SHOP ONLINE NOW
+ Cleaning Cupboard
+ Personal Care
+ Water Filters
+ Organic Food
+ Unique Gifts
+ Vitamin & Supplements
+ Animal Care
+ Amy's Consulting

New! Search All Of My Articles By Topic With Quick and Easy Links

If you like this article, please link to it, instead of copying it. Thank you.

Green Living Now News, Edition Fifteen

1. Is Your Tap Water Safe To Drink?

Are you one of the many Americans who ranked water pollution as the number one environmental problem facing the country in the Harris Poll 2005? If not, you might want to read this…

The good news is that the nation's water utilities are, for the most part (about 90%), meeting the standards set for the regulated water contaminants. In other words, most water utilities are keeping the level of 120 contaminants at, or below, the standards that are set. This does not mean that the water is free of toxic chemicals though; it's just that the levels meet the standards set. (We're talking about contaminants such as: lead, arsenic, cancer causing chlorine byproducts, etc.).

The bad news is that 260 contaminants have been detected, and more than half of those are NOT REGULATED (can be in your drinking water at any level). "More than 140 contaminants with no enforceable safety limits (were) found in the nation's drinking water," according to a December 2005 study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). EWG analyzed of over 22 million tap water quality tests (most of which were required under the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act), over 2 ½ years, across the United States.

What does that mean for your health?

It means that public officials haven't set safety standards for those chemicals, and millions of people across the country drink them every day. The reason that safety standards haven't been set should not be taken as some indication of safety either. Of the 141 unregulated chemicals, 52 are linked to cancer, 41 to reproductive toxicity, 36 to developmental toxicity, and 16 to immune system damage. What are these unregulated chemicals? There's MBTE, the gasoline additive; perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel; over 15 water disinfection by products; 4 industrial plasticizers (phthalates) linked to birth defects and reproductive toxicity; 78 chemicals used in industrial and consumer products; and 20 chemical pollutants from gasoline, coal, and other fuel combustion. New studies are finding pharmaceuticals, hormones, medications, and residues from other consumer products. Not very appetizing, is it?

What's a person to do?

Get a good tap water and shower filter. You could also go the route of a whole house filter, but they are quite expensive, and you have to be careful about what kind of pipes your house or apartment has (you don't want lead pipes, or pipes with lead solder, or plastic PVC pipes carrying the water to your tap.) Whole house filters only filter the water that enters the house. Once the water is in your pipes, unless you have a filter at the tap and shower, you may be picking up other contaminants from the pipes in your dwelling. For example, an older house may have all kinds of muck in the pipes that would not be filtered by a whole house filter.

What Did I do?

Before moving to Vermont and having excellent well water (which was tested and found to be very clean), I used a tap water filter and shower filter that I bought from a wonderful "Mom & Pop" company in Wisconsin. They were the only company that I found that could actually provide me with independent lab test results on their filters. All of the other big name companies felt that it was enough that NSF certified them. I've got nothing against NSF, it's just that I like to see the lab results summary myself and see what contaminants are taken out, at what percent, and for how many gallons. Also, I found out that the water filter company I had chosen exceeded the NSF standards (used them as their testing protocol), and didn't feel it was necessary to pay the big bucks for NSF certification.

Another feature I liked was that the prices were very affordable-a nice benefit to being factory direct instead of a big company with lots of overhead, staff, marketing budgets, etc. Best of all, there was a real person, Barry or Alice, who I could talk to and ask any questions that I wanted to about water filtration. Barry is extremely knowledgeable, and his wife, Alice, is so sweet and helpful. They also "walk their talk" living off the electrical grid with renewable energy to power their home and business in the woods.

The filters are only changed once a year for one, and once every two years for the second one, at only $39 a pop. Plus, if you have extra problems in your water, such as nitrates, e-coli, or fluoride, they've got an extra filter to fix it. The regular counter top and under counter models do remove fluoride, but the results were not the same for each test performed, so Barry didn't want to make the claim that each filter system removed 90% of the fluoride. He's got integrity!

So, what are those lab summary results for the standard under counter or counter top filter with two filtration housings? (They use 3 different labs to confirm the results. This is an abbreviated version).

· Chlorine was removed at 99% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Chloroform was removed at approximately 95% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Lead was removed at 99% for over 1,000 gallons
· Cadmium was removed at 87% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Mercury was removed at 99% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Arsenic was removed at 98% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Chromium VI was removed at 93% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Selenium at 94% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Fluoride at 90% for more than 1,000 gallons
· A number of insecticides and herbicides at 86-99% for more than 1,000 gallons
· Volatile Organic Compounds (Benzene, Trichloroethylene, and more) at 72-95% for more than 1,000 gallons

The filters contain: a prefilter, a redox media filter (redox alone removes 99% of chlorine from over 8.000 gallons of water, as well as dissolved lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, aluminum, and hydrogen sulfide.), activated carbon chamber (absorbs volatile and synthetic organic chemicals, some pesticides, and chemical solvents), a post-filter (which protects the solid carbon block), and a solid carbon block (removes additional chemical solvents, lead, volatile organic compounds, pesticides and herbicides).

There are filters on the market selling for more than $300 that only contain a solid carbon block!

Finally, if you buy a tap water system, you can get a shower filter at the reduced price of $39, instead of the regular $69.

2. Who Should Decide?

I just received two "Oops, you forgot your pet's checkup" cards in the mail, one for my dog, and one for my cat. Funny thing is they both saw the vet this summer. Our darling little cat, Chloe, had broken her leg (it's a long story…and she's as good as new now). And our beloved dog, Diamond, was having some sensitivity with one of his paw pads. Both of them hate to go to the vet's office, it's very stressful for them (and therefore for us).

I had already gotten the "Oops" card a few weeks ago for Diamond and called the Vet's office and spoke with one of the technicians. We discussed the fact that I no longer wanted to give them vaccinations because of the research I've been doing about the dangers versus the perceived benefits. Amazingly this one technician shared my views and wasn't doing them for his dog anymore, except for rabies, which is required by law. After a lengthy and interesting conversation, I assumed that he would make a note on my file, and that would be that. No such luck. I called back after the two new cards arrived and spoke to someone else-a less opened minded someone. I was told that my cat needed a rabies vaccine. That's the first time I heard this one. Apparently it's a state law. After calling around to my town clerk's office (who also wasn't informed of the law), and the state Veterinarian, I learned that it's not an enforceable law, making it more of a recommendation. Dogs, because they are licensed in each town, have to show proof of their rabies vaccine (well, not the dogs actually, their humans have to show the certificate to the town clerk). The rabies vaccine is given to dogs and cats mostly for the benefit of humans, not the animals. Should a dog or cat bite a human, you'll have fewer problems if your animal has been vaccinated against rabies. So, where am I going with this story? It brings up the question of who do you listen to when making health care decisions? Do you listen to the so-called "experts", do you find alternative "experts", do you trust your own instincts, or a combination of these?

Here's another story…my husband was diagnosed with diverticulitis (it runs in his family) this fall. He was immediately put on antibiotics. Then he had a reaction (a "drug fever" they called it) to the antibiotics, stopped taking them, and felt better. A new doctor he met with, after looking at his recent CAT scan, felt that he should go back on a different antibiotic because the CAT scan showed some inflammation in his colon. The interesting thing was my husband felt fine and was having normal bowel functions. I attended the appointment with the new doctor (who I thought was a good guy) but expressed my concern with putting my husband on yet another antibiotic. He seems to have some sensitivity to antibiotics, so wouldn't this be a bad thing? The doctor felt that the perceived benefit was more important. So, he took the new antibiotic. Then after a multitude of blood tests, we learned that his liver enzymes were elevated. This was not a good thing. It showed liver damage. It was determined that at least one of the antibiotics was the cause and he was taken off the antibiotics once again. Then my husband met with a gastroenterologist who felt that the previous doctor had treated the CAT scan and not the patient by prescribing more antibiotics. I felt vindicated, but disappointed that my husband had to take more antibiotics, which kill off both the good and bad bacteria.

I believe that we must trust our own instincts, especially regarding health care. It's important to research, which includes listening to the conventional approaches to health issues, but in the end we are the ones that have to live with the results, not the experts. This extends to anything you may read on my site too. You may be reading along in an article that I wrote and think, "that sounds wacky". If that were the case, I would tell you to disregard that information and trust your own sense of what is right for you. My basic approach to everything is to gather as much information as possible and then make a decision, based on what resonates with me-what my inner voice says is the right course of action.

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petvacc.htm
http://www.wholisticanimal.com/petvaccinations.asp
http://www.mercola.com/2003/apr/2/dog_vaccines.htm
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#plans

3. What's In That New Car Smell?

I can't stand that "new car" smell. It's not just because I assumed it was coming from the breakdown of toxic chemicals used to build the car. The smell makes my eyes tear and my nose burn. Plus, it always reminds me of my grandparent's car, which was always stored in a garage and they never let us open the windows (it would let the air conditioning out…they lived in Florida at the time). I often would get carsick riding from the airport to their house. Yuck!

Well, now there's evidence of the toxicity of that "new car" smell. The toxic chemicals, PBDE's (used as fire retardants) and phthalates (used primarily as plastic softeners) are part of the smell, according to a first-of-it's-kind study by the Ecology Center (www.ecocenter.org). The study found dangerous amount of these chemicals in dust and windshield samples. We're exposed to them by inhaling and touching the dust. The outgassing is made worse by the car sitting in the sun. In fact, the study found that solar exposure raised the chemical breakdown by 5 times over the levels found in homes and offices.

What are the health effects of these chemicals?

"They've been linked to birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, premature births and early puberty in laboratory animals, among other serious health problems", as indicated by the Ecocenter's press release. Both of these chemicals are considered "chemicals of concern" and can be found everywhere, including in women's breast milk.

Luckily there are safer alternatives to these chemicals and some car manufacturers are already using them. For example, Volvo was found to be the least toxic car (too bad I donated my old Volvo to a charity) with the lowest level of phthalates and the second lowest level of PBDE's. Ford says they've removed the PBDE's from "interior components that customers can come in contact with". Honda said that they removed most of the phthalate containing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) in their vehicles. The other manufacturers that were tested included: BMW, Chrysler, GM, Hyundai, Mercedes, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen. I guess we can only assume that the others haven't made much progress in this area yet.

What you can do:

· Get a solar reflector to reduce the heat that is generated in your car by the sun
· Ventilate your car whenever possible (when I got a new car I left the windows open as much as possible, especially in the warmer weather.)
· Try not to park in direct sunlight
· Get a car air purifier (I'm researching these and will report back)

It's free to subscribe to my monthly newsletter.

Sign up for Green Living Expert, Amy Todisco's,
free E-newsletter and you'll receive well-researched,
useful, newsworthy information, and some free surprises,
to help you "green" up your indoor spaces and improve
your life. Your e-mail address will never be shared, rented
or sold. Your privacy is guaranteed.

Sign up for our FREE newsletter now:

Any Questions? Don't hesitate to contact me, Amy Todisco,
Editor in Chief, and Owner of Green Living Now, LLC,
at: amy@greenlivingnow.com