It’s estimated 60% to 80% of all cancers are environmental in origin. Several studies have demonstrated the presence of chemical carcinogens in surface, ground water, and municipal treated drinking water.

However, often overlooked are the beneficial properties in drinking water that can help protect us from cancer – namely total dissolved solids (TDS), hardness, and pH.

Drinking water with higher amounts of TDS and hardness results in lower heart disease and cancer mortality rates.

Fluoridation is a highly emotional and controversial issue in which it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. The bottom line: Is it effective and is it safe?

Genetic damage in animals and plants has often been linkded with fluoride toxicity, congenital defects in humans and in addition to this a series of allergic reactions ranging from fatigue, urinary tract irritations, headaches, diarrhea can manifest due to polluted water.

Dr. Dean Burk, former researcher with the National Cancer Institute, claims that one tenth of all cancer deaths in this country can be shown to be linked to fluoridation of public drinking water.

Worldwide there is very little fluoridation. Countries that start usually end up stopping it. Is the chlorine in our drinking water acting as a catalyst triggering tumor development both in atherosclerosis (heart disease) and cancer? In the late 1960s Joseph Price, MD, wrote a fascinating, yet largely ignored book entitled “Coronaries, Cholesterol, Chlorine.”

His experiments clearly demonstrate that the basic cause of atherosclerosis and heart attacks and most common forms of strokes is chlorine. The chlorine contained in drinking water. Can chlorine be linked to cancer too? Chlorine combines with natural organic matter creating cancer-causing trihalomethanes (THMs).

Studies from Louisiana, New York, Maryland, and Ohio reveal where there are higher levels of THMs there are higher levels of cancer. Proper water filtration systems can remove these carcinogens.

Bottled water is big business. Bottled water usually tastes better than what comes out of the tap. But is it “healthy water?” It depends on several factors.

Is it hard? Is it moderately high in TDS (total dissolved solids)? Most bottled waters in the United States do not give the information you need to answer these questions. Many bottled waters are processed water using distillation, reverse osmosis, de-ionization or filtration. Frankly, you can do this yourself and save money.

Of the more than 700 brands of bottled water available in the US, around 80% are processed water.

Purchase only bottled natural spring or artesian well waters that come closest to the healthy water criteria hardness 170 mg/l and TDS around 300 mg/l.

Another healthy water option is using an effective filter. Mediocre, excellent, and poor filters are easily available out in the market. Most states require 3rd party testing of water products; however, most people have difficulty understanding the results.

Preliminary research suggests that the ingestion of harmful chemicals from drinking water may not be the primary exposure.

Skin absorption rates for toxic chemicals in both children and adults are much higher than from oral ingestion for toluene, ethyl benzene, and styrene.

Inhalation during showering of TCE (trichloroethylene) was 6 to 80 times greater than from drinking the water. People who are fond of hot tubs and pools take note.

One solution to consider is a whole-house filtration system for chemical removal, not mineral extraction. Point of use filters for bathing, showering, and drinking are also recommended.

What Makes Healthy Water? is from Good Health Weekly

Do you want to live in a way that protects the future of our children? Do you wish to live in the greenest world possible with a conscience, respect and appreciation for the environment?

Many Americans have a strong sense of environmental and social responsibility. We try to make environmentally well advised choices in many aspects of our daily living, yet we ignore one of the major contributors to the endangered state of the planet.

Worldwide in excess of one billion people do not have an uncontaminated source of clean drinking water, this is in excess of 1/6 of the world population, however, as Americans, spend billions of dollars yearly for the convenience of drinking from a plastic bottle instead of a water tap. We should be ashamed.

1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water every year. It takes in excess of 25 times the amount of water to make each plastic bottle than the bottle contains. 300 million gallons of bottled water are imported to the United States yearly.

Often, in America bottled water is simply an indulgence. Despite our rationalizations, it is not a harmless indulgence. Bottled water is an environmental disaster. Thirty years ago bottled water hardly survived as a business in the United States. We Americans now spend more on “designer” bottled water than we spend on iPods or movie tickets – $15 billion in 2007. The expected United States expenditure for bottled water will be $16 billion a year before the end of the decade.

As a country we consume more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water per year. Bottled water is the fastest growing beverage industry in the world, worth up to $22 billion a year. Less than 15% of plastic bottles are recycled, the rest end up in the refuse systems and cost America’s cities over 70 million per year to handle clean up and landfill expenditures. America yearly produces in excess of 800,000 tons of plastic bottle pollution that substantially magnifies global warming.

Last year, Americans carelessly tossed out 38 billion plastic water bottles, about $1 billion worth of plastic. That’s an overwhelming waste, especially considering 1.5 million barrels of oil – enough to power 100,000 cars for a year – were used to manufacture these bottles. And that’s not even including the gas and oil required for packing, shipping and delivering this gigantic volume of liquid.

If you are putting money into bottled water, you are basically purchasing plastic, which is manufactured from petroleum. When we buy a bottle of water, what we’re often purchasing is the bottle its self. One of the main problems with bottled water production is the reliance on fossil fuels. From packaging to transportation, bottled water relies on oil, using 17 million barrels of oil and producing massive amounts of carbon dioxide every year.

In the United States alone, we are hauling 1 billion liters of water around a week in trains, trucks, railcars and ships. That adds up to a weekly giant convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers. Water weighs over 8 pounds a gallon. Water is so very heavy you cannot fill an 18 wheeler with bottled water, you have to allow empty space.

There is an simple earth friendly solution. Tap water is considerably less expensive. As an investigative reporter for the NY Times points out, almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands.

Clean and pure drinking water should be public and inexpensive. The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support and funds there will be for investing in developing, maintaining and repairing America’s public water supply. That would be a dreadful loss.

Access to inexpensive, pure water is basic to a nation’s health. In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have a pure or dependable source of drinking water. This means it is easier for the average American in Los Angeles or New York to quench their thirst with refreshing Fiji water than it is for the majority of people in Fiji.

Should you elect to get your suggested eight to ten glasses a day from bottled water, you may spend up to $1,500 or more every year. An equal amount of tap water would cost pennies a day. Recent studies show that many brands of bottled water fail to meet industry guidelines and the cost of even poor quality bottled water can grow quite high.

Much of bottled water is only plain tap water. Many bottled water firms repackage tap water into plastic bottles, then sell them back to the consumer at prices higher than gasoline and increasing just as rapidly. Aquafina, as an example, has finally been pressured into amending its labels to advise consumers that Aquafina water comes from tap water. Why not just drink tap water? More than a quarter of bottled water is just processed tap water.

Plastic containers leach dangerous chemicals. Have you considered why your plastic bottle of water has a warning on the label telling you not to reuse it? The longer you use that bottle, the more likely it is to leach hazarous chemicals into your water.

There is a to solve the dilemma. If you are unsure of your local water supply or wish to easily filter tap water when on the go, carbon-filtered tap water is safer and costs much less than bottled water. As reported by the Environmental Working Group, carbon filtration of tap water will dramatically lower levels of toxic by products; it is also 10 to 20 times less expensive than bottled water, and does not produce the waste and pollution associated with the packaging and transport of bottled water.

A portable water filter is a perfect solution for water filtration on the go. A portable water filter allows anyone to filter their own water, no matter where they travel; across town or around the world. A portable water filter allows you to free yourself from any unpleasant taste, contaminates or additives. while protecting the environment and your pocketbook. Involve the whole family. A five member family will save well over $7,500.00 a year.

Stop being unwitting victims of manipulative advertising. When a entire industry is built up by overwhelming us with a product we do not need, when an entire industry is based on packaging and presentation, not the product, it is worth asking how that happened and what the future impact is upon our precious planet.

Do You Drink Bottled Water? Think Twice Before You Do is from Good Health Weekly