Don’t Drink That Water!!!
We take for granted that our tap water is safe, but consider this information from the Building Biology Institute:
“The World Health Organization states 80% of infectious diseases worldwide are waterborne. If your tap water has not been filtered by these recommended processes, you are likely drinking, cooking, washing your food and bathing with contaminated water”.
“Disease due to waterborne contaminants can be transmitted by eating foods that have been washed in tap water, breathing in water spray (from a shower or a decorative fountain) or by direct consumption. Common contaminants include Microbial, Inorganic, Organic and Pesticides and Herbicides.
“Organic contaminants include man-made synthetic chemicals (solvents, petroleum-based chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and PCBs. Since the 1930s the production of synthetic organic chemicals has increased almost exponentially and only a relative handful of them are directly regulated via the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. … the dumping of organic chemicals into our surface waters by industrial plants coupled with the constant runoff of agricultural chemicals into surface waterways … almost all fresh water exhibits some signs of organic pollution.
“Pesticides and Herbicides are a subset of synthetic organic chemicals that deserve special attention as water contaminants. Since these compounds can become concentrated in the fat cells of animals from their food sources, they can ultimately wind up in the human body through consumption of animal meat and byproducts. These chemicals get into our water from agricultural runoff, spraying on private residential lawns and golf courses, aerial spraying for bug control.”
Why There Is No Such Thing As Safe Tap Water
The United States has a poor track record for delivering uncontaminated drinking water to the public. Even the nicest restaurants are guilty of serving you directly from the tap. It’s time to get real about the ‘tap water problem,’ one of the most significant vectors of toxicity of our age…
Yet, with the introduction of modern water sanitation technologies, another problem emerged: chronic, culminative poisoning to nonlethal doses of contaminants, such as most industrial chemicals. Fertilizer runoff, and other industrial pollutants, contaminate streams and rivers worldwide.
Lead and Fluoride: Lethal Offenders
Among the most common water contaminants, none are as dangerous to our health as lead and fluoride. Fluoride is one of the greatest cons ever perpetrated on the American public. While some areas of the country can have high-levels of naturally occurring fluoride, the type that is added to about 90% of municipal water supplies are the silicofluorides, fluorosilicic acid (FSA) and sodium fluosilicate (NaFSA), by-products of the aluminum industry.
Done under the assertion that it helps prevent dental caries in underserved populations, this claim has been widely debunked in recent years. Authors of A Critical Review of the Physiological Effects of Ingested Fluoride, concluded that “Available evidence suggests that fluoride has a potential to cause major adverse human health problems, while having only a modest dental caries prevention effect.”
Although the medical establishment works hard to hide the dangers of fluoride, science is beginning to sound the alarm. In 2014, fluoride was added to a growing list of developmental neurotoxins, and the evidence of a link between ingested fluoride and the development of cancer is deepening.
Disinfectant By-products.
Trihalomethanes have been linked to colon and rectal cancers, as well as birth defects, low birth weight and miscarriage. Scientists suspect that trihalomethanes in drinking water may also be causing thousands of cases of bladder cancer every year. In a 2007 report, a startling 50% increase in bladder cancer risk was identified in a group of subjects who consumed water with trihalomethane concentrations higher than 21 parts per billion. The current EPA limit for total trihalomethanes in drinking water is 100 micrograms per liter, or 1 part per billion in water. Shockingly, 600 disinfectant by-products known to cause harm to the human body have been identified in municipal tap water.
Pharmaceuticals
… a wide range of pharmaceuticals can be found in minute but significant quantities in environmental & municipal water samples, making second-hand pharmaceutical exposure a now-pervasive problem.
Fluorosilicic acid is another dangerous waste product that has found its way into our drinking water. A by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, fluorosilicic acid is heavily contaminated with toxins and heavy metals (including arsenic, lead and cadmium), as well as radioactive materials. And it doesn’t get into our water supply merely by groundwater leaching; it’s actively used in water treatment as an alternative to sodium fluoride in the government’s dangerous fluoridation campaign.
Even the EPA admits that the use of fluorosilicic acid (in the form hydrofluorosilicic acid) constitutes a practice akin to turning the public water supply systems of the United States into ‘hazardous waste disposal for these products.’
In 2013, concerned researchers petitioned the EPA to mandate a switch from using these industrial chemical waste products to fluoridate drinking water, to pharmaceutical-grade fluoride. Despite an estimated 100-fold decrease in risk of cancers, the EPA rejected the switch as being “too costly.”
Chemical pesticides
Groundwater provides the drinking water for more than half of the U.S. population, and is the source for most springs and wells that supply many rural homes. Just like the run-off in the bottom of your potted plant, when our nation’s farms and fields get watered, all the fertilizers, herbicides, and other chemicals used to treat them pass right through the soil, eventually leaching into groundwater supplies. Knowing which substances are passing into your glass can be helpful for both monitoring and advocating tighter controls on agricultural practices that contribute many of these chemicals to the nation’s water table. These are just a few of the offenders that you don’t want in your glass.
MicroPlastics in Tap Water … Dr Mercola … Jan 15, 2020
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A study by the University of Newcastle found the average person consumes 1,769 plastic particles each week from drinking water. 94.4% of tap water samples in the US contained plastic fibers.
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Researchers at the State University of New York tested 259 bottles of water from 11 different brands and found an average of 325 pieces of microplastic per liter.
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In a year’s time the average person will consume about a half pound of plastic, 44 lbs in a lifetime.
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These plastics also contain chemicals which affect embryonic development, cause organ damage and have been linked to obesity, heart disease and cancer.
Surely our local water supply is safe, isn’t it? All the water is tested and treated, right? Yes, but our water is tested for one contaminant at a time. Each one is below what is considered safe. There is no testing for the safety of all the contaminants combined. And these legal limits have not been updated in almost 20 years. So a little poison here, a little poison there, it all adds up to what might be very harmful to your health. Our immune system is able to fight off these toxins for a long period of time but eventually it breaks down and we become sick.
So what’s in our water? The EWG (Environmental Working Group) tested the water quality from approx. 50,000 utilities in all 50 states. In each of the several water suppliers in St Charles County they found 22 to 27 contaminants with six to nine of them exceeding safe limits.
What can you do? Start filtering your water. Reverse Osmosis is considered the best alternative, but it is expensive. I personally use a Berkey water filtration system which is a lot less expensive. If you get a Berkey be sure to also purchase the fluoride filters. And get a Berkey shower filter as well.
Some people think the best alternative is drink bottled water. But even bottled water, especially “purified” water may not be purified from all the contaminants. “Spring” water is better such as Ice Mountain Spring water, but all bottled water can leach the plastic into the water. It is best to purify your own and use glass or stainless steel containers. And recycle all your plastics.
You should have your water tested regardless of whether it is from your tap or your well. Testing should be done at least annually. You can do your own test with a test kit from Silver Lake Research.