Drugs in Our Water?

Because of my extensive time spent in the Marines and all the running I did because of necessity and of the love for running and in addition to playing soccer my body could no longer take care of me and thus I had to have double knee replacement.  I know that sounds painful and I am sure you are wondering how this relates to the title and water.

Well as most of us know unless you are really tough we have certain reactions to pain.  I for example am highly allergic to pain and the problem with that is there are very few pain meds that do any good to bring relief to my aching body parts.

Well I was given some cream to put on the area around me knee which is supposed to help with the pain.  I am very busy and don't really pay too much attention to most stuff and thank God for my wife who catches the small things that I often times overlook in life.  As she was asking about this interesting concept of a device like a pump that was full of pain reliever in the form of a cream I began to look at the ingredients since my curiosity was aroused by this ingenious invention.  There were many common pain relievers listed.  Most of which we are all familiar with and I thought well these are strong and perhaps this will bring some relief during my physical therapy.  After all it said use to pumps and use it 3-4 times a day.

I began to use the product and looked at the ingredients again and saw at the bottom (I hardly ever read to the bottom) a little warning.  It said "Do not flush this or any medication down the drain) I began to wonder at the question because hey we put all kinds of things down the drain why should this be any different.  Then baamm it hit me, it was a drug and in some cities the water district will reuse water.  It is sent through a plant and cleaned and disinfected and then put right back out there in public water systems.

Well I started thinking this will certainly affect people who may end up drinking water tainted with pain meds, psychological drugs, ADHD meds, high blood pressure medicine that leaves the body during urination and all the other meds that are dumped into the sinks and toilets then cleaned up and sent right back out there for reuse.  I wonder why we have a lot of health issues today.

Now this may not happen in every city but it is happening in many cities today.  With the ever increasing problems of the lack of water and droughts our country is experiencing today more and more cities may turn to this protocol in order to meet the needs of the people in the communities.  Our aquifers are lowering and rain is at an all time low for most states, this really sounds like a great idea.  It may be in order to take care of the water needs but if drugs are in our water and the water is only cleaned and treated and not filtered then these drugs that may help others may be detrimental to those of us who don't need them.

The fix, well one way is to find out where your water comes from, you can also send off for a test and see just exactly what is in your water.  Another option is to get a Reverse Osmosis System.  It is far better than a regular water filter.  A regular carbon block filter will remove most contaminants and is relatively cheap however a Reverse Osmosis will make your water 98-99% pure.  Or you can buy bottled water and use it to cook with and smaller bottles to drink from but you may run into other problems doing that. 

For the safety of yourself, your children and pets I would recommend a Reverse Osmosis System.  It goes under the sink and has its own faucet at the sink for great tasting drug free water. You can get one HERE

Is Our Water Killing Our Kids?

Many times we just put our glass of water to our mouth and drink the water in it or we just give a random glass of water to our children when they are thirsty.  Or how many times have you told your child the very same words you heard as a child when you said you were thirsty.  "Get a drink from the hose" or just went and got a drink from the hose.  We as children mostly never know what is in our water and children trust their parents and almost all adults with their livelihood.  Children never would believe that we adults would ever poison them but we are killing our kids.

Now we as adults would never want to hurt anyone let alone an innocent child, not to mention poisoning them.  The very thought is hideous.  It is our responsibility as informed adults to protect not just our own children but others as well, they are in fact our future and we would never want our future to do the same to us as we did to them, would we?

The very point of this article is that we are poisoning our children with contaminants in our water and most of us are not even aware of it.  We put chlorine in the water to disinfect it and fluoride in it as well.  If you read the other articles that are out there that explains the caustic level of chlorine and fluoride you would stop drinking water, however it is necessary to drink water in order to live.  So what are the problems with chlorine and fluoride?  Let's take a look below.

How Dangerous is Fluoride to Your Health?
Fluorine is an element. It is a gas, never occurring in its free state. In microscopic amounts complexed with other minerals, it is often listed as a trace mineral, a nutrient for human nutrition.
The fluoride added to 90% of drinking water is hydrofluoric acid which is a compound of fluorine that is a chemical byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing.
Such fluoride is man made. In this form, fluoride has no nutrient value whatsoever. It is one of the most caustic of industrial chemicals. Fluoride is the active toxin in rat poisons and cockroach powder.
Hydrofluoric acid is used to refine high octane gasoline, to make fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons for freezers and air conditioners, and to manufacture computer screens, fluorescent light bulbs, semiconductors, plastics, herbicides, -- and toothpaste.
It also has the ability to burn flesh to the bone, destroy eyes, and sear lungs so that victims drown in their own body fluid."
Once in the body, fluoride is a destroyer of human enzymes. It does this by changing their shapes. In human biochemistry, thousands of enzymes are necessary for various essential cell reactions that take place every second we're alive. Without enzymes, we'd die instantaneously.  Austrian researchers proved in the 1970s that as little as 1 ppm fluoride concentration can disrupt DNA repair enzymes by 50%. When DNA can't repair damaged cells, we get old fast.
Fluoride prematurely ages the body, mainly by distortion of enzyme shape. Again, when enzymes get twisted out of shape, they can't do their jobs. This results in collagen breakdown, eczema, tissue damage, skin wrinkling, genetic damage, and immune suppression. Practically any disease you can name may then be caused.
All systems of the body are dependent upon enzymes. When fluoride changes the enzymes, this can damage:
- immune system
- digestive system
- respiratory system
- blood circulation
- kidney function
- liver function
- brain function
- thyroid function

The distorted enzymes are proteins, but now they have become foreign protein, which we know is the exact cause of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, arthritis, asthma, and arteriosclerosis.
This excerpt was taken from here.

For a Fluoride Removal System Click Here


Q: What can happen if these chemicals get into our bodies?
Our bodies are very good at metabolizing many things. Through special enzymes, our bodies are able to rid themselves of many environmental toxic substances that we come into contact with daily. However, dioxins (and other organochlorine compounds) aren't included. Even if we are exposed to very low levels, dioxins remain in the body and accumulate.
The EPA is now saying that this is soon to become a major health risk problem. The cumulative effects of dioxin in humans have been linked to birth defects, cancer, reproductive disorders and immune system breakdown.

 We may have a problem if we need to sanitize via a chemical additive. It becomes a sort of oxymoron: chemicals that are persistent also tend to be toxic. The ultimate solution may be to have home-based water filtration/sanitizing systems. This would eliminate the problem of trying to prevent hundreds of miles of pipes, installed a hundred years ago, from contaminating the water.  This excerpt was taken from here

WHOLE HOUSE FLUORIDE REMOVAL SYSTEM

Flouride in the Water, a Silent Killer?

HARMFUL EFFECTS OF FLUORIDE Fluoride is used as an insecticide and a roach killer. Even at the level they use to fluoridate your public water supply, usually at the rate of about 1 part fluoride for every million parts of water (1 ppm) by weight, it causes severe problems. As little as one-tenth of an ounce of fluoride will cause death. It is more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. No one will die from drinking one glass of fluoridated water, but it is the long term chronic effects of drinking fluoridated water that affects health. Dental fluorosis is one of the earlier signs of fluoride poisoning, appearing in mild cases as a chalky area on the tooth, and in more advanced cases, teeth become yellow brown or black and the tips break off. Fluoride in the drinking water leads to fluoride levels in tissues and organs which damage enzymes. This results in a wide range of chronic diseases. Fluoride weakens the immune system and may cause allergic type reactions including dermatitis, eczema and hives. It causes birth defects and genetic damage. Fluoride is likely to aggravate kidney disease, diabetes and hypothyroidism. The amount consumed in drinking water has been shown to lower thyroid activity in humans. It also causes the breakdown of collagen which results in wrinkling of the skin and the weakening of ligaments, tendons and muscles. There are a number of ways that fluoride can be administered. The most insidious way is through the drinking water. Some of you have it in your mouthwashes, or in your toothpaste, or you may take a fluoride supplement which is dispensed in pills or drops.

FLUORIDE A BY-PRODUCT OF INDUSTRY Fluoride is an industrial waste product, a by-product of the aluminum industry and the phosphate fertilizer companies who have mountains of fluoride that is polluting the ground water. They have to get rid of it, and the old solution to pollution is dilution - just put it in the drinking water. People living in the vicinity of aluminum, phosphate, steel, clay, glass and enamel plants are exposed to high levels of fluoride in the air. For instance, the Hamilton area shows extremely high lung cancer rates that decrease as you get away from the downwind plume of the steel mills. If fluoride was left with the phosphate and sold to farmers, it would kill their crops. That is what originally happened when they used this high fluoride phosphate, and the farmers said they were going back to manure.

 ADDITION OF FLUORIDE TO PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS The addition of fluoride to the public water supply is the most insidious way of chronically poisoning hundreds of millions of people around the world. Dr. Dean Burk was former chief chemist of the National Cancer Institute, and has co-authored studies with many Nobel prize winners including Otto Warburton, and he is the co-author of the most cited paper in the entire field of biochemistry - the Lineweaver-Burk Enzyme Kinetics. In the 1970s, Dean Burk and I conducted a number of studies which linked fluoride and cancer. There was already scientific evidence from the 1950s that fluoride was causing cancer, and a 1963 study by Driscowitz and Norton showed that increased fluoride concentrations in the media of experimental animals increased tumour incidence from 12% at the lowest concentrations up to 100%. Taylor and Taylor published a study in 1965 at the University of Texas in all the mainline medical journals showing that 1 ppm or even 0.5 ppm increased tumour growth rate by 25%. These studies bothered me and around 1975 I found that we had enough data to compare the cancer death rate before and after fluoridation of fluoridated communities and compare them to non-fluoridated communities. Based on millions of subjects, the study showed a 5 to 10% increase in cancer death rate within three to five years after fluoridation was put into the water after correcting for various demographic factors like age, race and sex. All the variables were controlled. We followed this by a series of other studies. In 1977 we had full blown Congressional Hearings, and Congress stated: "We can no longer assure the American public that fluoride does not cause cancer". Dean Burk and other well-known scientists were there, and on the opposing side was the American Dental Association. Ten years later, Proctor and Gamble, makers of Crest toothpaste found that fluoride was causing precarcinogenic changes in cells.

 HOW FLUORIDE AFFECTS THE DNA REPAIR MECHANISM Epidemiological evidence shows that fluoride causes cancer. It does this in several ways. It can actually cause the original lesion. In each one of our cells we have genetic material called DNA, and this DNA is double stranded, it has a helix shape and these two strands of DNA are held together by semi strong bonds called hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds also hold proteins together. Fluoride goes in and breaks those hydrogen bonds, and consequently destabilizes DNA. It can't cause a lesion in the DNA itself, but if it is in a site of the cell that regulates cell growth, it will cause uncontrolled cell growth. A few minor modifications will give you first a tumour, and secondly an invasive tumour or cancer. So fluoride has the ability to actually cause the cancer. We have a marvelous system of repair and rejuvenation. Even if we go out in the sun, even if we have a lesion by fluoride itself, we have what is called a DNA repair enzyme system. So any lesion caused by the sun or ultra-violet light will be repaired. The DNA repair enzyme system will cut off the ends and use the complementary strand to repair itself and make intact genetic material. The unfortunate thing is that one part per million fluoride, the amount of fluoride that they use in the public water system, depresses the DNA repair system by 50%. So they have attacked us on the first defense of damage to our genetic material. Since people can get cancer from so many different causes, fluoride is just increasing our chances of getting cancer.

 THE IMMUNE SYSTEM Even if the cancer cell starts dividing and invading surrounding tissues, if our immune system is strong enough, it will kill those cancer cells without any remedies, without chemotherapy, without anything and will destroy the occasional cancer that maybe all of us have had at one time or another. Once in a while cancer breaks through when the immune system is low or the DNA repair enzyme system is down, and we will get cancer. Fluoride causes the lesion; it inhibits the DNA repair enzyme, and then inhibits our immune system by 30 to 70%. And that occurs at only one part per million. How does it do that? Our immune system is composed of white blood cells including phagocyte cells that are carried in the blood system. If there is an infection or cancer or some foreign agent, these phagocytes will go to that area and start engulfing and destroying this bad agent whether it is a cancer cell or a bacterium or virus. It engulfs it in a little pocket called a lysosome which squirts enzymes and breaks down the bad agent into little pieces. They have other things called peroxisomes which burn that agent with free radicals and either destroy it or use it for building new and healthy cells. These phagocytes will actually eat up bacteria or viruses, and toxic substances are just thrown off. Studies from the University of Glasgow show that fluoride inhibits these white blood cells. Fluoride at levels below one part per million causes a chronic release of these free radicals from the white blood cell out into the blood stream where it starts slowly damaging your body by increasing free radicals. This is one of the reasons why we call fluoride the ageing factor.

FLUORIDE FILTER

Odor in The Water

It's hot outside and you've been working in the yard, mowing, weed eating and trimming shrubs and now it's time to take a break.  You go into the house and grab a glass from the cupboard go to the refrigerator and get some ice from the dispenser and then you go to the sink to get your water because you are thirsty and you don't want to wait for the water dispenser in the refrigerator.  You now have a full glass of ice water and you put it to your lips take a breathe and what is that horrible smell in you glass?  No one wants to have this happen or even worse yet you have a terrible rotten egg odor in you water and guests come over to smell this odor, how embarrassing would that be?

Here are a couple of things you can look for and some remedies for the problem.  If you live on a water well these are some things you can do;
1. If you have a bladder tank (the one with the valve stem in the top) you will want to turn off you pump and drain the tank.  Once the tank is drained then carefully shake the tank ensuring that you do not break your PVC pipes.  If you hear water sloshing around in the top part of the tank this is your problem.  What has happened is that you have gotten a small hole in your bladder and the water is going through the bladder and making contact with the metal and the outside part of the bladder thus causing the odor.  The remedy is to replace the tank.
2. If you have a galvanized tank (the one with the pressure guage in the side) you will also want to turn off your pump and drain the tank and then shake it.  If it is full of water then your tank is water logged or in the process of water logging.  The reason for the odor is because with this system when the pump comes on it is supposed to put about a 20 foot column of air in the tank and then comes the water.  The air and the water mix and the air oxidizes the sulphur or hydrogen sulfide in the water and knocks out the smell.  Remedy, find the problem.  It is usually the check valve, and the way to tell if it is the check valve is to pressure up the tank and then slowly remove the pressure relief valve on top of the well head, if water begins to shoot out then the check valve is bad and will need to be replaced.  The other two things could be the snifter (silver valve stem in the check valve or screwed into the PVC pipe)  Replace the snifter, it must be purchased from a water well company or supplier because the spring in it is not the same as a regular valve stem.  The third thing is that the bleeder valve in the drop pipe and it can only be checked by a water well company.  This usually does not go bad.
3. If it is neither of the two above listed things then you either have hydrogen sulfide or iron bacteria in your well.  If you have iron then you will see red stains in your sinks and toilets and wherever you sprinklers hit your house.  If it is hydrogen sulfide you can look in the back of the toilet tank and if it is black then it is hydrogen sulfide.  The remedy is one of three things.  You can put about a cup or so of bleach down your well by removing the little black or blue square cap on the well head itself and pour the bleach down there. (Note do not use scented bleach) you will then want to chase the bleach with large amounts of water to ensure you have washed it off your pipes because bleach is caustic and will corrode the pipe and cause another problem.  This remedy will knock out both iron and hydrogen sulfide.  You can also buy filters for the two problems. If you buy an iron filter you will want to mix air with the water and then have a medium ( I suggest filter ag plus) to catch the iron. I suggest the Iron Breaker by either Fleck or Clack.  If it is hydrogen sulfide then you will want to use air to oxidize the hydrogen sulfide and use a catalytic carbon to catch the solids.  You can use an Iron Breaker as well but just change out the medium to catalytic carbon  Another filter that can be used is one that uses different types of filtration media to remove these contaminants.
Click here

Bladder Tank

Galvanized Tank

Shower Filters

I have seen many water filters claiming many things and sometimes I think it is a hoax or some sort of sales gimmick.  One of those that I am on the fence about is the shower filters.  They are either carbon of KDF 55 which should only be used on city water because of the need of pressure to regenerate it correctly.  KDF 55 is very heavy and if the bed cannot be lifted then the contaminants it catches will not be flushed and thus no room for the new to be captured is present.  Another common filter is that of Carbon whether it be granular activated or carbon block.  Granular activated is simply loose carbon within the filter itself.  Carbon block is compressed carbon that the water must flow through in order to get to the other side.  Granular is free floating and though it catches almost all the constituents in the water the carbon block is much better but must be replaced more often.  I also tend not to listen the the people who like to create fear in order to sale their product.  I have heard it said that the steam that is made from the hot water in the shower is then inhaled and the chlorine is then ingested through the lungs and thus contaminating the body.  Thus justifying the need for a filter on the shower head.  I don't know that this would be true though it seems to be correct.  My concern is that we have far too many people with cancer today and for me I really think that one of these filters would be worth the money.  No one wants cancer and if I have to spend a few extra dollars a month in order to help prevent cancer in my life and that of my family then I am in.  Cancer is a devastating disease as you are well aware and I would not want to see it on my worst enemy let alone any family member.  As for me I would personally recommend the Carbon block filter .  There are many different filters out there so here are some that you can choose from to help you and your family.

Buying a New Water Softener

Many people are looking for water softeners tgo buy but have a tough time because of the price ranges and hard sales tactics used.  You can buy a water softener at a big box store for around $450.00 and then have a salesman come and sale you a water softener for $8,000.00.  Wow that is a huge price difference and are you getting your monies worth?  After all you know the old saying "You get what you pay for".  Well when it comes to water softeners it can and cannot be like that.

There are many brands and types out there and the basic homeowner may not be familiar with them and which one is the correct one.  Before you buy make sure you do some research, ask questions get some bids, this is very important because some companies sale type A water softener for this price $$$ and another company may sale the very same one for this price $$.  You will also want a water sample.  Most companies will test your water for you and then they will size the water softener accordingly.  It often times depends on how hard the water is, how many people in the home and flow rate needed.

Licensing, most water softener sales people are not licensed, they can sale the softener and have a licensed plumber install it.  Or they will install it themselves.  Even if they don't have a license they usually know what they are doing because they don't want to keep coming to your home to redo something since time is money and do overs only cost the water softener company.  You can also ask questions like; how long have they been in business because sometimes there are companies out there who want to make the sale and in a year or so they no longer exist so then you are left to find a reputable company to fix your softener and hopefully if it is a warranty item they will honor it. You may also want to ask the company what types of water softeners can they fix, the reason for this is that if they can only fix their particular brand then you may be stuck with their prices on parts and labor and if he goes out of business who is going to fix your system.  If you can find a company that can fix most types of water softeners then you have found a company that knows what they are doing and are in it for the long haul since they have that much experience.

Expensive is not always the best, for instance there is one company that sales their product for thousands of dollars and they are the only one who can do maintenance to the system so you are stuck with their high prices.  There are other systems that are sold for lots of money and are really over priced.  My recommendation is to buy either a Fleck or Clack brand water softener.  Both companies have been in the business for a very long time and it is much easier to get parts if you like to DIY.  Parts are not too expensive and there are videos on the internet that can show you exactly how to repair them.  I would also suggest going to YouTube and searching how to fix a fleck valve or clack valve or whirlpool.  Then you can see how easy or complicated it is to repair a water softener.  You can find different types of water softeners and filters here

Warranties- most water softeners come with a 10 year warranty on the tank and a 5 year warranty on the valve.  The tank should have a sticker near the base and will have the size of the tank and the date on it, the valve has nothing like that so you would want to keep your receipt.  Most tanks last far beyond 10 years and the valve do to however the internal parts may need to be replaced due to the fact that they are moving parts and will over time wear out and this will depend on what is in the water and how often the water softener or water filter back washes.

If you are a DIY you can order your water softener over the internet at which point you will probably find the Fleck valve and of those valves you will find mostly the 5600 or the 2500/2510 valves out there.  Once again do your research and watch YouTube videos on how to install them and call around to see if you can find someone to install it if you cannot.  I would recommend staying away from the Fleck 7000 series valves because most service techs have no experience with this valve, even though you may get a good deal you will pay in the end when you need it repaired..Most plumbers know how to connect them but may not know how to set them up however you can find many videos and self help sites to help you in this.  Actually it is very easy and you should not be afraid to attempt it on your own.  You can also go to http://lowcostwatersofteners.com

For more information clik here