Water

[terra]

I have a Reverse Osmosis system as well Geoff -

A few months ago, my boyfriend and I were buying the 10L jugs of distilled water from the local grocery store, but the plastic jugs became overwhelming and the thought of the waste was disgusting!

After months of storing our empty water jugs in a back room (thinking that we would have some use for them), we decided to take them to the recycling center. We piled them into a van and it became filled to the top with the jugs. You couldn't see out the back window. We even had some jugs overflowing to the front seats! Also, we didn't have enough room to put all of the jugs in the van, so sitting beside me on the floor are about 40 more empty jugs!

Even though the taste of the distilled water was AMAZING and so pure, the waste wasn't worth it, at all!

So, we had an R.O. system installed and it is awesome! The taste is great! Our tap water is 180ppm and the system brings it down to around 7ppm.

My boyfriend’s parents live 10 minutes outside of town in the country and have a fairly new well that brings up 500 year old water. We tested that water and it comes up at about 130ppm.

Makes you wonder what the other 50ppm's in the town water are made up of...?

We also have a portable filtration system with extra filters incase of emergencies, disasters or for camping & boating trips.

This portable system is pretty cool... the company had a demonstration and they ran coca-cola through the filtration system and it came out as clear as the purest water.

Also, there was an "at home demonstration" where someone filtered their urine through the system, and it came out CLEAR as water....AND....as gross as it sounds, they took a sip of the final product and said that IT TASTED LIKE WATER! Of course, they tested it before drinking and it came out with a very low if not 0ppm reading!

Amazing... I would say.

I haven't tried the pee thing myself, but it’s good to know that if you're desperate, you can recycle your own liquid if needed!

I know that there is lack of minerals with distilling water, but I make sure that we get enough of that stuff through other things for now.

I would love to be able to drink the well water that my boyfriend's parents have. But for now, I live in town and the tap water FREAKS me out... just the smell of it is wrong.

We fill up a 10L jug with the well water once a month and give that to our kitty & fish... I wouldn't even think about giving them the local tap water.

Here are some links to the products I'm talking about if anyone is interested...

Portable Water Filtration System (http://www.generalecology.com/portablesystem.htm)

Reverse Osmosis System (http://www.westheat.com/ROSystem.html) ... I have the '4-Stage, Point-Of Use Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System'.

Handheld TDS Meter (TDS - total dissolved solids) (http://www.westheat.com/TDS.html)

Happy Drinking!

[Mr Flibble]

Incase anyone else does a search in the future and is interested to know, I emailed brita a while back to find out what source they use for their activated carbon/whether their cartridges are vegan or not. The responce was good:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your email of 10th January 2005.

The filter material of the original BRITA filter cartridge contains a
mixture of ion exchange resin and activated carbon.

I can confirm the contents of the cartridge are as follows -

Ion exchange Resin - Sythetically manufactured , insoluable
artificial Resin.

Activated Carbon - Made from coconut shell.

Therefore I can confirm that the products contained within the
cartridge are food grain.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact
the BritaCare Team on the the telephone number below where one of our
advisors will be happy to assist you and, please be aware of our
commitment to providing a first-class level of Customer Care and Service at
all times.

Yours sincerely

[FR]

I only drink spring water. I buy it by the case, and it is cheap, like 21 cents per bottle. I also buy half gallon jugs of it for home, those run about 70 cents each.

[Gliondrach]

I use Britta as a back up system. I have not needed it since I've had my own spring. The water from my spring is clear, fresh and always cold. It flows continuously. I discovered it last year when I was drilling a hole in my spare bedroom wall.

[auntierozzi]

This morning maybe that's the best drink? ;-)

I was wondering whether or not you drink bottled water. If you do, do you choose one with a high calcium level? Is it recommended?

Do you know how to find out the content of your local tap water.

Happy New Year to all. Wishing you a good health and much happiness in 2007.

[Willynilly]

I have my own reverse osmosis filter and the water tastes so much better than what comes out of the tap. :)

[fiamma]

Happy New Year Ros!
I drink bottled water (unfortunately) because we have an inbuilt water-softening system due to the hardness of our water. It seems it's not good to drink all the time, so until I manage to find out for sure I prefer to drink the bottled stuff. Although I don't think the fact that it comes in a bottle is any sign of quality - I think tap water is subject to very stringent checks and is very safe to drink. I'm not wild about the taste though.
As for the mineral content, we have a water here called Ferarelle which is sparkling and very rich in calcium. I don't particularly like it because I find it very heavy, and prefer the lighter, still waters that are available. I think waters rich in calcium are potentially risky for those with kidney stones but otherwise are OK, but don't quote me on that. I try to get all my calcium from my diet though - if I get some from bottled water it's a plus, but it's certainly not a source I rely on.

How does the reverse osmosis filter work, Willynilly? And don't say by reverse osmosis ;) I mean, is it installed in your water supply, or separate, like a jug? And what are its components? I was using an active carbon filter jug a while ago but have heard nasty things about them.

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

[RedWellies]

Hahaha, Auntie!! I always drink water anyway. I prefer bottled but worry about all that plastic so I have a Brita filter and that makes the tap water bearable.

PS. Why is this thread under "no dairy"???

PPS. You could contact your water company and ask them re the content of your tap water.

[Willynilly]

How does the reverse osmosis filter work, Willynilly? And don't say by reverse osmosis ;) I mean, is it installed in your water supply, or separate, like a jug? And what are its components?

It's the same as this one: http://www.healthywater.com.au/commercial/clickopen.cfm?page=specials.cfm

I run it off the tap and fill 15 litre bottles, which I invert into a ceramic water well. It takes about 3 hrs to fill a bottle.
RO plus 2 filters removes pretty much all contaminants (and there are plenty of them!)

[auntierozzi]

Under no-dairy because I was a bit tired this morning ;-) I just read about Eve's magnet idea which is very interesting.
We drink tap water although I bought a couple of calcium rich bottles of water. It seems to have a large amount of salt in it though...

[herbwormwood]

I avoid bottle water because I believe it is bad for the environment

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344959.ece

for why.
I do have a water filter which I use for making cold drinks or when I just want to drink water.
I use a Brita filter because they recycle cartridges if you Freepost them back to Brita.
When making hot drinks or cooking I either use boiled water or stright from the tap.
It stinks of chlorine but boiling it removes that.

[cvC]

I'm no expert, but this is a subject I have done some research on and, as to what a Reverse Osmosis filter is, it basically takes just about everything out except the H2O. It does remove things like fluoride, but also the minerals, and it has been claimed that this means that the "empty" water then leaches minerals out of the body, although other people say that it only takes the inorganic ones and other things that we want to get rid of anyway. Things like the calcium in the bottled water mentioned above are what I presume is meant by inorganic minerals and here is something from a fasting website that suggests that they are not assimilated in the way that for instance calcium from fruit is:

"The perceived value of mineral water is misleading because the inorganic minerals are like huge boulders to the cellular membranes, making them impossible to assimilate. Plants are able to break down the minerals from the soils, allowing them to be completely absorbable to the cells of the body."

http://www.freedomyou.com/fasting_book/water%20fasting.htm

Distilled water is also without the minerals and considered better than Reverse Osmosis water. What's put me off either is that I was drinking the cheap "table" water that some of the supermarkets do (or did) and ended up getting feelings in my kidneys that suggested it really wasn't good for them. Rightly or wrongly, I thought this was Reverse Osmosis water, which I didn't think was all that differnt to distilled water, but I have neverthless been drinking the distilled ("purified") water that is available at a local chemist for about ten days after finding even spring water too heavy for me and, so far, it feels okay and maybe even that it's doing me some good. Here is something from a useful and interesting webpage about distilled water and which deals with the leaching issue:

"Question: I have heard that distilled water leaches minerals from our cells. Is that true?

Answer: If, in this case, "leaching" implies that the distilled water acts against the body's best interests in removing useful minerals from our cells, this assumption is incorrect. Water in its pure distilled form is only good; it is inert and cannot act on the body. Distilled water can never force out essential body elements. By virtue of its ultra low viscosity, distilled water efficiently transports wastes and stores of toxins, including harmful inorganic minerals, out of the cells, tissues and bones, for elimination via sweat, respiration, urination, etc. So, when we drink only distilled water, we are assisting our body's ability to eliminate toxins."

http://www.livingnutrition.com/water.html

Here is a page I've found where one can read about a cheaper water distiller costing about £200 and a more expensive one costing nearly £900:

http://www.meaningoflife.i12.com/shop-distiller.htm

Here is a link to information about one available from raw-food "Shazzy's" Detox your World and I don't know to what extent the plastic comes into contact with the water on these cheaper ones:

http://www.detoxyourworld.com/acatalog/distiller_deluxe.html

I intend to persevere with distilled water for at least the time being, but for those interested and who don't want the minerals taken out of their water, here is a link to a site that sells the Wellness filter that was originally developed for the Japanese Olympic team - I don't know what protection if any it provides against fluoride:

http://www.wellnessfilter.com/about/index.asp

[Willynilly]

I'm no expert, but this is a subject I have done some research on and, as to what a Reverse Osmosis filter is, it basically takes just about everything out except the H2O. It does remove things like fluoride, but also the minerals, and it has been claimed that this means that the "empty" water then leaches minerals out of the body, although other people say that it only takes the inorganic ones and other things that we want to get rid of anyway.

OMG! Something else to worry about!
Thanks for reminding me about this issue as it's something I'd thought about and meant to research, but never got around to (being an Olympic class procrastinator!) :)

[Seaside]

I distill my own water, cvC. I use a powdered calcium/magnesium supplement to remineralize it, and raise its pH, but I don't think that is entirely necessary. The trouble with reverse osmosis is how much unusable water is generated. You end up with more unusable than usable water, and if you don't have a garden, or some other use for the water that contains an even higher concentration of chemicals and salts than what you started out with, its pretty wasteful.

[steven1222]

For at least two years, most of my consumption of liquids has been in the form of bottled spring water.

There seem to be some problems with the article that was linked to a few posts ago:

From http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344959.ece
It costs 10,000 times more to create the bottled version than it does to produce tap water, say scientists.
In that case, the water utility companies make unfairly high profits, because bottled water costs me less than 10,000 times as much as tap water would.

Huge resources are needed to draw it from the ground, add largely irrelevant minerals, and package and distribute it - sometimes half-way around the world. The plastic bottles it comes in take 1,000 years to biodegrade, and in industrialised countries, bottled water is no more pure and healthy than what comes out of the tap.

Not all bottled water has added minerals or comes from an exotic source. I do not drink such 'water.' I also send the plastic bottles to a recycling facility, so they do not harm the environment. People say that tap water is as pure and healthy as bottled water, but I was once poisoned by tap water. (During one morning, after consuming nothing except one cup of tap water, I released a grainy red solid substance, mainly through my nose. That caused me to switch to bottled water.)

[Roxy]

Just thought I'd post this interesting link I found about the U.S. drinking water:
http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_health_news_details.asp?channel_id=131&relation_id=1883&news_channel_id=131&news_id=24659

[snivelingchild]

That's why reverse osmosis is my friend.

[Zorillo]

I found this website: freshwaterfilter.com Look what is says about when you take a shower!

[Mahk]

From Abby's link:

"The Dangers!http://www.freshwaterfilter.com/WaterinHands1.jpgThe steam from hot mains water contains vapourised chlorine (bleach) and other chemicals. In an enclosed shower,you
can absorb through the lungs and skin, more chlorine than if you drunk eight glasses of the same water. Typical symptoms are burning eyes, brittle hair and skin irritation."

This is pure scaremongering if you ask me. You can find about a billion other web sites making the same general claim and just like this one they all "conveniently" have a link to buy a water filter product.

"Typical symptoms are burning eyes, brittle hair and skin irritation."

Silly me. I've always thought it was the soap and shampoo's fault; seems it's really the just water itself.:p

edit to add: [Swimming pool water is another matter entirely because it has levels that are off the chart higher in chlorine content.]

[snivelingchild]

Actually, taking a bath is about equal to drinking a gallon of water, in regards to what your skin absorbs. It varies, but your skin absorbs more things from the water when it is warm, since your pores open up more for your skin to breathe.

If your area has a ridiculously high chlorine and heavy metal count like mine (You can SMELL the chlorine from a glass of water, and I actually got fibromyalgia-like tenderness from heavy metals from drinking it for a couple of months, but I'm sure the heavy metals are from my pipes, not the water supply), then a bath or shower filter can be a wonderful idea.

Mahk, it depends on your area. I never use shampoo, conditioner, or soaps on any kind, so when I travel, I can really tell the difference in water quality. In some areas, I can't even get a brush through my hair after washing it in some icky water, since it's so sticky.

[bryzee86]

Mahk, it depends on your area. I never use shampoo, conditioner, or soaps on any kind, so when I travel, I can really tell the difference in water quality. In some areas, I can't even get a brush through my hair after washing it in some icky water, since it's so sticky.

Good luck when you come to London!

Seriously though, the water here is clean but REALLY hard. Towels squeak against your skin, and your hair gets really knotty.

[Mahk]

Sniv, sorry your water is bad where you live. You can actually smell the chlorine? Yikes! That sounds terrible. I guess I'm lucky I've never lived anywhere that had such conditions. I think using water filters are a good idea overall and are much cheaper than buying bottled "spring" waters for all of us but I don't like marketers that use scare tactics like: "If you don't use our product you will burn your eyeballs out, your hair will fall out, and you will get skin rashes". That was the point I was trying to make.

I once lived in Woodstock, NY (yes, the town the famous festival/concert got its name from, although it actually took place miles away in Bethel, NY) and the town had a problem with asbestos in the water supply. Ugh. The only study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15820729) I could find on it seems to conclude that we are in the clear, but who knows.

[Roxy]

The water smells of chlorine where I live to. It's one of the reasons I don't drink tap water. Also, my blonde hair has been known to get a tinge of green to it, because of the amount of chlorine in our water. This is from showering and washing my hair with regular tap water. I don't swim, so it's certainly not swimming pool chlorine.

[Astrid]

Good luck when you come to London!

Seriously though, the water here is clean but REALLY hard. Towels squeak against your skin, and your hair gets really knotty.

I was in London for a week in october, and I got a rash over my whole body. :eek: But I guess I'm spoilt, the water in Norway is very good - clean and low in chlorine and other nasty stuff. :bigsmile:

[herbwormwood]

Most regions in the UK have quite a bit of chlorine in the tap water.
If this bothers you, you can either boil the water to remove the chlorine or fill a jug and leave it to stand. The chlorine will evaporate out of the water.