What’s in the water YOU drink?

Q. Why not just drink tap water?

After all, our government protects us from anything harmful being present in our domestic water supply don’t  they?

A. What may potentially cause serious illness or death: yes, but everything harmful: NO

 
Here’s a list of the chemicals currently approved for adding to our water supply.

Can we trust water authorities to always administer these chemicals at correct dosage rates?

In May 2009, some of the Northern suburbs of Brisbane were accidentally supplied water with up to 30 times the allowable ‘safe’ level of flouride. This was a huge embarrassment to the State Government at the time – who had worked hard to sell it’s privatisation or ‘sell-off’ of the water grid (along with various other of the State’s ‘crown jewels’).
Be aware that if you have been harmed by fluoride; you have no right to compensation as the Government has also passed laws to ensure it cannot be held liable for mistakes in water fluoridation.
Read more about this issue HERE

Look I’d be the first to acknowledge some chemicals are necessary in modern society. Just a couple months ago I got a severe case of food poisoning from eating ‘preservative free’ sausages – never been so sick in my entire life.
Are preservatives good for you? – of course not!
Is eating food with preservatives better than dying from food poisoning? – I think so.

We looked in our last newsletter at some of the dangers (and benefits) of chlorination, but why the recent fluoridation of our public water supply here in Queensland? (Commenced: December 2008, scheduled for completion: December 2012)

Time after time when this topic has been subjected to PUBLIC SCRUTINY in the past, voters in Qld. have overwhelmingly rejected public water fluoridation. It’s a similar story in other parts of the world:

• Since 1999, over 60 US Communities have rejected fluoridation proposals
• 98% of Western Europe has rejected Water Fluoridation – yet their children’s teeth are just as healthy as children’s teeth in Australia and the US – with significantly less dental fluorosis.

Dental Fluorosis in Children

To learn more, contact: www.fluoridealert.org/

So why did the previous Labour State Government in Qld foist this upon us – and that with absolutely NIL due process of public consultation?

Well for a start: if they had asked the people, as history tells us – the people would once again have said NO! Did they have a mandate for introducing fluoridation? Absolutely not.

So why did they do it?

One pretty obvious reason is that fluoride is a toxic by-product obtained from the smelting of aluminum (amongst other things). It normally COSTS money to dispose of this toxic waste.
I suspect this (now previous) “desperate for money” Labour State Government, got paid by big business for disposing of this toxic waste (into our public water supply).

But to really understand this issue, you need to look at the absolutely hideous truth behind the original fluoridation lie:

Like many modern fallacies that have been promoted as scientifically proven truth; this one has its origins in the ‘good ole U.S. of A’,  just prior to the end of WW2 – during the development of the nuclear bomb.

This interesting video uncovers the REAL story behind water fluoridation

Not convinced? No problem – don’t bother reading any further – just keep drinking tap water!

But if like many people you think the quality of water you put in your body is important – read on.

So what are the better alternatives?

• Filtered tap water
• Distilled water
• Tank water/filtered tank water
• Bottled water
• Mineral/spring water

We can’t give all 5 alternatives full justice in one sitting, so we’ll cover some over the next couple of newsletters.

As with most things; perfection is rarely possible. The majority of us will have to do the best with what options we have available.

If money is no object; the BEST option (where available) is undoubtedly analysis tested mineral water, sourced direct from pristine natural springs. We’ll cover this (best) alternative last; but lets start with the first two – often the most affordable and convenient alternative drinking water solutions for many people.

Filtered Tap Water

This is in fact the source of most bottled water (albeit – at a premium price).

The old adage promoted by filter companies: “Buy a filter or be a filter”  is only part of the story.

Any filter system will require REGULAR maintenance. All filters have a limited life; when that life is used up they don’t stop the water passing through – rather they can actually start adding to the bad bacteria load in your water because bacteria is now breeding in the spent filter.

You can buy a single cartridge sink-top unit for under $200 that will remove most of the nasties – but NOT FLUORIDE. The best replacement cartridges for these will cost around $90, and with average household drinking water use will need replacing about every 12 months (depending obviously on the quality of the incoming water).

Look, if you have no other option: this will certainly give you better quality and better tasting water than straight out of the tap. But if you are serious about minimizing your exposure to fluoride (and you should be), as a long term option this will not be good enough.

OK, so how do we get rid of the fluoride?

First of all you need to realize that fluoride is not only in drinking water, but winds up in many other places you might not have even considered – particularly if Council water has been utilized in one of the processes. Some of these include soft drink, iced teas, tobacco products, some rock salts and a large percentage of bottled water (when derived directly from a Local Council water supply). Fluoride is also intentionally added to some foods as a preservative, especially many canned foods such as canned fish.

Once added to water, fluoride is not easily  removed. It can’t be boiled out or evaporated out (as with chlorine). The best filtering systems to remove fluoride are expensive and often not 100% effective anyway. As for removing fluoride with a shower filter – forget it.  Like the Shower Filter Review Guy says: “It just ain’t gonna happen”.

The same thing unfortunately, also applies to bidets; that is – if the water to your bidet is from a Municipal water supply.

The 3 main ways of removing fluoride appear to be:

• Reverse Osmosis Filtration
• Activated Alumina Filtration
• Water Distillation

Most bottled water is passed through some kind of Reverse Osmosis filtration. However not all RO systems remove fluoride effectively, and you will pay through the nose for any system that can guarantee this.

Activated Alumina filtration  uses a dedicated type of cartridge that’s specifically designed to reduce fluoride. If you already own a filter unit this may be your best option. Contact your local filter store and ask if they have an ‘activated alumina cartridge add on’ for the model you are already using.

Finally, Distillation is effective at removing fluoride (and most everything else) from drinking water. Several different types of distillation units are commercially available; but many people believe that while distilled water may be good for your car battery or steam iron, it’s not so good for human consumption. Distilled water is completely inert and as such has no electrical charge.
One of the most compelling reasons for drinking natural mineral water is that the inherent electrical charge in this water is supposed to be very good for your body.

Some people also believe distilled water actually has the ability to leach minerals from your body.

Whether that’s true or not – its got to be better than drinking water with toxic waste added to it!

In our next newsletter we’ll look at the pros & cons of collecting your own rainwater (tank water) including: ‘best practice’ systems to harvest and store rainwater.

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