The Truth of Water - Answers

Kelly from Iowa writes:

The Ben Franklin plumber came by to do my annual water heater check. His company offers a Nature’s Miracle water filtration system. Information can be found at www.betterwaternow.com

Is this one of those snake oil water filtration systems that I shouldn’t watch out for?

Hi Kelly, thanks for writing in.

I had a look at the website for the Natures Miracle water filtration system. But before I get to that, there are some questions to ask yourself first.

Are you not satisfied with your current tap water?  Is there a smell/odour that’s bothering you?  Do you feel it’s unsafe for any reasons?

If you don’t have any issues with hard water when washing or doing laundry, don’t notice any bad odours or tastes from your municipal tap water, and drink it and cook with it without any second thoughts, then you don’t need any home water treatment.

It’s as simple as that.

What you should understand is that the USEPA, the American Water Works Association, the National Sanitation Foundation, the Ten States Standards and various governing bodies and other agencies work hard to ensure municipal tap water is safe.

Regulations are strict, and regular inspections by regulatory agencies ensure compliance.

The bottom line is that your tap water is safe. ANY home water system only improves the aesthetics of your tap water.

This natures miracle filtration system uses activated carbon, quartz (sand) and some sort of ion exchange resin.  It’s some pretty basic technology packaged up nicely and probably priced much too high because of the clever marketing packaging.

I would watch out for any product that uses fear mongering tactics. Claims that municipal tap water is chalk full of all sorts of bad things that will make your body break out in more cancer cells than regular cells is much too hard a sell and is not true at all.

Most of the things they claim are in your tap water (if they were even there in the first place) would be removed by your treatment plant before getting to your house.  Treatment plants use things like advanced oxidation techniques and activated carbon filters to ensure there are no volatile organics, pesticides, things of that nature in your water.

If there’s any lead in your water, this actually comes from the plumbing in your house. Old plumbing, old fixtures and old solder contain lead that can leach out into the water over a prolonged period of contact. This can be remedied by running your water for a minute or two to draw a fresh supply into your house.  And that’s only if your plumbing is sufficiently old.

Chlorine is indeed an issue, but not at the 0.5 to 1.o part per million concentrations carried in most distribution systems.  Even if this were an issue, when drinking your water your stomach acid neutralizes the chlorine. If you think it’s a problem, your cheapest solution is to keep water in a jug in the fridge.  It won’t take long with air exposure for the chlorine to evaporate.

To wrap this up, your plumber is trying to sell you something you don’t really need. If there are any specific issues you are having with your water, I’d be happy to discuss them with you and point you in the direction of something that would fulfill your specific needs.

I hope I’ve answered your question. If you have any other questions or would like further clarification, please do not hesitate to write in again.

In today’s world, everybody wants to sell you everything.  You, as a consumer, must be a smart and savvy shopper to see through propaganda. You need to understand what you need and what you don’t, and see through salespeople who sometimes lie or bend the truth to make that sale.

Unfortunately, this is sometimes hard to do. Not everyone is an expert on everything, and that is certainly true of water.  Water is one of those things that some unscrupulous sales people like to manipulate to their advantage, since it is crucial to your health and diet.

To bolster sales numbers, there are a number of people going door to door.   Some people are simply trying to sell legitimate products to improve the aesthetics of your municipally treated water, like softeners.

To help you identify what is what, I’ve come up with this simple checklist for you to follow.

1. Municipally treated water is safe.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you and trying to sell you something you don’t need. Don’t let them in the door.  If there was a problem with the municipally treated water supply, you’d receive either a “boil water order” or a “seek alternate supply order” from your local municipality or health unit via the local media.

2. Don’t let them take a water sample or “do a test”

The only people who will ask you to take a water sample or do a water test is your local municipal water department or local health unit.  Anyone else will use the opportunity to try to “trick” you into thinking your water is bad by various scams. They might add water to a vial, have it turn black due to a small amount of reagent in the vial, and claim this proves there is “E.Coli” or “lead” or some other harmful substance or microbe.  This is complete falsehood.

3. Ask for their I.D.

If they claim to be from the local municipality or health department, ask for their official identification.  Any member of the local government will have this and will have no problem showing it to you.

4. Call your Municipality and Ask!

If after seeing the identification of the people you aren’t convinced it’s for real, call your municipality! Ask them to wait outside while you make the call to verify who it is.

5. You have the right to say no.

Unless someone has a warrant or martial law is called, no one has the right to enter your home without your approval. If you have any doubts in your mind, tell them no and close the door. This is your right.

6. Interested? By Invite Only.

If you are interested in investing in home water treatment, call the sales company and invite them to your home for an assessment.  If someone drops by and they are reputable, they will have no problem giving you a card, leaving and coming back when it’s convenient for you.  If they try to get overly pushy and try to sell you something now, ask them to leave.  They may claim one time deals or last years model for real cheap right now, but it’s not worth it.  When dealing with home water treatment, you want a reputable company with reputable products.  Make sure you get that.

Remember, unless your municipality tells you directly, your water is safe. No private company needs to test your water, and any reputable company will do so only at your request. Don’t let a door to door salesman into your home to pressure you into buying something.  Good salespeople make appointments.  Above all, ask for I.D. if they claim their with the municipality. It’s your right to the truth.

Mr. Barraza from California writes:

Is distilled water safe to drink?

The answer is yes and no.

Distilled water is very similar to reverse osmosis water.  Both techniques leave nothing but pure H2O behind, for the most part.  What happens then is because the dissolved minerals are gone, the dissolved CO2 is allowed to combine with some H2O to form carbonic acid, bringing the pH of the water down to about 6.

The other thing is that water is an excellent solvent.  It will dissolve trace amounts of just about anything given the opportunity, like a sponge.  Think of your tap water like a sponge full of minerals that cannot take any more.  Distilled water is like a dry sponge looking for minerals.

When the distilled water enters your body, the water in your body with a mix of dissolved minerals will pass some over to the distilled water to balance the ratio.  It works very much like air temperature, where warm air will pass its energy onto colder air until an equilibrium is reached.

Eventually, drinking too much of this water over a long period of time can deplete your body of much needed minerals and electrolytes.

While drinking the occasional glass of distilled water won’t harm you, but it can be a chronic problem if drank repeatedly over a long period of time, especially to women who are at risk for or suffer from osteoporosis.

Sally from Burford writes:

I don’t understand why my ice cubes are cloudy.  The water is crystal clear when I fill  the tray, yet when they freeze they become cloudy.  Why is this?

Hi Sally, thanks for writing in.

Clear tap water isn’t just water, it’s actually full of stuff.  This stuff is dissolved minerals, things like calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese - some of the good stuff you’d find on your multivitamin label that nature provides in water.

The reason you can’t see all this stuff is that it’s dissolved, it becomes a part of the water.  The natural property of water is that the warmer it is, the more stuff it’s able to dissolve. The colder the water is, the less it is able to dissolve.

When you freeze water and change its state from a liquid to a solid, you also lessen the ability of the water to hold all the minerals it previously held as a liquid.  As a result, all of the minerals that were previously dissolved are rejected and form a solid precipitate in the water.

As the water freezed solid, it holds the precipitate inside the cube, giving it a couldy appearance.

I hope that answers your question.