Straight Talk on Water

So, today I received a flier in the mail from the Wa. department of something or other.....it was a report on the water on Ft. Lewis. It is required by law that citizens be informed of where their water comes from, what the regulations concerning its purification are, and what levels of contaminants were found in it in the past year, et cetera, every 12 months. Shockingly, they just go ahead and list certain failures on their tables! Like, "__ % of X chemical is considered dangerous to health by the Department of ___" and then there'd be numbers OVER that in the "This is what was found in YOUR water last year" list.

Here's what I drink every day in my water:

• arsenic
• mercury
• nitrate
• nitrite
• Trichloroethylene
• Radium 226 & 228
• flouride
• Chlorine

and accompanying these figures are disclaimers such as "this is the maximum amount considered healthy by the board of blah-blah-blah." NOT reassuring.
So there it is, just---boom, your water is putrid, citizens! Here is is in pie chart form. We hope you don't read it. Thank you very much, have a nice day.

Kind of scary.

So, it's got me researching alternatives to tap water for drinking purposes.

And Wow.

It's a JUNGLE out there. Getting into the topic of drinking water at all brings up so much information on toxicity and cancer and carcinogens and BPA and chemical production and legislation and corruption and just......frankly, it makes me ashamed to be a capitalist. SO MUCH MONEY is poured into the production of chemicals like arsenic (traces of this in our Ft. Lewis water) and BPa's (found in almost ALL plastics these days, including expensive "pure" bottled water.)

In the long run, I just.....I'm filled with greatfulness that I'm not a whole lot sicker than I am, with so so so so so much of our world being exploited and tampered with for the sake of money.

Seriously, listen to this statistic: BPA has been ruled "toxic to humans" in Canada,

AND

"its endocrine-disrupting properties have been extensively investigated, (only since 2006) and more than 100 studies have been published "rais[ing] health concerns" about the chemical. Early development appears to be the period of greatest sensitivity to its effects and studies have demonstrated developmental toxicity, carcinogenic effects, and possible neurotoxicity at low doses in animal models. Recent studies suggest it may also be linked to obesity by triggering fat-cell activity and have confirmed that bisphenol A exposure during development has carcinogenic effects and produce precursors of breast cancer."

Ok, so that rules out plastic-bottled water for us, until the plastic industry in the U.S. gets its head on straight regarding BPA's.

(Scary to think that what seperates you and me from rich corporations pumping poisonous chemicals into our homes is.....politics!) Hey, as a side note, any of you seen the new comedy "Better Off Ted?" It's funny and clever, but also, I think, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on corporate invention.....the origin of DDT's and flouride. Things start in the lab, ("Ooo, look at this, and what it does. We should sell it!") get "tested", marketed, and sold to millions, hoping that they don't poison the population. :) Sometimes they do on this show. Oh yeah, and in real life! :D

So, anyhow. I'm wondering what to do next. I feel I've reached a dead end on this one. Any ideas? Anyone?