Water quality

Leo A. Martin leo@possi.org
Sat, 27 Oct 2012 21:42:50 PDT
Your water supplier probably makes available yearly water quality reports
like these:

http://phoenix.gov/residents/waterandsewer/…

You can find out what's in your water. As an aside, local agriculture
extension people tell us our water pH and mineral content hardly vary at
all anyplace served by City of Phoenix water, so there is no point having
our water tested - we can look it up.

I am surprised at all the people I see here in the US who won't drink
anything but bottled water. Most bottled water has been purified by
reverse osmosis and addition of ozone (which kills anything living unless
it has plenty of enzymes to degrade ozone, which most bacteria don't)
and/or ultraviolet light. This RO bottled water has negligible amounts of
necessary dietary minerals. Sometimes the manufacturer adds back some
minerals but the amount added is very small, and the situation is akin to
adding a few vitamins back into fluffy white bread.

Spring water is often available and does have minerals. But unfortunately
it sometimes is treated by reverse osmosis as well.

Most humans get almost all their calcium from the water they drink and use
for cooking. Most humans barely get enough calcium; it binds tightly to
other compounds in the intestine and very little is absorbed. When home RO
machines were first sold about 20 years ago, they contained labels warning
that RO water should not be used for cooking or drinking, because of the
lack of minerals. This seems to have gone away, I suspect because bottled
water manufacturers make a lot of money.

I worry we are headed for an epidemic of osteoporosis among RO drinkers.

In the US, standards for tap water are incredibly stringent. There are no
standards whatsoever for bottled water. You are trusting the manufacturer
to provide a clean product. Municipal tap water anyplace in the US is
safer than any bottled water. The only exception is for people who are
immunosuppressed, because there are a few water-borne pathogens that are
not killed by chlorination, but are killed by ozone.

I drink tap water and I won't drink RO bottled water.

As for bulb content - if you fall down and break your hip due to
osteoporosis due to drinking reverse osmosis water, somebody will have to
water your bulbs while you recover (if you survive) and they won't do as
good a job as you do.

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA




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