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Contamination
U.S.
drinking water contains more than 2100 toxic chemicals that can
cause cancer.
Ralph Nader Research Institute
The
following report summarizes factual information on tap water quality
and its' affect on human health. For information on "Bottled Water"
quality and the misconceptions surrounding it, refer to the "Lifestyle"
tab above.
Our hope is that you will take a moment and review this valuable
information and consider the facts. We are not trying to scare you,
we are only trying to inform you of the threats to our environemnt
and health that were the driving force behind the formation of our
company. Increased awareness of this serious issue can only benefit
us all.
We also hope that you will review the product information offered
on Aquasana Pure Water Systems, the highest rated home water filtration
products in America. After reading this page you can tour the rest
of our site for additional topics of interest or visit our "Factory
Direct" product catalog for great savings on Aquasana purchases.
Once you have all the facts, the decision is easy. Even if you don't
buy one of our water filters, please buy one, there is no such thing
as a bad water filter. Thank you for coming this far!
The causes
of tap water contamination are many, ranging from agricultural runoff
to improper use of household chemicals and everything in between.
Few of us realize the extent or impact of these low level synthetic
chemicals in the water we use. While the standard use in our society
of over 80,000 different synthetic chemicals has offered added convenience
and productivity in our lives, it has also come at a tremendous
price... drastic increases in degenerative disease.
In the early
1900s, before chlorine, pesticides, herbicides and the tens of thousands
of other chemicals that we are exposed to every day, the average
American had a 1 in 50 chance of getting cancer, today 1 in 3 can
expect to get cancer in their lifetime, 1 in every 2 males.
Our use
of man-made chemicals has become so extreme that we can now find
traces of these low level SOCs (synthetic organic chemicals) in
virtually every public water supply around the world. A recent report
by the Ralph Nader Study Group, after reviewing over 10,000 documents
acquired through the Freedom Of Information Act, confirmed that
"U.S. drinking water contains more than 2100 toxic chemicals
that can cause cancer."
We've learned
that any chemical we use in our society, will eventually wind up
in our water supplies. There is no "new" water! Our planet re-uses
the same water over and over. And as our use of SOCs increases,
so does the toxicity of our water. Earth's natural filtration process
is not effective at removing these toxic SOCs... nor is municipal
water treatment. Industry, agriculture and individuals... all contribute
to the problem. Many of the contaminants found in water can be traced
back to improper or excessive use of ordinary compounds like lawn
chemicals, gasoline, drycleaning solvents and cleaning products.
Once
we realize that everything that goes down the drain, on our lawns,
on our agricultural fields or into the environment by any means...
eventually winds up in the water we drink, we begin to see just
how vunerable our water supplies really are.
Our municipal
water treatment facilities do not remove SOCs and
typically only consist of sand bed filtration and disinfection,
much like a standard swimming pool filter. For the most part, todayÎs
water treatment facilities are much the same as they were at the
turn of the century, filter out the visable particles and add bleach!
"Drinking
water plants are old and out of date, and water supplies are increasingly
threatened by and contaminated by chemicals and microorganisms."
Natural Resources Defense Council.
"The
way we guarantee safe drinking water is broken and needs to be fixed."
Carol Browner, U.S. EPA Chief.
One of
AmericaÎs leading authorities on water contamination, Dr. David
Ozonoff of the Boston University Of Public Health states, "the
risk of disease associated with public drinking water has passed
from the theoretical to the real."
Many
illnesses that in the past could not be linked to a probable cause
have now been linked to toxins in our drinking water.
"While
levels of these carcenogens (SOCs) in drinking water are low, it
is precisely these low levels that carcenogenists belive to be responsible
for the majority of human cancers in the U.S."
U.S. Council On Environmental Quality
The
use of pesticides and herbicides has become so excessive that they
are now commonly found in household tap water and bottled
water with alarming frequency.
A 1998 study
of 29 major U.S. cities by the Environmental Working Group found
that all 29 cities had traces of at least one weed killer in the
drinking water. The report titled "Weed Killers By The Glass" went
on to say that "Millions of Americans are routinely exposed to
one or more pesticides in a single glass of tap water."
These first
ever "tap water testings" found two or more pesticides in the drinking
water of 27 of the 29 cities, three or more in 24 cities, four or
more in 21 cities, five or more in 18 cities, six or more in 13
cities and seven or more pesticides in the tap water of 5 major
U.S. cities. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, nine different pesticides
were found in a single glass of tap water!
As a startling
side note, it was reported that in these 29 cities, 45,000 infants
drank formula mixed with tap water containing weed killers and that
"over half of these infants were swallowing 4 to 9 chemicals
in every bottle!"
The
tragic health effects of consuming these highly toxic chemicals
are magnified many times over for small children because their systems
are more sensitive and still developing. Small children also consume
a much larger volume of fluids per pound of body weight and therefore
get a bigger dose, yet none of these factors are considered when
the EPAÎs maximum contaminant levels are set. The National Academy
of Sciences issued a report in 1993 on this subject and stated "children are not little adults"
and their bodies are less developed and simply incapable of detoxifying
certain harmful compounds."
Another
major flaw in the estimated risks of chemicals in our drinking water
is the false assumption that only that one chemical is being consumed.
The regulations are set based on what is assumed safe for a 175
pound adult drinking water with only one chemical present and does
not take into account the combined toxicity of two or more chemicals.
In a 1995
Science Advisory Report to the EPA, it was stated that "when
two or more of these contaminants combine in our water the potency
may be increased by as much as 1000 times!"
It has been
shown that areas with the highest levels of these SOCs in their
water supplies also have the highest incidence of cancer.
Jacquelyn
Warren of the Natural Resources Defense Council commented on this
subject, "The one thing we know for sure about toxins in our
drinking water is that the more we look the more we find."
Learn
the facts about bottled water and home water filtration, which is
best?
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