Tag Archives: pollutants

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.

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.