IS THIS WHY WE DON'T DRINK ENOUGH WATER?
One probable reason for our insufficient water intake is the fact that the most accessible for us is tap water, but the majority of us find its taste and smell unacceptable. And people with a more acute sense of taste find it outright repulsive. In fact, many people have not drunk tap water for years as they can't get accustomed to the taste and smell of chlorine and other contaminants.
A very wide U.S. poll conducted by the prestigious Water Quality Association in 1996 showed that 74% of consumers consider their tap water contaminated and dangerous to their health. Over 70% of them find water's appearance esthetically unappealing while close to 80% are not satisfied with its taste. But where then do you get pure drinking water? The answer to this question and many others can be found later in this article.
ARE YOU SLOWLY UNWITTINGLY BEING POISONED?
Some common water contaminants and what they have been linked to are:
· Asbestos (cancer & other diseases)
· Aluminum (Alzheimer’s)
· Benzene (cancer, anemia)
· Mercury (nervous system & kidney damage)
· Cadmium (kidney disorders & bronchitis)
· Nickel (heart and liver damage)
· Toluene (cancer)
· Herbicides & Pesticides (liver, heart & kidney damage, respiratory problems, cancer).
Some other very harmful common contaminants are: arsenic, silicon, asbestos, copper, cobalt, barium, radon, radium, uranium, etc. The most dangerous ones are lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium & aluminum.
It's shocking to also realize but 80% of the drinking water systems are not equipped with filters that would meet EPA standards. Most of the municipal water pipes are 100 years old, or even older and, you should see these pipes on the inside! What’s also interesting is that even after water has been through your local municipal water treatment plant, it travels along these ancient deteriorating pipes again, picking up harmful toxins and pollutants on its way to your house.
Today about half of the American cities still use lead water pipes that become the main source of lead in their drinking water.
According to EPA, the lead in our drinking water can cause serious health problems. Lead is poisonous for the human body when it accumulates in it. Consumption of water that contains even small amounts of lead can have very serious consequences. A study on water contaminants published in the American journal Water Technology states that,
“Lead is extremely harmful to the human brain, kidneys & nervous system, as well as to the red blood cell creation process, vitamin absorption, kidney function, neurological processes, as well as to the sexual function in both males and females. For many years, scientists have linked high blood pressure, arterial hypertension, strakes & heart attacks to the effect lead has on the human body."
The magazine also stated that especially susceptible to the effect of lead on the body are unborn children and children up to 7 years of age, since their central nervous system is still at the developmental stage and because of their relatively low weight when compared to that of adults. Children can consume and accumulate more lead per pound of their weight than adults.
In a recent study women who drank 5 or more glasses of tap water a day had a 65% increase in miscarriages (9.5% vs. 15.7%), than women who didn’t! [Reuters, Feb. 10102]
According to the U.S. government’s Centers For Disease Control, lead poisoning is one of the most common illnesses among young children - even more common than infections. Especially disturbing are the latest studies: they show that even levels of lead previously considered harmless, can damage a child’s nervous system. Heavy lead poisoning can cause brain damage, mental retardation, coma, cramps and even death. Small doses of lead poisoning, usually unnoticeable at first, can lower mental activity and cause a whole range of physical and mental defects, deviations and such disturbances of the blood cell creation processes as anemia. Yet according to our government’s own data, 42 million Americans (including 9 million children) have dangerous exposure to the harmful lead. The U.S. population is 278 million and 42 million means that about 1 out of every 6 people is at risk of having dangerous exposure to lead in their drinking water.
Even such well-documented poison as arsenic has been found in drinking water of 85% of U.S. municipalities - water that tens of millions of Americans drink in sufficient quantities to cause cancer. Arsenic at levels of just 3 parts per billion, according to America’s own Academy of Sciences, is expected (their own words) to cause 108,000 to 270,000 cases of bladder or lung cancer in the current U.S. population. New regulation is being slowly phased in, yet for now water filtration plants are allowed by the EPA for another 4.5 years to have 20-50 parts per billion of arsenic in their water! How many more cases of cancer this causes is unknown but one can expect a dramatic rise to this already significant number of cancer cases.
What’s strange is there are only a handful of water filters on the market which are certified to remove Arsenic, all of them costing hundreds of dollars except for one, Aqua Wizard, which was reasonably priced.
A Cornell University study revealed that more than 62% of rural home water supplies - providing water to about 39 million people - were considered unsafe because of high levels of bacteria and toxic metals.
Another substance found abundantly in our water supply is Aluminum. A study published in the Canadian Journal of Aging shows,
“...there is a direct link between Alzheimer’s patients’ death rate and drinking water aluminum content. Aluminum --also raises great concerns due to its potential harmful effect on children’s and teenagers’ development.”
The following chemicals have also been found in tap water: synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, paints, plastics, additives, preservatives, pharmaceutical substances, etc.
These man-made compounds don’t exist in nature. Often, they are very harmful to our bodies. As various studies have established, the risks are the following: blood disorders, skin diseases, damage to nervous system, genetic reproductive disorders, cancer. etc.
For example, asbestos, used when mixing concrete, gets into our water supply from the concrete-made waterways. Concrete waterways can be found all over the country. Low level asbestos poisoning is linked to various kidney, bone and blood disorders as well as nervous system disorders. It is also linked to cancer. Different compounds containing nitrogen can also be found in tap water. Nitrates and nitrites in food can cause digestive disorders in adults and oxygen deficiencv in children, yet they are both frequently found in tap water. Yet, according to EPA studies, the nitrate level in the American tap water has increased by 52%.
As to the radioactive additives, according to EPA, almost 50 million Americans (1 in 6) risk getting cancer due to the radioactive contamination of their drinking water. The most widespread of these are radium and radon. Radium is contained mostly in subsoil waters. Radon is a colorless and odorless gas found in nature where it is generated as the product of the soil minerals' decay. It gets into houses through cracks in their foundations, unfinished basements and contaminated water. It is considered to be the second main cause of lung cancer, next to smoking.