H2O International SA

(Beeld – 2012-01-24)

Die water van Carolina is volgens die munisipaliteit geskik vir menslike gebruik, al dryf ’n laag geel, olierige vloeistof in water wat uit die dorpskrane kom.

Die dorpenaars kla al die afgelope twee weke oor die afsaksel in hul water.

Mnr. Mxolisi Gumede, bestuurder van watersake in die Albert Luthuli-munisipaliteit, wat Carolina bedien, het gesê daar is nie fout met die water nie.

“Ek gebruik en drink die water daagliks.”

Inwoners stem egter nie saam nie.

Mnr. Johan de Vos het gesê die afgelope twee weke is daar ’n geel jellieagtige afsaksel in die kraanwater.

“As jy die water in ’n glas gooi, is dit suiwer, maar ná ’n paar minute vorm dit ’n afsaksel. Die water ruik ook vreemd en is onsmaaklik.”

De Vos ry elke dag sowat 50 km van Carolina na sy ander huis in Hendrina om te gaan bad.

Die probleem met besmette water het glo vroeër die maand ontstaan toe werkers chemikalieë deurmekaar laat raak het.

’n Beeld-bron het gesê werkers het chemikalieë wat gewoonlik in die rioolaanleg gebruik word blykbaar omgeruil met dié wat vir watersuiwering gebruik word.

“As jy ’n paar druppels huishoudelike ontsmettingsmiddel in die water gooi, flokkuleer dit onmiddellik en vorm die geel laag.”

Gumede het gister bevestig dat probleme met watersuiwering op 11 Januarie ontstaan het.

“Die water was toe ondrinkbaar en ongeskik vir menslike gebruik. Ons het die gemeenskap hieroor ingelig.”

Hy wou egter nie bevestig of ’n omruiling van die chemikalieë tot die krisis bygedra het nie.

“Die departement van waterwese kyk ook na die situasie.”
 

by Joseph G. Hattersley

For References and full online article, please go to
http://www.orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2000/articles/2000-v15n02-p089.shtml

Article Summary

• Chlorine is in most cases used by law to make water safe to drink.
• It does not however get rid of all the potential harmfuls in the water, like parasites.
• Chlorine creates free radicals in the water.
• An excess of free radicals damages arteries and initiates cancer, among other kinds of harm.
• Chlorine also destroys “friendly” organisms lining the colon.
• It is the combination of chlorine and organic materials already in the water that produces cancer-causing by products.
• A sturdy showed that women who drank more than five glasses a day of tap water containing over 75 parts per billion (ppb) of THMs had a 9.5 percent risk of spontaneous abortion, i.e. miscarriage.
• An industrial chemist showed that chlorinated water alters and destroys unsaturated essential fatty acids (EFAs), the building blocks of human brains and central nervous systems.
• 
  See our Water Filters
• When chlorinated water is run through a hose there are “very tenacious, yellowish deposits chemically similar to arterial plaque”
• The residents of the small town of Roseto, Pennsylvania, had no heart attacks despite a fatty diet –until they moved away. After that, consuming the same diet, they had heart attacks.
• Chlorination spread throughout America in the second and third decades of this century, about 20 years before the increase of heart attacks.
• Autopsies on soldiers in Korea showed high levels of arterial clogging – The water that they had to drink in Korea was so heavily chlorinated that many could hardly tolerate it.
• Worse, warm water causes the skin to act like a sponge; and so one will absorb and inhale more chlorine in a ten-minute shower than by drinking eight glasses of the same water.
• 
  See our Shower Filters
• Chlorine in treated water can also cause allergic symptoms ranging from skin rash to intestinal symptoms to arthritis, and headaches.
• EPA tests have shown that in the water we drink, over 2,100 organic and inorganic chemicals including pesticides, heavy metals, radon,63 radioactive particles64 and parasitic organisms65 including cryptosporidium66,67 have been identified; 156 of them are pure carcinogens.
• 
  See our Whole House Filters
• The EPA called 129 contaminants found in water supplies "dangerous" singly, let alone in combination. Pesticides and other toxic wastes run off farmlands and pastures or are dumped by factories, pollute rivers and seep into underground aquifers.

Introduction

Federal regulations require chlorine treatment of the water supplied to urban and suburban areas of America and much of Canada from surface sources such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers, constituting about 75 percent of water consumed. Water from underground sources generally is not chlorinated unless it is supplemented by surface water. My hometown, Lacey, Washington, and some surrounding communities that are supplied water by Lacey, are fortunate to be among that group; I’d like to see that continue.

Chlorination is inferior water treatment on at least two counts. (1) Although it has greatly lowered infectious waterborne diseases in the U.S.A. and Canada, chlorination fails against a variety of water problems including parasites and can seriously harm people who use the water. (2) Its cost is unnecessarily high. As of 1996, Andover, Massachusetts’ new ozone treatment costs $83 per million gallons of purified water, only two-thirds as much as the old treatment process. The town saves $64,000 annually in chemicals costs alone,1 and uses less electricity.

Chemical Background

Highly reactive chlorine is one of the industrial waste products profitably disposed of using people as garbage cans,8 then on into the environment. Chlorine oxidizes lipid contaminants in the water. It thus creates free radicals,2 (highly reactive atomic or sub-atomic particles lacking an electron) and oxysterols (formed when lipid and oxygen molecules combine).9,10

To function we require moderate numbers of both free radicals and oxysterols. The immune system employs free radicals to kill cells that its cellular immune mechanism can’t handle. A second mechanism using free radicals initiates programmed cell suicide known as apoptosis.11 And moderate quantities of oxysterols, like cholesterol itself, serve a protective function.12 But excess free radicals and excess oxysterols damage arteries and initiate cancer, among many other kinds of harm.

Chlorine in water destroys protective acidophilus, which nourishes and coöperates with the 3 to 3.5 pounds13 of immunity-strengthening “friendly” organisms lining the colon, where about 60 percent of our immune cells operate.14 And chlorine combines with organic impurities in the water to make trihalomethanes (THMs), or chloramines.

Among the THMs that result from chlorine combining with organic compounds in water are carcinogenic chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. It is the combination of chlorine and organic materials already in the water that produces cancer-causing by products. The more organic matter in the water, the greater is the accumulation of THMs.20

In a study of more than 5,000 pregnant women in the Fontana, Walnut Creek and Santa Clara areas of California, researchers from the state health department found that women who drank more than five glasses a day of tap water containing over 75 parts per billion (ppb) of THMs had a 9.5 percent risk of spontaneous abortion, i.e. miscarriage. Women less exposed to the contaminants showed 5.7 percent risk; no comparison was given for women who in-gested no THMs.21

Industrial chemist J.P. Bercz, showed in 1992 that chlorinated water alters and destroys unsaturated essential fatty acids (EFAs),15 the building blocks of human brains and central nervous systems.16 The compound hypochlorite, created when chlorine mixes with water, generates excess free radicals; these oxidize EFAs, turning them rancid.

Most Western diets already contain very little of critically needed omega-3 EFAs. These are found in fish oil, flaxseed oil and also in moderate quantity in extra-virgin olive oil. These EFAs, except in olive oil, go rancid quickly. And so, to extend their products’ shelf life food processors remove all health-promoting EFAs, as well as destroying or discarding most needed micronutrients.

Processors substitute either saturated fats or partially hydrogenated trans fats. Found in all packaged foods that have long lists of hard-to-pronounce chemical names on the side, trans fatty acids consumed in large quantity can cause heart attacks and many other degenerative diseases.17-19

Possible Artery Damage

When chlorinated water is run through a hose or carried in a pail followed by milk as in a dairy, “very tenacious, yellowish deposits chemically similar to arterial plaque” form; with unchlorinated water this doesn’t happen.2

CBS’ “Sixty Minutes” show July 11, 1992, displayed two laboratory rats, both of them eating standard rat chow and drinking chlorinated water. One rat was also on pasteurized, homogenized milk. When the animals were sacrificed, the arteries of the milk-drinking rats were found to be clogged.

Dairy buckets, hoses and rats’ arteries resist the arterial-wall damage known as atherosclerosis. But what can chlorinated water and cow milk, particularly homogenized milk, do to the far more susceptible arteries of humans? Those of young chickens are about as susceptible to such damage as human arteries. As a first approximation, J.M. Price, MD, gave cockerels (roosters less than a year old) only chlorinated water (without milk). They developed arterial plaques; and the stronger the concentration of chlorine, the faster and worse the damage. Cockerels on unchlorinated water developed no such damage.2

The residents of the small town of Roseto, Pennsylvania, had no heart attacks despite a diet rich in saturated animal fats and milk–until they moved away from Roseto’s mountain spring water and drank chlorinated water. After that, consuming the same diet, they had heart attacks.2 The Roseto example is dramatic enough but the needed detailed comparisons and follow-up have never been done.

How closely does the incidence of heart attacks match the areas where, and times when water is chlorinated? Chlorination spread throughout America in the second and third decades of this century, about 20 years before the increase of heart attacks. Light chlorination yielded slow growth of plaques in Price’s cockerels, therefore, chlorination of people’s drinking water at the usual low concentration might have been expected to take at least 10-20 years to produce clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis.

A physician team led by William F. Enos autopsied 300 GIs who had died in battle in the Korean War. These men, who had passed induction examination as healthy, averaged 22.1 years of age. To their shock and amazement, in 77percent of the 300 the pathologists found “gross evidence of arteriosclerosis in the coronary arteries.” In several, one or more heart arteries were partly or completely occluded.3 Although Enos didn’t try to explain his grisly discovery, he assumed arterial clogging had developed gradually. Seeming to support that assumption, almost 20 years later pathologists discovered early arterial damage in 96 percent of nearly 200 consecutive babies who had died from various causes in their first month outside the womb. Two of those babies’ coronary arteries were blocked, causing infantile heart attacks.4 Identified as crib deaths, these were related to functionally deficient vitamin B6.5

But did arterial damage in fact develop slowly? The water that the American soldiers had to drink in Korea was so heavily chlorinated that many could hardly tolerate it. In Vietnam, too, autopsies of American solders found heart artery damage.6 Again, water supplied to them had been heavily chlorinated.2 Did much of the soldiers’ arterial damage develop not gradually but quickly as in Dr. Price’s cockerels? The truth–slow or rapid development of clogging–may never be known. Interestingly, from 1950 to 1965 while heart attacks increased, on a population level arterial lesions did not increase;7 the major growth was in clotting.

Relation to Melanoma and Cancers

Studies in Belgium have related devel-opment of deadly malignant melanoma to consumption of chlorinated water.28 Drinking and swimming in chlorinated water can cause melanoma.29,30,31 Sodium hypochlorite, used in chlorination of water for swimming pools, is mutagenic in the Ames test and other mutagenicity tests.32,33 Redheads and blonds are disproportionately melanoma-prone; their skin contains a relative excess of pheomelanins34 compared to darker people.35 Franz Rampen of the Netherlands reports worldwide pollution of rivers and oceans and chlorination of swimming pool water have led to an increase in melanoma.36,37

Long-term risks of consuming chlorinated water include excessive free radical formation, which accelerates aging, increases vulnerability to genetic mutation and cancer development, hinders cholesterol metabolism, and promotes hardening of arteries.

Excess free radicals created by chlorinated water also generate dangerous toxins in the body. These have been directly linked to liver malfunction, weakening of the immune system and pre-arteriosclerotic changes in arteries. Excessive free radicals have been linked also to alterations of cellular DNA.42 Chlorine also destroys antioxidant vitamin E,2 which is needed to counteract excess oxysterols/free radicals for cardiac and anti-cancer protection.

A study in the late 1970s found that chlorinated water appears to increase the risk of gastrointestinal cancer over a person’s lifetime by 50 to 100 percent. This study analyzed thousands of cancer deaths in North Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin and Louisiana. Risk of such cancers results from use of water containing chlorine at or below the Environmental Protection Agency standard and “is going to make the E.P.A. standard look ridiculous,” stated Robert Harris, lead scientist in the study.43

A later meta-analysis44 found chlorinated water is associated each year in America with about 4,200 cases of bladder cancer and 6,500 cases of rectal cancer. Chlorine is estimated to account for nine percent of bladder cancer cases and 18 percent of rectal cancers.45 Those cancers develop because the bladder and rectum store waste products for periods of time. Keeping the bowels moving regularly lowers such risk.) Chlorinated water is associated, too, with higher total risk of combined cancers.46

Further Risks of Chlorinated Water

Chlorine in swimming pools reacts with organic matter such as sweat, urine, blood, feces, and mucus and skin cells to form more chloramines. Chloroform risk can be 70 to 240 times higher in the air over indoor pools than over outdoor pools.22 Canadian researchers found that after an hour of swimming in a chlorinated pool, chloroform concentrations in the swi-mers’ blood ranged from 100 to 1,093 ppb.23 If the pool smells very much of chlorine, don’t go near it.

Taking a warm shower or lounging in a tub filled with hot chlorinated water, one inhales chloroform. Researchers recorded increases in chloroform concentration in bathers’ lungs of about 2.7 ppb after a 10-minute shower. Worse, warm water causes the skin to act like a sponge; and so one will absorb and inhale more chlorine in a ten-minute shower than by drinking eight glasses of the same water. This irritates the eyes, the sinuses, throat, skin and lungs, dries the hair and scalp, worsening dandruff. It can also weaken immunity.

A window from the shower room open to the outdoors would release chloroform from the shower room air, but to prevent its absorption through the skin requires a showerhead that removes chlorine.

Dishwashers pollute indoor air with chlorinated organics created from dishwasher detergents and volatilized in the air for us to breathe. They vent five to seven liters of air into the house air every minute of operation. The chlorine reacts with food scraps.24 Ceramic disks, used instead of detergents, totally avoid the problem and are said to be about 75% less costly than detergent.25,26,27

Chlorine in treated water can also cause allergic symptoms ranging from skin rash to intestinal symptoms to arthritis, and headaches.47

Recent research has found a new hazard in chlorinated water: a byproduct called MX. A research team from the National Public Health Institute in Finland discov-ered that, by causing genetic mutations, MX initiates cancer in laboratory ani-mals.48,49 Also, DCA (dichloroacedic acid) in chlorinated water alters cholesterol me-tabolism, changing HDL to LDL choles-terol50–and causes liver cancer in labora-tory animals.51

Plants do not thrive as well on chlo-rinated as on unchlorinated water; wild animals do not develop atherosclerosis until they drink chlorinated water in American zoos. Although their food, se-lected by people, isn’t the same as what they caught, plucked or dug up in the wilds, evidence indicates chlorinated water, with its thousands of other chemicals, is the worst culprit in zoo animals’ arterial clog-ging.

Substitute Water Treatments

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) destroys infectious organisms and impurities in water 4,000 times better than chlorine.56 “A 35-percent technical grade H2O2 will pro-mote bacterial growth to break down sewage and enhance the dissolved oxygen level in discharge water entering lakes and streams.”57 Ozone (O3) treatment is equally effective. Worldwide, 1,100 cities treat their drinking water with ozone; many have done so since as early as 1901.58 Los Angeles treats its drinking water with H2O2, and then adds chlorine.59 Some chlorine may likewise be added after ozonation to prevent re-infestation; about one-third as much suffices.

To generate ozone, dry air or oxygen is passed through a high-voltage electrical field. Ozone drinking-water treatment in Andover, Massachusetts successfully con-trolled the effects of algae blooms and eliminated water quality problems.

Potential THM formation was reduced by an average of 75 percent.60

H2O2 and O3 are relatively inexpensive; moreover, the only byproducts are pure oxygen and hydrogen, so no one can reap a big immediate profit on their disposal. (Hydrogen is a potential major energy source for electricity generation and for zero-emission vehicles.61) France and Germany, wiser and less controlled by the chemical indus-try, now chlorinate water only in emergencies.62

Other Water Pollution Problems

EPA tests have shown that in the water we drink, over 2,100 organic and inorganic chemicals including pesticides, heavy metals, radon,63 radioactive particles64 and parasitic organisms65 including cryptosporidium66,67 have been identified; 156 of them are pure carcinogens. (In 1993, cryptosporidium killed more than 100 and infected over 400,000.) Of those, 26 are tumor promoting: they can make an existing tumor grow. Exposure to cryptosporidium in people with lowered astrointestinal immune function could lead to chronic GI infection.68 Other examples include recurring cases of Legionnaire’s disease, a pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila, which may lurk in hot water supplies.69

A public notice recently issued in Washington, D.C. warned that a high level of bacteria in the (chlorinated, fluoridated city system) water made it unsafe for dialysis patients, AIDS patients, organ transplant patients, the elderly and infants. Water contamination is often worst in small communities that can’t afford proper treatment; the EPA has not released this information.70

Testimony to hearings of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight revealed Pfiesteria outbreaks among people drinking chlorinated water. The organism, which kills fish, sickens some people; they get sick from drinking the water, not from eating infected seafood. The EPA’s Robert Perciasepe said, in written testimony, “Any new public health policy on this issue needs to consider reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in our waters.”71,72 A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would require managers of municipal water systems to tell customers what contaminants have been found in local drinking water.73 But government laboratories test only for bacterial content and a few of the major inorganic toxins such as lead and arsenic. So, for a complete water test one must consult a private laboratory.

The EPA called 129 contaminants found in water supplies "dangerous" singly, let alone in combination. Pesticides and other toxic wastes run off farmlands and pastures or are dumped by factories, pollute rivers and seep into underground aquifers. Aptly called "biocides" by Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, pesticides are designed to end life; few have been shown to be safe. The EPA depends on producers of pesticides to test their safety: the wolf guards the hen house. It should be no surprise that the tests take a long time and many have been fraudulent.

The Negative Health Effects of Chlorine

Further, one poison is tested at a time; synergistic effects of combinations, potentially far worse, are ignored.78 Besides, many of the so-called "inert" substances in pesticide combinations are more toxic than the "active;" one of the “inerts” is DDT, supposedly prohibited for American farm use since 1973.79

The American Society of Microbiology reported that water in the U.S.A. is filled with microbes, such as viruses and bacteria, which pose a growing threat to public health. The document states that water pollution control efforts have focused on protecting water against chemical pollution, but they neglect serious problems from wastewater, sewer overflows, septic tanks, and the risks associated with microbial pollutants. The report recommended creation of a task force to coordinate federal agency activities on environmental and public health issues.80 Isn’t all that bad enough without the deliberate addition of the further toxicity of chlorine?

Water is the essence of life. It is the most important nutrient in our bodies, making up roughly 70 percent of our muscle and brain tissue. Only oxygen is craved by the body more than water.

Unfortunately, most Americans and Canadians do not consume sufficient water every day to meet their bodies’ most basic requirements, leaving them dehydrated.
Dehydration itself is responsible for a wide range of common ailments experienced by just about everyone in today’s busy, fast-paced world, including headache and fatigue.

When we breathe, we lose moisture to the air every time we exhale – as much as two cups a day!
Furthermore, our bodies lose water through evaporation from the surface of our skin even without rigorous exercise, and of course we also pass water in our urine.
During the course of an average day, a healthy adult can lose eight to 10 cups of water. Add in exercise, and this number rises considerably.

If we fail to replenish the water we lose through these natural processes, we set off a physiological reaction that can have serious health effects.
The following is the natural progression of dehydration and its effects on the body (symptoms):

Mild

* because your kidneys will begin to conserve water, your urine will become concentrated and will be amber colored as opposed to a normal light-tinted yellow color.
* constipation and/or bloating may be noticed
* dry skin, mucous membranes, and lips
* thirst, often extreme
* flushed face

Moderate

* fatigue
* sunken eyes or sunken fontanels (soft spot on head) in infants
* lack of tears in crying infant
* “doughy” skin that doesn’t bounce back when pinched
* dizziness / vertigo / lightheadedness
* up to 30% decline in physical labor capacity, muscle cramping
* headache
* cold hands and feet
* problems concentrating
* drowsiness
* fainting
* impatience and extreme irritability
* major reduction in urine production

Severe

* weak irregular heart beat (often racing) and low blood pressure
* rapid breathing
* failure of body’s heat regulation systems (sweating, for example)
* confusion
* vomiting and/or diarrhea
* shock, collapse or unconsciousness
* seizures
* coma and death

To prevent dehydration, experts recommend that everyone drink at least six to eight glasses of water a day.

According to nutritionists, the best way to fight the heat and the cold is to drink plenty of water.

Keeping Cool in the Heat

* Add two glasses a day to your 8-glass minimum. Also, keep in mind that heavy perspiration from physical activity can result in the loss of 12, 14 or even 16 glasses of water per day!

* Drink before you get thirsty. If you wait until you’re thirsty, you’re already slightly dehydrated. Thirst is an unreliable indicator of your hydration needs.

* Reduce your physical activity level if it is overly hot.

* Monitor infants, children, and the elderly. In addition to being more susceptible to dehydration, they are also often unable to express their thirst or to hydrate themselves.

* Pregnant women need to drink more water. They need to accommodate the needs of the fetus and the fluid losses due to increased heat production and perspiration. Lactating women need to increase water intake to replace fluid lost through nursing.

* Don’t count beverages containing caffeine or alcohol toward your 8 glasses! Caffeine and alcohol dehydrate your body, so you need to compensate for them.
Drink an extra glass of water for each cup of regular coffee or tea, and for each glass of an alcoholic beverage that you drink.

Cold Weather Hydration

In the winter, skiers don’t always realize that drinking copious amounts of water will help them perform and feel better.
A 1998 study conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine monitored skiers and compared a well-hydrated group (using back-mounted hydration packs) with a “no-water” group.
The results showed how dehydration can dramatically affect a skier’s day.

The combination of drier air, high altitude and exercise can bring on effects of dehydration ranging from fatigue to frost bite.
Although skiers are often tempted to drink hot beverages or alcohol, these only add to the effects of dehydration. Don’t rely on thirst to be your guide.
Drink water steadily over the course of the day, at least twelve 8-ounce glasses or more if you are an aggressive skier or snowboarder.

Source: Homewaterpurifiersandfilters.com

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Coffee is the most popular drink in the world. Most of us take our ‘hit’ early in the morning and enjoy the buzz throughout the day.

The good news is that a growing body of research shows that coffee drinkers, compared to nondrinkers, are:

• less likely to have type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia
• have fewer cases of certain cancers, heart rhythm problems, and strokes

If you brew your coffee with purified water you are doubling up on the benefit of reduced risk to cancer and Alzheimer’s because chlorine and lead have links to cancer and Alzheimer’s respectively.

"According to the U.S. Council Of Environmental Quality, ‘ Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine."

And most lead in drinking water comes from lead lined pipes, lead solder and brass plumbing fixtures inside your home

And, your coffee will taste a whole lot better too!

Here is a closer look at the research on coffee:

Type 2 Diabetes

Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, nutrition and epidemiology professor at the Harvard
School of Public Health calls the data on coffee and type 2 diabetes "pretty
solid," based on more than 15 published studies.

"The vast majority of those studies have shown a benefit of coffee on the
prevention of diabetes. And now there is also evidence that decaffeinated coffee
may have the same benefit as regular coffee,” Hu tells WebMD.

In 2005, Hu’s team reviewed nine studies on coffee and type 2 diabetes. Of more
than 193,000 people, those who said they drank more than six or seven cups daily
were 35% less likely to have type 2 diabetes than people who drank fewer than
two cups daily. There was a smaller perk — a 28% lower risk — for people who
drank 4-6 cups a day. The findings held regardless of sex, weight, or geographic
location (U.S. or Europe).

More recently, Australian researchers looked at 18 studies of nearly 458,000
people. They found a 7% drop in the odds of having type 2 diabetes for every
additional cup of coffee drunk daily. There were similar risk reductions for
decaf coffee drinkers and tea drinkers. But the researchers cautioned that data
from some of the smaller studies they reviewed may be less reliable. So it’s
possible that they overestimated the strength of the link between heavy coffee
drinking and diabetes.

How might coffee keep diabetes at bay?

“It’s the whole package,” Hu says. He points to antioxidants
— nutrients that help prevent tissue damage caused by molecules called oxygen-free
radicals. “We know that coffee has a very strong antioxidant capacity,"
Hu says.

Coffee also contains minerals such as magnesium and chromium, which help the
body use the hormone insulin, which controls blood sugar (glucose). In type
2 diabetes, the body loses its ability to use insulin and regulate blood sugar
effectively.

It’s probably not the caffeine, though. Based on studies of decaf coffee, “I
think we can safely say that the benefits are not likely to be due to caffeine,"
Hu says.

Heart Disease and Stroke

Coffee may counter several risk factors for heart attack and stroke.
First, there’s the potential effect on type 2 diabetes risk. Type 2 diabetes
makes heart disease and stroke more likely.

Besides that, coffee has been linked to lower risks for heart rhythm disturbances
(another heart attack and stroke risk factor) in men and women, and lower risk
for strokes in women.
In a study of about 130,000 Kaiser Permanente health plan members, people who
reported drinking 1-3 cups of coffee per day were 20% less likely to be hospitalized
for abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) than nondrinkers, regardless of other
risk factors.

And, for women, coffee may mean a lower risk of stroke.

In 2009, a study of 83,700 nurses enrolled in the long-term Nurses’ Health Study
showed a 20% lower risk of stroke in those who reported drinking two or more
cups of coffee daily compared to women who drank less coffee or none at all.
That pattern held regardless of whether the women had high blood pressure, high
cholesterol levels, and type 2 diabetes.

Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases

“For Parkinson’s disease, the data have always been very consistent:
higher consumption of coffee is associated with decreased risk of Parkinson’s,”
Hu tells WebMD. That seems to be due to caffeine, though exactly how that works
isn’t clear, Hu notes.

Coffee has also been linked to lower risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s
disease. A 2009 study from Finland and Sweden showed that, out of 1,400 people
followed for about 20 years, those who reported drinking 3-5 cups of coffee
daily were 65% less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,
compared with nondrinkers or occasional coffee drinkers.

Cancer

The evidence of a cancer protection effect of coffee is weaker than that for
type 2 diabetes. But “for liver cancer, I think that the data are very
consistent,” Hu says.

“All of the studies have shown that high coffee consumption is associated
with decreased risk of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer,” he says. That’s
a "very interesting finding," Hu says, but again, it’s not clear how it might work.

Again, this research shows a possible association, but like most studies on
coffee and health, does not show cause and effect.

Hello fellow H2onites!

There is an article that has us deeply concerned. The gist of the article is that “ The institutions said in the report that local authorities had experienced a seven-fold loss of engineers and technologists over the past 14 years, leading to the collapse of infrastructure and maintenance programmes, widespread demand failures and water treatment failure.”

Read the whole article here

While we hope all will be well it is advised
that you take control of the quality of the water in your home, catering company, restaurant or business.

Water purification requirements change from area to area and choosing the right water treatment solution requires experienced professionals.

To assist you with this, H2O has:

• over 3500 products on offer,
• over 17 years experience and
• over 60 franchisees nationwide.

We are the tried and tested experts that you can rely on to give you the best product solution for your specific needs.

Go to our product page to view our products and go to our contact page to find a franchisee near you. If there is not a franchisee near you, please still call the closest one, our service is offered nationwide.

Here’s wishing you pure peace when it comes to your water needs.

Sincerely,

The H2O International SA Team

Water affairs officials are unable to tell MPs whether the health of South Africa’s rivers is improving or worsening, but a rash of red spots across maps they presented suggested the latter.

Briefing members of Parliament’s water and environmental affairs portfolio committee, the department’s acting chief director for water resources information management, Moloko Matlala, listed the main problems affecting the quality of the country’s river water.

These included fecal pollution, eutrophication (the inflow of nitrates and phosphates), high salinity, high toxicity (from, among other sources, agricultural pesticides) and acid mine drainage.

Displaying a brightly coloured map of the country’s main river systems, Matlala advised the committee: “When you see red dots, you know there are problems.”

In what he described as a “snapshot” in time (June this year) of the microbiological state of rivers, large red dots are clustered like bunches of grapes along certain Western Cape, Gauteng, North West Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape water courses.

They indicate the water from these rivers, if drunk untreated, poses a high risk to those consuming it due to the presence of “mainly Escherichia coli, but in some cases fecal coliforms”.

E. coli and fecal coliforms are bacteria found in human feces. They are linked to diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Another map displayed by Matlala showed the risk of eating “raw” crops from agricultural lands irrigated with untreated river water. Here, red as well as yellow (indicating “moderate” risk) dots occur mainly in the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.

A third map suggests that swimming in certain rivers in many areas of the country could be a dangerous form of recreation, especially in parts of Gauteng and North West, but also in the Western Cape (the Berg River) and certain Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal water courses.

Matlala singled out some rivers for special mention.

“The Vaal River system and Orange River [near the confluence of the two] are impacted due to… mining activities, irrigation, power generation and sewage effluents.

“The Waterval, Blesbokspruit, Natalspruit and Klip rivers are also affected by effluents from waste water treatment plants and industries.”

He said the lower Crocodile River had elevated salinity and phosphate concentrations, and posed a concern, especially with respect to irrigation.

“The upper Crocodile River [is] polluted by effluents from gold mining activities and effluents from waste water treatment works. The trophic state [the phosphate and nitrogen content] of virtually all the dams in the Crocodile River catchment is very high, and algal blooms are common.”

Freshwater algal blooms are the result of an excess of chemical nutrients, particularly phosphates.

Matlala said that in KwaZulu-Natal, the Umgeni River, which flows out to sea near Durban, had high phosphate levels due to “poultry farms, effluent from cattle feed lots and informal settlements without sanitation facilities” along its banks and feeder streams.

The province’s Umlazi River was “heavily impacted due to… sewage effluents discharged into the river”. Ironically, the river’s name stems from the isiZulu word “umlaza”, which means sour tasting.

Matlala said a solid waste site close to the river as well as discharges of industrial effluent by a textile factory were also affecting its water quality.

In the Eastern Cape, the Umthatha River carried high levels of nutrients and fecal pollution “due to overflowing sewer manholes and overloaded waste water treatment works”.

Along the coast, the Buffalo River was similarly affected, though upstream it remained “pristine”.

Matlala also warned that sulphate concentrations in the Witbank, Middelburg and Loskop dams were increasing, and exceeded quality standards.

The department’s acting deputy director-general for water resources management, Mbangiseni Nepfumbada, was unable to say whether the health of the country’s rivers was improving or worsening.

Responding to a question on this, he said it “needs to be looked at”, adding that no data was immediately available.

According to a document tabled at the briefing, titled “Report on the State of Rivers and Dams for 2010-2011″, high salinity levels — caused by chemicals such as sulphates, chlorides and sodium — is a “huge” water quality problem across South Africa.

“These are mainly produced in areas where there are activities such as mining, agriculture [and] irrigation… .”

It notes that water quality is not always monitored regularly.

“Some areas are not monitored regularly, or not at all, due to human and financial constraints.

“Fecal pollution and pesticides are not monitored widely, yet they pose health risks to human and agricultural activities,” it states.

Source: Sapa | 17 August, 2011 14:44

More than 2000 residents of Ostersund, Sweden, became sick after drinking municipal water contaminated by Cryptosporidium.

The disease-carrying protozoan Cryptosporidium gained public notoriety during the Cryptosporidiosis outbreak in 1993 when thousands of Milwaukee residents were affected resulting in excess of 100 fatalities.

The likely cause of that epidemic was sewage discharge from Milwaukee’s waste-water plants that was able to enter the drinking-water plant intake.
Cysts passed through the coagulation and filtration steps and were not inactivated because they are very resistant to chlorine disinfection.

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite that can cause a gastrointestinal illness called Cryptosporidiosis. The oocyst form of the parasite is protected by an outer shaell that allows it to survice outside a mamallian host for long periods of time. The oocysts live in humans and animal intestines where they multiply and are excreted in feces in the form of dormant, thick walled oocysts, or fertilized eggs.

The parasite occurs in every region on Earth. The primary symptom of Cryptosporidiosis is diarrhea, with symptoms usually appearing within 2-10 days after infection and rarely last more than 2 weeks. Cryptosporidiosis may be fatal to persons with significant immune deficiency.

Why is cryptosporidium parvum resistant to chlorine?

Chlorine triggers a strong defensive molecular response to oxidative stress in the waterborne parasite according to an article in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The response likely contributes to the high resistance of these waterborne pathogens to chlorination.
These findings will assist in the development of more efficient disinfection protocols and analytical methods for the inactivation of chlorine-resistant micro organisms.

If it happens in the United States and Sweden then you know it can happen on South Africa, because here in South Africa the problem of untreated, or semi-treated sewage spilling from waste water treatment works, has been becoming a national problem.

It has been claimed that only 32 out of approximately 970 water treatment plants around the country complied with the requirements for the safe discharge of sewage.
That’s a compliance level of only 3%, and as a consequence South Africa’s rivers and coastal water are becoming increasingly polluted, posing a danger to human health, as well as the environment.

One of the best ways for municipalities to treat waste water in order to inactivate Cryptosporidium is the use of ultraviolet light treatment at relatively low doses. And then for household use the use of silver impregnated ceramic filter cartridges is recommended.

By: Tony Henfrey – 09/05/2011

H2O International SA is a supplier of Trojan/Viqua UV systems, the world leaders in UV water disinfection systems.

H2O International SA is also a supplier of the world famous Doulton ceramic filter cartridges and candles.

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A vast array of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public “doesn’t know how to interpret the information” and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

“We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. They also surveyed the nation’s 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

– Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.

– Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.

– Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.

– A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.

– The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

– Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.

The federal government doesn’t require any testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Among the 34 that haven’t: Houston, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, Phoenix, Boston and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, which delivers water to 9 million people.

Some providers screen only for one or two pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.

The AP’s investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation’s water supply, also are contaminated. Tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed by the AP, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.

Yet officials in six of those 28 metropolitan areas said they did not go on to test their drinking water Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County in Maryland; Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, Calif., and New York City.

The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city’s water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer.

City water officials declined repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, they insisted that “New York City’s drinking water continues to meet all federal and state regulations regarding drinking water quality in the watershed and the distribution system” regulations that do not address trace pharmaceuticals.

In several cases, officials at municipal or regional water providers told the AP that pharmaceuticals had not been detected, but the AP obtained the results of tests conducted by independent researchers that showed otherwise.
For example, water department officials in New Orleans said their water had not been tested for pharmaceuticals, but a Tulane University researcher and his students have published a study that found the pain reliever naproxen, the sex hormone estrone and the anti-cholesterol drug byproduct clofibric acid in treated drinking water.

Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; said tests were negative.
The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.

The AP also contacted 52 small water providers one in each state, and two each in Missouri and Texas that serve communities with populations around 25,000.
All but one said their drinking water had not been screened for pharmaceuticals; officials in Emporia, Kan., refused to answer AP’s questions, also citing post-9/11 issues.

Rural consumers who draw water from their own wells aren’t in the clear either, experts say.

The Stroud Water Research Center, in Avondale, Pa., has measured water samples from New York City’s upstate watershed for caffeine, a common contaminant that scientists often look for as a possible signal for the presence of other pharmaceuticals.
Though more caffeine was detected at suburban sites, researcher Anthony Aufdenkampe was struck by the relatively high levels even in less populated areas.

He suspects it escapes from failed septic tanks, maybe with other drugs. “Septic systems are essentially small treatment plants that are essentially unmanaged and therefore tend to fail,” Aufdenkampe said.

Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don’t necessarily avoid exposure.
Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry’s main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.

Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world.
Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.

For example, in Canada, a study of 20 Ontario drinking water treatment plants by a national research institute found nine different drugs in water samples.
Japanese health officials in December called for human health impact studies after detecting prescription drugs in drinking water at seven different sites.

In the United States, the problem isn’t confined to surface waters. Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of 40 percent of the nation’s water supply.
Federal scientists who drew water in 24 states from aquifers near contaminant sources such as landfills and animal feed lots found minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs.

Perhaps it’s because Americans have been taking drugs and flushing them unmetabolized or unused in growing amounts.
Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co.

“People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that’s not the case,” said EPA scientist Christian Daughton, one of the first to draw attention to the issue of pharmaceuticals in water in the United States.

Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes.
Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.

One technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants but is very expensive for large-scale use and leaves several gallons of polluted water for every one that is made drinkable.

Another issue: There’s evidence that adding chlorine, a common process in conventional drinking water treatment plants, makes some pharmaceuticals more toxic.

Human waste isn’t the only source of contamination. Cattle, for example, are given ear implants that provide a slow release of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by some bodybuilders, which causes cattle to bulk up. But not all the trenbolone circulating in a steer is metabolized.
A German study showed 10 percent of the steroid passed right through the animals.

Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.

Other veterinary drugs also play a role. Pets are now treated for arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, dementia, and even obesity sometimes with the same drugs as humans.
The inflation-adjusted value of veterinary drugs rose by 8 percent, to $5.2 billion, over the past five years, according to an analysis of data from the Animal Health Institute.

Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. “Based on what we now know, I would say we find there’s little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health,” said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. said: “There’s no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they’re at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms.”

Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells.
The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

Also, pharmaceuticals in waterways are damaging wildlife across the nation and around the globe, research shows. Notably, male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females.
Pharmaceuticals also are affecting sentinel species at the foundation of the pyramid of life such as earth worms in the wild and zooplankton in the laboratory, studies show.

Some scientists stress that the research is extremely limited, and there are too many unknowns. They say, though, that the documented health problems in wildlife are disconcerting.

“It brings a question to people’s minds that if the fish were affected … might there be a potential problem for humans?” EPA research biologist Vickie Wilson told the AP. “It could be that the fish are just exquisitely sensitive because of their physiology or something. We haven’t gotten far enough along.”

With limited research funds, said Shane Snyder, research and development project manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a greater emphasis should be put on studying the effects of drugs in water.

“I think it’s a shame that so much money is going into monitoring to figure out if these things are out there, and so little is being spent on human health,” said Snyder. “They need to just accept that these things are everywhere every chemical and pharmaceutical could be there.
It’s time for the EPA to step up to the plate and make a statement about the need to study effects, both human and environmental.”

To the degree that the EPA is focused on the issue, it appears to be looking at detection.
Grumbles acknowledged that just late last year the agency developed three new methods to “detect and quantify pharmaceuticals” in wastewater. “We realize that we have a limited amount of data on the concentrations,” he said. “We’re going to be able to learn a lot more.”

While Grumbles said the EPA had analyzed 287 pharmaceuticals for possible inclusion on a draft list of candidates for regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said only one, nitroglycerin, was on the list.
Nitroglycerin can be used as a drug for heart problems, but the key reason it’s being considered is its widespread use in making explosives.

So much is unknown. Many independent scientists are skeptical that trace concentrations will ultimately prove to be harmful to humans. Confidence about human safety is based largely on studies that poison lab animals with much higher amounts.

There’s growing concern in the scientific community, meanwhile, that certain drugs or combinations of drugs may harm humans over decades because water, unlike most specific foods, is consumed in sizable amounts every day.

Our bodies may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage.
Pregnant women, the elderly and the very ill might be more sensitive.

Many concerns about chronic low-level exposure focus on certain drug classes: chemotherapy that can act as a powerful poison; hormones that can hamper reproduction or development; medicines for depression and epilepsy that can damage the brain or change behavior; antibiotics that can allow human germs to mutate into more dangerous forms; pain relievers and blood-pressure diuretics.

For several decades, federal environmental officials and nonprofit watchdog environmental groups have focused on regulated contaminants pesticides, lead, PCBs which are present in higher concentrations and clearly pose a health risk.

However, some experts say medications may pose a unique danger because, unlike most pollutants, they were crafted to act on the human body.

“These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations.
That’s what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects,” says zoologist John Sumpter at Brunel University in London, who has studied trace hormones, heart medicine and other drugs.

And while drugs are tested to be safe for humans, the timeframe is usually over a matter of months, not a lifetime. Pharmaceuticals also can produce side effects and interact with other drugs at normal medical doses.
That’s why aside from therapeutic doses of fluoride injected into potable water supplies pharmaceuticals are prescribed to people who need them, not delivered to everyone in their drinking water.

“We know we are being exposed to other people’s drugs through our drinking water, and that can’t be good,” says Dr. David Carpenter, who directs the Institute for Health and the Environment of the State University of New York at Albany.

Source: Associated Press Writers
By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD

To find out more about H2O International SA’s range of reverse osmosis water purifiers, please click on the links below:

- Economy Reverse Osmosis Unit With Pump

- KENT Excell Plus Mineral RO Unit

- KENT Grand Plus Mineral RO Unit

- GE Merlin Direct Flow RO Unit

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Water Technology® talks with Guillermo Guzman – The founder and CEO of Wishing Well International Foundation discusses a promising future.

Wishing Well International Foundation (WWIF), which is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean, safe drinking water to developing areas, is currently poised to bring its efforts and capabilities to the next level.

The foundation, which recently launched a new website, www.wishingwellintl.org, is at an important time right now.

With the lofty goals of solving a region’s water quality needs in order to save lives and calling on the support of an entire industry, CEO and Founder Guillermo Guzman recently discussed the foundation’s past, present and bright future.

Water Technology: Please provide some background on the foundation.

Guillermo Guzman: H20 International has been in business for about 18 years now. When we started, 50 percent of our business was overseas and 50 percent of the business was here in the U.S. With that kind of ratio, I had the opportunity to do quite a bit of traveling to build the business and look for new distributors in other countries.

One of the regions I traveled to a lot was South Africa. In 1994, we signed an Exclusive Distribution Agreement with Tony Marchesini who that year founded H2O International South Africa. We have been doing business and maintained a close relationship ever since.

I have also done a lot of traveling to Mexico and the rest of Latin America as well as some other developing areas. Throughout the years, I have seen a lot of misery, poverty and need in these areas. There are just too many people who lack safe, clean drinking water — it is amazing and incomprehensible.

I always kept that in the back of my mind and thought, “One day, I will do something about this.” Over the past four to five years, because of our presence and the infrastructure of H2O South Africa, I thought Africa could be a good starting point and the idea of starting a foundation was born.

With our South African distributor, we brainstormed and dreamed and this idea matured into a plan of action. We just had to wait for the right time to proceed.

Well, the right time came about mid-2010, when we both decided it was time to give back.

WT: What motivated you and WWIF’s team members to take up this project?

GG: One of the statistics that really made an impact on me was the fact that there are nearly one billion people in the world who don’t have access to safe water — that is one in eight people. Another statistic that really did a number on me was the fact that 4,500 children die every day from a water-borne illness — that is one child every 20 seconds.

To me, that is really unnecessary and unacceptable and [we] could no longer sit and do nothing about it.

WT: What are the next steps for the foundation and, besides water quality, what are some other areas the foundation will be focused on?

GG: We are at a point now where we will be meeting with Peter Censky and Margit Fotré from the Water Quality Association (WQA). One of the meetings will happen [in late January 2011] and we’re trying to get the association to support the cause and provide endorsement.

That is what makes us different than other foundations. We are trying to get an entire industry behind the cause. We are a non-profit that is bringing clean, safe drinking water to developing areas, but we are also going to focus on sanitation and hygiene. Those are two areas that also need to be addressed in order to enhance the quality of life and reduce disease and mortality.

WT: What will the support of WQA and the industry mean to the success of the foundation?

GG: We’re looking for the WQA to support the effort in much the same way that other industries support Water For People, which is another non-profit organization. We’re hoping that the association embraces Wishing Well International Foundation as their foundation of choice and provide us with support, advice and credibility, which are much needed when you start a foundation.

Once we get WQA’s support, it will give us access to nearly 2,500 members to raise money so we can invest in providing safe, clean drinking water to people in need.

WT: How can people and companies get involved?

GG: If people visit www.wishingwellintl.org, they will be able to see how they can get involved. There are two different ways to get involved. People can donate money at different levels or an amount of their choosing.

The other way to get involved is for individuals to become fundraisers and actually start fundraising in their name for the foundation. For people who are interested in this option, you would go to the website and visit the “My Wishing Well” section for more information on how individuals can become fundraisers. Our plan is to make sure that 100 percent of the public’s funds (from participating individuals) go toward projects.

As far as corporations are concerned, corporations can become corporate sponsors. We are planning on using corporate sponsorship funds to cover any of the foundation’s expenses, such as travel and logistics. The overhead will be kept to a minimum so the majority of these funds can also be applied to projects. Corporations will also be able to become fundraisers.

Another way people can get involved is buying [products], such as a Wishing Well [logoed] water bottle, which will be available on our online store. One hundred percent of these profits will go to the foundation.

WT: This is a wonderful initiative. Good luck, and thank you for taking up the cause. Do you have anything else to add?

GG: I want to make sure that some people who have worked with me on this foundation get some much deserved recognition. Integral team members, including their titles with the foundation, are:

– Issa Al-Kharusy, who is our senior vice president of strategic development & global marketing, is from KDF Fluid Treatment.

– Tony Marchesini, the foundation’s senior vice president of operations in Africa, is from H20 International South Africa.

– Denise Al-Kharusy, who is our marketing director for WQA corporate sponsorships, is from KDF Fluid Treatment.

– Ivan Molina, our information technology manager, is from H2O International.

It has been a great team effort and we are all volunteering our time and resources to make this dream a reality.

Source: WaterTech Online.com
Author: Richard DiPaolo, Editorial Director

H2O International SA is a proud founding memeber of the Wishing Well International foundation.

Please support this worthy cause.

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Are you planning to install a water cooler in your office? Installing an office water cooler would keep your employees fresh and active even after attending long and tiring seminars and meetings.

Office water coolers act as refreshments, as they help you drink cool and safe drinking water during the office hours. These days, many organizations are installing office water coolers to provide a regular supply of cool drinking water to their employees.

It is a legal requirement in the UK to install good quality office water coolers in the organizations, as it not only helps in social interaction but also provides instant supply of cold drinking water.
Moreover, studies have confirmed that drinking sufficient water helps the human body function efficiently and also keeps it fit and healthy.

Although there are numerous brands of office water coolers available in the market, make sure to choose the one that suits your everyday needs. Bigger organizations may have to buy different office water coolers for different floors, make sure to look for office water coolers to match the interiors of your office.

If you expect your employers to stay focused and work efficiently, it is important to install a good quality office water cooler with easy maintenance features.
Moreover, office water coolers are available in various colors, shapes, designs and prices and it is advisable to look for office water coolers based on the space available in your office.
It is also a good idea to focus on the features available in the office water coolers and buy one that is durable.

It is through office water coolers that the employees and employers can consume cool and fresh drinking water throughout the day.
It is good to know that not drinking sufficient water may cause dehydration problems, thus leading to lack of concentration and attention.
Moreover, drinking inadequate water may lower the productivity level in your office and to avoid such problems it is good to install a good quality office water cooler at the earliest.

Searching the Internet would help you find the different types of office water coolers available in the market.
Although there are various types of office water coolers available in the market, plumbed-in office water coolers is preferred by many of the organizations.

Installing plumbed-in water coolers is one of the best ways to provide continuous supply clean and fresh drinking water to your employees for many years.
However, if you are interested in investing in plumbed-in office water coolers, make sure to look for those that ensure you of their durability, come with easy installation and maintenance features.

There are many online stores selling plumbed-in office water coolers but it is advisable to buy a plumbed-in office water cooler from a reputed online dealer.
Moreover, plumbed-in office water coolers can be both expensive and low-priced but make sure to choose the one that suit your budget requirements.
Besides considering the price, it is also a good idea to buy plumbed-in office water coolers that provide both cold and normal water as needed.

When looking for office water coolers, it is good to research the various types of office water coolers and buy the one suitable for our office.
It is suggested to invest in an office water cooler with advanced features.

– To see H2O International SA’s extensive range of water coolers, please click HERE.

Source: Deosaie Articles
Posted in: Ecommerce
Date: 08/03/2011
Author: nickp1