Articles on Water Treatment and Health

All of the Aquasana range is built with the environment in mind. Made from 100% recyclable plastic, not only are we reducing the amount of wasteful plastics in the world we also campaign for the reduction of single use plastic bottles that have become one of the biggest polluting industries we face today. In the US they produce and discard over 60,000,000 plastic bottles every day!

Billions of dollars are spent on advertising campaigns to give consumers the perception that bottled water comes from pristine mountain springs or pure underground aquifers. The truth is that bottled water is often little more than tap water in a bottle.

The reality of bottled water is that you pay from $1 to $4 a litre for the perception of higher quality, when in fact the quality of bottled water is at best an unknown!

With the Aquasana Water Filter each filter cartridge set can replace over 2000 single serve water bottles.

Cartridge end caps should be recycled and the cartridges themselves can be buried in the garden, as they are a great fertilizer

Quality home water treatment is by far the most economical, the most convenient and the best way to produce truly healthy, great-tasting water. It is also the right choice environmentally!

US drinking water contains more than 2,100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer.
-Ralph Nader Research Institute

The following report summarizes factual information on tap water quality and the effects of tap water on human health. For information on bottled water quality and the misconceptions surrounding it, please click here

The causes of tap water contamination are numerous and range from agricultural runoff to improper use of household chemicals and everything in between. While the standard use in our society of over 75,000 different chemical compounds has offered added convenience and productivity in our lives, it has also come at a tremendous price; drastic increases in degenerative diseases. In the early 1900s, before the prevalence of chlorine, pesticides, herbicides and the tens of thousands of other chemicals that we are exposed to every day, the average person had a 1 in 50 chance of getting cancer, today one out of three people can expect to get cancer in their lifetime.

Our use of man made chemicals has become so extreme that we can now find traces of these low level SOCs (synthetic organic chemicals) in virtually every public water supply around the world. A recent report by the Ralph Nader Study Group, after a review of over 10,000 documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, confirmed that “U.S. drinking water contains more than 2,100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer.” The Federal Council On Environmental Quality reports that “up to two thirds of all cancers may be attributed to these low level toxins.” And that “once contaminated our ground water will remain so for tens of thousands of years.”

Our tendency is to blame it on the big factory up stream and while industry has certainly played its part in our water contamination problems, it is “us” individuals that are most to blame. The majority of the contaminants found in our drinking water can be traced back to improper or excessive use of ordinary compounds like lawn chemicals, gasoline and cleaning products.

Once we realize that everything that goes down the drain, on our lawns, on our agricultural fields or into the environment by any means eventually winds up in the water we drink, we begin to see just how fragile our water supplies really are.

Our municipal water treatment facilities are not designed or effective for removing SOCs and typically consist only of sand bed filtration and disinfection, much like a standard swimming pool filter. For the most part, today’s water treatment facilities are much the same as they were at the turn of the last century: they filter out the visible particles and add bleach!

“Drinking water plants are old and out of date, and water supplies are increasingly threatened by and contaminated by chemicals and microorganisms.” Natural Resources Defense Council.

One of America’s leading authorities on water contamination, Dr. David Ozonoff of the Boston University School of Public Health states, “The risk of disease associated with public drinking water has passed from the theoretical to the real.” Many illnesses that in the past could not be linked to a probable cause have now been linked to toxins in our drinking water.

“Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.”
Albert Schweiter

The use of pesticides and herbicides has become so excessive that they are now commonly found in household tap water and bottled water with alarming frequency.

A 1998 study of 29 major US cities by the Environmental Working Group found that all 29 cities had traces of at least one weed killer in the drinking water. The report titled “Weed Killers by the Glass” went on to say that “millions of Americans are routinely exposed to one or more pesticides in a single glass of tap water.”

These first ever tap water testings found two or more pesticides in the drinking water of 27 of the 29 cities, three or more in 24 cities, four or more in 21 cities, five or more in 18 cities, six or more in 13 cities, and seven or more in the tap water of five major U.S. cities. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, nine different pesticides were found in a single glass of tap water!

As a startling side note, it was reported that in these 29 cities, 45,000 infants drank formula mixed with tap water containing weed killers and that “over half of these infants were swallowing four to nine chemicals in every bottle!”

The tragic health effects of consuming these highly toxic chemicals are magnified many times over for small children because their systems are more sensitive and still developing. Small children also consume a much larger volume of fluids per pound of body weight and therefore get a bigger dose, yet none of these factors are considered when the EPA’s maximum contaminant levels are set. The National Academy of Sciences issued a report in 1993 on this subject, stating “children are not little adults” and their bodies are less developed and simply incapable of detoxifying certain harmful compounds.

Another major flaw in the estimated risks of chemicals in our drinking water is the false assumption that only one chemical is being consumed. The regulations are set based on what is assumed safe for a 175-pound adult drinking water with only one chemical present and do not take into account the combined toxicity of two or more chemicals. In a 1995 Science Advisory Report to the EPA it was stated that “when two or more of these contaminants combine in our water the potency may be increased by as much as 1000 times.” Regardless of the differing opinions it is safe to assume that there is no acceptable level for pesticides and weed killers in our drinking water.

Industrial solvents like TCE and Benzene make their way into our water supplies from literally hundreds of sources. Airports and military bases degrease planes and engine parts with TCE, one of the most concentrated toxins in existence. One teaspoon of TCE will render undrinkable over 250,000 gallons of water and yet thousands of gallons are used in uncopntained applications each day. Perchloretheylene, cyanide and benzene are used in such common industries as dry cleaning, car washes and photo processing, much of which ends up going down someone’s drain and into our water supplies. It has been shown that areas with the highest levels of these carcinogens in their water supplies also have the highest incidence of cancer. Jaqueline warren of the Natural Reseources Defense Council commented on the subject, “The one thing we know for sure about toxins in our drinking water is that the more we look the more we find.”

Cancer extracts a staggering toll from our society. One on every seven people will die from this man made disease. According to the Centre for Disease Control “Death from cancer is increasing more rapidly than is the population” It is now widely accepted that cancer is an environmental disease. The World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute both suggest that most human cancers, perhaps as many as 90% are caused by chemical carcinogens in the environment. This realization is paramount for change because it means that most cancers could be prevented by minimizing or eliminating our exposure to chemical carcinogens.

While the powerful chemical industry argues that the levels of these toxins in the environment are not significant, scientific evidence has shown otherwise. A National Cancer Institute report to the Surgeon General concluded that “no level of exposure to a chemical carcinogen should be considered toxicologically insignificant for man.”

We spend billions of dollars each year seeking a cure for cancer. The disease is merely a result of the real problem, environmental pollution. If we were to direct these billions of dollars and the same intense effort towards curing the problem of pollution instead of learning to live with the result, we would do future generations a great service and we could realistically stop the “cancer epidemic.”

“Lead in drinking water is the #1 environmental health threat to our children.”
US Department of Health and Human Services

Next to chlorine, lead is the most common contaminant found in tap water. The Aquasana Countertop is a patented system that will remove lead from drinking water by replacing the lead ions with potassium ion, using the ion exchange technology. Aquasana water filter range click here

Lead in drinking water usually originates somewhere between the water main in the street and the household tap, so treatment from a central point is not logical or practical. Most lead in drinking water comes from lead lined pipes, lead solder and brass plumbing fixtures inside your home. All chrome-plated brass and brass plumbing fixtures contain 8% to 15% lead. The EPA estimates that 98% of all homes have pipes, fixtures or solder joints in the household plumbing that can leach some level of lead into the tap water.

It has been determined and recognized by the EPA that there is no safe level for lead in drinking water and that any level poses some degree of adverse health effects, especially to small children. Even very low levels of lead can cause reduced IQs, learning disabilities and behavioral problems such as hypertension and reduced attention span in children. Often these effects are life long and irreversible.

Washington D.C., is the city that most recently announced that an aging delivery system has caused a lead contamination nightmare that has been poisoning people for many years. Some residents of the nation’s capital have as much as 400 ppb of lead in their tap water, more than 25 times the legal limit! Lead at this level is extremely detrimental to the health of the entire body and even more so to the bodies and minds of children.

One study, Baltimore MD, showed that children with high blood-lead levels had a significantly higher rate of problem behaviors than children with low blood levels and concluded with “this study lends support to the belief that undue exposure to lead in childhood years may have a pervasive influence on the prevalence of juvenile delinquency.”

In adults, lead in drinking water causes high blood pressure and reduces hemoglobin production necessary for oxygen transport and interferes with normal cellular calcium metabolism. Water-borne lead affects every one in a very tragic and permanent way. Lead exposure is cumulative and long lasting. This toxic metal is stored by the body, primarily in teeth and bones. When the body is under physical stress or deficient in certain minerals, the stored lead is released in varying quantities depending on the individual’s physical state.

Essentially, lead has a very damaging effect on the body’s electrical system, the nervous system. It causes the critical life-giving messages, sent from the brain to every cell and organ in our body, to become distorted. This can result in the onset of a chain of adverse health effects.

It is estimated by the U.S. EPA that lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children and 560,000 cases of hypertension in adults each year in the U.S. alone. Some studies have shown a relationship between exposure to lead and adolescent crime. The effects of lead in drinking water; depression, anxiety, learning disabilities and hypertension are many of the same factors that lead to anti-social behaviour and in some cases violent activities. Studies have shown that the areas in large cities that have the highest levels of lead exposure also have the highest rates of pre-adult crime.

In the first quarter of 1993, the EPA released a first-time report that showed the results of the new “test at the tap” requirements for lead in drinking water. The report documented that in America, 42 states exceeded the legal limits of lead in drinking water and that other states failed to do the required testing. Some areas had lead levels in excess of 450 parts per billion, thirty times the legal limit of 15ppb. The level the EPA has set as the safe level, or MCLG (maximum contaminant level goal) is -0ppb.

THE U.S. EPA has also found that in adult males, better control over lead in drinking water could prevent over 680,000 cases of hypertension, 650 strokes, 880 heart attacks and 670 premature deaths from heart disease in America alone.

In 1991, the U.S. EPA lowered the federal standard for the allowable level of lead in drinking water from 50ppb (parts per billion) to 15ppb. This new standard was an improvement, but according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, was in violation of federal law. The law requires EPA to set Maximum Contaminant Levels based on “health effects”, the allowable level was set to 15ppb after an intense lobbying effort by the water utilities. EPA’s new standard also gave water utilities that were out of compliance up to 20 years to comply.

Essentially, every household with indoor plumbing has some level of lead in the plumbing structure that may represent a health risk. The biggest tragedy of lead contamination from drinking water is that it is completely preventable. By taking a few simple steps, beginning with Point-Of-Use filtration of our drinking water, we can virtually eliminate the crippling effects of lead on our society and most importantly, our children.

The human body is over 72% water. It’s a common sense equation that the quality of the water we drink will have a dramatic impact on our health. The Aquasana Water Systems offer excellence in value & water quality. For more information on the Aquasana range click here

According to the National Water Quality Association, 56% of all people are worried about the quality of municipally treated tap water. This, along with the desire for better tasting drinking water, has fuelled tremendous growth in the bottled water industry. We can all remember, not too long ago, when the bottled water section at the grocery store consisted of a very small allotment of counter space, primarily devoted to a few gallon jugs of distilled water.

Today, bottled water enjoys a major section of the beverage isle and the prestige of being the fastest growing segment of the entire beverage industry, not to mention the most profitable.

The bottled water industry has become the target of some of the largest corporations of the world. Chlorox Bleach Co. (manufacturer of Brita water filters; the world’s No.1 selling water filter), Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola are just a few of the recent entries capitalizing on this highly lucrative market, with Chlorox being the biggest participant in the bottled water business. Pepsi Cola’s “Aquafina” and Coca cola’s “Dasana” almost instantly became each company’s most profitable product!

If we just take a common sense look at the companies controlling this industry, who are certainly not known for their health consciousness, we will begin to understand the misconception that has been created around the quality of bottled water. Millions and millions of dollars are spent each week on advertising campaigns to give the perception thatthesebottled waters come from some pristine mountain spring, when in reality they come from a municipal water system just like your tap does. Both Pepsi’s Aquasana and Coke’s Dasana are bottled at one of many bottling plants across America where municipal water is used as the source, as is the case with many leading brands.

The regulations that govern bottled water only require it to be “as good as” tap water. There are no assurances or requirements that bottled water be of any higher quality than tap, and according to some recent studies, it may often be lower quality.

In March of 1999, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report called “Bottled Water, Pure Drink or Pure Hype?” and petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for improvements in the FDA’s bottled water regulation program. The changes called for would simply require that the FDA’s bottled water rules be “no less stringent” than EPA’s tap water guidelines and “no less protective of public health”.

NRDC’s report points out that as much as 40% of all bottled wateris actually tap water in a bottle. This report also focuses on the fact that 60 to 70% of all bottled water sold in the U.S. is exempt from FDA’s bottled water standards, because the Federal Standards do not apply to water bottled and sold within the same state. Unless the water is transported across state lines, there is no federal regulations that govern its quality. Bottled water companies have used this loophole to avoid complying with basic health standards, such as those that apply to municipally treated tap water. Also, all carbonated or sparkling waters are completely exempt from FDA guidelines that set specific contamination limits.

According to the NRDC study, “even when bottled waters are covered by FDA’s specific bottled water standards, those rules are weaker in many ways than EPA rules that apply to big city tap water.” For instance, if we compare EPA regulations for tap water to FDA’s bottled water rules: (these examples are quotes from the NRDC report)

Bottled water is a multi-billion dollar business! It is the fastest growing segment of the entire beverage industry… and the most profitable.

Millions of dollars are spent each week by water bottlers to give consumers the perception that their water comes from some pristine mountain spring or pure underground aquifer.

The truth is that often bottled water is little more than tap water in a bottle. The Federal regulations that govern the quality of bottled water only apply if it is transported across state lines, and then only require it to be “as good as” tap water, not better. Most bottled water is bottled and sold within the same state to avoid Federal purity standards. There are no assurances or requirements that bottled water be any safer or better than tap water. The U.S. FDA says: “Companies that promote bottled water as being safer than tap water are defrauding the American public.”

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. The report also focuses on the fact that 60-70% of all bottled water is exempt from FDA’s bottled water standards, because it is bottled and sold within the same state. According to the NRDC, “bottled water companies have used this loophole to avoid complying with basic health standards, such as those that apply to municipally treated tap water.”

• City tap water can have no confirmed E.coli or fecal coliform bacteria. FDA bottled water rules include no such prohibition (a certain amount of any type of coliform bacteria is allowed in bottled water).

• City tap water, from surface water, must be filtered and disinfected. In contrast, there are no federal filtration or disinfection requirements for bottled water.

• Most cities using surface water have had to test for Cryptosporidium or Giardia, two common water pathogens, that can cause diarrhea and other intestinal problems, yet bottled water companies do not have to do this.

• City tap water must meet standards for certain important toxic or cancer-causing chemicals, such as phthalate (a chemical that can leach from plastic, including plastic bottles); some in the industry persuaded FDA to exempt bottled water from the regulations regarding these chemicals.

• City water systems must issue annual “right to know” reports, telling consumers what is in their water. Bottlers successfully killed a “right to know” requirement for bottled water.

The Natural Resources Defense Council report concluded that: “Therefore, while much tap water is indeed risky, having compared available data, we conclude that there is no assurance that bottled water is any safer than tap water.” (The NRDC report on bottled water can be found at NRDC.Org)

The reality of bottled water is that people pay from $2 - $3 for a litre for the perception of higher quality, when in fact, the quality of bottled water is at best “unknown”!

Point-of-Use water treatment, with a quality in home water filtration system, is by far the most economical, the most convenient and the most capable of producing the highest quality water.

Removing the chlorine, lead and other contaminants with a quality home water filtration system, at the point of use, just prior to consumption, with a system that is documented to produce chemical free water… is the only way to know for sure about the quality of your water.

“We are quite convinced, based on this study, that there is an association between cancer and chlorinated water.”
Medical College of Wisconsin, Senior Research Team

The addition of chlorine to our water began in the late 1800s and by 1904 was the standard in water treatment, and for the most part remains so today.

We don’t use chlorine because it’s the safest or even the most effective means of disinfection; we use it because it is the cheapest. In spite of all our technological advances, we essentially still pour bleach into our water before we drink it. The long-term effects of using chlorinated water have just recently been recognized.

According to the U.S. Council of Environmental Quality, “Cancer risk among people using chlorinated water is as much as 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine.”

Dr. Joseph Price write a highly controversial book in the late sixties titled “Coronaries/ Cholesterol/ Chlorine” and concluded that “nothing can negate the incontrovertible fact, the basic cause of atherosclerosis and resulting entities such as heart attack and stroke, is chlorine.” Dr. Price later headed up a study using chickens as test subjects, where two groups of several hundred birds were observed throughout their span to maturity. One group was given water with chlorine and the other without. The group raised with chlorine, when autopsied, showed some level of heart or circulatory disease in every specimen, while the group without had no incidence of disease. The group with chlorine under winter conditions, showed outward signs of poor circulation, shivering, drooped feathers and a reduced level of activity. The group without chlorine grew faster, larger and displayed vigorous health. This study was well receipted in the poultry industry and is still used as a reference today. As a result, most large poultry producers use dechlorinated water.

“We are learning the hard way that all the time we thought we were preventing epidemics of one disease, we were creating another. Two decades after the start of chlorinating our drinking water the epidemic of heart trouble and cancer began.”
Dr. Joseph M. Price

There is a lot of well-founded concern about chlorine. When chlorine is added to our water, it combines with other natural compounds to form trihalomethanes (chlorination byproducts), or THMs. These chlorine byproducts trigger the production of free radicals in the body, causing cell damage, and are highly carcinogenic. “Although concentrations of these carcinogens (THMs) are low, it is precisely these low levels that cancer scientists believe are responsible for the majority of human cancers in the United States.” The Environmental Defense Fund. Chlorine is also suspected of contributing to hardening of the arteries, the primary cause of heart disease.

Simply stated, chlorine is a pesticide, as defined by the U.S. EPA, who’s sole purpose is to kill living organisms.

When we consume water containing chlorine, it kills some part of us, destroying cells and tissue inside our body. Dr. Robert Carlson, a highly respected University of Minnesota researcher who’s work is sponsored by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, sums up by claiming, “the chlorine problem is similar to that of air pollution” and adds that “chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times.”

Breast cancer, which now affects one in every eight women in North America, has recently been linked to the accumulation of chlorine compounds in the breast tissue. A study carried out in Hartford Conneticut, the first of it’s kind in North America found that “women with breast cancer have 50% to 60% higher levels of organochlorines (chlorination byproducts) in their breast tissue than women without breast cancer.”

One of the most shocking components to all of these studies is that up to two thirds of our harmful exposure to chlorine is due to inhalation of steam and skin absorption while showering.

A warm shower opens up the pores of the skin and allows for accelerated absorption of chlorine and other chemicals in water. The steam we inhale while showering can contain up to 50 times the level of chemicals than tap water due to the fact that chlorine and most other contaminants vaporize much faster and at a lower temperature than water. Inhalation is a much more harmful means of exposure since the chlorine gas (chloroform) we inhale goes directly into our bloodstream.

When we drink contaminated water, the toxins are partially filtered out by our kidneys and digestive system. Chlorine vapors are known to be a strong irritant to the sensitive tissue and bronchial passages inside our lungs. It was used as a chemical weapon in World War II. The inhalation of chlorine is a suspected cause of asthma and bronchitis, especially in children, which has increased 300% in the last two decades.

“Showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated levels of chloroform in nearly every home because of chlorine in the water.”
Dr. Lance Wallace, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Chlorine in shower water also has a negative cosmetic effect, robbing our skin and hair of moisture and elasticity, resulting in a less vibrant and youthful appearance. Anyone who has ever swam in a chlorinated pool can relate to the harsh effects that chlorine has on skin and hair. What’s surprising is that we commonly find higher levels of chlorine in our tap water than is recommended safe for swimming pools.

Aside from all the health risks related to chlorine in our drinking water, it is the primary cause of bad taste and odour in drinking water. The objectionable taste causes many people to turn to other less healthful beverages like soft drinks, tea or other sweetened drinks. A decreased intake of water, for any reason can only result in a lower degree of health.

The good news is that chlorine is one of the easiest substances to remove from our water. For that reason it logically should serve its purpose of keeping our water free from harmful bacteria and water borne diseases right up to the time of consumption, where it should then be removed by point-of-use filtration.

No-one will argue that chlorine serves an important purpose and that the hazards of doing away with chlorine are greater than or equal to the related health risks. The simple truth is that chlorine is likely here to stay. The idea that we could do away with chlorine represents a very real and serious threat to our health and should be removed in our homes, at the point of use, both from the water we drink and the water we shower in.