LOVE WATER; LOVE EARTH; LOVE LIFE
About 14 billion years ago, first there was light, and then there was gas. Some of it eventually cooled, resulting 4.5 billion years ago in the emergence of our unique planet earth, surrounded by water and gas. On it millions of species evolved until humans emerged, multiplied and mastered the elements to create, not quite the paradise intended, but rather a place too hot, too polluted and too conflicting for comfort.
Could be you are a parent, worried about your children’s health, or an individual with a conscience about your role in the progressive deterioration of your earth home. You may be concerned about your own medical bills or merely want to relax when you open the tap and pour water into a glass to quench your thirst. Chances are you’ve heard about the harmful chemicals and organisms in municipal tap water, or about the misleading belief that bottled water is healthier than tap water. You may have leaned towards bottled water until you were bombarded with the impact that bottling has on CO2 levels and on the cost of every sip of bottled water to your pocket (on average 1900 times more than municipal). The theory that drinking high pH water or de-ionized water keeps you healthy may also have crossed your path.
So, what do you believe? Whom do you believe? And what do you do about your chosen beliefs? I investigated the issue and arrived at a combination of common sense and science- supported solutions, varying from the simple and inexpensive, to the complex and more costly. First, I absorbed some basic facts.
80%
of the earth’s surface is covered with water. 3% of it is fresh of which 75%
is frozen. Less than 1% of all the water on the earth is available fresh water for drinking. If all the water were in a gallon jug, the available drinking water would constitute one table spoon.
Ultimately all the water on earth dropped down from the sky as rain, ran over the earth in rivers or streams and collected in dams and seas. En route over and through the ground, water dissolves chemicals and lands up at a pH of between 4.0 and 9.0 (below 7.2 is acid while above is alkaline). The lower the concentrations of acid-generating gases in the air (soxes, noxes and coxes) and the less contact with acid-generating substances in the ground, the less risk of the water’s becoming acidic. Acid water is corrosive and is able to dissolve and carry with it potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) such as cadmium, lead and chromium in significant concentrations. Water utilities use chemicals to adjust the pH of municipal water, to make it less corrosive, to help purify it (coagulation and precipitation then filtration), to adjust its hardness or softness and to disinfect it (chlorine, ozone, UV light).
