Showing posts with label Drinking water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drinking water. Show all posts

Monday, January 23, 2017

My experiences while serving as an At-Large member of the Gloucester County, Virginia Public Utilities Advisory Committee (PUAC) (The 4th in a series of articles about my experiences and findings)



Our Public Water Distribution System

Once our drinking water is processed at our treatment plants it is pumped into our mostly underground pipe distribution system. I say mostly underground because within our system there are three elevated water storage tanks commonly referred to as water towers. These towers are where our water is stored to readily accommodate customer demand. Ideally in water systems like ours where hydraulic pressure created by elevating the storage tanks (gravity) eliminates the need for electricity powered pumps to deliver water under pressure to customers, elevated water towers should be constructed at as close to the same capacity and elevation as possible. There are numerous reasons for building water towers like this; of which include water quality, pressure control and system costs. Unfortunately our water towers were not built that way.

Our public water supply system began in the Courthouse area back in the 1950’s. A separate water tower and public supply system was constructed in the Gloucester Point area in the early 1970’s. The two systems were connected together and our third water tower was constructed in the mid 1990’s. Our public water supply system now has a 250,000 gal water tower located in the Courthouse area, a one million gal tower at the old Page Middle School site and a 250,000 tower at Gloucester Point that are all connected together and to our water treatment plants. The Courthouse tower’s full water elevation is 198 feet above sea level, the Page tower was constructed with a full elevation of 215 feet above sea level and the Point tower has a full water elevation of 160 feet above sea level. As can be seen, the Courthouse and Page towers are quite a bit higher in elevation than the Point tower, with the Page tower, geographically located in between the other two, being the highest and largest of the three.

I am of the opinion that the Page water tower was built at the elevation it was to facilitate water requirements associated with the Gloucester Business Park where Canon and other businesses are located. In other words; the good ole boy system was working at its finest.  

The differences in our water tower sizes and elevations make it hard to control water quality in the Courthouse and Point water towers; I’ll explain. Once a water tower is filled, the supply to the tower is supposed to be turned off until the level of water in the tank drops to a specified level. Once the specified level is reached the supply to the tower is turned back on until it is full again. This fill, drop scenario is commonly referred to as water turnover and is supposed to occur continuously. This does not happen at the Courthouse and Point towers because the Page tower is so much larger and higher in elevation that it causes the other two towers to constantly remain full. When stored water does not get turned over frequently and regularly, disinfectant byproducts (DBPs) begin to consolidate.

DBPs are chemical, organic and inorganic substances that can form during a reaction of a disinfectant with naturally present organic matter in water. There are too many types of DBPs to list here but many are suspected of causing damage to the bladder, liver, kidneys and central nervous system. Some are also considered carcinogenic.

In order to achieve sufficient water turnover in the Courthouse and Point tower; Utilities employees must manually lower the water level in each tower by dumping water from the tanks onto the ground. Unfortunately, it does not appear Utilities has always been consistent in turning the water over in these towers. I believe our current Utilities employees do a much better job making sure DBPs do not build up, but I also know Utilities has sent high level DBP notifications to customers in the Gloucester Point area within the last year. I am unsure of the source of the DBPs that drove customer notification in the Point area because DBPs are known to consolidate in other areas of a water supply system. I do know the DBPs customers were warned about at the Point are associated with bladder cancer.

Our system currently has underground water supply lines that run along Short Lane Road, Guinea Road, Terrapin Cove Road, Providence Road and other roads, streets and cul-de-sacs  in which the waterlines dead end. Dead end lines such as the ones noted are also areas where DBPs are known to consolidate. This problem was first brought to my attention during my first visit to our water treatment plants. The statement made to me was to the effect of no one being able to guarantee that water high in DBPs was not consumed at T.C. Walker School which is supplied by the Short Lane Road waterline. It was added that it probably was consumed over a number of years. T.C. Walker is not our only public school connected to our public water supply system in this manner, as Achilles Elementary School is supplied with water from the end of the dead end Guinea Road waterline. An automatic flushing device was added to the Short Lane Road waterline about a year ago and Utilities’ current leadership has implemented a regular flushing and monitoring schedule that should prevent DBP consolidation in the other dead end lines.

Regularly flushing waterlines and fire hydrants is part of operating and maintaining a public water supply system. Like everything else I have talked about in these articles; regular flushing of our waterlines is something that did not occur for many years due to mismanagement and neglect. Now we have buildups of sediment in the bottom of many of our waterlines which causes many customers to end up with cloudy water in their sink whenever a fire hydrant is opened. Exercising valves and hydrants is part of any good flushing plan, but again, is something that was neglected in Gloucester for years. Now we have many valves in our system that will not close completely when needed. Utilities’ new leaders have made some progress in this area through reactionary efforts, but there is a lot more that needs to be done in a proactive and preventive manner.

Some areas of our water supply system are very old and in need of replacement. Utilities’ is constantly repairing leaks and replacing components of the system. Unless there is a much higher priority placed on water quality and accountability, I believe the repairs will continue and will likely intensify until such time as something catastrophic happens. I will share more about our water accountability in a later article.

It will take a rather large financial investment to bring our public water supply system up to acceptable standards and performance. We need to correct our water tower issues. We need to replace our out dated and defective water supply pipes and apparatuses. We need to adopt and enforce up to date construction standards. And we need to establish and enforce policies and procedures that will prevent future neglect and mismanagement of our public water supply system.

In my next article I will introduce our public sewer system. Environment conscious folks will not want to miss it.

Comments may be emailed to: Kennysr61@gmail.com.

Kenny Hogge, Sr.
Gloucester Point, Virginia

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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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Report Finds “Probably Carcinogenic” Chemicals in All Municipal Water Samples Tested

Česky: Pitná voda - kohoutek Español: Agua potable
Česky: Pitná voda - kohoutek Español: Agua potable (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Dr. Mercola
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has once again released a report that should grab your attention. After analyzing water samples from 201 municipal water systems from 43 states, EWG found chemicals considered “probable human carcinogens” in every single water system they tested.
The watchdog organization wants the government to clean up the sources of public drinking water, thereby reducing the need for chemical treatment.1
The report “Water Treatment Contaminants: Toxic Trash in Drinking Water” was sparked by concerns about water contamination in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which spilled tens of millions of gallons of sewage into waterways along the East Coast.
But the results of their analysis clearly indicate a far more widespread and concerning problem that superstorms merely inflame.
The problem is that chlorine and other water treatment chemicals, in addition to being somewhat toxic in and of themselves, react with ordinary organic particles in the water ( manure from livestock, dead animals, fallen leaves, etc.) to create hundreds of extremely toxic byproducts, which aren’t monitored or regulated at all.
These toxic byproducts have been labeled “disinfection byproducts,” or “DBPs,” and there are 600 we know about and probably hundreds more that we don’t, says EWG’s senior scientist Renee Sharp.2
Most people are not aware that DBPs are actually 1,000 times more toxic than chlorine. Just like with ionizing radiation and mercury, any exposure at all in concerning and potentially toxic; there is no safe level.

The Byproducts of Chlorination May Be Deadly

Chlorine is the only disinfectant that has been extensively studied, but now many water treatment plants are using another disinfectant called chloramine, the health effects of which are largely unknown. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia.3 More than one in five Americans are drinking tap water treated with chloramine.
Chloramine stays in the water system longer than chlorine and is difficult to remove—it can’t be removed by boiling, distilling, or by standing uncovered. Its vapors can accumulate in indoor air and concentrate in an enclosed area, such as your shower stall, bathroom, kitchen, or apartment.
Chloramines combine with organic matter in water supplies to create iodoacids and nitrosamines, which are extremely toxic. According to David Sedlak of UC Berkeley:4
“Nitrosamines are the compounds that people warned you about when they told you shouldn’t be eating those nitrite-cured hot dogs... They’re about a thousand times more carcinogenic than the disinfection byproducts that we’d been worried about with regular old chlorine.”
There are three principal types of chlorination byproducts, known to produce dangerous health effects:
  • Trihalomethanes (THMs): Found to cause cancer in laboratory animals, and trigger the production of free radicals in your body; chloroform is an example of a trihalomethane; THMs are associated with bladder cancer, gestational and developmental problems
  • Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Lead to central nervous system depression and drowsinessand can irritate your skin and mucous membranes
  • Haloacetic Acids (HAAs): May cause liver disease in test animals at very high levels, and is a class B2 probable human carcinogen associated with neurological problems, growth retardation, low birth weight, and sperm toxicity

Why I Recommend Filtering Your Tub and Shower Water...

Scientists now suspect trihalomethanes in your tap water may be responsible for thousands of cases of bladder cancer each year, based on mounting evidence from multiple studies. But the risk to pregnant women and their unborn babies is also very concerning. Trihalomethanes are associated with numerous developmental and reproductive abnormalities, including stillbirth, miscarriage, low birth weight, and neural tube defects. The neural tube refers to the anatomical structure that develops into your baby’s brain and spinal cord.
Just the simple act of showering in treated water, in which you have absorption through both your skin and lungs, may pose a significant health risk to you—and to your unborn child, if you are pregnant. Numerous studies have shown that showering and bathing are important routes of exposure for trihalomethanes and may actually represent MORE of your total exposure than the water you drink.
According to EWG:
“The EPA standard for trihalomethanes is based on preventing bladder cancer, but the agency has noted that these chemicals may present reproductive and developmental risks as well. A spike that lasts three months exposes a pregnant woman and her fetus to excessive trihalomethane for an entire trimester, a critical window of development. Scientific research has shown that such intensive exposure can have serious consequences for the child.”
Analysts have found that trihalomethane levels in public water systems vary throughout the year, depending on factors such as farming cycles. But the EPA regulates the chemicals based on an annual average, which means that spikes in the byproducts may go undetected.

EPA-Regulated Chemicals are Just a Drop in the Bucket

As concerning as trihalomethanes are, they are just the tip of the iceberg—there are hundreds of other chemicals finding their way into your water supply. The EPA regulates only nine pollutants generated by chlorine or chloramine treatment—four trihalomethanes and five haloacetic acids. These nine regulated chemicals represent less than two percent of the more than 600 unwanted chemicals created by the interaction of water treatment disinfectants and pollutants in source water.
The legal limits for the nine regulated chemicals are not what either the agency or many independent scientists believe is truly safe. Rather, the regulations represent political compromises that take into account the costs and feasibility of treatment.
When you add up the total chemicals contaminating public drinking water, the number is beyond staggering. According to William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World, there are more than 116,000 human-made chemicals now detected in public water systems!
In much of the country, farming is a major source of organic pollution in drinking water and a contributor to water treatment contamination. However, with the exception of large confined animal feeding operations, farm businesses are exempt from the pollution control requirements of the federal Clean Water Act. Few states have the authority to compel farms to adopt practices that would reduce agricultural pollution reaching rivers, lakes and bays.
Shockingly, raising concerns about the quality of your local drinking water without verifiable evidence of your claims may now be considered “an act of terrorism” according to Sherwin Smith, deputy director of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). As recently reported by StoryLeak.com:5
“According to Smith, you better make sure your claims can be verified by the water department employees before submitting them. In the video recording, which was posted following the outrage from citizens over the entire event, Smith is heard saying: 'But you need to make sure that when you make water quality complaints you have a basis, because federally, if there’s no water quality issues, that can be considered under Homeland Security an act of terrorism.'”

Other Chemicals You Can’t See or Taste

Besides DBPs, American drinking water has also been found to contain a host of toxic chemicals, many of which are hormonally active in humans. Some of the most common chemical contaminants include:
  • MTBE (Methyl-tert-butyl Ether): A chemical added to fuel to raise octane number; a potential human carcinogen at high doses
  • Atrazine: According to the documentary FLOW, this US herbicide, banned in the European Union, is the most common water contaminant in the US. Atrazine is an endocrine disruptor known to feminize animals, and is linked with numerous reproductive problems, breast and prostate cancer, and impaired immune function in humans
  • Pharmaceutical Drugs: A 2008 report found a multitude of drugs in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans, including pain relievers, cancer drugs, antidepressants, oral contraceptives, blood pressure and cholesterol drugs
  • Glyphosate (Roundup): This toxic herbicide is carcinogenic in minute amounts and is linked to more than 20 adverse health effects, including cancer, birth defects and infertility; unfortunately, glyphosate is turning up in the bloodstreams of people all over the world
  • Hexavalent Chromium (Chromium-6): Otherwise known as the “Erin Brockovich chemical,” hexavalent chromium is classified as another “probable carcinogen;” EWG found it in the drinking water of 89 percent of the cities sampled

Don’t Be Duped by Bottled Water!

Consumers are frequently mislead into thinking bottled water is safer than tap water, but sometimes it’s even MORE contaminated, as bottled water is less regulated than tap water. Studies reveal that about 40 percent of bottled water is actually tap water, possibly with no additional filtering. When testing bottled water, EWG discovered 38 contaminants in 10 brands, including DBPs, nitrates, caffeine, arsenic, Tylenol, bacteria and industrial chemicals.
Disposable plastic water bottles are massively polluting our planet. According to the Container Recycling Institute, in the US alone more than 67 million plastic water bottles are discarded each day, adding to an enormous plastic garbage patch swirling around in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Bottled water is a serious environmental hazard.

What is the BEST Water You Can Drink?

The finest sources of water in the world are gravity-fed mountain springs, accessed directly from where they emerge from the earth. This water is naturally filtered and structured by the earth itself, and even contains beneficial living organisms, like certain types of algae.
If you're up to the task, you can collect your own spring water to meet your drinking water needs. There is a Find a Spring website that helps you locate the spring nearest you. The website also allows you to add a spring that is not currently in the database. If you don't live near a mountain, don't despair, as just about any spring is better than all other available options.
Typically, natural springs are monitored for contaminants by local municipalities and, best of all, most of these springs are FREE! You can easily store 10 five-gallon jugs in most cars, which can be purchased online. Glass is best, but it is heavy, so you want to use three-gallon glass jars instead. Just remember to wrap glass bottles with some blankets or towels so they don't bang against each other in your car, and break.

Recommendations for In-Home Water Filtration

If collecting natural spring water is not an option, you can filter your water at home. The best solution is to install a whole housewater filtration system. This not only protects your body (inside and out), but also your appliances. I recommend systems that use at least 60 pounds of filter media and are capable of generating eight or more gallons per minute, which makes it possible to handle multiple water applications simultaneously (showers, laundry, and kitchen). This size serves up to a 3,200 square foot home. Of course, if your home is larger, you may need more than one house filtration system. I also recommend looking for a whole house water filter that has three separate stages of contaminant removal:
  • Stage one removes sediment
  • Stage two removes chlorine and heavy metals
  • Stage three removes hormones, drug residues, chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides with a heavy-duty carbon filter
In terms of the carbon filter, choose granular carbon, not a solid block of carbon. Granular carbon allows for better water flow, better water pressure and improved filtration overall. Also look for NSF certification, which ensures your water filter is meeting national standards. NSF certification is not granted before a product can prove it removes everything it claims to remove. It's also good to make sure all particles under 0.8 microns are being filtered out of the water. A lower number is actually better, but I recommend 0.8 microns because that covers most bacteria, viruses and VOCs.
If you can’t afford a whole-house filtering system, then at least filter your shower water, since that’s going to be your most significant source of contamination, for the reasons already discussed.

Final Thoughts

Given the information in the EWG’s latest water report, chances are close to 100 percent that your tap water contains carcinogenic pollutants. In addition to the chemical disinfectants themselves, tap water contains disinfection byproducts that, in some cases, are 1,000 times as toxic as the contaminants they are designed to remove. These contaminants have been associated with bladder cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, and a number of other very serious health problems.
Showering or bathing in contaminated tap water poses even more of a risk to your health than drinking it, so it isn’t enough to simply filter the water you drink. Optimally, you may opt to install in a whole home water filtration system. If you test your water, you’ll want to do it more than once, as DBPs can fluctuate throughout the year, depending on factors such as farming cycles.

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/21/tap-water-carcinogens.aspx  Link back to Mercola website where there is video on this topic as well.
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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Source of Arsenic in Your Drinking Water

The EPA was directed to set standards for radi...
The EPA was directed to set standards for radioactive materials under Reorganization Plan No. 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Dr. Mercola
Pure water is one of the most important foundations for optimal health.Unfortunately, most tap water is far from pure, containing a vast array ofdisinfection byproducts, chemicals, heavy metals and even pharmaceutical drugs.Fluoride and arsenic are two prime examples of hazardous water contaminants.
Not only is the level of arsenic in US tap water high due to natural groundwater contamination,1 the most commonly used form of fluoride added to water supplies also tends to be contaminated with arsenic. As reported by the featured article:2
“In early August, the Environmental Protection Agency is set to decide on a petition to change the source of fluoride in US drinking water.
Currently, the source of fluoride in most public water supplies isfluorosilicic acid, according to government records. The petition calls for the EPA to instead require the use of pharmaceutical-grade sodium fluoride in water fluoridation, which is the addition of fluoride to drinking water for the purpose of preventing cavities.
Fluorosilicic acid is often contaminated with arsenic, and recent research has linked the arsenic from fluorosilicic acid in drinking water to as many as 1,800 extra cases of cancer yearly in the United States...”
The petition3 was submitted by William Hirzy, a chemistry researcher at the American University in Washington, D.C. Hirzy previously worked at the EPA for 27 years.
His team recently published a study entitled: "Comparison of hydrofluorosilicic acid and pharmaceutical sodium fluoride as fluoridating agents – a cost-benefit analysis", in the journal Environmental Science & Policy.4
According to their estimation, 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!

The Health Dangers of Inorganic Arsenic

Inorganic arsenic is a powerful carcinogen that has been linked to an increased risk of several types of cancer. In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) lowered the maximum level of arsenic permitted in drinking water from 50 ug/L to 10 ug/L (or 10 parts per billion (ppb)) due to the established cancer risk.
The Natural Resources Defense Council5 estimates that as many as 56 million Americans living in 25 states drink water with arsenic at unsafe levels. According to the EPA:6
"Chronic inorganic arsenic exposure is known to be associated with adverse health effects on several systems of the body, but is most known for causing specific types of skin lesions (sores, hyperpigmentation, and other lesions) and increased risks of cancer of the lungs and skin."
Other impacts of chronic arsenic exposure include, according to the EPA:
Kidney damage and failureAnemiaLow blood pressure
ShockHeadachesWeakness
DeliriumIncreased risk of diabetesAdverse liver and respiratory effects, including irritation of mucous membranes
During development, increased incidence of preterm delivery, miscarriage, stillbirths, low birth weight, and infant mortalityDuring childhood, decreased performance in tests of intelligence and long-term memorySkin lesions

Water Fluoridation Chemicals Are NOT Pharmaceutical Grade

While naturally-occurring arsenic in groundwater is one of the most common sources of exposure, hydrofluorosilicic acid—the most commonly used form of fluoride added to water supplies—is a toxic waste product from the phosphate fertilizer industry that is commonly contaminated with arsenic, radionucleotides, aluminum and other industrial contaminants.
According to the featured research, diluted fluorosilic acid adds, on average, about 0.08 ppb of arsenic to your drinking water.
Most people are shocked when they realize that the fluoride added to their water supply is actually a toxic byproduct from the fertilizer industry, opposed to a pharmaceutical-grade chemical. The source of most water fluoridation chemicals is explained by Michael Miller, a minerals commodity specialist for the US Geological Survey, in the featured article:7
“During the production of phosphate fertilizer, phosphate ore is reacted with sulfuric acid to produce toxic gases. These are taken out of the air after being sprayed with water, which produces fluorosilicic acid... The solution is sold to water systems nation-wide, where it is diluted and put into drinking water. Occasionally, it is treated to create sodium fluorosilicate. Together, these compounds (called silicofluorides) provide fluoride to 90 percent of U.S. drinking water systems that are fluoridated...”

Water Fluoridation May Be Placing Infants at Great Risk

Not only is there mounting evidence that fluoride poses grave health risks to infants and children—including reductions 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.
For example:
  • A 2006 study8 found that Chileans exposed to high levels (peaking at 1,000 ppb) of naturally-occurring arsenic in drinking water in utero and during early childhood had a six times higher lung cancer death rate compared to Chileans living in areas with lower levels of arsenic in their water. And their mortality rate in their 30s and 40s from another form of lung disease was almost 50 times higher than for people without that arsenic exposure.
  • A 2004 study9 showed children exposed to arsenic in drinking water at levels above 5 ppb had lower IQ scores. Earlier studies have linked chronic arsenic exposure to a range of cognitive dysfunctions, including learning disabilities, memory problems, poor concentration, and peripheral and central neuropathies.
  • A study10 published in 2011 examined the long-term effects of low-level exposure on more than 300 rural Texans whose groundwater was estimated to have arsenic at median levels below the federal drinking-water standard. It also found that exposure was related to poor scores in language, memory, and other brain functions.

Is It Worth Increasing Cancer Risk for Minimal, if Any, Benefit to Teeth?

Some proponents of fluoridation believe that the large dilution of these fluoridating chemicals that takes place when they are added at the public water works ameliorates concerns about the known contaminants. However, arsenic is a known human carcinogen, for which there is no safe level.
Inevitably, the addition of contaminated hexafluorosilicic acid to the water supply by definition must increase the cancer rate in the US because of the arsenic it contains, and this is exactly what Hirzy’s research shows. Why would any rational government do that to reduce – at best – a miniscule amount of tooth decay? According to Hirzy:11
"We found that the United States as a society is spending, conservatively speaking, $1 billion to $6 billion treating the excess bladder and lung cancers caused by arsenic in the most commonly used fluoridation chemical, fluorosilicic acid... The switch [to pharmaceutical-grade sodium fluoride] would cost $100 million, but would save billions in reduced cancer costs."
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. This makes absolutely no sense considering the carcinogenic nature of arsenic—especially in light of the epidemic of cancer.
Hirzy’s study is actually the first risk assessment of arsenic-contaminated fluoride in drinking water. This is particularly shocking considering the fact that fluorosilicic acids have been used since the early 1950s12 (prior to that, sodium fluoride, a byproduct of the aluminum industry, was typically used). Incredibly, while the EPA performs risk assessments for most drinking water contaminants, the agency does NOT oversee the addition of fluoridation chemicals. As stated in the featured article, this policy makes no sense whatsoever.
“Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA has the authority to regulate or ban almost any substance — including fluorosilicic acid — that poses an 'unreasonable risk' to public health, [Hirzy] said.”

Appropriations Bill Would Prohibit EPA’s Phase-Out of Sulfuryl Fluoride

While we’re on the topic of fluoride, a related news item13 is worthy of note. Drinking water is not the only source of fluoride, as I’ve discussed previously. Fluoride also enters the human food chain via fluoridated pesticides. According to a recent report, the House of Representatives Appropriations Interior and Environmental subcommittee has voted to approve an appropriations bill that cuts the EPA’s budget by nearly one-third.
What’s worse, the bill specifically prevents the EPA from enforcing its decision to phase out sulfuryl fluoride—a neurotoxic fumigant that has been linked to cancer and neurological, developmental, and reproductive damage. If it passes once markups by the Appropriations Committee are completed, it will move to a House vote. According to the news report:
“This is an outrageous attempt to circumvent a basic risk assessment calculation that EPA acknowledges puts the public at risk, given current exposure patterns, to a chemical that is especially hazardous to children.”
In response, Beyond Pesticides, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) submitted a letter14 to the House Appropriation Committee Chairman and Ranking members, urging them to remove the section in question (section 449) from the bill. You can help by writing or calling your state Representative, asking him or her to uphold the EPA’s ability to protect the health of all Americans by removing this hazardous pesticide from our food production. There’s no need for it, as there are many other viable alternatives, including:
  • Temperature manipulation (heating and cooling)
  • Atmospheric controls (low oxygen and fumigation with carbon dioxide)
  • Biological controls (pheromones, viruses and nematodes)
  • Less toxic chemical controls, such as diatomaceous earth

Water Filtration – A Must for Clean Pure Water…

If you have well water, it would be prudent to have your water tested for arsenic and other contaminants. If you have public water, you can get local drinking water quality reports from the EPA.15
In general, most water supplies contain a number of potentially hazardous contaminants, from fluoride, to drugs and disinfection byproducts (DBPs), just to name a few. You can get a good idea of what types of contaminants could be in your drinking water right now by viewing this awesome graphic from GOOD Environment16 (reprinted with permission.) It gives you a look at the five most and least polluted water systems in America (in cities with more than 100,000 population), including pointing out the pollutants of largest concern.

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/13/arsenic-dangers.aspx  Click here for more information on this topic at Mercola.com website.

Good news for Gloucester residents.  Gloucester County, Virginia does not fluoridate it's water supply as stated by one county official we have checked with.  5 Gold stars where the county actually does manage to get something right.


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