Saturday, December 28, 2013

Chemicals in Your Drinking Water That Could Be Wrecking Your Health

“Some people think of the glass as half full. ...
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



By Dr. Mercola
Every day, you lose water from your body through urine and sweat, and this fluid needs to be replenished. Clean, pure water is therefore one of the most important foundations for optimal health.
Unfortunately, most tap water is far from pure, containing a vast array ofdisinfection byproducts, chemicals, radiationheavy metals, and evenpharmaceutical drugsFluoride, which is still being added to many municipal water supplies, is yet another factor that can make the water you drink each day more harmful than healing.
The featured documentary, An Inconvenient Tooth,1 reveals the many problems associated with water fluoridation, and why it’s a practice that really needs to be stopped for the public’s greater good.
Amazingly, the debate over the dangers of fluoride and has been ongoing for more than six decades. Yet study after study confirms that fluoride is a dangerous, toxic poison that bioaccumulates in your body while being ineffective at preventing dental decay...

Unregulated Contaminants Found in Many US Water Utilities

Fluoride isn’t the only hazard that might be lurking in your tap water. In related news, federal scientists report finding traces of 18 unregulated contaminants in one-third of the water samples collected from 25 municipal utilities across the US in their most recent testing. As reported by the featured article in Scientific American:2
“Included are 11 perfluorinated compounds, an herbicide, two solvents, caffeine, an antibacterial compound, a metal and an antidepressant...
‘The good news is the concentrations are generally pretty low,’ said Dana Kolpin, a research hydrologist with the USGS who participated in the study. ‘But,’ he added, ‘there’s still the unknown. Are there long-term consequences of low-level exposure to these chemicals?’”
Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), 11 of which were found in this most recent government test, have become so ubiquitous that many of them are now detected in humans—including children. According to the CDC's “Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals” published in 2009,3 a dozendifferent types of perfluorinated compounds were detected in Americans tested.
The potential health consequences of ingesting PFCs are not a complete mystery. As reported in the featured article:
“The two most common perfluorinated compounds, PFOS and PFOA, in the utilities’ water have been detected in the blood of nearly all people in the United States.
A panel of scientists has concluded4 that there is a ‘probable link’ between PFOA in drinking water and high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
The findings were based on people in Mid-Ohio Valley communities whose water was polluted with PFOA from a DuPont plant.” [Emphasis mine]

What You Need to Know About Perfluorinated Compounds

I've written many articles about one of the most common sources of these hazardous chemicals, namely non-stick cookware, but contaminated drinking water is another pervasive source. PFCs like PFOA and PFOS are part of an expanding group of chemicals commonly referred to as "gender-bending" chemicals, because they can disrupt your endocrine system and affect your sex hormones. In animal studies, PFOA has also been linked to:
  • Infertility -- A 2009 study5 found that both PFOA and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), dramatically increased the odds of infertility. PFOS increased the risk of infertility anywhere from 70 to 134 percent, while PFOA was linked to a 60 to 154 percent increase in the chance of infertility.
  • Thyroid disease – According to a study6 published in 2010, PFOA can damage your thyroid function. Individuals with the highest PFOA concentrations were more than twice as likely to report current thyroid disease, compared to those with the lowest PFOA concentrations.
  • Your thyroid contains thyroglobulin protein, which binds to iodine to form hormones, which in turn influence essentially every organ, tissue, and cell in your body. Thyroid hormones are also required for growth and development in children. Thyroid disease, if left untreated, can lead to heart disease, infertility, muscle weakness, and osteoporosis.
  • Cancer -- PFOA has been associated with tumors in at least four different organs in animal tests (liver, pancreas, testicles, and mammary glands in rats), and has been associated with increases in prostate cancer in PFOA plant workers. The EPA has ruled PFCs as "likely carcinogens," and has stated that PFOA "poses developmental and reproductive risks to humans."
  • Immune system problems -- Several studies by scientists in Sweden indicate that PFCs have an adverse effect on your immune system. As described in a report on PFCs by the Environmental Working Group7 (EWG), PFOA was found to decrease all immune cell subpopulations studied, in the thymus and spleen, and caused immunosupression.
  • Increased LDL cholesterol levels – A recent study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine8 implicates both PFOA and PFOS. Children and teens with higher PFOA levels had higher levels of total cholesterol and LDL or "bad" cholesterol, while PFOS was associated with increased total cholesterol, including both LDL cholesterol and HDL or "good" cholesterol.

Fluoride—A Stealth Source of Arsenic Contamination

Another common water contamination is arsenic—a powerful carcinogen that has been linked to an increased risk of several types of cancer. The level of arsenic in US tap water tends to be high due to natural groundwater contamination.9 But the biggest culprit is actually fluoride, as the most common form of fluoride used for water fluoridation (hexafluorosilicic acid) is frequently contaminated with arsenic. In fact, according to one recent study,10 switching the type of fluoride used to pharmaceutical-grade sodium fluoride would reduce the amount of inorganic arsenic contamination in drinking water by 99 percent!
For people living in areas with fluoridated tap water, fluoride is a part of every glass of water, every bath and shower, and every meal cooked using that water. It seems inevitable that the addition of contaminated hexafluorosilicic acid to the water supply by definition must also increase the cancer rate in the US because of the arsenic it contains...
Moreover, not only is there mounting evidence that fluoride itself poses grave health risks to infants and children—includingreductions in IQ—arsenic exposure in utero and during early childhood is also particularly problematic, as it can cause lasting harm to children's developing brains, and endocrine and immune systems.

Water Filtration—A Must for Clean Pure Water…

I strongly recommend using a high-quality water filtration system unless you can verify the purity of your water. To be absolutely certain you are getting the purest water you can, you'll want to filter the water both at the point of entry and at the point of use. This means filtering all the water that comes into the house, and then filtering again at the kitchen sink. I currently use a whole house carbon-based water filtration system, in addition to a reverse osmosis (RO) filter to purify my drinking water.
You can read more about water filtration in this previous article to help you make a decision about what type of water filtration system will be best for you and your family. Since most water sources are now severely polluted, the issue of water filtration and purification couldn't be more important.
It is important to remember that once added, fluoride is very difficult to remove from water. The best way to remove fluoride from your water supply is to never put it in there in the first place. This is one of the reasons we are actively collaborating with Paul Connett and F.A.N. to help remove fluoride from the water supplies. To date, we have been successful at helping over 200 cities in North America to remove it from their water supply, including Portland, Oregon last year.

Ideal Water Sources

Besides purification, I also believe it’s critical to drink living water. I recently interviewed Dr. Gerald Pollack about his book, The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor. This fourth phase of water is referred to as “structured water” and is the type of water found in all of your cells. This water has healing properties, and is naturally created in a variety of ways. Water from a deep spring is one excellent source of structured water. The deeper the better, as structured water is created under pressure. There's a great website called FindaSpring.com11 where you can find a natural spring in your area.
But you can also promote structured water through vortexing. I personally drink vortexed water nearly exclusively as I became a big fan of Viktor Schauberger who did much pioneering work on vortexing about a century ago. Dr. Pollack found that by creating a vortex in a glass of water, you’re putting more energy into it, thereby increasing the structure of the water. According to Dr. Pollack, virtually ANY energy put into the water seems to create or build structured water.
My own R&D team is working on a careful study in which we use vortexed water to grow sprouts, to evaluate the vitality and effectiveness of the water. We’ve already budgeted a quarter million for this internal research to develop the best vortex machine on the market, because we believe an ideal vortexer could be one of the simplest ways to improve your health and we hope to bring it to market in the next year.

Water Fluoridation Is Anything But Safe...

Most likely, water fluoridation remains a government policy because the government agencies that have been promoting it as safe for all these years stand to lose public trust. The thing is, the longer they wait to take corrective action, and the more people discover the truth about fluoride, the worse public trust in those agencies will get anyway...
Clean pure water is a prerequisite to optimal health, and industrial chemicals, drugs and other toxic additives really have no place in our water supplies. So I urge you to join the Fluoride Action Network’s efforts12 and your local anti-fluoride movements in the US and Canada to clean up our water.

Join the Fight to Get Fluoride Out of Drinking Water

There's no doubt about it: fluoride should not be ingested. Even scientists from the EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory have classified fluoride as a "chemical having substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity.” Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 41 percent of American adolescents now have dental fluorosis—unattractive discoloration and mottling of the teeth that indicate overexposure to fluoride.
Clearly, children are being overexposed, and their health and development put in jeopardy. Why?
At least when it comes to topical application, you have a choice. You can easily buy fluoride-free toothpaste and mouthwash. But you're stuck with whatever your community puts in the water, and it's very difficult to filter out of your water once it's added. Many do not have the resources or the knowledge to do so.
The only real solution is to stop the archaic practice of water fluoridation in the first place. Fortunately, the Fluoride Action Network has a game plan to END water fluoridation, both in the United States and Canada. 
Clean pure water is a prerequisite to optimal health. Industrial chemicals, drugs and other toxic additives really have no place in our water supplies. So, please, support the anti-fluoride movement by making a donation to the Fluoride Action Network today.

Our Notes:  For Gloucester, Virginia, Fluoride is not an issue in the drinking water.  The county does not add it in.  We checked that with the county officials.  Thumbs up to something the county officials do right. 
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Governor McDonnell Sets Date for Special Election in Virginia Senate District 33

Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell speaking at...
Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell speaking at CPAC. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
RICHMOND - Governor Bob McDonnell has set January 21st, 2014 as the date for the special election to fill the seat of Senator Mark Herring, who was elected attorney general and is resigning from the Senate effective January 11th.

“Mark Herring has served the 33rd District well, and I wish him the very best as he now serves our entire Commonwealth as Virginia’s next attorney general," said Governor McDonnell. “With Mark’s victory in that race confirmed, and his letter of resignation received by our office, I have now set the date of January 21st for the special election to fill his soon to be vacant seat. We are seeking to move as expeditiously as possible to ensure the voters of the 33rd District have the representation they deserve, while also allowing the candidates a fair amount of time, during a busy holiday season, to communicate with those voters so they have the information necessary to make their decision next month.”

Should the parties or prospective candidates have any questions about the upcoming special election in the 33rd Senate District, they should contact the Virginia State Board of Elections at 1-800-552-9745 and ask for “Special Election Information.”
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The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865

George B. McClellan and Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan
George B. McClellan and Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)




Audio book.  The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War.  You do not have to read a book to enjoy one.  Here you can listen to the entire book.





Or read the book above.  To read it full screen, left click the icon at the far right hand bottom side of the above container.  To exit full screen, just hit the escape key on your keyboard.
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The Wake Up Call – The HELOC Horror Revisited 10 Years Later

U.S. Subprime lending expanded dramatically 20...
U.S. Subprime lending expanded dramatically 2004-2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



Richard Martin

HELOCs from before the financial crisis are about to reset to fully amortizing loans. The figures are astronomical and many – if not most – of those with HELOCs are probably unaware of the huge hikes in monthly payments which await them. The real estate nightmare takes on a new lease of life on January 1. Many will simply stop paying and continue to pay the first mortgage. These loans cannot be written down, they must be written off. What’s so terrible about deflation? Why do governments in a time of crisis always seem to want you to pay higher prices? Not to worry, though. They can never win that game. Some choice words on the Federal Reserve, 100 years old last Monday. End-of-year spending continues to drop. Young Americans are certain to enjoy lower living standards than their parents. America has lost its moral compass and with it its credibility. More on Las Vegas real estate.
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Utah Couple Sues Online Retailer Behind $3,500 Negative Review Post




This is a very frightening look at what is a growing trend in America today.  The site in question?  KlearGear.com.  http://www.kleargear.com/help.html  this is a link to the page that is brought up in this news article.

  We could not find where KlearGear has any claim in their policy saying that customers can not give bad reviews of the site anywhere else online and to even have that as a policy is a breach of the freedom of speech.  Now it's not to say that KlearGear did not at one time have this policy.  We simply do not know nor is there a cached copy of it found anywhere online that we found.  After looking the KlearGear site over, it's not where we would want to do any online shopping for ourselves.  Their product line is interesting novelty geek items.  Nothing that could not be found when searching eBay or Amazon however.  Prices?  A bit high for what you are getting.  Does anyone really need an Iron Man flash drive?

  What we saw on the KlearGear.com site help page that gave us a major red flag was the claim that they own the copyrights to the software behind the site, yet on other parts of the site it seems that they are referring to using Linux and GNU technology for the site.  If you know anything about Linux, there is no such thing as copyrights to the GNU codes.

  Further, the above news story really does not make sense.  There is a lot of information withheld that we are not being told.  How did KlearGear.com get the judgement for the $3,500.00 in question?  That would have required a lawsuit to have been filed and won.  Did the couple ignore a lawsuit?  We are simply not told.  If there was no lawsuit, then all the couple really had to do was file a legal complaint with the 3 credit reporting agencies who would then initiate an investigation.  If the investigation could not substantiate the claim, the claim is then removed from their credit report.  Was this tried?

  The CNN news coverage is sketchy at it's very best.  The bottom line is we do not see anything directly against KlearGear.com that could warrent the above news story and we also can not tell what the real facts are about the case we just looked at.  Again, KlearGear.com is not where we would look to shop, but on the other side of the coin, we also see no reason to avoid the site for anyone who appreaicates the types of offerings the site has.  It's more along the lines that the CNN news story is not a story at all but instead, a mass confusion disinformation piece of media.

  This is why we usually refuse to watch TV anymore.  We all to often have all of these questions after viewing most so called news stories and find out that they were not really news stories at all.  They were just misleading disinformation pieces of trash to fill holes in time slots, in our opinions.  If the above is now regarded as investigative journalism, then they can keep it.  It lacked real investigations and information as we just pointed out.  The only real winner here?  KlearGear for all the free publicity.  For even bad publicity is better than no publicity.  It still brings people to your site.
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Friday, December 27, 2013

CNN News 2013: The trials that captivated the U.S.

Can Watching TV Cause PTSD? Young Turks News