Water is by far the most ingested substance on the planet. Even with modern water-treatment facilities, water can be a significant source of dangerous contaminants, spreading acute and chronic diseases.
Continual exposure to certain man-made chemicals can be highly insidious, causing damage over months or years with often serious and sometimes deadly effects.
Chlorine, used for disinfection in many commercial and residential facilities, can react with organic matter to form cancer-causing trihalomethanes.
Even naturally occurring contaminants can show up in drinking water with deadly consequences. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, E. coli bacteria is responsible for an estimated 73,000 cases of infection and 61 deaths per year in the United States.
When ingested, lead is a toxin that has found its way into drinking water for many years. Although banned from use in new construction in 1988, homes and offices built before that year may still have lead-containing pipes. This metal can leach from old pipes and fixtures, making its way into drinking water and causing serious systemic and developmental problems in adults and children.
In the US about 1,000,000 children under the age of six have an amount of lead in their blood that exceeds the level of concern.
The dangerous synthetic chemicals used in pesticides have been detected in an alarmingly high percentage of groundwater wells in the US.
Pesticides have also been discovered in every large watershed in the US.
Acute exposure to these chemicals can be deadly while chronic exposure, even at low levels, has been linked to cancer, neurological damage and developmental problems.
The EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for the most commonly used pesticide, atrazine, is 3 parts per billion – that’s less than one drop in a large swimming pool!
When fertilizers or animal and human waste make contact with water, they become nitrates and nitrites. These nitrates and nitrates are responsible for causing deadly disease.
"Blue Baby" Syndrome is a lethal form of nitrate and nitrite poisoning that can strike infants exposed to contaminated water.
According to the National Pesticide Survey, more than 65,000 babies may be exposed to water with nitrates exceeding EPA-mandated limits.
Though most Americans depend on their local water utility to provide a safe water supply, testing and monitoring water contaminants is not as routine as most people think.
The vast majority of the nearly 100,000 water systems in the US rarely and sometimes never test for known water contaminants because of the extreme costs involved. For these plants, this prohibitive expense simply hurts the bottom line too much to warrant testing.
Complete implementation of the testing requirements of the Safe Water Drinking Act would amount to a cost that is more than most small towns pay for all police, fire and municipal services combined.
For the over 11,000,000 US households whose water supply comes from a private source, homeowners must pay for their own tests or risk contaminant exposures.
Even if you don’t drink tap water, chances are you cook, bathe, and brush your teeth with it…allowing toxins ample chance to get into your system.
For the first time, you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing exactly what’s in your water before your pets, you, or your children drink it!
Article's sources:
PEOPLE, BODY & SOUL, NATURAL HEALTH, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ALASKA AIRLINES, AND HEALTH
