Tag Archives: contaminants

Total Dissolved Solids In Your Drinking Water

The harmful contaminants that are in your tap water are too small to see with the naked eye. In order to get a better read on the water quality, these contaminants are grouped into a measurement know as total dissolved solids.

What are total dissolved solids?

Total dissolved solids (often abbreviated as TDS) is a measurement of the amount of dissolved particles in your water. A dissolved particle can pass through a filter with pores of two microns in size.

A measurement of total dissolved solids in water includes a variety of different forms of contaminants, some of which are more harmful than others. Some of the most common dissolved solids in water include calcium, chlorides, THM’s, nitrates, phosphorus, iron, sulfur and bacteria.

What effects do total dissolved solids have on water quality?

Total Dissolved Solids are a very wide range of contaminants, so they have different effects based on which ones are in the water, and what levels. However, a high TDS count will generally result in:

A higher potential for poor water quality. When your water is high in total dissolved solids, it has an elevated chance of containing contaminants that will affect the quality of the water you use for drinking and bathing.
Bad tasting water. Water with a high TDS count is often described as tasting salty, bitter or metallic.
Bad smelling water. Water with a high TDS count also usually contains particles that negatively affect its smell.
Corroding of plumbing appliances. If your water contains a high level of total dissolved solids, it can corrode and shorten the life of your plumbing appliances.

How can you reduce the amount of total dissolved solids in your water?

We at Evolution Healthworks offer solutions to the problems caused by TDS. Our Aura H2O Water Filter removes these contaminants and provides the healthiest drinking water. Also, we offer Whole Home Systems which can filter the water that comes out of all the taps.

7 reasons to claim water for life, not for coal

Safe, affordable and accessible water is one of our planet’s scarcest natural resources. Many people don’t have access to fresh water for sanitation, agriculture, or even to drink.

Yet, global water consumption by the power sector is growing; it’s expected to more than double by 2035, with coal projects accounting for 50% of increased water use. Vast quantities of water are used in coal mining, coal washing and for cooling coal-fired power plants.

We cannot allow coal interests to grab already scarce water resources and at the same time dramatically increase their carbon pollution. That will only accelerate climate change and make water shortages even more acute.

GreenPeace outlined 7 reasons why we should claim water for the life, not for coal:

1. 2 billion people, or almost one-third of the world’s population, live in countries with absolute water scarcity.

2. Coal is one of the most water-intensive methods of generating electricity. Every 3.5 minutes a typical coal-fired power plant withdraws enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Electricity is generated by burning coal to convert water into high-pressure steam to drive turbines; water is then used to cool the steam so it can go back to the boiler again. Water is also needed to wash and process coal before it is burned, to wash coal ash out, to reduce dust from the coal stockpile and to put out fires.

3. There are plans to construct at least 1200 new coal-fired power plants and mega coal mines around the world. Much of the proposed expansion is in water-stressed regions, which already suffer from limited supplies of fresh water for sanitation, health and livelihoods.

4. South Africa’s energy utility Eskom uses 10,000 litres of water per second, yet local residents are forced to buy bottled water, because no clean drinking water is available to them.

5. 16 mega coal power bases proposed in China will consume 10 billion cubic metres of water every year, equal to one-sixth of the annual flow of the iconic Yellow River.

6. In the six worst-hit districts of India’s Vidarbha region there were over 6,000 documented cases of farmers committing suicide between 2001 and 2010 as their livelihoods failed due to lack of water for irrigation. And a total of 40,000 suicides in the whole of Maharashtra. Yet there are now plans to build a further cluster of 71 coal plants in Vidarbha.

7. Wind-generated electricity uses no water. Go renewables!

Via: Greenpeace

The little creatures living in your water

Microbes are single-celled organisms so tiny that a million could fit onto the tip of a needle. Not all microbes are bad, but some of them can really cause havoc in your body and health when they get into the drinking water. Here are several of the most prominent:

Fecal Coliform and E. coli

Bacteria whose presence indicate that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes. Microbes in these wastes can cause short-term effects, such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms.

Cryptosporidium

Parasite that enters lakes and rivers through sewage and animal waste. This microbe has an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body for long periods of time which makes it tolerant to many chlorine disinfectants. It causes cryptosporidiosis, a mild gastrointestinal disease. However, the disease can be severe or fatal for people with severely weakened immune systems. EPA and CDC have prepared advice for those with severely compromised immune systems who are concerned about Cryptosporidium.

Giardia lamblia

Parasite that enters lakes and rivers through sewage and animal waste. It causes gastrointestinal illness (e.g. diarrhea, vomiting, cramps). Giardia, like cryptosporidium, can survive long periods of time outside the body and is also difficult to treat with just basic chlorine disinfectants.

Coliform

Bacteria are common in the environment and are generally not harmful. However, the presence of these bacteria in drinking water is usually a result of a problem with the treatment system or the pipes which distribute water. This indicates that the water may be contaminated with germs that can cause disease.

Turbidity

Has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection because the particles can act as shields for viruses and bacteria and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches.

Our Aura Alkaline Water Filter can successfully remove these dangerous little creatures from your water and provide you with the healthiest water possible, allowing you to live your life to the fullest.

6 reasons you need a Evolution Water Ionizer

Check out these reasons why you should put an Evolution Premium Ionizer in your home!

Powerful Antioxidant: Evolution Water neutralizes free radicals helping to reduce aging, disease, and deterioration
Alkaline pH: Evolution Water helps neutralize your bodies pH that over years has most likely become acidic from all of the processed foods, sugary drinks,and even bottled water. Maintaining proper alkalinity through neutralization supports better health and vitality.
Evolution Ionizers use our Water Filtration System, ensuring the certified healthiest water free of contaminants.
Evolution Ionizers provide our bodies with energy through infusing lots of oxygen into them.
Ionized water is six times more hydrating than standard water, and can penetrate our cells much easier. More hydration = More energy.
Our Ionizers also produce acid water which is great for cosmetic reasons such as your skin and hair, helps plants grow, and can be used for household cleaning free of chemicals.

4 Factors Affecting The Taste Of Your Tap Water

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Most people think of water as being a pretty tasteless liquid, however, your tap water can vary greatly state by state, and even in some cases, city by city. Many home owners have chosen to install WATER FILTRATION SYSTEMS to improve both the taste of their water and remove the contaminants.

4 common factors that affect tap water taste

Disinfectant chemicals. One of the most common complaints homeowners have about their tap water is that it tastes like chemicals. The reason for this taste, is that water treatment facilities use chlorine or chloramine (a mixture of chlorine and ammonia) among other chemicals, to disinfect water before it’s sent to our homes and flows through our pipes.
Mineral leaching from pipes. Another common complaint about tap water is that it tastes metallic. This is often due to minerals like iron and copper that leach into our water as it travels through public pipes and/or the pipes in our homes. The severity and type of metallic taste in your water will depend on the age and condition of the pipes it travels through as well as the material that those pipes are made of. The infrastructure of the water piping is in serious needs of updates around the country, and in some cases water is flowing through pipes that pre date World War II.
Algae blooms. Algae blooms in source water like lakes and rivers are typically seasonal. When they occur, homeowners are often taken off-guard by the sudden change in tap water taste. The taste imparted in tap water by algae blooms is often described as earthy or musty. This was seen in May of 2014, as the water in North San Diego county was affected by the algal blooms in Poway.
Source of water. The taste of your tap water can change depending on where the water originally comes from. This taste difference is most recognizable between well water and city water, because well water often contains many more minerals that can affect its taste.

Pharmaceuticals In Our Drinking Water: Where Do They Come From and What Are The Effects?

According to a study released by the Mayo Clinic earlier this year, nearly 70 percent of Americans take some sort of prescription drug. This is up from 48 percent just a few years ago in 2007-2008. As it turns out, the increased popularity of prescription drugs is having an effect on our nation’s water quality.

How do pharmaceutical drugs get in our drinking water?

Pharmaceutical drugs get into our drinking water in three main ways. Many people flush their old and unused pharmaceuticals down their toilets and sinks, which allows the drugs to end up in our water supplies. In addition, trace amounts of pharmaceuticals end up in our urine, which adds the drugs to wastewater and eventually back to our water supplies. Another way in which we can get these pharmaceuticals back into our systems, is fish and other sea creatures absorbing them, and then humans eating them.

Are pharmaceutical drugs monitored in our drinking water?

There are currently no regulations that require water treatment plants to test for or monitor the levels of pharmaceuticals in our drinking water. We do know, however, that these drugs are making it past our treatment plants and into the water in our homes.

According to a study published by the EPA, more than half of the nation’s water supplies that were sampled tested positive for oxycodone, high-blood pressure medications, over-the-counter drugs (Tylenol, Ibuprofen, etc.) and more.

What are the health effects of consuming pharmaceuticals in drinking water?

It is currently unclear how pharmaceuticals in drinking water affect our health. However, it is a growing concern among scientists and health officials. What we do know is that hormones work at very low concentrations in the human body, which suggests that the drugs can affect our bodies even though they show up in low concentrations in our water. In addition, the increase of pharmaceuticals in water has been affecting the hormones and reproductive process of the fish in our water supplies.

If you’re concerned about the health effects of pharmaceuticals in your water, your best defense is to install a EVOLUTION WHOLE HOME SYSTEM or a A URA ALKALINE WATER FILTER. Both of these residential water treatment systems will remove the traces of pharmaceuticals from the water you consume in your home.

Dangers of Fluoride in Drinking Water to Bottle-Fed Babies

On March 22nd 2014, organizers at Clean Water California held a march and rally in downtown San Francisco urging local water companies and health officials to issue public warnings about the dangers of using fluoridated tap water for baby formula. Their concern stems from the fact that most Bay Area water districts encourage the consumption of tap water, yet do not inform parents that tap water fluoride levels could be harmful to newborns and infants which are more sensitive to this harsh chemical.

Water fluoridation is the practice of adding fluoride chemicals to municipal city tap water for the purpose of preventing tooth decay. This is a very controversial practice since fluoride can be toxic and any dental health benefits that come from ingesting it through drinking water have been largely inconclusive. In fact, some recent studies have associated fluoridated water with reduced IQ in children making it a possible neurotoxin that can damage young developing brains similar to lead and mercury. Parents that use tap water to make formula are often not aware that basic activated carbon water filters, faucet mount filters or boiling water methods do not remove fluoride or that babies are much more susceptible to harm.

According to the Fluoride Action Network, infants receive up to 400% more fluoride per pound of body weight, than adults consuming the same level of fluoride in water. Their underdeveloped kidneys can only excrete 15-20% of the chemical whereas adults can excrete more than 50%. In fact, any chemical, microbial or heavy metal contaminants in the water will be much more harmful to the growth and developmental health of not only babies, but also toddlers and young children, and should be removed. Fortunately there are water filtration systems that can do just that.

We at Evolution Healthworks make the AURA ALKALINE WATER FILTER which is designed to remove the contaminants including Fluoride, and unlike other systems, the water is then remineralized to make the healthiest drinking water. The filter, is application specific, meaning it is tailored to fit your home’s exact contaminant levels and remove them.
Fluoride is a dangerous compound, and whether it is ingested or absorbed through the skin, the compound accumulates in the body and regardless of whether you’re a toddler, child, adult, or senior can cause numerous health problems such as dental fluorosis, arthritis, and reduced thyroid function. We recommend everyone to learn more about the benefits of removing fluoride from the water, especially those who have an infant or young child in the home.

10 Reasons You Should Be Using A Whole House System

Harmful chemicals evaporate into the air in your house from the shower, toilet, and sink.
A leading cause of asthma and bronchitis is from air quality. When water contaminants are released into the air, poor air quality is the result.
The standard shower filter, or even a countertop water filter can not protect the house from contaminants evaporating into the air.
Shower filters, because they must filter water at extreme temperatures, are not completely effective at removing all dangerous contaminants.
Skin rashes can and other types of skin irritations can occur because chlorine and volatile organic contaminants such as tri-halomethanes are embedded in your clothes when washed in chlorinated water.
The dishwasher releases more chlorine into the air than any other water source in the house, besides the shower.
The only way to make sure you are getting pure, clean, filtered water from every source in the house is a whole home system.
While not to the level of a EVO FILTER, our Whole Home System purifies the drinking water and rids contamination to a very high level.
Dermal absorption and inhalation are two ways the 2100 known water contaminants can make there ways into our bodies besides drinking the actual water.
Avoiding tap water in exchange for bottled water is not a safe trade off. Check out 3 Reasons To Never Drink Bottled Water Again to learn more

Our EVOLUTION WHOLE HOME SYSTEM provides you with the solution to these issues. Our system removes chlorine and other dangerous components in your water such as fluoride, VOC (volatile organic compounds), sediment and turbidity. The Evolution Whole Home System is the best option to making sure you and your family are living in the most healthy, safe way.

Oxidation Reduction Potential in Evolution Healthworks Products

Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the water filtration industry. Unfortunately, most of the information surrounding the term is vague and commercially-biased. So what exactly is Oxidation Reduction Potential and what are its effects?

Virtually all liquids have an Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP), which is the potential for one liquid substance to reduce to the oxidation of another substance, as measured in millivolts (mV).

In other words, the more powerful the antioxidant, the lower the ORP level. As things oxidize, the ORP rises.

Normal tap water has an ORP of +250 to +400, meaning that its potential for reducing oxidation is nonexistent. Only a negative ORP can reduce or negate oxidation.

Evolution Water has an ORP of -200 to -700, depending in part on the amount of minerals in the source water and how the ionizer is adjusted. This means it has a very high potential for reducing oxidation. Fresh squeezed orange juice has a -250 ORP, as do most other fresh squeezed juices and vegetables. However, if they have been pasteurized or otherwise processed, the antioxidant properties are diminished or removed.

Tests reveal that bottled mineral waters have an average ORP of approximately +200mV only slightly lower than ordinary tap water. It is a simple, but much overlooked, fact that all water “filtered or otherwise” is acidic in nature. Chlorine, other chemicals, contaminants, and byproducts of natural water give it an acidic pH level. Over time, this acidity can be very harmful to your health and the ability to fight disease because many organisms, viruses, bacteria and even cancer, become more prolific and more harmful in an acidic environment.

3 REASONS NEVER TO DRINK BOTTLED WATER

Conversely, higher pH, higher alkaline water becomes a defender of your entire immune system, providing an inhospitable environment for diseases to take hold and cleansing every cell in your body of impurities and toxicities every time you drink. And realistically, there are toxins everywhere. They are in the air we breathe, the foods we eat, the things we touch.

You can’t get away from the side effects of a modern world. But you can fortify yourself from the inside out by consuming double purified, ionized, antioxidant Evolution Water. Our Aura Alkaline Water Filter can provide you with these benefits.

Ionization is a process of electrically charging water by running the water over positive and negative electrodes, ionizing the minerals in the water and creating a high pH, alkaline water. The cleansing and nourishing comes from the high antioxidant quality of the ionized water. Ionized water is a free radical scavenger, counteracts oxidation in every cell of your body and is extremely hydrating..

With Evolution Water you get the absolute cleanest, healthiest, and most energizing form of water available on the planet, ready to use whenever you need it.

How Do Nitrates Get In My Drinking Water? What Are The Effects?

Nitrates are one of the most well known, but dangerous contaminants commonly found in drinking water. It is particularly problematic for vulnerable individuals such as infants and pregnant women.

How do nitrates get in my drinking water?

Nitrates are chemical compounds made up of nitrogen and oxygen. Nitrogen and Oxygen are naturally found in soil, and are absorbed by plants as a source of nutrients. However, nitrates can also be created from various human and agricultural activities such as mining and commercial farming.

Excess nitrates are formed when microorganisms break down things like fertilizers, manure, sewage and the residue from septic tank leaks. When there are too many nitrates in the soil for plants to absorb, water runoff can move those nitrates into groundwater and surface water supplies (and eventually into our drinking water). For example, nitrates placed on corn field runoff into nearby stream, which then either are moved into rivers or sink farther down into the groundwater.

What are the health effects of nitrates in drinking water?

Infants: Infants are the most prone to experiencing health problems from nitrates in drinking water. Nitrate consumption can lead to the possibly life-threatening disease, methemoglobinemia, better known as blue baby syndrome.
Pregnant women and people with reduced stomach acidity: In addition to infants, pregnant women and people with reduced stomach acidity are also prone to methemoglobinemia from nitrate exposure.
Healthy adults: Although healthy adults are less susceptible to health problems from short-term exposure to nitrates in drinking water, prolonged exposure to high levels of nitrates has been linked to gastric problems due to the formations of nitrosamines.

Our Aura H2O Filter can effectively remove nitrates and other contaminants such as fluoride and chlorine from your drinking water.

Source: Colorado State University Extension

3 Reasons Never to Drink Bottled Water Again

What if you could buy something for pennies on the gallon and sell it for hundreds of times its cost? This is precisely what the bottled water industry continues to do every day, to the tune of every-increasing profits.

Majestic peaks, serene rivers, sparkling water droplets. You’ve seen the labels on bottled water; they suggest a pure product worth your two dollars a bottle. Bottled water marketing campaigns make wildly exaggerated claims about purity and freshness. Contrary to what bottled water giants want you to think, tests on leading brands of bottled water suggest a dirtier truth.

Hereare 3 reasons never to drink bottled water again:

1. Bottled water is not safe

Studies by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a report by the FDA determined that most bottled water is simply repackaged tap water. This tap water is often filtered with reverse osmosis, stripping it of healthy trace minerals leading to possible mineral deficiencies and other complications.

1 in 5 bottles contain illegal levels of chemicals that can cause disease and other complications over time. Where do these contaminants come from? According to the EWG study, some of the contaminants come from pollutants commonly found in tap water. Others can be traced to the plastic bottles housing the water. Phthalates, chemicals known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, leach into bottled water while they sit on grocery store shelves.

Thanks to a high-dollar lobbying campaign by the bottled water industry, there is no legal limit on the amount of phthalates in bottled water. Silencing groups looking out for your health is obviously a chief concern for bottled water companies.

FIVE BENEFITS OF DRINKING WATER

How does such dangerous water make it onto store shelves? Cunning distribution practices by beverage companies help bottled water evade regulation. 70% of bottled water never crosses state lines, making it exempt from FDA oversight and putting you at risk of whatever contaminants are lurking in your water bottles.

2) Bottled water is a rip off

Bottled water companies have created a beautiful money-making machine. $1 bottles of your favorite brand of water cost just below 6 cents per ounce, twice as much as it costs to fill up at the gas station and thousands of times more than the cost of tap water. Why do people continue to spend so freely on bottled water? Behold the power of marketing.

3) Bottled water hurts the environment

Water bottles are recyclable, but we aren’t very good at recycling them. 38 billion (yes, billion) water bottles are wasted every year, according to an article in Fast Company magazine. It’s important to note that an unknown amount of these bottles never make it to landfills. Massive eddies of plastic trash are trapped in our oceans indefinitely, posing great harm to marine life.

It’s no secret that bottled water produces a lot of waste, but there are a variety of other effects damaging the Earth. According to Food and Water Watch, plastic production eats up more than 40 million gallons of oil per year, enough to fuel 1.5 million cars for a year. Also, plastic decays very slowly, meaning the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist somewhere in the environment.

What can you do?

Stop buying bottled water today. Glass or stainless steel bottles are much safer and don’t affect the environment. Evolution Healthworks offers our Evolution Drink Safe, a 750 mL glass container which can help keep our environment and your water as clean as possible.

3 Ways Water Gives You Radiant, Youthful Skin

If you’ve ever flipped through a women’s magazine, you’re very familiar with advertisements touting an array of products to give you the perfect skin. While certain products can help give you healthy skin, there is no arguing that the number one factor in your skin’s health is water.

Here’s3 ways water gives you radiant, youthful skin.

1. Make sure you’re drinking ENOUGH water

Your skin is an organ. It’s actually your biggest organ (remember elementary school Science class?), and organs are made up of cells, which are made up of water. Simply put, if you don’t drink enough water, these cells will die, leaving you with dry, flaky skin which leads to wrinkles.

Also, your skin is the body’s last priority. When you drink water, your body sends water to the most important organs first. Since your skin is the least important (functionally… aesthetically, we know it’s important) organ, it is your body’s last priority. This makes it that much more important to stay hydrated at all times if you want to keep your skin looking and feeling good.

2. Make sure you’re drinking the RIGHT water

You understand that you’re supposed to drink water for healthy skin, so head to the tap and fill up, right? WRONG.

It’s crucial that you are drinking only healthy, filtered water with vital minerals.

Trust me on this one, your skin will thank you. Let me explain…

Your skin cells are full of toxins. Drinking water helps to flush your skin cells (and the rest of the cells in your body) of these toxins. The problem here is that the majority of tap water in the U.S. is full of pollutants and contaminants.

So you should just drink bottled water, right? No! A study by the National Resources Defense Council found that bottled water is often no more than just tap water with a fancy label.

Do your skin a favor and make it’s detoxifying job easier by drinking water from a filtration system.

3. Be careful what you put ON your skin

Your skin doesn’t only depend on the water you drink, it also reacts to the water in which you bathe. For the same reasons that water from the tap can be dangerous to drink, it can also be harmful to shower in.

You see, your local government adds chlorine and other chemicals to the water supply to disinfect it, but this creates byproducts that can dry out your skin. That’s not all though, it gets worse.

If you take hot showers (of course you do), you know that it creates steam. If you breathe during your hot showers (of course you do), you’re inhaling these chemical byproducts directly into your lungs. Also, your pores open up and absorb these toxins into your skin.

Whenever you’re done shuddering about that last paragraph, read on and I’ll tell you how to fix this issue. Consider a Whole-Home Water System to remove chemical byproducts and other nasty substances from entering your home.