Post by Indilwen on Aug 4, 2010 19:29:37 GMT 12
From: "peter6264
Date: Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:54 am
Subject: Water: To Drink or not to Drink--that is the question
Following up on what the Spiritual Hierarchy have been saying now for
years through my writings, the water we drink is still the most
dangerous product to our health and we need to a) know where our
water is coming from before we drink it, and b) if not, have some way
of treating it before drinking it (i.e., colloidal silver, ultra-
violet light, boiling etc.
Water
www.globallight.net/WaterSupply.htm
When it comes to our water supplies we are trusting the wrong
people and that trust will hurt us in ways we will regret.
The waters, the rivers of life are precious to those who value
life. To certain others they are just things to throw trash into, to
pollute, and to make money off of at the expense of destroying the
environment. Life is just unthinkable without water for we cannot be
separated from water and live. Water is so important that its
pollution and poisoning has a direct impact on our health and even on
the quality and effect of our minds and feelings. We are the element
water and we have reservoirs, ponds, rivers and seas of fluids within
us. The flow of blood, the lymphatic system with its fluid movement,
endocrine fluidity, urinary fluidity, the fluidity represented by
perspiration, saliva, tears, sexual secretions, and lactation are all
influenced by water. Clean water is absolutely essential for healthy
living. Adequate supply of fresh and clean drinking water is a basic
need for all human beings on the earth, yet hundreds of millions of
people worldwide are deprived of this. When you add the fact that
most drinking water from public systems are laced with toxic
chemicals then we begin to see that its not hundreds of millions who
have a problem with water but billions. Even bottled water has its
problems.[ii] We thus need to take so much care when it comes to the
water we drink.
If the world's water was contained in 100 liters or 26 gallons, then
what is readily available to us would amount to one-half teaspoon.
Dr Sang Hwang
If there were no water there would be no world as we know it so
pollution of our water or the deliberate injection of hazardous
chemicals like fluoride and chloramines into it is nothing less than
devastating to our biological existence over time. When approaching a
topic as big and as important as water we have to have some sense of
reverence for there is something sacred, almost sacramental in the
very fabric of water. Thus water holds the potential to change our
world, to change us. It holds the power of life and death and the
most dominant influence over our health. In the Midwest today there
is a serious drought that drives farmers and everyone else to think
about water more than anything else. Next to our breath there is
nothing more important than water.
The connection between water and disease wasn't established until
a scant 100 years ago and the connection between water and human
consciousness has still to be discovered. Observant physicians noted
early on that not all diseases were transmitted through contact
between individuals. The two greatest epidemics of the 19th century—
yellow fever and Asiatic cholera showed evidence that some factor
other than direct contact with disease victims was necessary to
spread the disease. Typhus and waterborne typhoid fever raged through
urban areas, proved to be one of history's most virulent killers.
Cholera could wipe out its victims in as little as 12 hours. Cholera
is a disease that can take a man suddenly down in good health at
daybreak and kill him by nightfall. Water is well capable of being
the harbinger of death and disease so it is best to know and
understand the water we drink and bathe in. In developing countries
four-fifths of all the illnesses are caused by waterborne diseases,
with diarrhea being the leading cause of childhood death.
Medically we are still in the Stone Age when it comes to our
understanding of water. Public health officials seem to deliberately
choose to remain blind to ever present dangers of all the chemicals
finding their way into the public water supplies probably because
they are deeply associated with an industry and a medical paradigm
that uses toxic chemicals in the form of drugs that are, as we shall
see below, also polluting our waters. Water pollution is caused by
human activities: 1) By point sources i.e., factories, sewage
treatment plants, underground mines, oil wells, oil tankers and
pesticides from agriculture. 2) Non-point sources include mercury in
the air, acid deposition from the air, traffic, pollutants that are
spread through rivers. 3) Chemicals deliberately put in the water
like fluoride and chloramines.
Water reminds us of the need to live simply and close to the ground
but the lesson has been lost on modern man who has not really
comprehended his total dependence and vulnerability to water issues.
The CIA considers global water scarcity "a significant issue in
security," said John Gannon, a former CIA assistant director and
former chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Even as we
continue to take water for granted things are going critical as water
levels in many aquifers around the world are dropping, in some places
by several meters a year.[iii] In recent measurements, in Waukesha
near Chicago for instance, the water level had dropped about 600 feet
with the greatest loss being over the last 20 years. Professor Liu
Yonggong, of China Agricultural University in Beijing, indicated that
the water table beneath much of the North China Plain, a region that
produces some 40 percent of China's grain, has fallen an average of
1.5 meters per year over the last five years.
Lack of water means lack of food. "Future competition for
water seems likely to take place largely in world grain markets."
Lester R. Brown
President of the Earth Policy Institute
An unexpectedly abrupt decline in the supply of water for China's
farmers poses a rising threat to world food security. China depends
on irrigated land to produce 70 percent of the grain for its huge
population of 1.2 billion people, but it is drawing more and more of
that water to supply the needs of its fast-growing cities and
industries. As rivers run dry[iv] and aquifers are depleted, the
emerging water shortages could sharply raise the country's demand for
grain imports, pushing the world's total import needs beyond
exportable supplies. Since 1950 the population of China has grown by
nearly 700 million, a staggering increase. Since 1950, the global
renewable freshwater supply per person has fallen 58 percent as world
population has swelled from 2.5 billion to 6 billion. With finite and
diminishing water supplies the human race is like a fast moving car
about to collide with a solid wall of water scarcity, which is not
being helped at all by the global warming effect and the weather
changes it is bringing throughout much of the world.
The Yellow River water in China is now loaded with heavy metals
and other toxins that make it unfit even for irrigation,
much less for human consumption, along much of its route.
None of the proposed solutions to the water crisis — importing
water, water conservation, expanded use of desalination of seawater
or developing genetically modified crops that use less water — will
be "sufficient to substantially change the outlook for water
shortages in 2015," according to Global Trends 2015, a report by the
intelligence council. Agriculture accounts for two-thirds of water
use worldwide and 80 percent to 90 percent in many developing
countries. Some of this is already coming home to Californians who as
of New Year's Day 2002 have had three of their eight water pumps on
the Colorado River shut down by federal order. Now much less water is
churning down the 242-mile aqueduct toward coastal Southern
California, where 17 million people rely on snowmelt from the Rocky
Mountains for washing dishes, flushing toilets and watering
lawns. This is a pivotal moment in the contentious history of
water in the arid West and in many other places around the world. We
are just at the beginning of a problem that has no way of going away.
The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.
American Indian Proverb
Every day in the United States more than 240 million people
turn on their faucets in order to drink, bathe, and cook, using water
from public water systems. But more people are arriving to the point
where they will not let a drop of water touch their lips in their own
homes unless that water comes from a bottle shipped from a fresh
water source. And even then we still have trouble in the home.
Researchers at the University of Texas found that showers and
dishwashers liberate trace amounts of chemicals from municipal water
supplies into the air. [v]
Squirting hot water through a nozzle, to produce a fine spray,
increases the surface area of water in contact with the air,
liberating dissolved substances in a process known as "stripping." So
if we want to avoid those chemicals drinking bottled water is not
enough. Chemically sensitive individuals would also have to wear a
gas mask in the shower, and when unloading the dishwasher if they
want to avoid chemical contamination. And even then the skin will
absorb directly in the shower chemicals like fluoride so we cannot
assume we are safe from the contaminants even if we are drinking pure
water. The majority of people still take the purity of their tap
water for granted when they shouldn't.
When we look deeper we can see that even in a rich country like
the United States, we all have reason to be concerned about not only
drinking, but even bathing in water that comes from public treatment
systems. Albuquerque, Fresno, and San Francisco are examples of
cities that have water that is sufficiently contaminated so as to
pose serious potential health risks to pregnant women, infants,
children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems,
according to Dr. David Ozonoff.[vi] What we find in these waters are
contaminants that occur with surprising regularity, regardless of
location, such as chlorination by-products, lead, and coliform
bacteria. Other contaminants, such as Teflon and rocket fuel occur
less frequently but pose major health concerns. If we include the
fact that fluoride is actually poisonous we have water that is slowly
killing some Americans and depressing the health of almost everyone
who drinks and showers in it.
And the problems with water just do not end. In August 2005 we
learned that common household brass plumbing fixtures may release far
more lead into drinking water than previously believed. As a result,
even new homes built with brass fixtures like ball valves and water
meters could end up with potentially unsafe lead levels. In a report
trumpeted by the National Science Foundation, Virgina Tech
researchers charged that the standards used to certify the brass
plumbing supplies found at most hardware stores may be inadequate to
predict lead contamination of water. This contradicts years of
assumptions that lead contamination primarily comes from old leaden
pipes or public water systems with lead contamination problems.[vii]
Contrary to popular belief, many plumbing supplies sold today are not
lead-free but contain up to 8 percent lead[viii] content in brass
fixtures. Lead makes brass and other metals more malleable, helping
manufacturers create intricate shapes.
The consequence though is extraordinarily high for exposure to
lead in drinking water results in delays in physical and mental
development, along with slight deficits in attention span and
learning abilities. In adults, it can cause increases in blood
pressure. Adults who drink this water over many years could develop
kidney problems or high blood pressure according to the American EPA.
[ix] The Romans had their engineers turn the populace into
neurological cripples when they started using lead in their water
systems but they did not have to deal with either fluoride or
mercury. The three together, mercury, lead and fluoride become a kind
of devils triangle of chemical toxicity that is only made worse by
aluminum and a host of other hostile chemicals that are clogging up
our bodies.
Water pollution by drugs is an emerging issue that is extremely
important. Pharmaceuticals are now attracting attention as a whole
new class of water pollutants. At the recent American Chemical
Society conference, Chris Metcalfe of Trent University in Ontario
reported finding a vast array of drugs leaving Canadian sewage
treatment plants. Padma Venkatraman, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns
Hopkins concluded that antidepressants, anti-convulsants, anticancer
drugs and antimicrobials are among the pharmaceuticals most likely to
be found at "toxicologically significant levels" in the environment.
These drugs and many more[x] are finding their way into public
water systems because pharmaceutical industries, hospitals and other
medical facilities as well as households dispose of unused medicines
and even human excreta can contain incompletely metabolized
medicines. Millions of doses of prescription drugs that Americans
swallow annually to combat cancer, pain, depression and other
ailments do not disappear harmlessly into their digestive systems but
instead make their way back into the environment where they may
contaminate drinking water and pose a threat to life, according to
researchers at John Hopkins medical center.
These drugs pass intact through conventional sewage treatment
facilities, into waterways, lakes and even aquifers. Discarded
pharmaceuticals often end up at dumps and land fills, posing a threat
to underlying groundwater. And farm animals also are a huge source of
pharmaceuticals entering the environment because of the massive use
of hormones, antibiotics and veterinary medicines used in their care.
Along with pharmaceuticals, personal care products also are showing
up in water. Generally these chemicals are the active ingredients or
preservatives in cosmetics, toiletries or fragrances. For example,
nitro musks, used as a fragrance in many cosmetics, detergents,
toiletries and other personal care products, have attracted concern
because of their persistence and possible adverse environmental
impacts. Some countries have taken action to ban nitro musks. Also,
sun screen agents have been detected in lakes and fish.
It is hard to tell which is worse, the toxic chemicals and drugs
that are leeching into the public water systems or the noxious
chemicals deliberately put in the water by public health officials.
Standard water treatments result in health threats yet health
officials are loath to admit any problem that we should beware of.
Chlorination of drinking water supplies virtually eliminates most
disease or bacterial contamination, but creates traces of several
toxic by-products in drinking water - such as chloroform,
trihalomethanes and other chlorinated organic compounds. In recent
years municipal water districts across the United States are changing
the way they disinfect public water supplies. Many are adding ammonia
to chlorinated water to produce chloramines,[xi] or chloraminated
water. They are doing that in order to meet standards set by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While chloramination has been
used as a way to lower the level of carcinogenic disinfection
byproducts (DBPs) created by chlorination, it has led to extreme
water toxicity. Chloraminated water kills fish and reptiles and there
is no reason to believe it is safe for human consumption.
"I almost died," Denise Kula Johnson of Menlo Park said the day after
chloramines were added to her water supply. "I was in the shower and
suddenly I could not breathe. I passed out on the floor. I was
terrified."
"The government is hiding the fact that the drinking water is not
usable," says medical scientist Dr. Winn Parker who tells us that the
most at-risk groups from chloraminated water are the fetus in the
first trimester, children to age three, people over age 60 and those
with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Women in the 35-45 age group
are at risk of recurring rashes on the inner thighs and chest, he
added. Parker is calling for government funding of alternative
disinfection methods, such as ultra-violet and reverse osmosis, which
would make harmful chemical disinfection methods obsolete. "We need
to amend the Constitution," Parker said, "to give the people in each
state the right to vote on what goes into their water."[xii] A
recently discovered disinfection byproduct iodoacetic acid, found in
U.S. drinking water treated with chloramines, is the most toxic ever
found according to Dr. Michael J. Plewa, a genetic toxicology expert
at the University of Illinois.[xiii]
Individuals who consume chlorinated drinking water have
an elevated risk of cancer of the bladder, stomach, pancreas,
kidney and rectum as well as Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
[xiv]
Dr. Michael J. Plewa
When Washington DC changed in 2000 to chloramines, this newly
treated water reacted with the lead in the pipes to poison the
drinking water. Lead levels were found in Washington's water 3,200
times the EPA's "action level" and 4,800 times the UN's acceptable
level for the toxic heavy metal. Americans have been conditioned to
believe that the problem with lead has mostly disappeared but nothing
could be further from the truth. According to the Washington
Post, "In New York City, the nation's largest water provider has for
the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water
was safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the
city has withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would
have raised lead levels above the safety standard in two of those
years."[xv] "The drinking water lead crisis in Washington D.C. poses
serious public health risks to thousands of residents of the national
capital area, and casts a dark shadow of doubt over the ability,
resources, or will of federal and local officials to fulfill their
duty to protect our health," said Paul D. Schwartz, National Policy
Coordinator, Clean Water Action.[xvi]
After switching to chloraminated water,
children in Washington ingested more than 60 times
the EPA's maximum level of lead with one glass of water.[xvii]
Jim Elder, who headed the EPA's drinking water program from 1991
to 1995, said he fears that utilities are engaging in "widespread
fraud and manipulation. It's time to reconsider whether water
utilities can be trusted with this crucial responsibility of
protecting the public. I fear for the safety of our nation's drinking
water. Apparently, it's a real crapshoot as to what's going to come
out of the tap and whether it will be healthy or not."
Cities across the country are manipulating the results
of tests used to detect lead in water, violating
federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk.
Washington Post[xviii]
Underground aquifers can become contaminated with bacteria and
viruses because of insufficient topsoil layers to filter rainwater as
it trickles down to recharge the groundwater. Livestock manure,
human sewage sludge, fertilizers, weed killers[xix] and pesticides
seep down into groundwater supplies. The intensification of
agricultural practices--in particular, the heavy use of fertilizers
and pesticides - has had a huge impact on water quality. The main
agricultural water pollutants are nitrates[xx], phosphorus, and
pesticides. Rising nitrate concentrations threaten the quality of
drinking water, while high pesticide use contributes substantially to
the direct poisoning of our water supplies. The Netherlands National
Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM, 1992)
concluded that "groundwater is threatened by pesticides in all
European states." WHO (1993) has established drinking water
guidelines for 33 pesticides but an awareness is growing that in all
matters water related we are not being protected from serious harm.
There really is no limit to the concerns and chemicals that make
drinking public water a bad idea.
There really is no end to the serious problems with tap water
that are being seriously underestimated. The National Academy of
Sciences has concluded that arsenic is so dangerous in drinking water
that stringent levels set by the Clinton administration and later
suspended by the Bush White House were not strict enough. For
decades, the Environmental Protection Agency set an acceptable
arsenic level of 50 parts per billion in drinking water. But recent
studies suggested that this level was too high and increased the risk
of bladder and lung cancer. A report by the National Academy of
Sciences in 1999 said the standard should be made stricter "as
promptly as possible." President Bill Clinton ordered the limit to be
lowered to 10 parts per billion in 2006 and scientists doubt if even
this low level of concentration is safe.[xxi]
A chemical used in munitions, called perchlorate[xxii], is known
to inhibit production of thyroid hormone[xxiii], which children need
for brain development. The chemical has been detected in drinking
water supplies in at least 25 states, as well as in fruits,
vegetables and breast milk in mothers across the country.[xxiv]
Five years ago, a research team recruited seven people to drink water
laced with tiny amounts of a rocket-fuel chemical that has
contaminated many drinking-water supplies. Perchlorate is poisonous
and can impair thyroid function and result in neurological impairment
of fetuses and babies, metabolic disorders and other problems. Yet
science descended into the gutter when researchers, backed by a grant
from the industries that make and use perchlorate, concluded that the
infinitesimal amounts in their test had no effect on the healthy
adults who signed on for the two-week study. This research team's
findings became the linchpin of a national policy on how much
perchlorate can be safely consumed. Federal regulators will use the
policy to decide whether to limit perchlorate in drinking water, and
what the limit should be even though the research in this area was
for only two weeks, a time infinitesimally short for the measurement
of the effects of low level toxicities.
Fluoride is also reported to increase the uptake of lead and
lead makes mercury many times more toxic than it already is. [xxv]
Almost each chemical poses a problem and collectively mixed
together it is anyone's guess what the end effect will on human
health. And if this was not enough American health officials still
insist on adding another poison into the water with the poor excuse
that it helps prevent cavities, which it doesn't. Fluoride has been
shown to be mutagenic causing chromosome damage, it is an
accumulative poison, it interferes with hydrogen bonding, and forms
complexes with a large number of metal ions just to name a few of the
fifty reasons Dr. Paul Connett of St. Lawerence University in New
York gives us for avoiding fluorinated water like the plague.[xxvi]
It's a mad form of medicine and dentistry that has public health
officials not listening to chemists like Connett who along with many
others gives us reason to serious doubt the integrity of public
health officials. Fluoride displaces iodine from the thyroid (the
body's energy control centre) and generally poisons enzyme systems.
The list of chemicals pouring into the environment is almost endless
and together they are coming on like a blitzkrieg to take humanity
down into a dark night of suffering and despair. To find on top of
everything companies using public water systems as a waste disposal
system is incredible and yet that is exactly what they are doing with
fluoride.
Dr. Paul Connett posted on 20 July 2005, "I am really surprised
that Medical News Today published the puff piece from the American
Dental Association about their celebration of 60 years of
fluoridation, but missed the real news from last week. This was the
revelation carried by the Washington Post and the Associated Press
(July 13, 2005) that a Harvard thesis has shown a connection between
water fluoridation and a 700% increase in osteosarcoma in young men
if they are exposed to fluoridated water during their 6th to 8th
years." Particularly disturbing is the information that the thesis
adviser, Porfessor Cheser Douglass, who is also a consultant to
Colgate, has covered up these results in talks to the public and in a
report to his funding agency. Both the NIEHS and Harvard University
are investigating his conduct."
Most of Europe and many townships in the United States have
completely rejected the fluoridation of water. Why? Because fluoride
is a poison and thus you see warnings to keep even toothpaste out of
the reach of children. It's like part of the world believes the world
is flat and others have it as round. In this case we have entire
governments rejecting the idea and in others they simply get away
with deceiving hundreds of millions of people as they continue to use
fluoride. There are medical officials that simply do not understand
the relatively simple proposition that chemical compounds poison
people. These doctors have been hypnotized by their medical
professors who themselves have been programmed with an enormous
blindness to the negative effects of chemical toxins put in both food
and water.
Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Director International Medical Veritas Association
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Oceans contain 97 per cent of our planet's water but it is too
salty for drinking, irrigation or industrial use. Only 3 per cent of
earth's total water is considered fresh water. About 2.997 per cent
of this fresh water is trapped in polar ice caps and deep within
earth surface which is too costly to extract. Thus only .003 per cent
of earth's total available water by volume is available for human
use. The global picture of water is not pretty with some 1.1 billion
people still lacking access to improved drinking water sources and
some 2.4 billion to adequate sanitation.
[ii] In March of 1999, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
released a report called "Bottled Water, Pure Drink or Pure Hype?"
NRDC 's report points out that as much as 40% of all bottled water
comes from a city water system, just like tap water. Federal
regulations that govern bottled water only require it to be as good
as tap water, not better. There are no assurances, regulations or
requirements that bottled water be any higher in quality than tap
water
[iii] Iran. The water table is falling by 2.8 meters annually in the
agriculturally rich Chenaran Plain in northeastern Iran. That,
coupled with the cumulative effect of a three-year drought, has
driven people out of the region, generating a swelling flow of water
refugees.
[iv] Egypt. Egypt is entirely dependent for its water on the Nile
River, which is now reduced to a trickle as it enters the
Mediterranean. Neither Egypt, Ethiopia, nor Sudan can increase its
take from the Nile except at the expense of the other two countries.
Populations in these three countries is projected to climb to 264
million in 2025 from 167 million today. A quarter-century ago, with
more and more of its water being pumped out for the country's
multiplying needs, the Yellow River began to falter. In 1972, the
water level fell so low that for the first time in China's long
history it dried up before reaching the sea. It failed on 15 days
that year, and intermittently over the next decade or so. Since 1985,
it has run dry each year, with the dry period becoming progressively
longer. In 1996, it was dry for 133 days. In 1997, a year exacerbated
by drought, it failed to reach the sea for 226 days. For long
stretches, it
did not even reach Shandong Province, the last province it flows
through en route to the sea. Shandong, the source of one-fifth of
China's corn and one-seventh of its wheat, depends on the Yellow
River for half of its irrigation water.
[v] www.agonist.org/story/2005/8/4/44118/79781
[vi] National Resources Defence Council. Ozonoff is chair of the
Environmental Health Program at Boston University School of Public
Health and a nationally known expert on drinking water and health
issues www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities/execsum.asp
[vii] www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C29130.html
[viii] Drinking Water Act in 1996 banned plumbing devices with pure
lead pipe but still allow low levels of lead. Homes built before
1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder.
However, new homes are also at risk: even legally "lead-free"
plumbing may contain up to 8 percent lead. The most common problem is
with brass or chrome-plated brass faucets and fixtures which can
leach significant amounts of lead into the water, especially hot
water. www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/index.htmlAmendments made to
the federal Safe
[ix] www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/index.htmlAmendments made to
the federal Safe
[x] Detected contaminants include caffeine, which was the highest-
volume pollutant, codeine, cholesterol-lowering agents, anti-
depressants, and Premarin, an estrogen replacement drug taken by
about 9 million women. Also chemotherapy agents were found downstream
from hospitals treating cancer patients. Final results from the study
are expected to be released in the fall. For additional information
about the U.S.G.S. study check the website:
toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc.html
[xi] Chloramine is a disinfectant put into many municipal water
supplies. In recent years it has often replaced chlorine for two main
reasons. The first is that it is much longer lasting, so it continues
to provide a disinfectant action in supply pipes, where chlorine
typically loses its capacity to disinfect. The second is that it does
not react with organics nearly as readily as does chlorine. The
reaction products of chlorine and organics (chlorinated organics) are
very toxic to people, and water supply operators elect to use
chloramine to reduce this toxicity.
[xii] Bollyn, Christopher. The Unhealthy Consequences of
Chloraminated Water.
www.americanfreepress.net/html/chloraminated_water.html
[xiii] www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/09/040915111128.htm
[xiv] Sep 2004 www.watertechonline.com/News.asp?
mode=4&N_ID=50190
[xv] www.americanfreepress.net/html/chloraminated_water.html
[xvi] US House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform
Hearing on the District of Columbia's Lead Contamination Experience
Statement of Paul D. Schwartz, National Policy Coordinator, Clean
Water Action
May 21, 2004. www.dcwatch.com/wasa/040521i.htm
[xvii] From April 2 to May 8 of 2004, utility officials switched back
to chlorine, a yearly change intended to rinse bacteria from the
pipes before summer. During that time, officials said yesterday, lead
level test results in homes with lead service lines were 25 percent
to 30 percent lower than they would have predicted.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43649-2004May20.html
[xviii] www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7094-
2004Oct4.html
[xix] The weed killer atrazine affects the levels of a number of
hormones needed for normal development and function of the
reproductive system, including estrogen, prolactin, luteinizing
hormone, and follicle stimulating hormone. Atrazine has been linked
to sexual malformations in frogs that were exposed to water
containing just 1/30th as much atrazine
as the EPA regards as safe in human drinking water. Sanders, Robert.
Popular weed killer atrazine feminizes native frogs across Midwest,
could be impacting amphibian populations worldwide 30 October 2002.
University of Berkely.
www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/10/30_frogs.html
[xx] Nitrate in drinking water is also associated with increased risk
for bladder cancer, according to a University of Iowa (UI) study that
looked at cancer incidence among nearly 22,000 Iowa women. The study
results suggest that even low-level exposure to nitrates over many
years could cause increases in certain types of cancer, said Peter
Weyer, Ph.D., associate director of the UI Center for Health Effects
of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC) and one of the study's lead
authors. The study was published in the May 2001 issue of the journal
Epidemiology. "From a public health perspective, source water
protection is a main concern. Sources of nitrate which can impact
water supplies include fertilizers, human waste, and animal waste,"
Weyer said. "All of us, rural and urban residents alike, need to be
more aware of how what we do as individuals can impact our water
sources and, potentially, our health."
www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/OT/FA03/News_Notes.html
[xxi] New York Times September 11, 2001
[xxii] Perchlorate is an oxidizing agent used in rocket fuel,
fireworks, munitions and other explosives. Leaks and spills at
manufacturing plants over the past 50 years have contaminated water
supplies in at least 35 states, the lower Colorado River and several
groundwater basins in the Inland area.
www.epa.gov/safewater/ccl/perchlorate/perchlorate.html
[xxiii] Environmental Working Group: Perchlorate, the explosive main
ingredient of rocket and missile fuel, contaminates drinking water
supplies, groundwater or soil in hundreds of locations in at least 43
states Well over 20 million people drink water from public and
private sources known to be polluted with perchlorate. This estimate
includes millions of customers of 81 contaminated public water
systems in California and aproximately 20 million customers in the
three states who get at least part of their drinking water from the
perchlorate-tainted Colorado River.
www.ewg.org/reports/rocketwater/
[xxiv] www.gilroydispatch.com/news/contentview.asp?c=146576
[xxv] Masters RD, Coplan MJ, Hone BT, Dykes JE. Association of
silicofluoride treated water with elevated blood lead.
Neurotoxicology. 2000 Dec;21(6):1091-100.
[xxvi] Connett, Paul. Fifty Reasons to oppose Fluoridation. Medical
Veritas Journal of Medicine. Doi: 10.1588/medver.2004.01.00014
Date: Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:54 am
Subject: Water: To Drink or not to Drink--that is the question
Following up on what the Spiritual Hierarchy have been saying now for
years through my writings, the water we drink is still the most
dangerous product to our health and we need to a) know where our
water is coming from before we drink it, and b) if not, have some way
of treating it before drinking it (i.e., colloidal silver, ultra-
violet light, boiling etc.
Water
www.globallight.net/WaterSupply.htm
When it comes to our water supplies we are trusting the wrong
people and that trust will hurt us in ways we will regret.
The waters, the rivers of life are precious to those who value
life. To certain others they are just things to throw trash into, to
pollute, and to make money off of at the expense of destroying the
environment. Life is just unthinkable without water for we cannot be
separated from water and live. Water is so important that its
pollution and poisoning has a direct impact on our health and even on
the quality and effect of our minds and feelings. We are the element
water and we have reservoirs, ponds, rivers and seas of fluids within
us. The flow of blood, the lymphatic system with its fluid movement,
endocrine fluidity, urinary fluidity, the fluidity represented by
perspiration, saliva, tears, sexual secretions, and lactation are all
influenced by water. Clean water is absolutely essential for healthy
living. Adequate supply of fresh and clean drinking water is a basic
need for all human beings on the earth, yet hundreds of millions of
people worldwide are deprived of this. When you add the fact that
most drinking water from public systems are laced with toxic
chemicals then we begin to see that its not hundreds of millions who
have a problem with water but billions. Even bottled water has its
problems.[ii] We thus need to take so much care when it comes to the
water we drink.
If the world's water was contained in 100 liters or 26 gallons, then
what is readily available to us would amount to one-half teaspoon.
Dr Sang Hwang
If there were no water there would be no world as we know it so
pollution of our water or the deliberate injection of hazardous
chemicals like fluoride and chloramines into it is nothing less than
devastating to our biological existence over time. When approaching a
topic as big and as important as water we have to have some sense of
reverence for there is something sacred, almost sacramental in the
very fabric of water. Thus water holds the potential to change our
world, to change us. It holds the power of life and death and the
most dominant influence over our health. In the Midwest today there
is a serious drought that drives farmers and everyone else to think
about water more than anything else. Next to our breath there is
nothing more important than water.
The connection between water and disease wasn't established until
a scant 100 years ago and the connection between water and human
consciousness has still to be discovered. Observant physicians noted
early on that not all diseases were transmitted through contact
between individuals. The two greatest epidemics of the 19th century—
yellow fever and Asiatic cholera showed evidence that some factor
other than direct contact with disease victims was necessary to
spread the disease. Typhus and waterborne typhoid fever raged through
urban areas, proved to be one of history's most virulent killers.
Cholera could wipe out its victims in as little as 12 hours. Cholera
is a disease that can take a man suddenly down in good health at
daybreak and kill him by nightfall. Water is well capable of being
the harbinger of death and disease so it is best to know and
understand the water we drink and bathe in. In developing countries
four-fifths of all the illnesses are caused by waterborne diseases,
with diarrhea being the leading cause of childhood death.
Medically we are still in the Stone Age when it comes to our
understanding of water. Public health officials seem to deliberately
choose to remain blind to ever present dangers of all the chemicals
finding their way into the public water supplies probably because
they are deeply associated with an industry and a medical paradigm
that uses toxic chemicals in the form of drugs that are, as we shall
see below, also polluting our waters. Water pollution is caused by
human activities: 1) By point sources i.e., factories, sewage
treatment plants, underground mines, oil wells, oil tankers and
pesticides from agriculture. 2) Non-point sources include mercury in
the air, acid deposition from the air, traffic, pollutants that are
spread through rivers. 3) Chemicals deliberately put in the water
like fluoride and chloramines.
Water reminds us of the need to live simply and close to the ground
but the lesson has been lost on modern man who has not really
comprehended his total dependence and vulnerability to water issues.
The CIA considers global water scarcity "a significant issue in
security," said John Gannon, a former CIA assistant director and
former chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Even as we
continue to take water for granted things are going critical as water
levels in many aquifers around the world are dropping, in some places
by several meters a year.[iii] In recent measurements, in Waukesha
near Chicago for instance, the water level had dropped about 600 feet
with the greatest loss being over the last 20 years. Professor Liu
Yonggong, of China Agricultural University in Beijing, indicated that
the water table beneath much of the North China Plain, a region that
produces some 40 percent of China's grain, has fallen an average of
1.5 meters per year over the last five years.
Lack of water means lack of food. "Future competition for
water seems likely to take place largely in world grain markets."
Lester R. Brown
President of the Earth Policy Institute
An unexpectedly abrupt decline in the supply of water for China's
farmers poses a rising threat to world food security. China depends
on irrigated land to produce 70 percent of the grain for its huge
population of 1.2 billion people, but it is drawing more and more of
that water to supply the needs of its fast-growing cities and
industries. As rivers run dry[iv] and aquifers are depleted, the
emerging water shortages could sharply raise the country's demand for
grain imports, pushing the world's total import needs beyond
exportable supplies. Since 1950 the population of China has grown by
nearly 700 million, a staggering increase. Since 1950, the global
renewable freshwater supply per person has fallen 58 percent as world
population has swelled from 2.5 billion to 6 billion. With finite and
diminishing water supplies the human race is like a fast moving car
about to collide with a solid wall of water scarcity, which is not
being helped at all by the global warming effect and the weather
changes it is bringing throughout much of the world.
The Yellow River water in China is now loaded with heavy metals
and other toxins that make it unfit even for irrigation,
much less for human consumption, along much of its route.
None of the proposed solutions to the water crisis — importing
water, water conservation, expanded use of desalination of seawater
or developing genetically modified crops that use less water — will
be "sufficient to substantially change the outlook for water
shortages in 2015," according to Global Trends 2015, a report by the
intelligence council. Agriculture accounts for two-thirds of water
use worldwide and 80 percent to 90 percent in many developing
countries. Some of this is already coming home to Californians who as
of New Year's Day 2002 have had three of their eight water pumps on
the Colorado River shut down by federal order. Now much less water is
churning down the 242-mile aqueduct toward coastal Southern
California, where 17 million people rely on snowmelt from the Rocky
Mountains for washing dishes, flushing toilets and watering
lawns. This is a pivotal moment in the contentious history of
water in the arid West and in many other places around the world. We
are just at the beginning of a problem that has no way of going away.
The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.
American Indian Proverb
Every day in the United States more than 240 million people
turn on their faucets in order to drink, bathe, and cook, using water
from public water systems. But more people are arriving to the point
where they will not let a drop of water touch their lips in their own
homes unless that water comes from a bottle shipped from a fresh
water source. And even then we still have trouble in the home.
Researchers at the University of Texas found that showers and
dishwashers liberate trace amounts of chemicals from municipal water
supplies into the air. [v]
Squirting hot water through a nozzle, to produce a fine spray,
increases the surface area of water in contact with the air,
liberating dissolved substances in a process known as "stripping." So
if we want to avoid those chemicals drinking bottled water is not
enough. Chemically sensitive individuals would also have to wear a
gas mask in the shower, and when unloading the dishwasher if they
want to avoid chemical contamination. And even then the skin will
absorb directly in the shower chemicals like fluoride so we cannot
assume we are safe from the contaminants even if we are drinking pure
water. The majority of people still take the purity of their tap
water for granted when they shouldn't.
When we look deeper we can see that even in a rich country like
the United States, we all have reason to be concerned about not only
drinking, but even bathing in water that comes from public treatment
systems. Albuquerque, Fresno, and San Francisco are examples of
cities that have water that is sufficiently contaminated so as to
pose serious potential health risks to pregnant women, infants,
children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems,
according to Dr. David Ozonoff.[vi] What we find in these waters are
contaminants that occur with surprising regularity, regardless of
location, such as chlorination by-products, lead, and coliform
bacteria. Other contaminants, such as Teflon and rocket fuel occur
less frequently but pose major health concerns. If we include the
fact that fluoride is actually poisonous we have water that is slowly
killing some Americans and depressing the health of almost everyone
who drinks and showers in it.
And the problems with water just do not end. In August 2005 we
learned that common household brass plumbing fixtures may release far
more lead into drinking water than previously believed. As a result,
even new homes built with brass fixtures like ball valves and water
meters could end up with potentially unsafe lead levels. In a report
trumpeted by the National Science Foundation, Virgina Tech
researchers charged that the standards used to certify the brass
plumbing supplies found at most hardware stores may be inadequate to
predict lead contamination of water. This contradicts years of
assumptions that lead contamination primarily comes from old leaden
pipes or public water systems with lead contamination problems.[vii]
Contrary to popular belief, many plumbing supplies sold today are not
lead-free but contain up to 8 percent lead[viii] content in brass
fixtures. Lead makes brass and other metals more malleable, helping
manufacturers create intricate shapes.
The consequence though is extraordinarily high for exposure to
lead in drinking water results in delays in physical and mental
development, along with slight deficits in attention span and
learning abilities. In adults, it can cause increases in blood
pressure. Adults who drink this water over many years could develop
kidney problems or high blood pressure according to the American EPA.
[ix] The Romans had their engineers turn the populace into
neurological cripples when they started using lead in their water
systems but they did not have to deal with either fluoride or
mercury. The three together, mercury, lead and fluoride become a kind
of devils triangle of chemical toxicity that is only made worse by
aluminum and a host of other hostile chemicals that are clogging up
our bodies.
Water pollution by drugs is an emerging issue that is extremely
important. Pharmaceuticals are now attracting attention as a whole
new class of water pollutants. At the recent American Chemical
Society conference, Chris Metcalfe of Trent University in Ontario
reported finding a vast array of drugs leaving Canadian sewage
treatment plants. Padma Venkatraman, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns
Hopkins concluded that antidepressants, anti-convulsants, anticancer
drugs and antimicrobials are among the pharmaceuticals most likely to
be found at "toxicologically significant levels" in the environment.
These drugs and many more[x] are finding their way into public
water systems because pharmaceutical industries, hospitals and other
medical facilities as well as households dispose of unused medicines
and even human excreta can contain incompletely metabolized
medicines. Millions of doses of prescription drugs that Americans
swallow annually to combat cancer, pain, depression and other
ailments do not disappear harmlessly into their digestive systems but
instead make their way back into the environment where they may
contaminate drinking water and pose a threat to life, according to
researchers at John Hopkins medical center.
These drugs pass intact through conventional sewage treatment
facilities, into waterways, lakes and even aquifers. Discarded
pharmaceuticals often end up at dumps and land fills, posing a threat
to underlying groundwater. And farm animals also are a huge source of
pharmaceuticals entering the environment because of the massive use
of hormones, antibiotics and veterinary medicines used in their care.
Along with pharmaceuticals, personal care products also are showing
up in water. Generally these chemicals are the active ingredients or
preservatives in cosmetics, toiletries or fragrances. For example,
nitro musks, used as a fragrance in many cosmetics, detergents,
toiletries and other personal care products, have attracted concern
because of their persistence and possible adverse environmental
impacts. Some countries have taken action to ban nitro musks. Also,
sun screen agents have been detected in lakes and fish.
It is hard to tell which is worse, the toxic chemicals and drugs
that are leeching into the public water systems or the noxious
chemicals deliberately put in the water by public health officials.
Standard water treatments result in health threats yet health
officials are loath to admit any problem that we should beware of.
Chlorination of drinking water supplies virtually eliminates most
disease or bacterial contamination, but creates traces of several
toxic by-products in drinking water - such as chloroform,
trihalomethanes and other chlorinated organic compounds. In recent
years municipal water districts across the United States are changing
the way they disinfect public water supplies. Many are adding ammonia
to chlorinated water to produce chloramines,[xi] or chloraminated
water. They are doing that in order to meet standards set by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While chloramination has been
used as a way to lower the level of carcinogenic disinfection
byproducts (DBPs) created by chlorination, it has led to extreme
water toxicity. Chloraminated water kills fish and reptiles and there
is no reason to believe it is safe for human consumption.
"I almost died," Denise Kula Johnson of Menlo Park said the day after
chloramines were added to her water supply. "I was in the shower and
suddenly I could not breathe. I passed out on the floor. I was
terrified."
"The government is hiding the fact that the drinking water is not
usable," says medical scientist Dr. Winn Parker who tells us that the
most at-risk groups from chloraminated water are the fetus in the
first trimester, children to age three, people over age 60 and those
with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Women in the 35-45 age group
are at risk of recurring rashes on the inner thighs and chest, he
added. Parker is calling for government funding of alternative
disinfection methods, such as ultra-violet and reverse osmosis, which
would make harmful chemical disinfection methods obsolete. "We need
to amend the Constitution," Parker said, "to give the people in each
state the right to vote on what goes into their water."[xii] A
recently discovered disinfection byproduct iodoacetic acid, found in
U.S. drinking water treated with chloramines, is the most toxic ever
found according to Dr. Michael J. Plewa, a genetic toxicology expert
at the University of Illinois.[xiii]
Individuals who consume chlorinated drinking water have
an elevated risk of cancer of the bladder, stomach, pancreas,
kidney and rectum as well as Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
[xiv]
Dr. Michael J. Plewa
When Washington DC changed in 2000 to chloramines, this newly
treated water reacted with the lead in the pipes to poison the
drinking water. Lead levels were found in Washington's water 3,200
times the EPA's "action level" and 4,800 times the UN's acceptable
level for the toxic heavy metal. Americans have been conditioned to
believe that the problem with lead has mostly disappeared but nothing
could be further from the truth. According to the Washington
Post, "In New York City, the nation's largest water provider has for
the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water
was safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the
city has withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would
have raised lead levels above the safety standard in two of those
years."[xv] "The drinking water lead crisis in Washington D.C. poses
serious public health risks to thousands of residents of the national
capital area, and casts a dark shadow of doubt over the ability,
resources, or will of federal and local officials to fulfill their
duty to protect our health," said Paul D. Schwartz, National Policy
Coordinator, Clean Water Action.[xvi]
After switching to chloraminated water,
children in Washington ingested more than 60 times
the EPA's maximum level of lead with one glass of water.[xvii]
Jim Elder, who headed the EPA's drinking water program from 1991
to 1995, said he fears that utilities are engaging in "widespread
fraud and manipulation. It's time to reconsider whether water
utilities can be trusted with this crucial responsibility of
protecting the public. I fear for the safety of our nation's drinking
water. Apparently, it's a real crapshoot as to what's going to come
out of the tap and whether it will be healthy or not."
Cities across the country are manipulating the results
of tests used to detect lead in water, violating
federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk.
Washington Post[xviii]
Underground aquifers can become contaminated with bacteria and
viruses because of insufficient topsoil layers to filter rainwater as
it trickles down to recharge the groundwater. Livestock manure,
human sewage sludge, fertilizers, weed killers[xix] and pesticides
seep down into groundwater supplies. The intensification of
agricultural practices--in particular, the heavy use of fertilizers
and pesticides - has had a huge impact on water quality. The main
agricultural water pollutants are nitrates[xx], phosphorus, and
pesticides. Rising nitrate concentrations threaten the quality of
drinking water, while high pesticide use contributes substantially to
the direct poisoning of our water supplies. The Netherlands National
Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM, 1992)
concluded that "groundwater is threatened by pesticides in all
European states." WHO (1993) has established drinking water
guidelines for 33 pesticides but an awareness is growing that in all
matters water related we are not being protected from serious harm.
There really is no limit to the concerns and chemicals that make
drinking public water a bad idea.
There really is no end to the serious problems with tap water
that are being seriously underestimated. The National Academy of
Sciences has concluded that arsenic is so dangerous in drinking water
that stringent levels set by the Clinton administration and later
suspended by the Bush White House were not strict enough. For
decades, the Environmental Protection Agency set an acceptable
arsenic level of 50 parts per billion in drinking water. But recent
studies suggested that this level was too high and increased the risk
of bladder and lung cancer. A report by the National Academy of
Sciences in 1999 said the standard should be made stricter "as
promptly as possible." President Bill Clinton ordered the limit to be
lowered to 10 parts per billion in 2006 and scientists doubt if even
this low level of concentration is safe.[xxi]
A chemical used in munitions, called perchlorate[xxii], is known
to inhibit production of thyroid hormone[xxiii], which children need
for brain development. The chemical has been detected in drinking
water supplies in at least 25 states, as well as in fruits,
vegetables and breast milk in mothers across the country.[xxiv]
Five years ago, a research team recruited seven people to drink water
laced with tiny amounts of a rocket-fuel chemical that has
contaminated many drinking-water supplies. Perchlorate is poisonous
and can impair thyroid function and result in neurological impairment
of fetuses and babies, metabolic disorders and other problems. Yet
science descended into the gutter when researchers, backed by a grant
from the industries that make and use perchlorate, concluded that the
infinitesimal amounts in their test had no effect on the healthy
adults who signed on for the two-week study. This research team's
findings became the linchpin of a national policy on how much
perchlorate can be safely consumed. Federal regulators will use the
policy to decide whether to limit perchlorate in drinking water, and
what the limit should be even though the research in this area was
for only two weeks, a time infinitesimally short for the measurement
of the effects of low level toxicities.
Fluoride is also reported to increase the uptake of lead and
lead makes mercury many times more toxic than it already is. [xxv]
Almost each chemical poses a problem and collectively mixed
together it is anyone's guess what the end effect will on human
health. And if this was not enough American health officials still
insist on adding another poison into the water with the poor excuse
that it helps prevent cavities, which it doesn't. Fluoride has been
shown to be mutagenic causing chromosome damage, it is an
accumulative poison, it interferes with hydrogen bonding, and forms
complexes with a large number of metal ions just to name a few of the
fifty reasons Dr. Paul Connett of St. Lawerence University in New
York gives us for avoiding fluorinated water like the plague.[xxvi]
It's a mad form of medicine and dentistry that has public health
officials not listening to chemists like Connett who along with many
others gives us reason to serious doubt the integrity of public
health officials. Fluoride displaces iodine from the thyroid (the
body's energy control centre) and generally poisons enzyme systems.
The list of chemicals pouring into the environment is almost endless
and together they are coming on like a blitzkrieg to take humanity
down into a dark night of suffering and despair. To find on top of
everything companies using public water systems as a waste disposal
system is incredible and yet that is exactly what they are doing with
fluoride.
Dr. Paul Connett posted on 20 July 2005, "I am really surprised
that Medical News Today published the puff piece from the American
Dental Association about their celebration of 60 years of
fluoridation, but missed the real news from last week. This was the
revelation carried by the Washington Post and the Associated Press
(July 13, 2005) that a Harvard thesis has shown a connection between
water fluoridation and a 700% increase in osteosarcoma in young men
if they are exposed to fluoridated water during their 6th to 8th
years." Particularly disturbing is the information that the thesis
adviser, Porfessor Cheser Douglass, who is also a consultant to
Colgate, has covered up these results in talks to the public and in a
report to his funding agency. Both the NIEHS and Harvard University
are investigating his conduct."
Most of Europe and many townships in the United States have
completely rejected the fluoridation of water. Why? Because fluoride
is a poison and thus you see warnings to keep even toothpaste out of
the reach of children. It's like part of the world believes the world
is flat and others have it as round. In this case we have entire
governments rejecting the idea and in others they simply get away
with deceiving hundreds of millions of people as they continue to use
fluoride. There are medical officials that simply do not understand
the relatively simple proposition that chemical compounds poison
people. These doctors have been hypnotized by their medical
professors who themselves have been programmed with an enormous
blindness to the negative effects of chemical toxins put in both food
and water.
Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Director International Medical Veritas Association
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Oceans contain 97 per cent of our planet's water but it is too
salty for drinking, irrigation or industrial use. Only 3 per cent of
earth's total water is considered fresh water. About 2.997 per cent
of this fresh water is trapped in polar ice caps and deep within
earth surface which is too costly to extract. Thus only .003 per cent
of earth's total available water by volume is available for human
use. The global picture of water is not pretty with some 1.1 billion
people still lacking access to improved drinking water sources and
some 2.4 billion to adequate sanitation.
[ii] In March of 1999, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
released a report called "Bottled Water, Pure Drink or Pure Hype?"
NRDC 's report points out that as much as 40% of all bottled water
comes from a city water system, just like tap water. Federal
regulations that govern bottled water only require it to be as good
as tap water, not better. There are no assurances, regulations or
requirements that bottled water be any higher in quality than tap
water
[iii] Iran. The water table is falling by 2.8 meters annually in the
agriculturally rich Chenaran Plain in northeastern Iran. That,
coupled with the cumulative effect of a three-year drought, has
driven people out of the region, generating a swelling flow of water
refugees.
[iv] Egypt. Egypt is entirely dependent for its water on the Nile
River, which is now reduced to a trickle as it enters the
Mediterranean. Neither Egypt, Ethiopia, nor Sudan can increase its
take from the Nile except at the expense of the other two countries.
Populations in these three countries is projected to climb to 264
million in 2025 from 167 million today. A quarter-century ago, with
more and more of its water being pumped out for the country's
multiplying needs, the Yellow River began to falter. In 1972, the
water level fell so low that for the first time in China's long
history it dried up before reaching the sea. It failed on 15 days
that year, and intermittently over the next decade or so. Since 1985,
it has run dry each year, with the dry period becoming progressively
longer. In 1996, it was dry for 133 days. In 1997, a year exacerbated
by drought, it failed to reach the sea for 226 days. For long
stretches, it
did not even reach Shandong Province, the last province it flows
through en route to the sea. Shandong, the source of one-fifth of
China's corn and one-seventh of its wheat, depends on the Yellow
River for half of its irrigation water.
[v] www.agonist.org/story/2005/8/4/44118/79781
[vi] National Resources Defence Council. Ozonoff is chair of the
Environmental Health Program at Boston University School of Public
Health and a nationally known expert on drinking water and health
issues www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities/execsum.asp
[vii] www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C29130.html
[viii] Drinking Water Act in 1996 banned plumbing devices with pure
lead pipe but still allow low levels of lead. Homes built before
1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder.
However, new homes are also at risk: even legally "lead-free"
plumbing may contain up to 8 percent lead. The most common problem is
with brass or chrome-plated brass faucets and fixtures which can
leach significant amounts of lead into the water, especially hot
water. www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/index.htmlAmendments made to
the federal Safe
[ix] www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/index.htmlAmendments made to
the federal Safe
[x] Detected contaminants include caffeine, which was the highest-
volume pollutant, codeine, cholesterol-lowering agents, anti-
depressants, and Premarin, an estrogen replacement drug taken by
about 9 million women. Also chemotherapy agents were found downstream
from hospitals treating cancer patients. Final results from the study
are expected to be released in the fall. For additional information
about the U.S.G.S. study check the website:
toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc.html
[xi] Chloramine is a disinfectant put into many municipal water
supplies. In recent years it has often replaced chlorine for two main
reasons. The first is that it is much longer lasting, so it continues
to provide a disinfectant action in supply pipes, where chlorine
typically loses its capacity to disinfect. The second is that it does
not react with organics nearly as readily as does chlorine. The
reaction products of chlorine and organics (chlorinated organics) are
very toxic to people, and water supply operators elect to use
chloramine to reduce this toxicity.
[xii] Bollyn, Christopher. The Unhealthy Consequences of
Chloraminated Water.
www.americanfreepress.net/html/chloraminated_water.html
[xiii] www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/09/040915111128.htm
[xiv] Sep 2004 www.watertechonline.com/News.asp?
mode=4&N_ID=50190
[xv] www.americanfreepress.net/html/chloraminated_water.html
[xvi] US House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform
Hearing on the District of Columbia's Lead Contamination Experience
Statement of Paul D. Schwartz, National Policy Coordinator, Clean
Water Action
May 21, 2004. www.dcwatch.com/wasa/040521i.htm
[xvii] From April 2 to May 8 of 2004, utility officials switched back
to chlorine, a yearly change intended to rinse bacteria from the
pipes before summer. During that time, officials said yesterday, lead
level test results in homes with lead service lines were 25 percent
to 30 percent lower than they would have predicted.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43649-2004May20.html
[xviii] www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7094-
2004Oct4.html
[xix] The weed killer atrazine affects the levels of a number of
hormones needed for normal development and function of the
reproductive system, including estrogen, prolactin, luteinizing
hormone, and follicle stimulating hormone. Atrazine has been linked
to sexual malformations in frogs that were exposed to water
containing just 1/30th as much atrazine
as the EPA regards as safe in human drinking water. Sanders, Robert.
Popular weed killer atrazine feminizes native frogs across Midwest,
could be impacting amphibian populations worldwide 30 October 2002.
University of Berkely.
www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/10/30_frogs.html
[xx] Nitrate in drinking water is also associated with increased risk
for bladder cancer, according to a University of Iowa (UI) study that
looked at cancer incidence among nearly 22,000 Iowa women. The study
results suggest that even low-level exposure to nitrates over many
years could cause increases in certain types of cancer, said Peter
Weyer, Ph.D., associate director of the UI Center for Health Effects
of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC) and one of the study's lead
authors. The study was published in the May 2001 issue of the journal
Epidemiology. "From a public health perspective, source water
protection is a main concern. Sources of nitrate which can impact
water supplies include fertilizers, human waste, and animal waste,"
Weyer said. "All of us, rural and urban residents alike, need to be
more aware of how what we do as individuals can impact our water
sources and, potentially, our health."
www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/OT/FA03/News_Notes.html
[xxi] New York Times September 11, 2001
[xxii] Perchlorate is an oxidizing agent used in rocket fuel,
fireworks, munitions and other explosives. Leaks and spills at
manufacturing plants over the past 50 years have contaminated water
supplies in at least 35 states, the lower Colorado River and several
groundwater basins in the Inland area.
www.epa.gov/safewater/ccl/perchlorate/perchlorate.html
[xxiii] Environmental Working Group: Perchlorate, the explosive main
ingredient of rocket and missile fuel, contaminates drinking water
supplies, groundwater or soil in hundreds of locations in at least 43
states Well over 20 million people drink water from public and
private sources known to be polluted with perchlorate. This estimate
includes millions of customers of 81 contaminated public water
systems in California and aproximately 20 million customers in the
three states who get at least part of their drinking water from the
perchlorate-tainted Colorado River.
www.ewg.org/reports/rocketwater/
[xxiv] www.gilroydispatch.com/news/contentview.asp?c=146576
[xxv] Masters RD, Coplan MJ, Hone BT, Dykes JE. Association of
silicofluoride treated water with elevated blood lead.
Neurotoxicology. 2000 Dec;21(6):1091-100.
[xxvi] Connett, Paul. Fifty Reasons to oppose Fluoridation. Medical
Veritas Journal of Medicine. Doi: 10.1588/medver.2004.01.00014