We are all very familiar with people’s reaction against the established methods for producing food, drinks and everyday use products when they see these as unsafe or dangerous to health. The obvious reaction is to protect ourselves by looking for products that were derived from alternative natural ways. Therefore, quests for alternative natural chemical-free methods ensue.
Untreated Water
People convert to raw, untreated water, due to concern for the quality of tap water and the perceived benefits that drinking untreated water is better for them. They are wary of contaminants, such as traces of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and elements, e.g. lead from plumbing in municipal water. Some worry about additives such as disinfectants in tap water that are there to kill disease-causing microorganisms and fluoride, which is there because it is effective at reducing tooth decay. They may also fear that contaminants from sewage, soil, industry processes and other urban processes are in their water.
‘Unfiltered Fervor: The Rush to Get Off the Water Grid’
An article was published last Sunday in the NY Times entitled ‘Unfiltered Fervor: The Rush to Get Off the Water Grid’. This reported on companies in the US market that sell water which is in its “natural” form. These include Live Water, a company in Oregon and Tourmaline Spring from Maine that have emerged in the recent years to deliver untreated water to the public at quite high prices. They also mention an Arizona company called Zero Mass Water. They install systems that allow customers to collect water directly from the atmosphere around their homes.
Mukhande Singh (formaly Christopher Sanborn) who is the founder of Live Water, tells the NY Times that tap water was “dead” water. “Tap water? You’re drinking toilet water with birth control drugs in them,” he said. “Chloramine, and on top of that they’re putting in fluoride. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it’s a mind-control drug that has no benefit to our dental health”. He is not alone. The movement against tap water, like the movement against vaccines, has brought together unlikely allies from the far left and far right. Conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, founder of the right-wing website Infowars, argue that fluoride is added to water to make people more docile.
Most of us know that regulations are necessary when dealing with food and drinking water. They ensure our food and drink are free from disease-causing bacteria. This includes as E. coli, Vibrio cholerae, viruses, parasites and carcinogenic compounds that can be present in untreated water. Stringent water regulations in the first world are the reason diseases, such as cholera and typhoid, are now uncommon.
The Benefits of Untreated Water
It seems that, like Singh and Jones, many believe that drinking “living” water that organically contains minerals, bacteria, and other “natural” compounds has health benefits. Whereas, they believe, drinking “dead” water from the tap is the opposite. This is despite the magnitude of scientific evidence showing that water treatment is necessary to protect our health. For example, studies by the Natural Resources Defense Council – NRDC have found contaminants in bottled water, including coliforms, arsenic and phthalates. In the case of fluoride, there are CDC water fluoridation data and statistics. This US public health report, and a recent paper, show that fluoride improves dental health. However, there are none showing water-based mind control due to fluoride, as suggested by Singh and Jones.
Regulated Contaminants
It is understandable that many people see tap water as unsafe. There are potentially many ways tap water sources can be in contact with contaminants, when we consider the industrial processes municipal water may be in contact with. However, as shown in the EPA table, there are regulations in place to limit potential contaminants in tap water supplying our homes, schools, hospitals and work places.
The regulated contaminants include:
- Microorganisms (Cryptosporidium, Giardia lamblia, Legionella, viruses, E.coli and other coliforms cloudiness which also indicates if microorganisms are present)
- Disinfectants and their by-products (bromate, chlorite, haloacetic acids, trihalomethanes, chloramines, chlorine and chlorine dioxide)
- Inorganic chemicals (antimony, arsenic, asbestos, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, cyanide, fluoride, lead, mercury, nitrate, nitrite, selenium, and thallium)
- Organic chemicals (acrylamide, alachlor, atrazine, benzene, benzoapyrene-PAHs, carbofuran, carbon tetrachloride, chlordane, chlorobenzene, 2,4-D, dalapon, DBCP, dichlorobenzenes, dichloromethane, dichloropropane, plus 33 other organics)
- Radionuclides (alpha and beta particles, radium 226 and 228, and uranium).
The Dangers Of Untreated Water
Furthermore, natural water can also be contaminated with pollutants from the environment around the source where they originated. “Natural” “live water” is unregulated. Therefore, how can you be sure it does not contain some of the contaminants mentioned above?
I’m sure there are people who would drink untreated unregulated water on a quest for pure chemicals-free water. However, I hope this article will discourage them from doing so. You cannot guarantee “pure water” is free from contaminants, unless it follows stringent regulations and undergoes testing for contaminants in the same way tap water does.
ProEconomy Ltd provides a natural water treatment to control microorganisms like Legionella, Pseudomonas and other pathogens in drinking water. Their Orca copper and silver ionisation system is based on ionisation of the naturally-occurring biocidal elements copper and silver. See how it works in this video.
Link to article in the NY Times.
By guest author, Dr Vera Barbosa (Environmental Scientist specialised in water, soil and air pollution) @barbosavl
