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How Water Impacts Health |
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As we have seen, water is not pure, but is a mixture containing a wide variety of substances. Some of these substances can be extremely toxic, and others are important nutrients for the human body. Some substances simply affect water’s taste and/or appearance and/or pH. Therefore, it is the composition nature of the mixture that is called water that becomes important when water is viewed from the perspective of health.
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Ideal Water from the Body's Point-of-View |
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Debates have raged over the years about what kind of a water mixture is most ideal for human consumption. Some people have contended that only pure distilled water is suitable for ingestion. Others contend that chlorinated, fluoridated tap water that does not contain more than federally mandated amounts of contaminants is perfectly acceptable. Some people say that magical “vibrations” or “atomic-spin” must be present for water to be healthy. Others say that “natural spring water” is the medicine God intended us to drink. Makers of electrolysis units claim that the alkaline stream of water produced by their units is the healthiest water a person can drink. In this noisy confusion of arguments and contention, what can we know for sure?
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The first thing we can know for sure is that water must be biologically safe. Water contaminated with hazardous microorganisms is capable of causing extreme illness and even death in healthy adults. Small children, the elderly, the ill, or the immune-compromised are at an even greater risk. Therefore, some treatment to insure that water intended for human consumption is properly disinfected is of primary importance.
Municipal suppliers of water consider this their most important job. Most use chlorination as the best way to balance the cost/effectiveness equation. Well owners or those on private supplies often have no system to insure the delivery of properly disinfected water.
Consuming water — whenever possible —from a source that can guarantee reliable disinfection is just common sense. If you want to avoid the potential for serious illness, it is not something to prefer, nor is it something to hope for. Water is one of those places where a person can really come to regret not taking responsibility for the safety and health of themselves and loved ones.
Some people see exposure to this danger as one of those things in life that just happens. They equate the act of drinking potentially poisonous water with things like getting hurt in an automobile accident or poisoned by chicken contaminated with Salmonella or Botulism.
But it is not the same thing, for at least one important reason. That is, events that are truly accidents occur in ways you cannot reasonably avoid. That is why we call them accidents. But drinking water that is NOT KNOWN to be microbiologically safe is often no accident. Most often it is a choice. It is like driving a car at high speeds through a residential neighborhood and running all the stoplights and stop signs.
Choices imply consequences. It is one of those choices that can lead to a lot of pain in life, and it happens far more frequently than most people suspect.
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A 1993 outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the largest outbreak of waterborne disease in the United States. Lake Michigan is the source of Milwaukee's water, which is treated by filtration and disinfection. Due to an unusual combination of circumstances during a period of heavy rainfall and runoff the treatment plant was ineffective, resulting in an increase in the turbidity of the treated water. Increased turbidity can be, and was in this case, and indicator of higher levels of Cryptosporidium. Over 400,000 persons were affected by the disease, more than 4,000 were hospitalized, and over 50 deaths (some counts are as high as 100) have been attributed to the disease. The original source of contamination is uncertain.
Since then, many health authorities in many cities realize that outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness or “flu-like” symptoms that were thought to be caused by a contagious virus was really caused by this chlorine-resistant cyst.
The Milwaukee case followed by so many others that gained public notice has been a real “wake-up” call to many people because these instances have demonstrated that even major water suppliers cannot guarantee that the water they deliver to your tap is 100% disinfected 100% of the time.
People whose water supplies come from private water systems or wells fare even worse.
Key Point: That is why number one on my list for any water treatment device is a device that can assure, to the maximum extent possible, that people cannot get an infectious dose of some harmful microorganism in drinking water from the device.
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Got A Question?
Use this link if you have a question about water, treatment options, health issues, or want to make a comment about what you read on this site. |
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