Hidden Toxins in Your Drinking Water?
By John Ulrich
What’s in your water? Is it 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen (H20) or maybe a little sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, or magnesium sulfate (valuable minerals) or how about perchlorate, hexavalent chromium, bisphenol A, chlorine, and atrazine (common toxins in water). Most of us would like to say just plain H2O with a little bit of valuable minerals, but chances are this is not the case! Your brain starts spinning, “What?”, you ask. “If I’m not drinking water, then what am I drinking?”. Well, most likely you get a little added bonus of poisons with every glass or bottle of water. Sounds great, huh? You may think, “well, it hasn’t effected me yet so I’m doing ok.” or “my parents and brother are ok, so my water must be not be laced with toxic chemicals”.
But if you are battling chronic fatigue or disease chances are these toxins are doing more damage than you might imagine. After dealing with the crippling effects of chronic fatigue and the likes I have come to a relatively logical explanation, and I positive that you have thought about this before. Everyone is created differently. Some things (toxins) effect everyone differently and for the fatigued ones, like you and I, they seem to effect us the most. Lucky us, right. We may be unlucky, but we have been given the opportunity to squeeze out impurities in our life and for the better. We must reevaluate what we eat, drink, and expose ourselves to. Each blog post will hopefully give insight to minor details that could potentially be holding us back from optimum health. Through my journey with fatigue I began questions everything in search of an answer. One item that never crossed my mind, however, was my water source until one night I woke up to get a drink of water. That night my taste buds were extremely sensitive. As I drank my midnight water I tasted chlorine. Yuck! It was like pure pool water. This puzzled me because I had just filtered my tap water through a brand new Brita filter. I thought “This can’t be healthy for my body?”. So the quest began.
Water. The essence of life. The building block of our civilization. Without it we would be nothing. In the New World it has become harder and harder to fine pure uncontaminated water. Why is this? Of course like everything here there are many reasons and like always all have logical explanations for rearing their toxic head. We will uncover several toxins and the reason for we find them in our water. We will discover just how vulnerable our water system is and our bodies.
Perchlorate. What is it? How does it make its way into our water? Perchlorate is a chemical salt found in many man made items; rocket fuel, fireworks, flares, explosives, bleach, and some fertilizers. Perchlorate is also a naturally occurring substance. Detectable levels of perchlorate have been found in several states drinking and ground water, most likely from fertilizers and fireworks. It has also been found in cow’s milk which is a result of drinking contaminated water supplies. This substance has been used for many years to treat hyperthyroidism or an overactive thyroid. It is used to inhibit production of hormones and reduce the uptake of iodine by the thyroid. Iodine is the number one substance found in the thyroid. If you constantly ingest perchlorate from drinking water and don’t suffer from hyperthyroidism then your thyroid is constantly being limited to produce less hormones. These hormones are mandatory for energy metabolism and immunity health. There is good news, however, once intake of perchlorate is stopped it no long has a burden on your body. It is excreted and never to be found. More good news, the EPA (environment protection agency) has recently put a limit on the amount of perchlorate found in our water. Bad news, that it is still in detectable in our water. I’m not too sure about you, but I want no part of this chemical touching my body. I’ll let my body do the regulating of hormones not some chemical.
Hexavalent chromium is up next. This little guy can be found in many metal and textile factories. It is used as a textile dye, wood preserver, anti-corrosive, and in steel manufacturing. H. chromium is usually applied to aluminum, zinc, cadmium, copper, silver, magnesium and tin to prevent rust or oxidation. It is a heavy metal and highly absorbed by the body and poorly excreted. Hexavalent chromium leaks from these factories into our environment then into our water. The EPA has not put and legal limit on the amount of chromium found in our drinking water as of yet. Hexavalent chromium placed in the drinking water of laboratory rats has shown to cause cancer. Not only that, but a study in China proved that an increase in hexavalent chromium was directly proportional to gastrointestinal and stomach cancers. The more hexavalent chromium the higher the risk for cancer. Can I have some in my water please?
Kidding, this is uncalled for and as a developed nation we should never see these toxin in our water, ever! But its been found and not just one time, 35 times in American cities. That’s outrageous. And we have only been looking for it recently, imagine the years we unknowing consumed this garbage. Yuck. Here some good news, well sort of, the EPA is in the process of working out legal limits. And of course some bad news, it can still be found at high levels in our water without limitations. Hmmmm makes you wonder what else is in our water. Do we dare find out?
Bisphenol A or BPA (that doesn’t even sound healthy) is a chemical produced and used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. It can be found in a variety of items; water bottles, infant bottles, bottle tops, water supply pipes, sports equipment, dental fillings and sealants, Cds/DVDs, Tupperware, coatings on the inside of canned food and beverages, and plastic electronics. From this list I am almost 100% sure you have been exposed to this chemical in one form or another. That is a bad thing because BPA is a known endocrine disruptor. It can mimic the body’s own hormones specifically estrogen and throw off the balance of valuable hormones. For those of you who don’t know hormones play a HUGE role in chronic fatigue and energy metabolism. The slight change, especially in sensitive individuals, can lead to biological disruption. BPA is most released in plastics and canned liners at higher heat, be sure to avoid heating all plastics. There are several ways to tell if you plastic has been manufactured with BPA or not. This will be covered in more detail in later posts, stay tuned.
BPA has been rigorously studied and the effects it has on the human body, most notably effects on infants and prenatal exposure. Which at high levels is shown to lead to neurological difficulties later in life. Wikipedia states the following “A 2011 study that investigated the number of chemicals pregnant women are exposed to in the U.S. found BPA in 96% of women.” That being said it is more than likely that you have been exposed to this chemical and it has effected you in one way or another. Canada believes that this chemical is bad, so much so that they have declared it as a toxic substance! Beware the xenoestrogen, BPA, is on the prowl. Arm up and remove at all cost. The markings below can be found on plastics containing BPA. Removal of BPA plastics that touch food or beverages is a wise decision, especially if you have chronic fatigue and a sensitive body.
What else can we find in our water. Let’s see here. Chlorine. Well this is pretty much a given. We all know it is in our water and for good reason: kill nasty bacterial and parasites. But lets examine what it actually does to our bodies and if it is really keeping us safe. As we know chlorine is a superb killer of bacteria. It is added to our water sources as a disinfectant and for good reason. Before the chlorine days, thousands of people lived in fear of waterborne illnesses. It was common to loose family and friends to cholera, e. coli, dysentery, typhoid fever, and parasites. Its no wonder why we started adding this miracle to our water. However, it is not completely safe. Since chlorine is found in our water and pools it is highly ingested. Being a good disinfectant, the chlorine will kill most bacteria it comes into contact with. Our gut and intestines are made up of billions of beneficial bacteria.
The more chlorine we consume the more bacteria it kills. This leads to irritable bowel (IBS), nausea, and decrease nutrient absorption and that’s just the start. Chlorine not only kills beneficial bacteria, but it reacts chemically with organic matter within your water and body. Like any chemical reaction there is always a by-product. This product being trihalomethanes (THMs) one of which is chloroform. If fact this is well known attribute of chlorine and any disinfectant (label as “disinfectant by-product”). THMs are known carcinogens and potent toxins. Of course the EPA is well aware of these “by-products” and have set a “safe” limit, but once again (a reoccurring theme) how safe is safe. I really wish the limit was a big fat 0, but that will never happen. The EPA is aware and doesn’t do anything to remove these potent carcinogens. Not only can they be found in abundance in our drinking water, but any where there is chlorine. Pools and showers have shown to produce a significant number of THMs (as vapor) which are readily inhaled and absorbed in the blood. Tests have shown that swimmers have an 80% absorption rate of THM through their skin. Makes me never want to swim in a pool again. THMs, like chloroform (which is release when chlorine mixes with urine, sweat, hair, or skin), is shown to lower levels of testosterone in both male and females. I do want to restate, however, the risks of using chlorine far out way the risk of not using.
I created this post to provide the facts so that you are aware and question what you are actually drinking. Some people go as far as to filter all water entering their house to remove large amounts of chlorine. I, however, have merely chosen a viable water source for drinking. Regular old city water is still used showering and washing. As for swimming, I live by the ocean so that will suffice, I now look at pools differently and hesitate before entering. Indoor pools and spas I can hardly stand because of the hideous smell. Being chronically poisoned/chronically fatigue I try to minimize my exposure to this toxin as much as possible as you should too. Keep your eyes out for chlorine, if you can taste it or smell it, its most likely not healthy, drink only pure reversed osmosis carbon filtered water.
Last, but certainly not least, atrazine; an organic herbicide widely used in the US and around the world. It is actually the most widely used herbicide used today because it is both highly effective and cheap. Too bad it is a known toxin and found in several water sources around the world and in the US. The effect atrazine has on the human body are profound. So profound that the European Union has banned the use of atrazine, the US and other countries have yet to. That’s weird, right? Atrazine, like many of the previous toxins, is a known endocrine disruptor and shown to lower sperm count in men. Not only does it effect male hormones, but has shown to effect women’s menstrual cycles and estrogen levels. Atrazine is extremely potent. Many animals have a lethal limit associated with atrazine. That is if they are exposed to so much atrazine they die! If this herbicide kills animals, what do you think it does to humans?!? Atrazine is still found in several cities tap and drinking water. The EPA has set a “safe” limit associated with atrazine, but do you really think that it is safe to consume any of this stuff? Corn farms frequently use atrazine to keep weeds and unwanted herbs out. The map below shows just how much atrazine is used throughout the United States. Don’t forget that this herbicide has been banned by Europe and told to be banned my many scientist.
All in all, I originally wrote this post to expose chlorine in our water system. After much research I stumbled upon not just chlorine in our water, but tons of other toxins, pesticides, herbicides, and contaminates. We really can’t trust anything or anyone. We must question everything. I developed this site to bring to light these irregularities in our world and to make people aware that they may be poisoned ever so slowly. I truly believe that fatigue and a weakened immune system is largely caused by environmental toxins and the likes. Our bodies are working overtime to deal with unnatural foreign contaminates after so long it starts to get worn out and we become fatigued, sensitive, and overloaded with stress. Yes, some fatigue may be caused by viruses and illnesses, but if we fail to give our bodies what they need (clean water, clean air, clean food) we will fail to recover, thus viruses reactivate causing a never ending cycle of fatigue, illness, and pain. Give your body what it needs, put your health as top priority, with health anything is possible. Stay strong, modify your lifestyle and gain ground on this beast of a disease. You can do it, I have and never thought possible, daily I continue to eliminate more and more toxins from my lifestyle and body. I have seen HUGE effects on my health, well being, and personality. You will too, just stick with it.
