Drinking Water Safety: How Vulnerable Is Your Water Supply?

Water covers over two-thirds of the earths surface, but 97% of it is undrinkable salty sea water. Most of the 3% which is fresh water is trapped in glaciers and polar ice caps. This leaves 1% for over six billion human beings to survive on. But not just us. Every living creature from mosquitos to elephants are eyeballing that 1% too. Microbes along with human and animal waste contaminate many streams, rivers and lakes. The result? Over a billion people do not get enough clean drinking water. More people die of dehydration each year than from cancer and AIDS.

According to a New York Times article dated June 2, 1995, "More that 1 in 5 Americans drink tap water polluted with feces, radiation or other contaminates...nearly 1000 deaths each year, and at least 400,000 cases of waterborne illness may be attributed to contaminated water." This should be a wake-up call to those concerned about their health--especially those with families. This report was 14 years ago! And, conditions have not improved. Indeed, they have steadily grown worse. There are over 70,000 chemicals now in use and with the introduction of approximately 1000 more each year, drinking water contamination is rising at epidemic proportions.

Furthermore, according to a recent article in the International Science Journal, "there is a correlation between contaminated water consumption and Alzheimers Disease." According to the article, a private Australian research group reported that "the widespread use of aluminum salts to purify water may lead to brain damage and may account for large scale memory experienced by people suffering from Alzheimers Disease."

Using aluminum to purify water may be even more life threatening than the use of fluoride and chlorine in our water. As if this were not bad enough, many believe that the problem is actually worsened by the action of fluoride in facilitating the absorption of aluminum!

The contamination of our water supply is not going to just "go away" without a concerted effort on the part of government and the public to correct the problem. Unfortunately, there are no easy fixes to the problem, so the problem continues to expand at an exponential rate. Indeed, many believe, and justifiably so, that chemically contaminated water is the worlds single greatest environmental threat.

We all need to get involved in fixing the problem. This can be accomplish in many ways, at many levels--politically, socially, etc. However, the best and most pragmatic solution for the time being is to simply filter our own water. It's as simple as that. To take responsibility on a personal level. The only way to effectively know that our drinking water is safe is by personally assuring that it s...the only way to assure that is is safe is by filtering it with your own filtering system.

There are many ways of filtering water: charcoal filtering systems, reverse osmosis, distilling, filtration with colloidal silver. Which ones are best? Which take the least amount of maintenance? Which ones are more cost effective? Which ones remove the most contaminants?

These and other questions need to be considered for each person and for each personal situation. However, the most important single thing to do, is to take action. Every day that you are drinking tap water or other contaminated water, is another day where you could be at risk at contracting a serious, and life threatening disease---from your water!