The Free Water Report

by

John Hinds

Table of Contents      www.thebestwateronearth.com

Section One - Why Should I Care?

 Bottled Water……………………………………………………………………………3

Tap Water..………………………………………………………………………………4

10 Reasons Why You Should Drink Purified Water …………………………..… 6

Section Two – Water Purification Methods

Reverse Osmosis..…………………………………………………………………… 7

Distillation……………………………………………………………………………… 7

Filtration .……………………………………………………………………………….8

Section Three – The Types of Filters

Counter Top Water Filter..…………………………………………………………….9

Shower Water Filter…………………………………………………………………...10

Whole House Water Filter.……………………………………………………………11

Section Four  - Conclusion

View, download, or print  the actual consumer confidence report I received from my local water department! You will be shocked to find what I've discovered! To get a copy of the Consumer Confidence Report for your town, please contact your local water department.

Why Should I Care?

Let’s face it. Most people don’t know what’s in their drinking water. If they knew what was in tap water and in bottled water, they would think twice.

But what’s just as bad is that many Americans and people around the world simply don’t drink enough water and this represents a serious health concern.

Cornell University’s Medical Nutrition Information Center conducted a survey in June 2003 where they examined the water and beverage consumption behaviors of more than 3,000 adults in 15 key markets.

Those markets were: Atlanta, Charlotte, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, St. Louis, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tampa.

The participants reported drinking an overall average of 4.6 8-ounce servings of water per day-most health and nutrition experts recommend at least 8 servings per day.

Barbara Levine, M.D, of Cornell University’s Medical Nutrition Information Center stated that,

“The lack of information about proper hydration is worrisome because it's such a elemental requirement for good health. The survey results clearly demonstrate the need for much more public education about the benefits of adequate hydration and the problems even minor dehydration can cause.”

In addition, one of the most significant "snapshot" findings in the study was the combination of beverages the average person drinks everyday.

These results show that while a typical American may consume 7.9 servings of hydrating beverages each day, he or she also drinks 4.9 servings of dehydrating beverages in the same time frame, resulting in a net gain of only three hydrating beverages per day.

This is key because it suggests few Americans realize that hydrating and dehydrating beverages together can "cancel" each other out, the study noted.

Hydrating beverages foster proper retention and use of water in normal, healthy body processes. Tap water, bottled water, juice, milk, and carbonated soda without caffeine are all hydrating beverages.

The most common dehydrating beverages are coffee, tea, carbonated soda with caffeine, beer, wine, and other alcoholic drinks. They are diuretics, meaning they foster fluid output, first in the form of increased urine production. Of course, if dehydration progresses, increasingly serious adverse effects occur, the study noted.

“This study suggests what could be a significant and widespread health concern," said Barbara Levine, M.D.

Among the study's other key findings:

Still, bottled water is generally more popular than tea, beer, wine, milk, or caffeinated sodas.

While inadequate water consumption did not appear to be a major issue for most survey participants, medical research clearly shows that it should be a greater concern. Water content of the human body is remarkably constant, but the complex and intricate biochemical processes to maintain it require regular water replenishment.

Dr. Levine stated that few people realize they need to drink water throughout the day, not just when they feel thirsty. In fact, thirst is actually a signal that some dehydration has begun. Minor dehydration can result in dry skin, headaches, and fatigue, while longer-term, more severe dehydration can dangerously affect blood pressure, circulation, digestion, kidney function, and nearly all body processes, according to the study.

Of the overall water consumption, the study showed that 20 percent of all Americans drank bottled water exclusively, 60 percent drank tap water exclusively, and 16 percent drank both. A surprising 9 percent of respondents reported they drank no water at all on an average day.

Today, more and more people believe that tap water is unhealthy and that the best option available is bottled water. However, what you are about to learn will not only shatter those myths, but provide you with a way to safeguard your health and the health of your family.

Bottled Water

Bottled Water is BIG business! The global consumption of bottled water reached 41 billion gallons in 2004, which includes areas where tap water is safe to drink! According to the International Bottled Water Association, The United States, which is the world’s leading consumer of bottled water, spent over $10 billion dollars in 2006. They project that US sales of bottled water will exceed $45 billion in 6 years.

So, is bottled water really that much better than tap water? Well…

Recent allegations against the Coca-Cola Company and its brand name of bottled water, Dasani, have publicly highlighted one of the biggest misconceptions about the quality of bottled water. Coca-Cola, advertising its bottled water as “pure, still water,” is now being investigated for misleading consumers about the true nature of the contents of its bottles. Rather than deriving its water from natural springs, Coca-Cola had been actually filling its Dasani bottles with purified tap water.

Of course, this problem of reconstituted tap water in Dasani bottles would not be so large if it was an isolated incident. Unfortunately, the process of bottling tap water is not limited to the Coca-Cola Company. In 1999, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published the results of a four-year study in which researchers tested more than 1000 samples of 103 brands of bottled water. These researchers found that,

“An estimated 25 percent or more of bottle water is really just tap water in a bottle – sometimes further treated, sometimes not.”

In one case, a brand of bottled water, advertised as “pure, glacier water,” was found to be taken from a municipal water supply while another brand, flaunted as “spring water,” was pumped from a water source next to a hazardous waste dumping site. While “purified tap water” is arguably safer and purer than untreated tap water (depending on the purification methods), a consumer should expect to receive something more than reconstituted tap water for the exceptional prices of bottled water.

So, if bottled water does not necessarily offer purer water than tap water, surely it provides a better tasting product, right? 

Well, not really. 

Bottled water does not always taste better than tap water.

In an interesting study conducted by Showtime television, the hosts found that 75% of tested New York City residents actually preferred tap water over bottled water in a blind taste test.

While taste is certainly highly subjective, this study shows that bottled water essentially holds nothing over tap water. In many cases, bottled water is no purer than tap water, and it may not even taste better.

Furthermore, bottled water is defined as a “food” under federal regulations, and is under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- under much stricter standards-regulates tap water. 

So, bottled water, depending upon the brand, may actually be less clean and safe than tap water. The EPA mandates that local water treatment plants in the United States and in Puerto Rico to provide city residents with a detailed account of tap water’s source and the results of any testing, including contaminant level violations. Bottled water companies are under no such directives.

Also, while municipal water systems must test for harmful microbiological content in water several times a day, bottled water companies are required to test for these microbes only once a week.

In addition, loopholes in the FDA’s testing policy do not require the same standards for water that is bottled and sold in the same state, meaning that a significant number of bottles have undergone almost no regulation or testing.

Even under the more lax standards of the FDA, bottled water companies do not always comply with standardized contaminant levels.

Alarmingly, the 1999 NRDC study found that 18 of the 103 bottled water brands tested contained, in at least one sample, “more bacteria than allowed under microbiological-purity guidelines.

Also, about one fifth of the brands tested positive for the presence of synthetic chemicals, such as industrial chemicals used in manufacturing plastic like phthalate, a harmful chemical that leaches into bottled water from its plastic container. 

In addition, bottled water companies are not required to test for cryptosporidium, the chlorine-resistant protozoan that infected more than 400,000 Milwaukee residents in 1993. Bottled water companies, because they are not under the same accountability standards as municipal water systems, may provide a significantly lower quality of water than water one typically receives from tap.

Tap Water

Now, some of you may be thinking that you’re better off just drinking tap water. Well, as my friend Lee Corso from ESPN would say,

“Not so fast, my friend!”

The tap water that you get at home comes from Municipal water treatment plants. Water is pumped from wells, rivers, streams, and reservoirs to these plants. The water is then disinfected with chlorine to kill microorganisms.

Anyone who has ever swam in chlorinated water for an extended period of time knows the damaging effects of chlorine on skin and hair. Chlorine can leave skin feeling dry and itchy and leave hair dry, brittle, and prone to dandruff. It can cause or further aggravate rashes and other skin irritations and it leaves eyes feeling sore and itchy.

“Well, John, I am not a swimmer so I am safe, right? “

“WRONG”

The fact is that most municipal water systems in the United States and in Puerto Rico contain chlorine, and depending on the presence of contaminants in the water, levels of chlorine can be quite high.

The use of chlorine in water systems began in the late 19^th century as a way to combat diseases like cholera and typhoid, a task at which it is quite effective. As the levels of such diseases began to drop, municipal water systems began a veritable love affair with chlorine and inserted more and more of it into the water. 

Chlorine is definitely a powerful combatant against many parasites and disease-causing pathogens because of its harsh nature. Chlorine, though, is also a poison. Just as its harshness attacks pathogens and parasites, it attacks delicate body tissues when breathed or absorbed through the skin.

Want proof that chlorine is a health hazard?

Here it is.

"Scientists discovered that chlorine reacted with organic material in water to produce hundreds of chemical by-products, several of which have proved in animal studies to be carcinogenic."  

      U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT - JULY 29, 1991

"The drinking of chlorinated water has finally been officially linked to an increased incidence of colon cancer. An epidemiologist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities completed a study of colon cancer victims and non-cancer patients and concluded that the drinking of chlorinated water for 15 years or more was conducive to a high rate of colon cancer."

      Health Freedom News, January/February 1987

"Long-term drinking of chlorinated water appears to increase a person's risk of developing bladder cancer as much as 80%," according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Some 45,000 Americans are diagnosed every year with bladder cancer.

      St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press, December 17, 1987

“The chlorine problem is similar to that of air pollution. Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times!”

      Dr. Robert Carlson, University of Minnesota researcher

"We are quite convinced, based on this study, that there is an association between cancer and chlorinated water."

      Medical College Of Wisconsin research team

And if that wasn’t enough, here is some more proof.

Dr. Joseph Price wrote 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 attacks 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, 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 received in the poultry industry and is still used as a reference today.

As a result, most large poultry producers use dechlorinated water.

It would be a common sense conclusion that if regular chlorinated tap water is not good enough for the chickens, then it probably is not good enough for us humans!

So, when you take that shower everyday, you are being exposed to chlorine and its by products.

In fact, taking a shower in chlorinated water is the equivalent of drinking 8 cups of chlorinated tap water.  

New Jersey, for example, may have the worst tap water in America. I should know. I live here and I made the mistake of tasting it.

Well, I decided to order a Consumer Confidence Report from my town’s water department. It came as no surprise to find out that my town’s tap water was treated with chlorine.

Unfortunately, municipal water systems are only required to test for the 90 contaminants that the EPA has set standards for.

So, nobody really knows how many toxic chemicals may actually be in tap water!

I know what you’re thinking. How can I get purified water that’s free of chlorine and other contaminants?

We will get to that shortly. But first, here are 10 reasons why you must drink purified water every day.

Water Purification Methods

There is hope for us after all! Fortunately, there are 3 point of use water purification methods used today to purify water from chlorine and other contaminants.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse osmosis was developed as a water purification method more than 40 years ago. The process first arose as a technique of desalinating seawater. Once the method’s decontaminating capabilities were recognized, reverse osmosis systems began to be commercially produced for home water purification purposes. Such systems were installed in homes as early as the 1970’s. Reverse osmosis systems seemed to be a viable option to more costly and energy-wasteful distillation units.

The Process:

The reverse osmosis process depends upon a semi-permeable membrane through which pressurized water is forced. Reverse osmosis, simply stated, is the opposite of the natural osmosis process of water. Osmosis is the name for the tendency of water to migrate from a weaker saline solution to a stronger saline solution, gradually equalizing the saline composition of each solution when a semi-permeable membrane separates the two solutions.

In reverse osmosis, water is forced to move from a stronger saline solution to a weaker solution, again through a semi-permeable membrane. Because molecules of salt are physically larger than water molecules, the membrane blocks the passage of salt particles. The end result is desalinated water on one side of the membrane and a highly concentrated, saline solution of water on the other side. In addition to salt particles, this process will remove a select number of drinking water contaminents, depending upon the physical size of the contaminents. For this reason, reverse osmosis has been touted as an effective drinking water purification method.

Pros and Cons:

Reverse osmosis is a valuable water purification process when mineral-free water is the desired end product. Most mineral constituents of water are physically larger than water molecules. Thus, they are trapped by the semi-permeable membrane and removed from drinking water when filtered through a reverse osmosis system. Such minerals include salt, lead, manganese, iron, and calcium. Reverse osmosis will also remove some chemical components of drinking water, including the dangerous municipal additive fluoride.

Although reverse osmosis does extract several contaminents from drinking water, its removal capabilities are not ideally suited to the challenges of the municipally treated water that the overwhelming majority of people receive. Municipal water contains such contaminents as chlorine and VOCs. Because these contaminents are physically smaller in size than water, the semi-permeable membrane cannot prohibit them from passing through with the water. Therefore, they remain in the drinking water.

Reverse osmosis, also, by removing alkaline mineral constituents of water, produces acidic water. Acidic water can be dangerous to the body system, causing calcium and other essential minerals to be stripped from bones and teeth in order to neutralize its acidity. Trace elements of minerals were intended to be in water; their removal leaves tasteless, unhealthy drinking water.

And who wants to go through the trouble of adding back the trace minerals to the water?

Reverse osmosis, although it is less wasteful than distillation, is still an incredibly inefficient process. On average, the reverse osmosis process wastes three gallons of water for every one gallon of purified water it produces.

Distillation

The process of distillation has been known and used for millennia. Although it has primarily been employed as a method of producing alcoholic beverages like whisky and vodka, distillation also works as a technique of water purification. In the 1970s, distillation was a popular method of home water purification, but its use is now largely confined to science laboratories or printing industries.

The Process:

The distillation process utilizes a heat source to vaporize water. The object of distillation is to separate pure water molecules from contaminants with a higher boiling point and begins to evaporate. The temperature is then kept at a constant. The stable temperature ensures continued water vaporization, but prohibits drinking water contaminants with a higher boiling point from evaporating.

Next, the evaporated water is captured and guided through a system of tubes to another container. Finally, removed from the heat source, the steam condenses back into its original liquid form. Contaminants having a higher boiling point than water remain in the original container. This process removes most minerals, most bacteria and viruses, and any chemicals that have a higher boiling point than water from drinking water. For this reason, distillation is sometimes valued as a method of obtaining pure drinking water.

Pros and Cons:

Distillation, similarly to reverse osmosis, provides mineral-free water to the be used in science laboratories or for printing purposes, as both functions require mineral-free water. It removes heavy metal materials like lead, arsenic, and mercury from water and hardening agents like calcium and phosphorous. Distillation is often used as the preferred water purification method in developing nations, or areas where the risk of waterborne disease is high, due to its unique capabilities to remove bacteria and viruses from drinking water.

Distillation has several qualities that make it undesirable for the purification of municipally treated water, especially when compared to the decontamination capacities of water filters. Although distillation processes remove mineral and bacterial drinking water contaminents, they do not remove chlorine, chlorine by products, or VOCs. These chemicals are the major contaminents of municipally treated water. Most dangerous metals and bacteria are removed from water prior to its arrival at a home’s plumbing system. Thus, a distillation system, targeted at the removal of these contaminents, is unnecessary and irrelevant for most people.

Distillation, like reverse osmosis, provides mineral-free water that can be quite dangerous to the body’s system when ingested, due to its acidity. Acidic drinking water strips bones and teeth of valuable and essential mineral constituents.

Furthermore, distillation is an incredibly wasteful process. Typically, 80% of the water is discarded with the contaminents, leaving only one gallon of purified water for every five gallons treated.

Filtration

Water filters have a long history as a method of water purification, beginning as early 2000 b.c.e. in Egypt. Filtration has evolved from the simple Hippocratic sleeve of ancient Greece, made from cloth, to the complicated solid block carbon and multimedia water filters currently on the market. Water filtration is now the premier method of water purification, removing more water contaminants, more efficiently, than any other technique.

The Process:

The filtration process involves some type of filter media, over which water follows. This filter media blocks passage of contaminants through physical obstruction, chemical adsorption, or a combination of both processes. Material construction of the filter media varies widely, but the most effective medias are made from carbon or a combination of carbon with other elements. Modern filtration technology allows water filters to remove more and more contaminants through the chemical process of adsorption. 

In the adsorption process, contaminants are encouraged to break their bond with water molecules and chemically adhere to the filter media. Generally, water goes through several stages of filtration to ensure that each filter media will remove the ultimate number of contaminants. Water normally passes through a water filter at a relatively low speed, in order to ensure adequate contact time with the filter media. Once the water has passed through the required stages of filtration, it emerges as pure drinking water, free from contamination.

Pros and Cons:

Unlike reverse osmosis and distillation process, water filters are not limited in the type or size of contaminents they can remove. Thus, water filters are able to remove far more contaminants than any other purification method. Also, because they use the chemical adsorption process, water filters can selectively retain healthy trace minerals in drinking water.

Filtration is the only one of the three water purification methods that is capable of removing chlorine, chlorine byproducts, and VOCs from drinking water. Chlorine and VOCs are the most dangerous and threatening contaminants of municipally treated drinking water. Besides the removal of these dangerous chemicals, water filters also extract from drinking water the chlorine-resistant protozoa giardia and cryptosporidium. These protozoa have plagued the water treatment industry for several decades and have caused a number of epidemics of severe gastrointestinal disease, contracted through drinking contaminated water.

Water filters, because they do no require the costly energy resources of reverse osmosis and distillation, provide a source of relatively inexpensive, purified water. Also water filters waste very little water, as compared to reverse osmosis and distillation systems.

Depending upon the type of filter used, water filtration may be a less than ideal form of water purification. For example, granular filters do not utilize the chemical adsorption process, allowing several contaminants to pass through the filter media.

Likewise, rapid water filters allow water inadequate contact time with the filter media, limiting the number of contaminants that may be removed. Solid block carbon filters solve both of these problems by using both adsorptive and slow filtration processes.

A solid block carbon water filter is absolutely the best water filter available.

The Types of Water Filters

Counter Top Water Filter

A counter top water filter is a device that can be attached to your kitchen sink that will allow you to safely drink and cook with water that’s straight from the tap!

Below are some reasons why you should use a counter top water filter.

Now, here are some of the many benefits of using a counter top water filter.

Shower Water Filter

A shower water filter is a device that can be installed to your showerhead in your bathtub to remove harmful substances from your shower water.

Below are some reasons why you should have a shower filter in your home.

Here are the benefits of having a shower filter in your home:

Whole House Water Filter

A whole house water filter is device that filters all of the water that enters your home.

A whole house water filter is the ideal filter to have in your home and here’s why:

There are many benefits to using a Whole House Filter. They include:

Conclusion

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 1 out of 2 men will develop cancer in their lifetime. For women, the odds are about 1 out of every 3.
 
By removing chlorine from your tap water with a Whole House Water Filter System, you will have reduced
your chances of developing cancer by 93%. ( Source - U. S. Council of Environmental Quality)

Not only that, you will have made a 93% reduction in your chances of being required to spend thousands of dollars
on Chemotherapy.  According to about.com, the cost of chemotherapy medication could cost up to $16, per pill!
 
So, if you were to undergo chemotherapy for just one year, taking three pills per day, at a cost of $16 per pill, you would
have spent $17,520.  Plus, that doesn't include the cost of hospital visits and other treatment, which as you know, aren't free.
 
And if you have health insurance, don't expect them to pay for 100% of those costs.  Most health insurance companies are in the business of trying to avoid paying your
claims by any means necessary.

I hope you found this information to be both helpful and informative. If you did, please click on the "Tell A Friend About Us" button at the top of this page to spread the
word to your family and friends. Their livelihood depends on it.
 
The livelihood of our environment depends on it as well. According to the Earth Policy Institute, 86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States becomes garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic by products such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Plus, buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade!
 
In fact, some major cities in America have already taken measures to reduce plastic bottles. Chicago has proposed a 10 – cent tax to bottled water. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City have asked city employees to stop using bottled water or have banned it from city spending. They are realizing that the use of plastic and the shipping required to transport the water just isn’t worth the negative environmental side effects.
 

To learn more about how you can own a whole house water filter system, please visit www.thebestwateronearth.com for more information.