News Letters

There Must Be Something In The Water


Indeed, but what exactly is in our drinking water?   December 2019

Tap water has come under a lot of scrutiny in the last few decades, for good reason. The addition of fluoride and chlorine to our water supply has created many health problems, along with over 2,100 other contaminants found in the public water supply.
Even though we were told that fluoride has a beneficial effect on our teeth and bones, there has been research that has indicated quite the opposite. Fluoride has actually been linked to increased cavities and bone fractures, behavioral problems, cancer, thyroid problems, and lowered IQ.
For these reasons, it's advisable to stay completely away from unfiltered tap water.
(Reprinted from Natural News, Nov. 18, 2014, by Derek Henry)

I first learned about our polluted water supply in the mid-1980s and early 1990s when I sold a variety of carbon water filters. In order to understand why folks needed a water filter, I did research on drinking water contamination. Time Magazine had done an extensive research story on the subject as well as other national publications. Sadly after all these years, the problem has not improved instead it has gotten worse.

The problem is almost no one really talks about it (except for the Flint, Michigan water debacle). And that is that our municipal drinking water nationwide- even worldwide in most industrialized countries deliver serious contamination every hour of the day and night and most water filters do little to correct the problem and almost none of us know how to test our drinking water to determine its purity.

This is further complicated by beneficial trace minerals in drinking water. So, how does a consumer determine good and beneficial trace minerals in water from the bad chemicals and excessive minerals. Simply put, without expensive equipment it is not possible to determine what is beneficial and what is not in the water. We, as consumers have to decide what to drink based on general information.

Damaging and undesirable contaminants come from:

• agriculture, hormones from cattle and dairy cow feces and urine, as well as runoff from petroleum-based pesticides and herbicides such as Roundup, soak into the soil and leach into our aquifers and water supplies.

• septic systems, sewer systems, used and excreted prescription drugs and antibiotics. And estrogen from consumed and evacuated Birth Control pills, etc.

• industry, industrial acids, and toxic waste.

• mining, heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.

Since the end of World War II, the new and improved poison chemicals have been sold and used by farmers, ranchers, and home gardeners to improve their annual yield. And new miracle drugs were developed and sold to medical patients as well as birth control tablets that were sold to women during their childbearing years. New chemicals for industry production were developed and used for improved profits. Many of these chemicals were flushed into the water system after use. All the while mining has used water to wash its waste and metals. Once in the soil, most of these chemicals and metals continue to collect and contaminate our water resources. The beneficial trace minerals are mixed with undesirable and damaging chemicals, drugs and other metals.

Here are stats from my own recent observations. ppm refers to the total dissolved solids (contaminants) to parts per million water molecules:

0 ppm- Distilled water

0 – 3 ppm- Melted fresh snow or fresh rainwater

6 ppm- filtered water using Reverse Osmosis filter

196 ppm- purified bottled water

200 ppm- bottled artesian water

320 ppm- filtered municipal tap water using counter-top Brita carbon filter

390 ppm- unfiltered municipal tap water

To illustrate what ppm means consider that colloidal silver, sold in health food stores and made from pure silver (a heavy metal), is a natural antibiotic. I have used colloidal silver for nearly 30 years and have produced and distributed it for over 20 years.

Colloidal silver kills staph, strep, the plague, eye infections, etc. and over 650 other pathogens.

At 3 - 10 ppm in distilled water, taken internally or used topically, it fights infections and kills bacteria. At 15 -25 ppm it is useful on some skin cancer treatments. More than 25 ppm and colloidal silver begins to become toxic and should only be used topically.

Every municipality or water source will produce different ppm results, but it is safe to say the contaminants will be high. Nor is some bottled water clean or pure as advertised. Some studies have found that some brands of bottled waters are nothing more than bottled municipal tap water.

Rainwater or melted snow can have varying results as well depending on the air quality where you live or collect it.

My results were measured using a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter.

TDS meters are small and easy to use stick meters with a small window that gives the ppm reading. They are available nearly everywhere and can be purchased from Walmart for $7-10 dollars. Should a TDS meter be a necessary accessory in every household in North America?

 In the end, it is up to each of us to choose which level of water purity we would like to drink. 

Richard is certified in Integrative Health Fundamentals