Response to an Article

Tap Water - The Ugly Truth About Tap Water

Veronica O'Dea

The 20th Century lead us to many solutions to water borne disease; chlorine disinfection having helped immensely in this regard. The same time frame left us with an unfortunate plethora of complicated and potentially dangerous combinations of leftover chlorine residuals, sanitizers, pharmaceuticals, organics, pesticides and other chemicals in our water supplies.

An article written by Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard of the AP on 3/10/2008 stated: ... "In a five-month inquiry, AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking-water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky. Denver was among them." ...... "• Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds."

After researching what drugs were found and what remedies could reduce the threat it was discovered that RO membranes such as those utilized in Kinetico’s home water treatment systems have been proven to block molecular compounds having a molecular weight of 100 g/mol or greater. This group includes many of the pharmaceuticals discovered in United States’ drinking water supplies. In addition, a secondary charge-related separation process provided by RO has been shown to repel some contaminants smaller than 100 g/mol.

The discussion on reverse osmosis/ vs. filtered is one that is often misconstrued. Reducing potential hazards in our drinking water is on the mind of many and justifiably so. The following is the "Conclusion" of a paper published by the Water Quality Association's Science Advisory Committee. It may clear up some of the concerns over drinking a safer, higher quality water on a daily basis...

Conclusion

"It has been concluded that the consumption of low TDS water, naturally occurring or received from a treatment process, does not result in harmful effects to the human body. This is based on the following points: 1) No public organization with authority over the drinking water quality anywhere in the world has enacted or even proposed a minimum requirement for total dissolved minerals in drinking water. 2) The human body's own control mechanism (homeostasis) regulates the mineral content of the body fluids and the discharge of different types of ions from the body of normal, healthy individuals whether drinking low or high mineral content. 3) Several types of scientific literature searches have found no harmful effects to the human body attributable to the consumption of low TDS water. 4) Many examples of real-world situations exist in which large populations have been and continue to be provided with exclusively low TDS water without and reported unusual or ill health effects, establishes the safety of consuming such waters by human beings."

A link to the entire paper is:

http://www.wqa.org/pdf/Consumer%20Briefs/LowTDS.pdf

We know that trace minerals can be important to our health, however, I personally prefer to reduce by up to 95%, most of the potential hazards from my drinking water through the use of a Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System and depend on a healthy diet and supplement regimen for the nutritional health of my family.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on such an important topic as Water and our Health.

Sincerely,

John L Rickert
Certified Water Specialist, VI
President
Colorado Water Quality Association

www.kineticodenver.com

PS: I feel this is an important enough topic that either a retraction or a correction should be published regarding the original article from: http://www.triplecrownnewsletters.com/member/story.php?id=6136#post
I am available for further discussion and/or clarifications at 303-934-8101.