I have just purchased a, water bottle that promises to remove chlorine as well as lead, mercury, copper, nickel, cadmium, arsenic, antimony and other soluble heavy metal ions. The reason for this will easily become apparent if you read on. The facts given have been taken from Jon Barrons book:- Lessons from the Miracle Doctors: A Step-By-Step Guide to Optimum Health and Relief from Catastrophic Illness

Clean water for drinking, bathing, and growing food is one of the most precious commodities on the planet. Unknowingly, virtually everyone in the world now drinks tap water that is polluted by pharmaceutical residues, biofilm, and other contaminants—not to mention adulterated with known carcinogens such as chlorine and fluoride. Why is clean water so important? Quite simply, it’s essential for life. And the sad fact is that most people just don’t get enough.

When you look at the big picture, authorities have done a remarkable job in providing “clean” water for most developed countries. Water-borne epidemics such as cholera are almost unheard of in the developed world. On the other hand, acknowledging what has been accomplished does not mean that we should close our eyes to the problems that exist. Drinking water in Europe and throughout the rest of the world is little different, and in many cases even worse. On average, looking at drinking water in the United States currently it contains over 2,100 toxic chemicals that are known to cause cancer, cell mutation, and nervous disorders. This is not particularly surprising considering that there are close to 100,000 chemicals now in everyday use—with over 1,000 new ones added every year. In fact, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States industries generate some 79 million pounds of toxic waste each year that is not disposed of properly. What is probably more surprising to most people, though, is that 53 million Americans unknowingly drink tap water that is polluted by faeces, radiation, or other contaminants, according to the EPA. Also, some 45 million people drink water contaminated with the parasite Cryptosporidium, which killed more than 100 people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1993. And over half of all Americans drink water that has been used at least once before! (You probably shouldn’t think about this particular statistic too long if you have any tendency toward a weak stomach.) Each year, at least 400,000 cases of illness in the U.S. can be attributed to contaminated water.

So contaminants what might be in the water

Chlorine Chlorine is the primary disinfectant used to purify drinking water. Let’s make it absolutely clear that we should not advocate eliminating chlorine from the purification process. That would make no sense, because chlorination controls many water-borne diseases, including typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery. However, it should be understood that: •Chlorine is one of the most toxic substances known. It does everything from drying your skin and destroying your hair to wiping out the beneficial bacteria in your colon. • The byproducts of chlorination (such as chloroform, trihalomethane, dichloro-acedic acid, and MX), which are found in drinking water, are all proven carcinogens. • According to the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality, the cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93 percent higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine. There is a higher incidence of cancer of the oesophagus, rectum, breast, and larynx and a higher incidence of Hodgkin’s disease among those drinking chlorinated water. A January 2007 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who drank chlorinated water were at 35 percent greater risk of bladder cancer than those who didn’t, and those who spent time in swimming pools, showers, and baths boosted their bladder cancer risk by 57 percent. Chlorine has been strongly implicated as a major factor in the onset of atherosclerosis and its resulting heart attacks and strokes. Chlorine in your drinking water devastates beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract, leading to a state of dysbiosis and a severely compromised immune system. • By the same mechanisms that chlorine narrows blood vessels that feed the heart, it also narrows the blood vessels that feed the brain. Consequently, chlorine has been implicated as a major factor in the onset of senility. There’s no question that the use of chlorine in drinking water has helped stop the spread of many virulent water-borne diseases. On the other hand, there’s also no question that chlorine in our drinking water presents serious long-term health implications. The bottom line on chlorine is that it needs to remain part of the water purification process for now, but you need to remove it from your water once it reaches your house before you drink it or bathe in it.
Fluoride At the risk of appearing to be a Luddite, let’s take a look at the use of fluoride in drinking water. Exactly what is water fluoridation? In fact, all water contains some natural fluoride. Fluoridation, however, is the process of adjusting the level of fluoride in the water supply upwards to theoretically protect against tooth decay. This concentration varies from 0.7 to 1.2 parts per million (ppm). “Organic” fluoride is present naturally in soil, water, plants, and many foods (tea, for example, is an extremely high source of fluoride—even when made with un-fluoridated water). However, the “industrial” fluoride used in water fluoridation is not organic fluoride, it is a toxic waste product. Fluoride is a potent toxin (used as a pesticide for roaches, ants, and rats) that accumulates in the body (about 50 percent a day for adults and 75 percent a day for children). Each exposure stays in your body and adds to the accumulated levels. And that’s the key, because we are constantly exposed to high levels of fluoride other than in our water. It is in our toothpaste, which can double the level of fluoride in the blood within five minutes of being used, just from the amount absorbed through the cheeks and gums. It is sprayed on our food—apples and grapes are particularly high in fluoride for this reason. It is present in pharmaceutical drugs ranging from birth control pills to antibiotics. It is in sodas, which are manufactured from fluoridated water. Once you look at the scope of the problem, you realise there is no way in the world to determine what your fluoride intake is—just that it’s far higher than is healthy. The devastating, toxic effects of fluoride are well documented by mainstream organisations. Numerous articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association challenging the safety of fluoridation. The Pasteur Institute in France and the Nobel Institute in Sweden have caused fluoride to be banned in their respective countries because the health risks from using fluoride far outweigh any possible benefit. Fluoridation is also banned in most of Western Europe, Finland, Chile, and Japan. Health problems associated with fluoride include the following: • Up to a 39 percent increase in various cancers, including an astounding 80 percent increase in rectal cancer. Scientists at the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences and the EPA have come out against fluoridation because they have confirmed that it does not reduce tooth decay and there is clear evidence that fluoride causes cancer. • Destruction of the immune system. • Inhibition of blood enzymes and blood cell production. • Genetic changes in sperm and in other cells. • A dramatic increase in heart-related deaths. • Brittle bones. One of the claims for fluoride is that it helps build bones, a claim so deliberately misrepresentation of the truth that it borders on the criminal. Yes, it is true that some studies confirm that fluoride builds thicker bones, but it is a gross misrepresentation to cite those studies without also mentioning that fluoride makes bones more brittle.3 And there are numerous studies that have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing a significant increase in hip fractures in areas with fluoridated water.4 In addition, a 1991 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reported that water fluoride was correlated with more than double the hip fracture rates compared to areas with un-fluoridated water. Chronic fatigue. • Gastrointestinal disturbances. • Increase in infant mortality and miscarriages. • Skin rashes after bathing. • Dizziness. • Vision problems, including blindness. • Mottled teeth. Also, new research has revealed that fluoride in drinking water makes the aluminium that we ingest more bio-available. In the presence of fluoride, more aluminium crosses the blood-brain barrier and is deposited in the brain. The combination of aluminium and fluoride causes the same pathological changes in brain tissue that we see in Alzheimer’s patients. Now, we’re not saying that aluminium/fluoride is the cause of Alzheimer’s—that would be premature. But it might be prudent to limit your exposure until we know more one way or the other. Does anyone have the right to force such a potentially toxic substance into your drinking water for no proven benefit? (At least with toothpaste, you have a choice to buy a non-fluoride brand.) There are now at least ten studies that prove as fluoride intake goes up, so does tooth decay! There is no reasonable justification for the use of fluoride in water. If you can, keep it out of your community’s water supply. If it’s already there, make sure you remove it before drinking or bathing in it.

Biofilm which is found on the inside of water pipes and on the inside surfaces of office water coolers (where the water bottle sits on top of the cooler) is the accumulated sludge comprised of corrosion products from the pipes themselves and colonies of bacteria, viruses, and algae present in the water. Bacteria in biofilms form large, organized colonies and can exhibit unique properties. Some strains of E. coli, for example, are up to 2,400 times more resistant to chlorine when found in biofilms than when found floating free in water. Once established, biofilms are difficult to remove. In addition, biofilm contributes to further pipe corrosion and can deplete the chlorine used to disinfect drinking water. Some authorities consider biofilm to be a “tempest in a teapot,” while others consider it to be a major health crisis in the making. Either way, you can be sure you’ll hear much more about it over the next few years.

Pharmaceutical Residues The prevalence of pharmaceuticals in water is nothing new. What has changed, though, is our ability to detect trace amounts of these contaminants in the water. We are now finding pharmaceuticals such as heart medication, steroids, synthetic hormones, and antidepressants in river systems and groundwater used for drinking supplies where we never detected them before. During 1999–2000, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted the first nationwide investigation of the presence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic contaminants in over 100 streams in some thirty states. Ninety-five contaminants were targeted, including antibiotics, prescription and nonprescription drugs, steroids, and hormones. Eighty-two contaminants were found in at least one sample, 80 percent of the streams tested positive for one or more contaminants, and 75 percent had two or more contaminants. And 13 percent contained an astounding twenty or more targeted contaminants. There is no widespread treatment used by municipal water plants that removes these contaminants. Once these drugs enter the water supply, you end up drinking them unless you remove them yourself at home. Are the levels significant? Probably not significant enough to produce acute effects, but more than likely significant enough to produce subtle behavioral and reproductive changes. It’s worth noting that a 2005 U.S. Geological Survey found that in some Potomac River tributaries nearly all of the male smallmouth bass caught were abnormal “intersex” “intersex” fish. So maybe the effects are not so subtle after all! Don’t Drink Tap Water With all due respect for the great job performed by water departments in all of the states and cities, you still shouldn’t drink tap water. It may not kill you immediately, but it will compromise your health over time. Tap water, well water, and bottled water are all suspect. Instead, drink filtered or distilled water. And if you’re on the road and you’re thirsty, picking up some bottled water at a convenience store is a better alternative than drinking from the water fountain or buying coffee or soda. But keep in mind, bottled water is fundamentally a crap shoot—you never know what contamination level you’re going to get. Even bottled distilled water is suspect. While distillation removes all impurities from water at the time of distillation, contamination can occur during bottling, packaging, storage, and handling. If available, choose bottled water with the “sterile” label, which means that the water has been sterilized after bottling. WORRY ABOUT THE WATER YOU BATHE IN As it turns out, it’s not enough just to worry about the water you drink—the water you bathe and shower in is equally, if not more, important. Your skin is more than just a shrink-wrap to cover your body. It is your largest organ, weighing in at around six pounds. Stretched out, it averages about 20 square feet. Your skin is a major organ of transportation in your body. It moves wastes such as sweat and carbon dioxide out of your body, and it moves vital nutrients such as oxygen and moisture into your body. As an organ of transportation, the skin can easily let in harmful substances (pesticides, hormones, etc.) as well as beneficial substances, if you are not careful. As the most visible organ in your body, it serves as a “canary in the coal mine,” constantly indicating the state of your overall health. If your skin is dried up, wrinkled, gray, and generally unhealthy in appearance, it is a strong indicator that all of the other less visible organs in your body (heart, liver, kidneys, etc.) are very likely seriously compromised as well. Your skin is composed of two basic layers. The external layer is called the epidermis. Before any substance can enter the body, it must first pass through the tough outer layer of the epidermis. This is the skin’s major barrier, consisting of tightly-packed dead skin cells and roughly about the thickness of tissue paper (except on the soles of the feet and palms of the hands, where it is generally much thicker). So many dead cellsare constantly being lost from this layer that it is totally replaced about every five weeks. By the age of 70 each of us has shed about 40 pounds of dead skin. The inner layer, the dermis, is generally between 1.5–2.0 millimeters thick. Here, a rich field of blood and lymphatic vessels can quickly carry any toxic substance that reaches it throughout the body. In one square inch of skin, there are 625 sweat glands, 90 oil glands, 19 million cells, 19 feet of blood vessels, and 19,000 sensory cells. Our skin is not the impervious barrier that we were led to believe in during our school science classes. For example, you absorb more chlorine during a 15-minute hot shower than you do drinking 8 glasses of that same water throughout the day. Actually, when you shower, you absorb more chlorine through your lungs as vapor produced by the small droplets of hot water than you do through your skin. So much for that nice safe feeling you had drinking bottled filtered water…. Just for fun, stop by your local swimming pool supply store and pick up a chlorine test kit. Fill a glass with some of your local tap water and test it with the kit. The water will change color according to how much chlorine there is in the water. Now, fill up another glass with water from the tap. This time, soak your hand in the water for 60 seconds before testing. Notice how the water shows no chlorine. In just 60 seconds, you absorbed all of the chlorine in the water into your body through your hand. The absorption factor is that dramatic. (The younger you are, the more absorbent your skin tends to be. And women should take special note that breast tissue is the most absorbent tissue in the body. Soak your breast in the same water, and it will clean out all of the chlorine in just 20 seconds.) The trick is that if you want to make sure you are not absorbing toxic substances into your body, you have to avoid contact with the skin. That means that in addition to the chlorine in your bathing water and swimming pool, you need to be concerned about a wide range of toxins. If you must handle them at all, then always wear gloves when handling items such as pesticides, household cleaners, hair dyes, solvents, and paints.

INCREASING BIOAVAILABILITY WITH MAGNETICS Although all water consists of the same basic hydrogen and oxygen molecules (H20), water nevertheless varies according to how these molecules bond together to form “water molecule groups.” To put it simply, it is in the size of these groupings that water differs. The smaller the groupings, the more bio-available the water is—that is, the more INCREASING BIO-AVAILABILITY WITH MAGNETICS Although all water consists of the same basic hydrogen and oxygen molecules (H20), water nevertheless varies according to how these molecules bond together to form “water molecule groups.” To put it simply, it is in the size of these groupings that water differs. The smaller the groupings, the more bio available the water is—that is, the more easily it is able to pass through cell walls and to circulate through your body as a whole. What holds water molecules together in clusters is surface tension. This is what you see when you wash your car and the water beads up in droplets on the hood. When washing your car, you use detergent to break that surface tension, which makes the water “wetter” and better able to clean. Obviously, you can’t use detergent to improve the bio availability of your drinking water. But you can use magnetics. Applying a magnetic field to your drinking water breaks its surface tension, making it wetter and more usable by your body. In addition, there’s a strong secondary benefit—applying a magnetic field to water can raise its pH (acid/base balance), depending on which minerals are present in the water.

So My new water bottle is now to be kept on my magnetised cup holder..