I was glad to see Dr. Oz’s show that aired on Feb 15, 2011 entitled, “Is Your Water Causing Cancer?” For decades, we at Pure & Secure, have been trying to spread awareness about the increasing presence of toxins in US water supplies, so it’s encouraging when it’s given national media attention. At the same time however, I was disappointed with the solutions that Dr. Oz suggested.
Dr. Oz did a good job discussing the presence and harmful effects of chromium 6 (aka hexavalent chromium, which is a heavy metal), perchlorates (a byproduct of rocket fuel), lead and arsenic in our water. Mind you this is only scratching the surface of the over 84,000 possible contaminants in our water supply, but it’s at least a start. We have covered this in much more detail in our past articles.
Hexavalent chromium has been linked to cancer. Perchlorates may disrupt proper function of the thyroid gland and lead to serious health problems, including thyroid cancer, breast disease, immune system dysfunction, and may have serious effects on fetal development including mental retardation. Lead poisoning has been linked to stunted growth, damage to the nervous system, learning disabilities, and anti-social behavior in children. Lead exposure poses the greatest risk to young children and fetuses. The negative effects of lead poisoning are irreversible and can last a lifetime. Arsenic can also have ill effects on the body and has been linked to several different cancers.
The filters and reverse osmosis (RO) systems that he displayed as a solution were reviewed by Consumer Reports. They tested a number of filters and RO systems and rated the best among them. “Among them” being the key words here. They obviously did not test distillers because when comparing these methods, distillation performs far superior in treating water than any membrane system – period. Filters and RO systems may be able to remove some contaminants but not all. They are a good start but distillation is much more effective. Keep in mind that Dr. Oz only discussed 4 out of over 84,000 different possible water contaminants, and there are many that filters and RO simply cannot remove. We believe that it’s best to treat water with a combination of different treatment methods with the distillation process at the core. Why wouldn’t you want to remove as many contaminants from your drinking water as possible?
There was mention on his website that although “distillation is effective at removing most impurities, there is concern that drinking distilled water may “leach out” minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and fluoride from the body.” In previous articles we have discussed why this statement is not accurate. First of all, the term “leaching” is not a biological term, but rather is a geological term. Secondly, there is no such thing as pure water in your body because as soon as it touches your mouth it’s not pure anymore. Third, one of the key functions of water in the body is to remove toxins from each cell.
The bottom line is that you need to protect yourself and your family from any toxins that may be in your tap water, and a combination of treatment methods, with distillation as the core process is the absolute best way to do this. All of our products follow this philosophy.
Hello Al! I am very much into protecting myself and my family from any toxins that may be in our tap water at home. Thanks for this awesome post!