Drinking Water; what's in it, & what to do in a Boil Alert (part 1)

There appears to be more than just water in our water supply. Everything from pharmaceuticals, to poisons metals, to deadly chemicals. What's in your water supply? Check here. To the right, on the linked page, is a box asking for your zip. Fill in the appropriate blanks to find out what is in your water supply.

It's amazing to find out what you're taking a shower in, or cooking your pasta...You can always use a water filter. As long as you regularly keep the filter changed, your run-of-the-mill activated carbon filter (think Brita) filter will get rid of or reduce lots of those pesky additions like: Bad tastes and odors, including chlorine. A standard 53-certified filters also can substantially reduce many hazardous contaminants, including heavy metals such as copper, lead and mercury; disinfection byproducts; parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium; pesticides; radon; and volatile organic chemicals such as methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE), dichlorobenzene and trichloroethylene (TCE)
In my next post I'll give a break down which water filters can protect you the best, because they're not all the same.

But if you ever find yourself in a "Boil Alert" or "Boil Water Alert Advisory", those filters wont work. Boiling water from 3-5 minutes is your only sure bet to kill off any harmful bacteria like the Cryptosporidium. This nasty critter is the cause of most water born illnesses. Some filters remove them, but boiling water is the only sure way to protect yourself from this bugger. But boiling doesn't take out harmful metals or toxins. You would then need to send your boiled water through an appropriate filter.
I have an ultra high sensitivity to the taste of water. The only water I have ever tasted, that did not taste funny, is Fiji Water. It is especially easy to taste the 'funniness' of water is when it's warm.

But during a Boil Alert, it's good to realize all the water coming out of the pipes, is contaminated.

• Meaning: Ice cubes, filtered (disinfected) water, foods washed in this water. Be sure to throw out the ice cubes you have, even if they were made before the Boil Alert, because all you need is one cube to make you sick.
  
• Plus, do not let the water touch your skin; so don't wash your hands in it, clean your clothes, wash the dishes, or take a shower.

So until the Advisory is lifted, use plastic utensils and paper plates. And lots of hand sanitizer and baby wipes. Baby wipes are great, by the way, they clean and disinfect, and they're safe to use on your face. Cryptosporidium is not killed by alcohol gels and hand sanitizers. Soap and disinfected water are specifically recommended for preventing cryptosporidiosis. But you must wash your hands with uncontaminated water.
Although chemicals (e.g., bleach) are sometimes used for disinfecting small volumes of drinking water for household use, Cryptosporidium is poorly inactivated by chlorine or iodine disinfection. Cryptosporidium can be removed from water by filtering through a reverse osmosis filter, an "absolute one micron" filter, or a filter certified to remove Cryptosporidium under NSF International Standard #53 or #58 for either "cyst removal" or "cyst reduction." However, unlike boiling or distilling, filtering as just described will not eliminate other potential disease-causing microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses. Ultraviolet light treatment of water is not effective against Cryptosporidium at normally-used levels.

Links to official sites:
EPA
CDC

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Water Facts

1. Roughly 70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water.
2. At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.
3. A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
4. Drinking too much water too quickly can lead to water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when water dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes an imbalance of water in the brain. Water intoxication is most likely to occur during periods of intense athletic performance.
5. The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat.
6. Soft drinks, coffee, and tea, while made up almost entirely of water, also contain caffeine. Caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, preventing water from traveling to necessary locations in the body.
7. By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.
8. Somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water.
9. Much more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth’s surface.
10. The earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today.
11. Water freezes at zero degrees Celcius (32 degrees Farenheit).
12. Water vaporizes at a hundred degrees Celcius (212 degrees Farenheit).
13. Water is the only substance that is found naturally on earth in three forms: liquid, gas, solid.
    
14. The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water.
15. In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
16. Groundwater can take a human lifetime just to traverse a mile.Over 90% of the world's supply of fresh water is located in Antarctica.
17. Less than 1% of the water supply on earth can be used as drinking water.
    
18. Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all of humanity’s needs — all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs.
19. Water regulates the Earth’s temperature. It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes.
20. 75% of the human brain is water and 75% of a living tree is water.
21. A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
22. Water is part of a deeply interconnected system. What we pour on the ground ends up in our water, and what we spew into the sky ends up in our water.
23. Water expands by 9% when it freezes. Frozen water (ice) is lighter than water, which is why ice floats in water.

Articles to read:

Drugs in Our Drinking Water?
U.S. Must Rethink Policies on Water Supply
Pharmaceuticals in Our Water Supply Are Causing Bizarre Mutations to Wildlife
What the Frack is in That Water?

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