Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show

An ongoing investigation by the New York Times reveals the quality of our municipal drinking water systems across the country is not consistent with the information provided in reports to customers.

It appears to be the result of the all to frequent example of the federal government (in this case the EPA) having proper regulations in place and good intentions, but neither the political will or resources to enforce regulatory standards.

Click this link to read the full article at the NYT online.
http://tinyurl.com/ye84h2k

New Research - Like Water for Chocolate?

The findings of this study suggest the brain's repsponse to ingesting anything we find pleasant takes priority over other senses; including pain or discomfort. Interestingly, water works as well as chocolate as a stimulus. Who knew?

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com But the painkilling effect can be turned to our advantage, Mason said, perhaps as a replacement for the practice of using candy to calm children – or even adults – in the doctor's office. "Ingestion is a painkiller but we don't need the sugar," Mason said. "So replace the doctor's lollipop with a drink of water."

Where To Refill Those Cool Reusable Water Bottles

Tucson, AZ
Aqua Star International announces a new addition to its green oriented vending product line.
The Pure-Vend G-2500 model joins the G-2000 in the company's eco-friendly offerings.
Designed for indoor/outdoor installation in public retail, campus or recreation settings, the G-2500 dubbed "b.y.o.b." provides a filling station source for all those environmentally conscious consumers who have given up throw-away plastic bottles in favor of BPA-free reusable plastic or stainless steel drinking water bottles.

With the introduction of this new type of vending machine, people are no longer forced to choose between expensive (and environmentally taxing) purchased water in disposable plastic or tap water carried from home or refilled from a public fountain. The b.y.o.b. will provide the convenience to encourage more people to make the switch from disposable to reusable bottles.

Initial field test installations have been underway for several months with additional sites slated for high traffic public areas in the city of Tucson over the next two months.

During this stage of development the company intends to test several different revenue models locally before launching the product beyond the control of its sister company Arjencia Water, which operates a large number of bulk water vending machines and water station kiosks throughout southern Arizona (see www.arjencia.com for more information)

Versatility in payment systems and water filtration processes are hallmarks of the G-2500. Currently the machines can be operated via, coin/cash, prepaid cards, tokens, coupons or free-vends. Filtration mode can be custom defined by the environment of machine placement; anything from direct vend of tap quality, to multi-stage filtration to full reverse osmosis depending on utility resources and quality of the source water.

For more information please visit www.aquastarintl.com or contact Rick MacNeal @ 800-688-1858 or rick@aquastarintl.com

School Children At Risk From Contaminated Drinking Water

The article reinforces mounting evidence the trust we've naively placed on the efficacy of our municipal water supplies, threatens our home, business and school drinking water sources. "Experts" throw up their hands claiming only massive government spending can resolve the issue. At Aqua Star we know the answer is much simpler. Instead of settling for municipal water supplies of questionable quality and drinking water from vending machines also spewing tons of plastic waste into our landfills, we are launching a green vending product coupled with a "bottle-free" community fund-raising program suitable for any school system. Call us for details 1-800-688-1858

clipped from www.sfexaminer.com CUTLER, CALIF. — Over the last decade, the drinking water at thousands of schools across the country has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins. An Associated Press investigation found that contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states — in small towns and inner cities alike. Experts and children's advocates complain that responsibility for drinking water is spread among too many local, state and federal agencies, and that risks are going unreported. Finding a solution, they say, would require a costly new national strategy for monitoring water in schools.

The Fed Begins Investigating Pharmaceutical Contaminants in Drinking Water

The EPA has composed a list of 104 pharmaceuticals that pose potential health threats to drinking water supplies. Click the link below for the complete list.

clipped from www.chloregy.com The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed 104 chemicals, including a number of pharmaceuticals, as potential drinking water contaminants to be considered for government regulation. While the agency must evaluate possible chemical contaminants every five years under the Safe Drinking Water Act, this is the longest list ever compiled by the agency and the first time it has included pharmaceuticals. They include estrogens such as equilenin, equilin, estradiol, and mestranol, which are used for hormone replacement therapy and birth control. Also on the list are 12 microbes, including the hepatitis A virus. The EPA evaluated about 7,500 contaminants and biological agents when compiling the list. Researchers will continue to evaluate data on the 104 chemicals and 12 microbes, and by 2013 will determine whether drinking water standards should exist for at least five of them. Click here to read the full list of the EPA’s “contaminant candidates.”

What makes Up The Secret Sauce?

Until the passage of a recent bill, natural gas drilling companies were exempt from revealing the list of chemicals used in the extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing.

Although the industry steadfastly maintains the process has technological safeguards prohibiting the contamination of nearby groundwater resources, it was only a matter of time before the logic of these claims came into question.

Following the details of the article it is hard to conclude the changes to the quality of well water in this rural area of Wyoming could be anything but a cause and effect consequence of drilling.

clipped from www.reuters.com PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. government scientists have for the first time found chemical contaminants in drinking water wells near natural gas drilling operations, fueling concern that a gas-extraction technique is endangering the health of people who live close to drilling rigs.

Tap Water; Who's Guarding The Henhouse?

Rethinking Drinking Water Distribution

The Curious Case of Mega-Bottler Behavior

The following excerpt relates the tale of a Coke Fan Site gone wrong. Just as "green washing" can backfire in the social media realm, apparently so can giving a platform to the voice of dissent in the supposed safe haven of product supporters.

clipped from www.alternet.org For three years, Corporate Accountability International has asked that Coke label the source of its water. Tens of thousands of people have made phone calls, written letters, or sent emails to the country's third largest bottler demanding Coke label the source of its water. Coke's competitors, Pepsi and Nestlé, have both responded to Corporate Accountability International demands by putting the source on labels. Even Congress has now called on Coke to disclose the source and sites of its bottled water. The deadline for Coke and the other water bottlers to report to Congress is this Monday, August 10. Will Coke also announce its intention to put this information on labels? If so, that'd be the smartest tactic it could employ in response to the new Facebook outpouring.

Back To School Beverage Tip

This clip taken from a well written article on tips for school lunch, beverage and snack options. A simple, common sense approach to keeping our kids healthy.

clipped from www.garnernews.net Another tip Leroy shares is, “Water is essential.  Water should be the beverage of choice in lunchboxes - and I mean water without flavoring or flavor packets.  Flavored waters can add as many calories as juice boxes - and the calorie free flavored waters contain artificial sugars.  Parents should not pack Gatorade or other sports drinks in lunches - kids don’t spend their lunch time on a treadmill and don’t need to replace the minerals and carbohydrates lost during exercise while sitting in a cafeteria.”

Drinking Water Levity

The profits from all that overpriced bottled water, allow for some pretty creative marketing. It skirts the REAL issues surrounding this product, but manages to be both endearing and creepy at the same time. Since drinking water should be a positive part of a healthy lifestyle, you've got to credit Evian for this gem.

Facts About Throw-Away Plastic Water Bottles Continue To Pile Up

The bulk of the article cited below surrounds the controversy of single-serve plastic drinking water packaging.

Major bottlers try to re frame the issue, but the bottom line is still the same; it is up to consumers to change their habits with respect to all one-use throw-away plastic if we hope to stop choking the environment in the stuff.

clipped from topics.nytimes.com "More than 90 percent of the environmental impacts from a plastic bottle happen before the consumer opens it,'' said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Oil for plastic, oil for shipping, oil for refrigeration -- and in the end, most of the effort goes to landfills.

Stop Blame Game - Take Personal Positive Steps

If you have any question about who is responsible for the mess plastics have (and continue to make) of our environment, please take 8 minutes out of your day and watch the video posted here of a presentation given by Captain Charles Moore. It's fascinating in its scale and horrifying in its consequences. The time for reflection has past, the time for action among all responsible people is now.

It is easy to blame the plastics industry, Big Brother, the greed of capitalism/consumerism or just that thoughtless "other guy". The fact is we all have a hand in distributing the plastic material that ultimately collects in places it was never intended to be; even by the most shortsighted litterbug.

View this video and you WILL be moved to make personal changes to do your small part to work toward a more sustainable consumer mindset.

Think Disposable Plastic Is Defensible?

Project Earth: Water Water Everywhere...

Project Earth: Water Water Everywhere...

Contamination: The Stew Effect

This is a follow up to the prior post. These excerpts highlight the complexity of the pharmaceutical contaminant issue. We have the research to prove these compounds are in our water supplies. We don't know at what concentrations they become hazardous to human health. But, perhaps more to the point, we also don't know what potential threats are imposed by these pharmaceuticals in combination.

Many people, including some who think of themselves as environmentally savvy, have a false sense of security about our public water supplies. The fact is most municipal systems were designed to process water for the treatment of pathogens. They were never designed to monitor or treat these contaminants. By the time industrial processors react to the scientific data many millions of people will have already been impacted.

clipped from www.infozine.com What may be more troubling is the mixture of contaminants and how they might interact to cause health problems. “The biggest concern is the stew effect,” says Scott Dye of the Sierra Club’s Water Sentinels program. “Trace amounts of this mixed with trace amounts of that can equal what? We don’t know.” With such contaminants proving elusive to municipal filtration systems, the burden of protection often lies with the end user. But getting traces of birth control and other drugs out of your tap water isn’t so easy. Of the many different kinds of in-home water filtration systems available today, only those employing reverse osmosis have been shown to filter out some drugs. Some makers of activated carbon water filters claim their products catch pharmaceuticals, but independent research has not verified such claims.

Pollution experts: Save fish from drugs in wate

The content below is excerpted from an article post by the associated press.

It's true, scientists don't yet know the effects of pharmaceutical contamination of drinking water on humans. However, here's the problem, the type of research necessary to account for all the variables; including what effects result from pharmaceutical contaminant "cocktails" takes many years of controlled testing. By the time results confirm highly plausible suspicions it'll be too late to prevent harm to many millions of affected people. The other area of concern is that most municipal water systems do not test for these types of contaminants so there is no assurance potentially harmful pharmaceuticals are not being dispensed from taps across America.

clipped from www.google.com Pollution experts: Save fish from drugs in water "Hundreds of peer-reviewed publications ... demonstrate that numerous ubiquitous chemicals in the environment can interfere with development via the endocrine system, but there appears to be no will or authority to remove those chemicals from the supply chain," said zoologist Theo Colborn, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida, who founded the nonprofit Endocrine Disruption Exchange. Utilities say their drinking water is safe, and no human risks are confirmed from pharmaceutical pollution. However, research shows that the pharmaceuticals sometimes harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs.

Starting Point

This blog is the creation of the team at Aqua Star International, manufacturers of commercial drinking water vending products.

The subject of drinking water is complex, vitally important to individual and society alike and extremely confusing.

• How much do we need each day?
• How safe is tap water?
• Is the problem of chemicals leaching from my single-serve plastic water bottle one of concern?
• How effective are those filters that attach to a faucet or are embedded in a storage container?
• Just how serious a threat is pharmaceutical contamination to drinking water supplies?

These, and a host of related topics will be covered here. We have a point of view and obviously a blog is a platform to showcase ones opinions on all these topics, but we will try to at least acknowledge or express opposing views. Our goal is to present the issues but try to keep the level of alarm in context with current scientific supporting evidence.

If you have an interest in any of the topics listed above from a personal, professional or simply an academic perspective, we invite you to join in as we highlight each of these issues in future posts.