Southern Ontario's drinking water contain drugs like pain killers and personal care products

It seems like just yesterday that I broached the topic of toxins in our water supply. Apparently, a new study led by University of Waterloo biology professor Mark Servos states that there are traces of personal-care products, painkillers and other drugs found in the drinking water of 15 southern Ontario municipalities. Pharmaceuticals drugs and antibacterial agents like triclosan were found in trace amounts.

Reasons cited include:

• Antibiotics leaching into the water from livestock manure.
• People dumping medications down the toilet.
• Drugs excreted into the toilet after ingestion by the public.

Sewage treatment plants are good at removing things like bacteria, but were never designed to get rid of compounds such as drugs. Hopefully governments will implement newer technologies to filter out these other toxins.

What can we do in the mean time?
We need to realize that everything is connected in our environment. That's why it's important to use environmentally safe products (ie. cleaning agents) when we can do so. Such steps are not difficult for the average consumer as these products are readily gotten at your local grocery stores such as Longos, Loblaws or Dominions nowadays.

Remember to properly dispose of your batteries & computer parts to ensure that toxic compounds such as mercury do no seep into our land and water systems.

The Rexall chain of pharmacies, which includes Pharma Plus, has started a collection program for expired medications. People can now bring their unused drugs to the pharmacies and the medications will be disposed of in an "environmentally friendly" fashion.

Being environmentally responsible does impact your health in a significant way. We're all in this together, so be good to the earth.

More about water & filtration systems

My previous post about the toxins in our water and the accompanying article cited got me to do a little bit of research into water filtration systems. Luckily or perhaps it was the universe giving me what I wanted a la The Secret, a University of Toronto friend of mine doing her PhD brought up the fact that she had just attended a presentation about water. I spent some time looking at the material she had received and most of it is too technical and of no use except for scientists who are doing complex experiments.

However, here's a summary of the good stuff I took from the material. I hope it's of use to some of you and will help you make decisions to benefit the health of you and your family.

Distillation:

• Apparently, this process DOES NOT remove volatile organics from the water. Organic compounds are things like pesticides, herbicides and solvents. So those compounds that vapourize at 100 degrees celsius will still be in the distilled water.
• Steam distillation isn't a viable option for households b/c it's impractical and costly.

Reverse Osmosis:

• This is probably one of the best all around filters, but it's quite inefficient & more costly.
• 40-60% of the water is expelled as "bad" water. This is an unnecesssary waste of water and energy.
• Filters out 95-99% of all inorganic ions. Inorganic ions are positively/negatively charged substances found in the periodic table or a combination. For instance, chlorine, fluorine, sodium, sodium chloride (ie. salt).
• Filters out 99% of all organics greater than 100 daltons in size.
• Filters out 99% of all particles and microorganisms
• Removes endotoxins (don't know what percentage). Endotoxins are toxins released by microbes. Boiling water kills microbes, but has no effect on endotoxins already released.

Activated Carbon:

• Removes chlorine and converts it to chloride. There was no mention of whether fluorine is removed.
• Removes organics like pesticides, herbicides, solvents
• DOES NOT remove bacteria or inorganic compounds

What toxins are in the water you drink? And the best way to remove them.

Ever wonder what kind of toxins are in the tap water you drink? I certainly do and I've tried researching for the best way to filter all these toxins. Steam distillation & reverse osmosis are two systems that can provide you with pure water, but pure water lacks all the good minerals that you tend to find in hard water such as calcium, magnesium, etc... Theoretically, pure water isn't necessarily the best liquid to put into your body either as it distorts the concentrations of minerals to liquids in your cell's environment. There is such a thing as water intoxication, but I'm beginning to think that reverse osmosis water might be the best option we have considering what we're finding in our tap water these days. As long as we're not drinking gallons of pure water without eating foods with the minerals that we need, water intoxication should not be a concern.

Please take the time to read this article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_us/pharmawater_i) from the Associated Press regarding the pharmaceutical drugs found in tap water across the U.S. I have no doubt that this problem affects Canada, Europe and many other countries and cities around the world. I believe that this will become a bigger issue for human health in the coming years.

These days, people are concerned about the foods that they put in their bodies. They don't want to ingest any hormones, antibiotics, pesticides & herbicides, so the shift towards organic foods has become more prominent. But few people have sat down and thought about what's in the water that we drink. We trust that the wells or the city's water purification plants are doing their jobs and are filtering any & all toxins. Maybe it's time that we push for even more stringent standards.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions about water purification systems that they know are effective, I'd love to hear about it.

Proof positive of how our thoughts affect change.

It was my first year in naturopathic medical school when I was introduced to something miraculous. A professor of mine introduced our class to the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto. At first I didn't believe it, his research seemed magical.

We watched a video of Dr. Emoto performing experiments with water and photographing frozen water crystals. His hypothesis was that our thoughts and words can affect change even down to the molecular level. To prove this, he wrote negative words like 'hate' & 'sadness' onto glass containing water. He also wrote positive words like 'love' & 'respect' on other glass containers. After a couple of days, he froze the water and began to take photographs of the water crystals. The result was that water that had been exposed to positive thoughts and words formed beautiful, symmetrical water crystals whereas those exposed to negativity produced shapes that weren't as pleasing to look at. Don't believe me, next time you're at the bookstore, look through his published photograph collection entitled The Message from Water. You too will be astounded. Some of you may have heard of the saying "energy follows thought" and I believe that this is an example of that.

Visit Dr. Emoto's website to learn more about his work and don't forget to check out the 'Water Crystal of the month'. This month's featured word is "courtesy".

http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/entop.html

http://NaturopathicEssentials.com

naturopathic doctor