The Water Filter Lady's Blog

Happy Chinese New Year! In Chinese Astrology, 2012 is the Year of the  Water Dragon, and the two-week worldwide celebration kicks off  Jan. 23.

The Year of the Water Dragon

By: the Firepig

Hail mighty Dragon! Your arrival is most welcome. People and businesses around the world have had difficult times over the last few years, so the good luck you bring is timely and needed.

The Dragon is in fact the major symbol of good fortune in Chinese Astrology. The Dragon constellation, for example, is accorded the honor of being the guardian of the Eastern sky. According to tradition the Dragon brings in the Four Blessings of the East: wealth, virtue, harmony and longevity.

Indeed, of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac the Dragon is the most special, as it is a mystical being rather than an earthly animal. It is sometimes called a karmic sign. In this context that means we can expect grand things this year. Bigger than life is very much a Dragon thing. There will be spectacular successes as well as crash and burn failures.

To get an idea of the magnitude of events that might occur in 2012 it is helpful to look back on the last time the Water Dragon made an appearance, the year 1952. In February Elizabeth II became Queen of the United Kingdom, beginning a reign that still continues today.  The UK was responsible for another amazing feat of longevity. In November Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap opened in London, eventually setting the record for the longest, continuously running production of a play in history. It is not really cause for celebration, but in 1952 the United States introduced two of the most destructive weapons in history, the hydrogen bomb and the B-52 bomber. On a more positive note, the field of medicine saw the first successful separation of Siamese twins at Mt Sinai hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. And, to make the point that significant bad things can also happen in a Dragon year, in December a killer fog descended on London, one result being the invention of the word smog.

Throughout history parents in China have hoped to have children during Dragon years. What famous people will be born in 2012, and how will they change the world? The year 1952 claims world leaders including Vladimir Putin and Lee Hsien Loong.  In the world of sport Jimmy Connors dominated the world of tennis and became one of the greatest players ever, while football coach Bill Belichick has struck fear into the hearts of opponents, winning four super bowls in the process. And, Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List, has revolutionized the world of advertising.  In fact Dragons dominate the world of business. CEOs born in 1952 have run Coca Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Alberto-Culver, Time Warner, Colgate- Palmolive, Viacom, UPS, Radio Shack, Clorox, Tiffany & Company, Hershey, ITT, Macy’s, Xerox and Walgreens to name a few.

Of course not everyone can grow up to be President of Singapore or CEO of Coca Cola. The Dragon, however, is a reminder everyone has dreams, and that the time to pursue them is now. Some may be as ridiculous as those of Don Quixote, comic hero of the famous Spanish novel. Others may change the world, or at least your life. Now is thus the time to take a chance, to reach for the proverbial brass ring, to not only dream but act on that impossible dream. The Dragon gives you the best chance to make it come true.

A word about timing. The Dragon is associated with Spring. This means you need to get off to a fast start in 2012 as things are going to happen early in the year. Hopefully you used some of the quiet time last year to plan. When the train leaves the station, you want to be on it! Good luck and opportunities to make money could come very soon after lunar New Year or Tet.
The Dragon is not, however, just about money. There will also be fireworks when it comes to love and romance. New love can blossom or an old one rekindle on the spur of the moment. It is relevant here to note the Dragon is closely associated with festivals and celebrations, as exemplified by its status as the star of New Year’s parades. That makes 2012 the perfect year for engagements, weddings and baptisms.

A word of caution. The Dragon is after all a mythical beast. And, after the parade is over, the Dragon is put away for the next occasion. It thus suggests happenings of a transitory nature. So enjoy that new love, but understand it is more than likely just to be a fleeting romance.

So far it’s been all about the Dragon. The fact that 2012 is a Water year is extremely important and demands consideration. That’s because Water nourishes the Dragon’s fixed element, Wood, giving this Dragon a big advantage over the rest of the breed when it comes to bringing good luck. The same holds true for accomplishment. This Dragon is actually going to realize some of those big dreams!

There is an even greater reason to rejoice. Ever since 1996 the year element has been in a destructive relationship with the fixed element of the animal sign. That is the longest unfavorable period in the 60 year cycle of Chinese Astrology, and that means a scarcity of good luck. The year 2012 is thus blessed not only by the lucky Dragon but also the end of that destructive cycle.

Furthermore, under the influence of the Dragon it is a yang year. Yang Water is like a flowing river rather than a stagnant lake. Things will move, ideas flow, creativity abound, economies boom, and love blossom in this environment. It is likely to be an exciting year indeed. Since this is a Water year, those people born in a Wood one will generally fare better than others of their animal sign, while those born in a Fire one are likely to do worse.  It’s also slightly negative for those born in an Earth year and mildly positive for Metal sign people. Finally, those born in a Water year will be in their element and do well if their animal sign is compatible with the Dragon.

Regardless of your sign, there will be significant upheavals in 2012. Soaring stock markets, natural disasters, and noteworthy, cultural and political developments will be more the norm than the exception. There will be celebrations of all kinds. And, good luck will be coming your way. Are you ready to fly with the Dragon?!

EWG News release

Human Carcinogen Found in Drinking Water Near Gas Drilling Ops

CONTACT: EWG Public Affairs 510-444-0973 x305, leeann@ewg.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 20, 2012

Washington, D.C. — The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s detection of arsenic, a known human carcinogen, barium and other contaminants in the well water of homes near natural gas drilling operations in Dimock Township, Pennsylvania, should prompt a nationwide investigation of drilling-linked water pollution.

“EPA and other officials must move quickly to ensure these families have an adequate source of clean water,” said Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel with Environmental Working Group. “This finding confirms what Dimock residents have said for months — that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection should have never allowed Cabot to end deliveries of clean water.”

Last month, EWG published a report called “Gas Drilling Doublespeak” that found that Dimock residents, among other people in gas-rich areas, were not warned of risks to their water supplies when they were approached to lease their land for drilling.

EPA officials in Philadelphia announced yesterday they would deliver clean water to the four affected households and conduct broader testing at about 60 more homes in south-central area Susquehanna County. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the Houston-based company that began drilling for gas in the area in 2008,  delivered water to the households under a 2010 consent agreement but stopped Nov. 30 after state regulators determined that Cabot had met its obligations.

According to an EPA action memo released yesterday, agency scientists found the four households’ well water contaminated with arsenic and other hazardous substances  “at levels that present a public health concern.”  Some of these “are not naturally found in the environment,” EPA officials said, and may have been released by drilling activities. Among the toxic substances found in the well water, according to the EPA:

• Arsenic, classified by the US government and World Health Organization as a known human carcinogen, an element sometimes found in “elevated concentrations” in groundwater because of drilling;

• Barium, a common constituent of drilling fluids; long-term ingestion at high levels can cause kidney damage;

• Phthalates, a synthetic plastic chemical and probable human carcinogen, according to EPA;

• Glycol compounds common in drilling fluids and associated with damage to kidneys, the nervous system, lungs, heart, testicular damage and anemia;

• Manganese, an naturally occurring element that can damage the nervous system at high levels;

• Phenol, found in some drilling fluids; at high levels can cause irregular heartbeat, liver damage and skin burns;

• Sodium, compounds found in some drilling fluids,  at high levels can cause high blood pressure.

Federal officials said that although the investigation has not been completed, they have concluded, based on samplings to date, that a “chronic health risk exists” for the wells in question.

“These results also show that the families ultimately need a permanent source of healthy water, which the state has so far failed to deliver,” Horwitt said. “Cabot should bear the cost of providing this, not the taxpayers.”

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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. http://www.ewg.org

Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Guide – Truth, Lies, Minerals & Your Health

Reverse osmosis water filters remove 90-99% of all contaminants from water, including inorganic minerals. In water filter comparison tests, reverse osmosis systems always beat standard carbon filters in the removal of harmful contaminants in both tap and well water. However, some critics say that this water is unnatural and is not good for human consumption. Is ultra clean water that is free of inorganic minerals good for human health?

Reverse Osmosis is a revolutionary water treatment technology that was first developed in the late 1950′s as a method of desalinating sea water. Also known as hyperfiltration, reverse osmosis is the process by which water molecules are forced through a 0.0001 micron semi-permeable membrane through the use of water pressure. This membrane allows only microscopic water molecules to pass through, filtering out almost everything else including 90-99% of all contaminants in the water.

Today this technology has earned its rightful status as the most convenient and thorough method to produce contaminant free clean water. It is used by many water and soda bottling plants and by many industries that require ultra-refined water in manufacturing. Reverse osmosis has also made its way into the residential sector and has become a popular under-the-counter water filtration system for many families. However there are some competitors in the water filtration market that argue against the use of reverse osmosis for drinking water and have spread many outrageous rumors against it online in the hopes of discrediting the technology.

Myth #1 – Reverse osmosis purified water is unhealthy to drink.

Truth: Reverse osmosis water is very clean and healthy to drink.

Reverse osmosis (RO) has been called unnatural water because of its purity. Detractors claim it is man-made and unhealthy and should only be used for industrial applications and not for human consumption. They say that RO water is too pure and clean to be good because such perfectly clean mineral-free water does not exist naturally on earth. However this type of water does exist, it’s called RAIN.

Rainwater is water that has been stripped of all minerals and is often one of the purest and cleanest water on earth. People have been drinking rainwater for thousands of years without any negative health effects. Only recently has rainwater been polluted by the industrial age and man’s pollution of the skies. In the absence of heavy natural or man-made air pollution, rainwater can be very pure and safe to drink. While rain water may absorb and pick-up some substances as it falls through the atmosphere, minerals are not one of them. Thus people have been drinking mineral-free water for thousands of years, which is very normal when you consider that nothing is more natural than mother nature’s life giving rain.

With the scientific research that has been done over the past 60 years on reverse osmosis water, none has ever documented any negative health effects from people drinking RO water. In fact, RO technology has also been extensively tested in the past by the US military and is approved for and highly used throughout the military as drinking water by the men and women in our armed forces.

Myth #2 – Reverse osmosis filters remove healthy minerals from water.

Truth: Reverse osmosis filters remove inorganic, unhealthy minerals from water.

RO systems do remove minerals from tap water. However, we humans get the vast majority of our minerals from the foods we eat, not from drinking water. For example, 1 glass of orange juice has the same amount of minerals as 30 gallons of tap water. You would also get more minerals from 1 vitamin tablet than you will from drinking a month’s supply of tap water.

Tap water contains only inorganic minerals which cannot be properly absorbed by our bodies. Human beings need organic minerals which are only available from living organisms like plants and vegetables and are easily absorbed by our systems. According to the WQA & WHO (Water Quality Association – World Health Organization) we get the vast majority of our minerals from food not from drinking water. The inorganic minerals found in water has little to no benefits to people and in fact can be very bad to our health.

It is estimated that over a 70-year lifespan, a person drinking tap or mineral water will be ingesting about 200 to 300 pounds of rock that their body cannot use. While most of these microscopic rock minerals will be eliminated from our bodies regularly, some will be stored in our tissues becoming toxic. The primary culprits are calcium salts and over time they can cause gallstones, kidney stones, bone & joint calcification, arthritis, and hardening and blocking our arteries.

The presence of other hard metal minerals (some are radioactive!) is suspected to cause other degenerative diseases as well including eye glaucoma, cataracts, hearing loss, emphysema, diabetes, obesity and cancer. These minerals available, especially in “hard” tapwater, are poorly absorbed, or rejected by cellular tissue sites, and, if not evacuated, their presence may cause arterial obstruction, and internal damage.(Dennison 1993, Muehling 1994, Banik 1989)

Reverse osmosis water purification simply delivers the cleanest, purest drinking water on the market. What about distilled water you say? Distillation systems are comparable in contaminant removal, however since many synthetic chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides and chlorine solutions have boiling points lower than water, these chemicals will vaporize and can be carried over into the product water container actually making the collected purified water even more concentrated in those particular chemicals. Distilled water systems also require very high energy costs to operate and are very slow in producing water.

Reverse osmosis is also the only purification system that can remove the majority of dangerous Pharmaceuticals & Drugs from our drinking water. According to AP news reports provided by this USA Today article & Fox News report – “Reverse Osmosis removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants”.

Reverse osmosis removes many contaminants that countertop and faucet carbon filters cannot including viruses, bacteria, pesticides, arsenic, fluoride, drugs, cryptosporidium, mercury, nitrates, microbes, heavy metals, all radioactive materials, and many more.

The lack of minerals in your water should not keep you up at night. (Just take a vitamin) The increasing amounts of chemicals, drugs and carcinogenic/radioactive minerals potentially found in tap water should!

Myth #3 – Reverse osmosis leaches minerals from the body.

Truth: Reverse osmosis water cannot leach minerals from the human body.

Water is called the universal solvent as it always “wants” to have substances dissolved in it. The purer the water, the more aggressive it becomes in attacking things that can dissolve. This doesn’t hurt the human body, because our physiology quickly obtains homeostasis using saliva, stomach fluids, etc. to equilibrate all bodily fluids.

Reverse Osmosis technology was created in the 1950s and has been scientifically tested in every conceivable way since then. There has never been any documented evidence to prove that reverse osmosis treated water can leach minerals from the human body. The US Navy has used water with less than 3 parts per million total dissolved solids (TDS) for more than 40 years, according to a 1993 Water Quality Association (WQA) report, which also said the Army’s field personnel drinks RO water.

In early July, 2008, the Brighton Standard Blade, a Colorado newspaper contacted the EPA at their readers request to find out if RO water leaches minerals. The EPA spokeswoman said that their organization does not support this idea. The WQA also rejects the idea that RO water can leach minerals in a 1993 report titled,’Consumption of Low TDS Water’. Their extensive research presented evidence that suggests water with low amounts of total dissolved solids (TDS), such as distilled water and reverse osmosis treated water has no ill effects on humans.

Water Technology Magazine also disagrees with this myth giving a list of sources that dispels the false water propaganda. Reverse osmosis water is very clean, and its purity will actually help improve the absorption of all nutrients including good organic minerals. No more ingesting of bad inorganic minerals (rocks) means the body will no longer be stressed and taxed with trying to absorb something that wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. Drinking water heavy in inorganic minerals is like putting random rocks from your back yard into your chicken soup. Considering the fact that some inorganic minerals are radioactive and others are toxic, you are literally playing Russian roulette with your health!

Myth #4 – Reverse osmosis filtration produces very acidic water with low pH

Truth: Reverse osmosis has little affect on water pH values.

Reverse osmosis purification may or may not reduce pH levels as it removes unhealthy inorganic minerals from tap water. Water pH is very complicated and pH levels vary constantly depending on a host of factors which can only be measured by water chemists and PhDs. The truth is, water pH levels will automatically change when it is ingested and comes into contact with the food in your stomach. Even on an empty stomach, your stomach acid alone is already several times more acidic than RO water (pH 6-8) with a pH level of 2.

The human body regulates pH levels constantly to find balance and equilibrium. Therefore under normal conditions it will always maintain a neutral 7.4 pH balance. Even eating very acidic foods (very low pH) only alters the body’s pH by a very tiny amount and only for a short time. The healthy body is very robust and it will restore homeostatic pH fairly quickly and easily. Soft drinks and sports drinks typically have a pH level of 2.5, orange juice has a 3 pH and coffee has a 4 pH level and we drink these beverages all the time without problems.

As long as you eat a well balanced diet which includes vegetables and fruits, you can pretty much drink whatever you want without ever worrying about your pH balance.

Myth #5 – Reverse osmosis wastes a lot of water.

Truth: Reverse osmosis uses some water to deliver quality and longevity.

For every gallon of clean water produced by a RO system, an average of 4 gallons of brine water is used and discarded. This brine (waste) water is constantly used by the system to clean the membrane and allows the filter to work effectively and last for many years. Remember, RO systems clean your water and remove thousands of unhealthy contaminants from tap water that countertop and faucet filters cannot.

Reverse osmosis brine water is the equivalent of an extra 3 to 4 toilet flushes a day. You actually waste more water each day when you wash your dishes or clothes than from a RO system. You will probably pay a extra 25 to 50 cents a month from RO waste water.Waste water from RO systems is actually pretty clean and similar to tap water in purity levels. It can be channeled for use in gardens watering plants or stored and used for other household applications. Water that flows down the sink is not wasted and can be recycled into clean water. Orange County, California already recycles their waste water, turning it back into their city tap water.

The truth is, there is no “new” water on this planet. All water is old water that has been recycled continuously for millions of years. We are actually drinking the same water that the dinosaurs drank, recycled obviously by Mother Nature.

Conclusion

Reverse osmosis water filters can remove thousands of organic, inorganic and chemical pollutants from tap water. The water is very clean and pure, protecting our health from chlorine, fluoride, arsenic and even pharmaceutical drugs. Reverse Osmosis systems are typically 4 to 5 stage systems that in addition to the RO membrane, also include a sediment filter and several carbon filter stages. This makes them much better at removing contaminants when compared to countertop, faucet and pitcher filters which use only 1 simple carbon filter. Reverse osmosis systems remove the heavy metals, radioactive materials, bacteria, viruses, fluoride, mercury, arsenic, nitrates, chemicals and drugs that standard countertop carbon filters cannot remove.

Reverse osmosis produces cleaner water which allows for the superior absorption of all nutrients by our bodies, including good organic minerals. No more ingesting of bad inorganic minerals (rocks) means the body will no longer be stressed and taxed with trying to absorb something that wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. Cleaner water will also improve the elimination of wastes at the cellular level and increase our body’s metabolic activity.

Source: Wise, Nicholas . Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Guide – Truth, Lies, Minerals & Your Health:Is Reverse Osmosis Treated Low Mineral Water Healthy and Safe to Drink? [Internet]. Version 25. Knol. 2011 Feb 24. Available from: http://knol.google.com/k/nicholas-wise/reverse-osmosis-water-filter-guide/sgs2u4d4tbid/2.

Related:

What Is Reverse Osmosis?

EWG Answers The Question “What can I do about fluoride in my water? “

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