Are you Drinking Toxic Water?

By Dr. Mercola

Drinking pure water every day is a key component of optimal health, yet more than one billion people on Earth do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.

Not only is much of the water for the one billion contaminated with infectious organisms, but more than likely the vast majority of the planet has toxins in their municipal drinking water.

Two of the primary water polluters are large-scale monocrop farms and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),¹ US states with high concentrations of CAFOs report 20 to 30 serious water quality problems each year.

A story in The Blade¹⁴ discusses a new study¹⁵ that suggests many of the world’s lakes are at risk due to farm fertilizer runoff, which feeds harmful blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). Once this algae is established, it’s more difficult to get rid of it than previously thought.

The answer, according to the authors of this study, is better land-use management that addresses fertilizer runoff. Dramatic reductions in fertilizer use are also recommended. Lead author and Dartmouth College biology professor Kathryn Cottingham believes that “aggressive reductions in runoff could yield immediate benefits.”

On a side note, harmful bacteria has been found to linger far longer in sand than in water,¹⁶ so it’s best to avoid beaches in areas where the water is known to be contaminated with sewage. For example, fecal bacteria levels have been found to be anywhere from 10 to 100 times higher in beach sand than in adjacent seawater.

That same year, six towns in Pennsylvania came under boil water advisories after rainfall caused filtering processes to back up.
In Chicago, street work and plumbing repairs have spiked lead levels in drinking water, as the service pipes are made of lead in many areas. As reported by the Chicago Tribune¹⁷ in 2013: “Lead levels exceeded federal standards at all but one of 13 Chicago homes tested where the service line had been physically disturbed between 2005 and 2011…” and “[h]igh levels can be found in tap water for years afterward…raising concerns that other cities with lead pipes could face similar problems.”

Could Water Pollution Put Olympic Competitors at Risk?

In related news, sailors and rowers have been warned about the extreme pollution levels in Rio waters, where the Olympic Games will be held next year. According to reports, pollution levels here are “equivalent to raw sewage.” As noted by Reuters:¹⁸

“Tests commissioned by the Associated Press found levels of disease-causing viruses as much as 1.7 million times the level that would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach.”

Local authorities are said to be taking proactive measures to limit water pollution by closing landfills and increasing water treatment among other things. Whether such measures will be enough to ensure the safety of competitors is unknown, although health risks appear to be downplayed by virtually all parties, including the competitors themselves.

Aquifers Are Being Drained Worldwide

The US is certainly not the only country struggling with diminishing water quality — and quantity. Water pollution is a global concern, and so are dwindling freshwater supplies. As recently reported by Mashable:¹⁹

“Humanity is rapidly depleting a third of the world’s largest groundwater aquifers, with the top three most stressed groundwater basins in the political hotspots of the Middle East, the border region between India and Pakistan, and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa. Making matters worse, researchers say in a pair of new studies,²⁰ we don’t know how much water is left in these massive aquifers…”

As you probably know, California is experiencing a severe drought, and the agricultural sector is draining underground aquifers to the point that the ground is actually sinking by as much as a foot per year in some areas. Disturbingly, we’re using up groundwater much faster than it can be replenished. According to James Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the majority of our global groundwater “are past sustainability tipping points,” which means we’re on our way toward running out of freshwater worldwide.

Famiglietti’s co-author Alexandra Richey notes:

“What happens when a highly stressed aquifer is located in a region with socioeconomic or political tensions that can’t supplement declining water supplies fast enough? We’re trying to raise red flags now to pinpoint where active management today could protect future lives and livelihoods.”

At-Home Water Filtration Is a Must for Clean Pure Water

Since most water sources are now severely polluted, the issue of water filtration and purification couldn’t be more important. If you have well water, it would be prudent to have your water tested for arsenic and other contaminants. If you have public water, you can get local drinking water quality reports from the EPA.²¹ In general, most water supplies contain a number of potentially hazardous contaminants, from fluoride, to drugs, and disinfection byproducts (DBPs), just to name a few.

For this reason, I strongly recommend using a high-quality water filtration system unless you can verify the purity of your water. To be certain you’re getting the purest water you can, filter the water both at the point of entry and at the point of use. This means filtering all the water that comes into the house, and then filtering again at the kitchen sink and shower.

Besides purification, I also believe it’s important to drink living water. Two years ago, I interviewed Dr. Gerald Pollack about his book, The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor. This fourth phase of water is referred to as ”structured water” and is the type of water found in all of your cells. This water is more energized and can help recharge your mitochondria. Water from a deep spring is one excellent source of structured water. The deeper the better, as structured water is created under pressure. There’s a great website called FindaSpring.com²² where you can find a natural spring in your area.

You can also promote structured water through vortexing or cooling it to 39 degrees Fahrenheit. I personally drink vortexed water nearly exclusively as I became a big fan of Viktor Schauberger who did much pioneering work on vortexing about a century ago. Dr. Pollack found that by creating a vortex in a glass of water, you’re putting more energy into it, thereby increasing the structure of the water. According to Dr. Pollack, virtually ANY energy put into the water seems to create or build structured water.

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Sources and References

Are you Drinking Toxic Water?

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