Water pollution and how to protect yourself
Most water these days has some level of pollution in it. Whether from direct industrial runoff, sewage waste, or from contaminated rain water. About the only water sources that are still pure are underground aquifers and some wells. A clean water source is critical for optimum health. Most tap water won’t do, and here is why.
The Problems With Tap Water
Cities do the tremendous job of keeping the water flowing to our taps, and waste flowing away from our toilets and sinks. But, this sort of mass-treatment of water has a price. Tap water in cities has gone through several sets of human kidneys before it reaches you, bringing with it pharmaceutical residues. But, that is only one of the many issues!
Tap water must be heavily chlorinated to prevent bacterial growth, but Chlorine is not something you want to be cooking with, drinking or bathing it. Chlorine must be added to the water to make it microbiologically “safe” (rendering the water essentially dead), and to protect it from germs on its long journey from the treatment plant, through pipes of unknown condition – many of them leaky and rusty, to your taps.
Chlorine clogs the pores and leaves skin dry. We are told to shower after swimming in a chlorinated pool, but if we are showering with chlorinated water, aren’t we still coating our skin with Chlorine? When you take a shower, the Chlorine and other contaminants become airborne and you can breathe them in if you bathroom doesn’t have a strong enough fan. Take any swimming pool testing kit and try it out on your tap water to see the Chlorine level! When you wash fruits and vegetables in chlorinated water they absorb the Chlorine! So does your skin when you bathe in it (along with all of the other contaminants in the water)!
Many cities also add Fluoride to the water, a heavy metal from Aluminum processing (but thankfully that is falling quickly out of favour, even with dental associations). “Don’t use more than a pea-size,” says the toothpaste tube. “Do not swallow! Seek medical advice if swallowed!” Over time Fluoride acclimates in the body, leading to a heavy dose, and this can’t be desirable. Do some research on Fluoride for more, as it’s too much to go into in this article.
A high TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) count in most tap water is the source of the droplet deposits on shower stalls, cutlery, and glassware. High TDS water leaves scale deposits in shower heads, taps, appliances, and plumbing pipes, which can cause big, expensive problems. A high TDS count can also cause health problems; the more TDS the water has that you drink, the harder your body has to work to filter it out and pass it. Turn off the lights and shine a black light around your sink and shower – you’ll be amazed by the mineral deposits you will be able to see.
Water with a high TDS is called “hard” water. Hard water needs a lot more soap and detergent to get the job done, then does “soft” water, or water that has a low TDS count. Hard water has a difficult time rinsing out soaps and detergents too, and leaves deposits on your skin and clothes. Many more detergents are dumped down the drain due to hard water, and these detergents cause a further problem when they end up in lakes.
For an interesting experiment, get some pure, low TDS water, such as distilled, or reverse-osmosis, and soak a washed and dried piece of clothing, or a towel in it. Then, ring it out. What usually happens is that the pure water rinses off the excess detergent that was sticking to the fabric, due to the hard water not being able to fully rinse away the detergent.
Also, many of the plastic containers from these detergents end up in landfills, lakes, and oceans, where they cause many problems in the food chain and with environmental pollution. See “ocean trash gyres.”
If you live near a nuclear power plant, there is also a good chance that some of the particles in your water are radioactive!
Waste Into Lakes
Many large cities dump their sewage into a nearby large body of water. This waste is mostly from household and industrial toilets and sinks, and is usually treated before being released into the lake, and back into the ecosystem. This presents problem as high concentrations of chemicals are dumped into the water system, and algae feast on the water matter.
Runoff from storm drains is usually not treated, and goes straight into the lakes, taking all the contaminants it collects with it on the way, including street dirt, oil, dead animals, dust and other toxic liquids that unscrupulous people and buisness illegally dump into sewers!
But, when the flow rates from toilets and sinks in a large city are too much for the waste water treatment plant to process, a bypass valve is thrown, and untreated sewage goes right into the waterway! This is a little known fact, but it has gotten some press attention (search for the Toronto Sun “Holy Crap!” story for a large waste bypass incident that was reported).
How Can You Get Clean Water?
The best water on Earth is natural spring water, direct from the source. Spring water comes from deep underground aquifers that have been sealed off from environmental contaminants for thousands, or even millions of years. Spring water is pure, living water, highly energized right from Mother Earth. It can usually be drank right from the spring with no need for filtration, if it’s a trusted source. Bottled spring water has been treated and is not as good. Plus, plastic bottles can leach BPH. The bottled water industry is usually not government regulated, and the empty containers are a major source of waste.
Next desirable is well water from a protected source. Of course, all water should be tested to ensure its purity. Often well water needs to be filtered and/or softened.
Beyond natural sources, you can purify tap water to a great extent. The best way is with an RO (reverse-osmosis) filter system, which removes virtually all contamination. There are many different types of RO filters on the market, and the more stages the filters have, the better. Be sure to add a remineralizer, as an RO filter removes even good minerals from the water, and you need to drink remineralized water for the good of your health – this is crucial!
If you drink reverse-osmosis, or distilled water that has no minerals in it, your body will pull minerals from your bones! You must add minerals back into the water.
A water distiller is another purification method, but it is more energy-intensive and time-intensive than a RO filter system, as the water has to be boiled, then the steam is distilled down and the water collected. With RO, you can have pure water on-demand.
A whole-house RO filtration system is not cheap, but it’s the best way to go if you want to purify your tap water. There are many brands out there. Prices start around $1000 to $1500 for the filters, with installation and a remineralizer extra. Then, there are ongoing costs for replacement filters and mineral salts for the water – but these are usually not too expensive, spread over time. Look for a system with a computerized remineralizer, as they will save you money over a system with only a simple timer, which can waste money treating water that doesn’t need to be treated.
A cheaper alternative is to purchase a shower filter, and then to use a sink-top RO filter, or a carbon-filter refillable container system like the Brita (however, the Brita does not remove Fluoride, or many of the other toxins, like a good RO system does). There are even many kinds of portable water filtration systems for traveling, or camping, like the Berkey.
Making your tap water as pure as it can be does cost money, but the long-term health benefits are surely worth the expense.
*Note: we are not paid to endorse any of the products in this article. Products mentioned are simply examples of what is currently available on the market.
Welcome
Welcome to SilentPOISON.com where we talk about our toxic world, and what you can do to detox your body and protect yourself from “silent” poisons like pollution in food, air, water, radiation, and other unseen dangers that face the world at this time.
Today, we are exposed to so many toxins in the air, water, food, our homes, cars, and clothing, that it’s a wonder we are even as healthy as we are!
Many diseases are caused because the human body simply cannot keep up with the toxic load it is exposed to on a daily basis. The body is so busy cleaning itself out that it cannot do essential repair work, and eventually just become clogged up and overrun.
Also, we are in a very active sun-cycle, and Electro Magnetic Pulses (EMPs) such as could come from our Sun in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME) could be very harmful to human life (and all life on earth!).
In this blog we are going to talk about the types of toxins we are all exposed to, invisible dangers and go into methods of detoxification and protection.
Please join us and comment! Free free to let us know if there are topics or toxins you’d like us to cover.
To all our health!
