncture and oriental medicine at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Sante Fe, N.M., and in the School of Traditional Medicine of New England in Boston. He served at the Central Public Hospital of Pochutla, in México, and was awarded the title of doctor of oriental medicine for his work. He was one of the first nationally certified acupuncturists in the United States. Dr. Sircus's IMVA is dedicated to unifying the various disciplines in medicine with the goal of creating a new dawn in healthcare.
He is particularly concerned about the effect vaccinations have on vulnerable infants and is identifying the common thread of many toxic agents that are dramatically threatening present and future generations of children. His book The Terror of Pediatric Medicine is a free e-book one can read. Dr. Sircus is a most prolific and courageous writer and one can read through hundreds of pages on his various web sites.
He has most recently released his Survival Medicine for the 21st Century compendium (2,200 page ebook) and just released the Winning the War Against Cancer book. Dr. Sircus is a pioneer in the area of natural detoxification and chelation of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. He is also a champion of the medicinal value of minerals and is fathering in a new medical approach that uses sea water and different concentrates taken from it for health and healing. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, his first published work, offers a stunning breakthrough in medicine, an entirely new way to supplement magnesium that naturally increases DHEA levels, brings cellular magnesium levels up quickly, relieves pain, brings down blood pressure and pushes cell physiology in a positive direction. Magnesium chloride delivered transdermally brings a quick release from a broad range of conditions.
International Medical Veritas Association: http://www.imva.info/
The Poisoning of America's Water Supplies
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