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AQUASMART Why Filtration? GRANDER
| Why Filtration?
Many of us grew up in a time when water filters hardly existed, and no one thought anything of drinking municipal water straight out of the tap. Today, the problems with our drinking water, whether from a municipal system or a well, are well-documented and well-known. With the human body being composed of over 70% water, there is no question that man-made and other harmful substances affecting our water are also adversely affecting our health. Some of the offending substances include: Chlorine and ChloramineThe experimental use of chlorine began in the 1890's to combat water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. It quickly gained wide acceptance because of low cost and high efficiency in killing just about everything hazardous in the water. Chlorine allowed population centers to spring up and thrive without any epidemic outbreaks. 
The problem with chlorine is that it is a known poison and the safety of drinking this poison over the long term (i.e. your lifetime) is highly uncertain. Also, chlorine reacts with water-borne decaying organic matter like leaves, bark, sediment, etc. to create a family of chemicals called trihalomethanes and other highly toxic substances. Trihalomethanes, or THM's, include chemicals such as chloroform, bromoform and dichlorobromethane, all of which are extremely carcinogenic even in minute amounts. There have been many studies linking elevated levels of chlorine with early miscarriage and birth defects, as well as an increase in bowel and colon cancer. Chlorine can also cause chronic fatigue, dermatitis, and autoimmune disease. 
While most people are aware that chlorine should be filtered from their drinking water, many people are not aware that chlorine should also be filtered from the water used while showering. More chlorine is absorbed through our largest organ, the skin, when showering, than by drinking six to eight glasses of chlorinated water. Chloramine is a disinfecting agent used in municipal water treatment plants. Chloramine is a combination of ammonia and chlorine. It is used in some water treatment centers because it tends to remain longer in the water distribution system than chlorine alone. However it does require a longer contact time to kill bacteria than chlorine, so it has been recommended as a secondary disinfection process. The effectiveness of chloramine can vary according to water temperature and pH. A pH above 7.6 and temperature below 20°C will cause chloramines to be less effective in disinfecting the water. Studies of chloramines have shown a link to respiratory tract damage and eye irritation in swimming pools. It is extremely damaging to dialysis patients if chloramine is present in the dialysis fluid, as it can cause haemolytic anaemia, which damages red blood cells. There have been many studies that associate chlorinated drinking water with bladder and colon cancer, but the number of cases was much higher in the studies of communities using chloramine. There have been some limited studies showing an increase in deaths from pneumonia and influenza in communities using chloramine. Both chloramine and chlorine can react to organic nitrogen compounds in the water resulting in toxic by-products. The most common by-product associated with chlorine is trihalomethanes (THM), which have been linked to early miscarriage and birth defects; chloramine is less likely to produce THMs. The problem with chloramine is that, unlike chlorine, which dissipates quite rapidly in open air, the ammonia component will not, making chloramine much more difficult to remove. Regular filtration methods, including reverse osmosis systems, are ineffective on ammonia. To remove ammonia requires a more specialized filter and longer contact time. 
Chloramine is also extremely toxic to fish: In Vancouver 10 years ago, a spill of chloramine from a broken water main led to the decimation of baby salmon. The resulting outrage of concerned citizens led to the removal of chloramine as a secondary disinfection agent. Many people are unaware that their community might be using chloramine in its water treatment process, and if they are using a water filtration system that is not equipped to remove chloramine, their system is ineffective. Chloramine will not be removed by reverse osmosis systems alone; it will actually damage the reverse osmosis membrane. FluorideIn 1973, British Columbia was considering mandatory fluoridation. They gave the job of researching and reporting the topic to Richard Foulkes, M.D. Foulkes wrote a 1900 page report and recommended that legislation be passed to make fluoride mandatory in Canada. Based on that work, Canada began to fluoridate. Then something happened. Little by little, Foulkes found out that the statistics that his researchers had based their findings on were largely falsified. It took Foulkes several years to uncover the truth, but by 1992, he shocked the country by backing down from his original recommendation: "I now hold a different view. ...the fluoridation of community water supplies can no longer be held to be either safe or effective in the reduction of dental caries....Therefore, the practice should be abandoned." - Foulkes, 1992 Foulkes is one of Canada's top scientific researchers. Many cities in Canada listened and stopped fluoridating. Want to read a first-hand story about lies and greed and disregard for human health and crooked deals between government and industry? Read Dr. Foulkes' stuff. Another pro-fluoride Canadian scientist, Dr. Hardy Limeback, changed his tune when he learned that 30-60% of Canadian children now have visible signs of overexposure to fluoride, something called "dental fluorosis." In a Toronto Star interview with Michael Downey, Limeback said: "Children under three should never use fluoridated toothpaste. Or drink fluoridated water." Most research has found all the above ill effects at concentrations even less than the standard 1 PPM which exists in most city water. It is not the supplements that are killing us; it is the fluoridated water. If fluoridation is as safe and effective as the American Dental Association says it is, why do other countries not use it? The U.S. is nowhere near the top of any health list which compares the countries of the world. So what are the healthy countries doing? If fluoride is so great, why have the following countries either never fluoridated or else stopped when they found out how bad it is?: 
Only about 2% of the population of Europe is subjected to fluoridated water. BacteriaIf you are on a municipal system with chlorination or chloramine, theoretically you are protected against bacteria. However, if the level of chlorination is not high enough from the municipal source to your tap, bacteria can re-infect the water anywhere along the distribution system. The piping system -- whether the mains or your house plumbing -- has bacterial growth in it happening all the time. If you are on a spring or a well, with no chlorine, then you are very vulnerable to bacterial contamination. Even the purest sources cannot prevent occasional contamination from animals either dying or defecating in the water, or from neighboring pollution (i.e. septic tanks) traveling from an adjoining watershed to contaminate the source. Again, the pipes themselves are a source of bacteria. 
Many people do periodic testing on their well or spring source and rely on this method for assurance that they have good water. What they do not realize is that there are a few problems with testing. First, the test is only good for the moment the sample was taken. Bacteria can have "blooms," if the conditions are right, which potentially occur hours, days or weeks after the testing and therefore remain undetected. Other casual contamination can occur from animal or human sources, as mentioned above, which the test never detected because the sample was taken before the contamination occurred. Second, testing can be very expensive to do, depending on what is being tested for. Most basic tests cover bacteria (i.e. E. coli), levels of sediment and decaying organic matter, and amount of total dissolved solids (mineral levels such as calcium, magnesium, iron, sulfur, etc.). With any extra testing the price goes up per test. Lead, asbestos and specific chemical contaminants are more difficult and therefore much more expensive to test. LeadLead is a cumulative toxin that stays in the tissue permanently, especially in brain tissue. It also affects a person in relation to their body weight. Therefore, an exposed adult can fend off the toxic effects for some time but in children, brain and developmental damage occur quickly and permanently. Lead pipes and lead solder in the distribution system are the main sources of lead pollution. The Boston Globe estimates that 98% of all households have lead in their plumbing. Houses older than 20 years and less than five years are most at risk. Also, houses in areas of soft (low mineral levels) water tend to corrode the lead from the pipes more easily. Asbestos
Asbestos is another potential carcinogen that can come either from water with naturally occurring asbestos (such as in areas that have a lot of serpentine rock) or from asbestos-lined water pipes. Thousands of miles of these pipes were laid throughout the U.S. in the 1950's and have yet to be replaced. Asbestos is so small that it is unfeasible to remove it at the water treatment plant. To build such a removal facility is prohibitively expensive and would clog up the plant within five years of being in operation. Chemical PollutionChemicals are, for the most part, odorless, colorless and tasteless, therefore undetectable. Chlorine is the most predominant chemical in our water. Some of the most dangerous chemicals are present only in trace amounts (parts per billion) but are highly toxic even at these minute levels. Sources are usually industrial, like leaking underground storage tanks for gasoline, or commercial, like Next is the herbicidal group such as dioxin (2,4-D) and lindane, used as a defoliant in modern logging operation and found in many wild and rural areas. Along with the herbicides comes the pesticidal group such as DDT, malathione and other toxics used in insect eradication and control. Also, the THM's mentioned before are a big pollutant because of the amount of chlorination used nationwide. They are a separate class of chemical from chlorine itself. Cysts
This last group includes microscopic worms, parasites and protozoa. The biggest offenders are giardia and cryptosporidia which cause major diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal disorders and even death in people with compromised immune systems. Water experts estimate that over 63% of water problems in the Unites States today are directly caused by giardia and cryptosporidia. Giardia is seven to fourteen microns in size and cryptosporidium is from three to 5 microns in size. When the environment becomes inhospitable (in the presence of chlorine or the absence of water, for examples), both parasites can go into the cystic form (like a hard, round impermeable microscopic egg). The cyst is chlorine resistant and very hard to kill. Municipal utilities are unable to completely remove these cysts. Cysts have been found in most major municipal water systems in the U.S. Milwaukee, Wisconsin had a huge outbreak of cryptosporidia in 1993 that killed over 100 people. San Francisco, California has repeatedly tested positive for giardia in its chlorinated water that traveled hundreds of miles from the Sierras. In Conclusion
The human body is over 70% water. To think that contaminants in our drinking water have little or no bearing on our short term and long term health is to ignore reality. Federal, provincial and local authorities may strive to do their best to insure that we get the best water possible, but they cannot undo all of the damage to our water sources that has taken place over decades of ignorance and abuse. In many cases they have been sold a bill of goods and do not recognize the dangers of the chemicals they add to the water. It is up to us to take personal responsibility to safeguard the water we drink and use to prepare our food. That responsibility starts at each household's kitchen tap. Removing all contaminants at the kitchen and/or bathroom taps just before consuming the water is the most logical, efficient and economical solution to drinking water purification. In this manner, only the drinking water is filtered (rather than all the household water). Also, there is no possibility for re-contamination (i.e. in a holding tank) after purifying the water. From an article by Marc of www.healingdaily.com, with the information on Chloramine supplied by Emily of Aquasmart.
Edited by Paul Cohen and Sara Schmidt EDITOR'S NOTE: We address an essential underlying issue of what helps create good water quality with Grander Water Revitalization. |
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industrial solvents such as TCE (trichloroethane). These leaking toxins end up in the groundwater or in the municipal supply through breaks or cracks in the main water pipes. The biggest family of these toxins are VOC's or volatile organic contaminants, including various plastics, gasolines and petroleum products.