The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that the IBM Corp. Campus in Wiccopee is dealing with lead contamination in the drinking water. The lead in the drinking water is likely coming from old pipes.

The Poughkeepsie water treatment plant adds chloramines to the water, and scientific evidence shows that chloramines can accelerate the leaching of lead from pipes. Many water treatment plants across the country have begun using chloramines (chlorine combined with ammonia) as the primary disinfectant (as opposed to chlorine). Chloramines offer some advantages over chlorine, but both chlorine and chloramines in drinking water may cause serious health problems. For instance, chlorinated water is linked with increased cancer risk. Chloramines have also been associated with skin rashes and lung irritation.

Professor Marc Edwards of Virginia Polytechnic University has found that lead contamination rises after water treatment plants begin using chloramines. He explains that chloramines release ammonia, which provides food for certain types of bacteria that produce acid, which makes the water more corrosive of lead in pipes.

Lead contamination in drinking water can make people sick and interfere with mental development. For now, IBM is providing bottled water for their employees. I think it’s time for IBM to invest in eco-friendly bottle-less water coolers for their employees. These coolers have built-in filters to remove contaminants like lead.

Today the Cape Cod Times reports that the disposal of medicine is a hotly debated issue for the local board of health in Cape Cod, Massacusetts. When a health official revealed that Cape Cod Hospital regularly flushes narcotics down the drain (in accordance with federal rules), Yarmouth Board of Health member William Snowden said, “You’ve got to stop that, please! It’s unacceptable!”

Sometimes referred to as “emerging contaminants” in water, pharmaceuticals and personal care products have people concerned across the country, especially in communities like Cape Cod, where all drinking water comes from a single source and is highly sensitive to contamination. Many of these contaminants act as endocrine disruptors (even is small amounts), damaging the balance of hormones in humans as well as animals.

When drugs and personal care products are flushed down the toilet, they end up in our water supply - and water treatment facilities are not equipped to remove these contaminants. Chronic exposure to these contaminants over time can have adverse effects. For example, male fish in the Potamac River are beginning to develop eggs in their testes due to endocrine disruptors in the water. In humans, endocrine disruptors may cause developmental defects and fertility problems.

Officials are currently discussing alternative ways of disposing of dangerous medications. In the meantime, however, hospitals continue to flush drugs down the drain. You can remove endorcrine disruptors from your water with home water filters.

Marie Claire magazine recently pointed out the top myths about bottled water. Here are the Top 5 bottled water myths with some bonus info from your friendly water filter experts:

1. MYTH: Bottled water is better than tap water. In reality, nearly half of all bottled water comes from municipal water supplies. That’s right - it’s tap water in a bottle. Plus, while the EPA oversees tap water quality, the FDA regulates bottled water quality. In many cases, lax FDA regulations allow bottled water to be even more contaminated than tap water.

2. MYTH: Bottled water tastes better. Okay, so tap water and even well water can taste pretty funky sometimes. But you can get rid of unpleasant tastes with a home water filter. And have you ever sipped water from a plastic bottle that’s been sitting in the sun? Talk about bad taste! What you’re actually tasting are chemicals leaching from the plastic.

3. MYTH: Bottled water with added vitamins is healthier than tap water. Marion Nestle, PhD, professor of nutrition at NYU, explains, “Vitamins, color, herbs, protein, and all the other additions to water - those are a marketing ploy. If you’re drinking “enhanced” water, you’re likely drinking added sugar along with those vitamins. Oh, and don’t forget about those chemicals from the plastic.

4. MYTH: Bottled water is eco-friendly since plastic can be recycled. The sad fact is that most plastic bottles (nearly 90 percent!) are not recycled. They end up in landfills and oceans. There’s an island of plastic trash the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. Plus, the manufacturing and transportation of bottled water requires the same amount of oil that it would take to power 100,000 cars for an entire year.

If you really want to go green, use a reusable stainless steel water bottle or glass water bottle.

Green your office (and save money) with a bottleless office water cooler.

5. MYTH: Bottled water is worth the high price. Bottled water is about 4,000 times more expensive than tap water. And keep in mind that much bottled water is simply tap water in a plastic bottle! In fact, regular tap water may be even cleaner and safer than bottled water, since the plastic bottles can leach chemicals. To get the healthiest and most cost-efficient water, invest in a home water filter.

As more people realize that filtered tap water is healthier and much cheaper than bottled water, the home water filter industry continues to grow. The Wall Street Journal published an article about the industry on Wednesday, and it mentioned the fact that the Aquasana shower filter is now a best-seller nationwide. Shower filters are important because chlorinated water can produce carcinogens which can be inhaled in a steamy shower. By removing chlorine and other contaminants from water, shower filters also produce softer skin and hair.

“The economic downturn has whetted consumers’ appetite for tap water,” explains the article. “According to a Gallup poll released last year, pollution of drinking water is Americans’ No. 1 environmental concern. Many express worries about the risk of diseases, including cancer, that can be associated with contaminants such as arsenic, chlorine and pharmaceuticals sometimes found in drinking water.”

The EPA claims that tap water is safe, but the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found evidence which suggests otherwise. The EWG discovered 202 unregulated chemicals in tap water samples, including pharmaceuticals, hormone disruptors, perchlorate (a rocket fuel ingredient) and MTBE (a gasoline additive). The EPA does not even test for these chemicals. Jane Houlihan of the EWG explains, “In almost every case, the utilities comply with federal standards, but that doesn’t ensure that the water is safe to drink.”

Invest in a whole house water filter to purify your drinking water and shower water.

In January, citizens of Fremont, Ohio, were warned for the third time in less than six months that their drinking water contained high concentrations of nitrate.

Nitrate (NO3) is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It’s found naturally in the environment, and it’s harmless in small amounts. However, when large amounts of nitrates from agricultural operations and waste dumps contaminate drinking water, they make the water dangerous. In the body, nitrate is converted to nitrite, which can reduce oxygen supplies to organs like the brain. This is especially dangerous for infants. Nitrate levels of 10 mg/l or higher can cause methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby syndrome,” in which the ability to utilize oxygen is reduced.

Nitrate levels in the water of Fremont, OH, were found to be 11.3 mg/l, and officials issued an advisory and warned that infants under the age of 6 months should not be given tap water.

Symptoms of blue baby syndrome include blue skin (especially around the eyes and mouth), shortness of breath, weakness, dizziness, and headache. If you suspect methemoglobinemia, take the baby to the hospital immediately. If left untreated, blue baby syndrome may cause permanent brain damage or death.

Elevated levels of nitrates in drinking water have also been linked to thyroid problems, increased risk for birth defects, increased risk of diabetes, and increased mortality rates for several different types of cancer.

Protect your water from nitrate contamination by using home water filters.

I’ve heard that 90% of U.S. bills have traces of cocaine on them, but I’ve never heard that drinking water has traces of cocaine in it - until now.

National Geographic reports that illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and meth end up in drinking water supplies through human urine and feces. Lovely! Unfortunately, the sewage treatment process cannot completely remove drugs from drinking water. A 2008 study found a cocaine metabolite in 22 out of 24 samples tested at a Spanish water treatment plant.

Harmful legal drugs (pharmaceutical drugs) also end up in drinking water. Your drinking water may very well contain morphine and estrogen. Over time, traces of such medicines can certainly have a dangerous effect the body. For example, many drugs and other chemicals mimic hormones in the body. Water pollution has gotten so bad in some parts of the U.S. that male fish are growing female parts!

Invest in an undersink reverse osmosis water filter to remove dangerous drugs (both legal and illegal) from your drinking water.

Hey guys, this Top 10 list comes from the producers of the documentary film Tapped the Movie, a critical examination of the bottled water industry:

1. Write to your U.S. Senator now . . . Email your U.S. Senator to voice support for the proposed federal ban on BPA in food and drink containers.

2. Donate to the Breast Cancer Fund.

3. Skip bottled water and use your own unlined stainless steel water bottles. Carefully choose a stainless steel water bottle, and make sure it’s unlined — some metal water bottles contain a plastic liner that may contain BPA.

4. Limit canned foods and beverages. The epoxy liners of metal food and beverage cans most likely contain BPA. Especially avoid canned foods that are acidic (e.g., tomatoes, citrus products, and acidic beverages, like colas) and canned alcoholic beverages, since acids and alcohols can exacerbate the leaching of BPA.

5. Skip the water cooler. Those hard plastic jugs that many companies use to provide their employees and customers with “pure” water are usually made with BPA. Drink filtered tap water instead.

(You can also ask your employer to invest in an eco-friendly bottle-less water cooler for your office.) 

6. Store foods in glass. Just be sure to wash the lids, if made of plastic, by hand and not in the dishwasher.

(Glass bottles are also safer than plastic when it comes to storing beverages, especially acidic beverages like many juices.)

7. Use your own unlined stainless steel travel mug. Heat helps toxins from leach into your beverage. Instead of accepting a polystyrene “to-go” cup for your hot beverage purchases, use a unlined stainless steel travel mug.I use a good ol’ cast iron skillet along with stainless steel cookware!

8. Avoid Cooking in Non-Stick Pans and Eating Foods Packaged with Non-Stick Plastics. Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are carcinogenic chemicals that make materials stain and stick resistant and persist in our bodies long after the packaging from such products like microwave popcorn or pizza is disposed or the non-stick pan is put away.

 (I use a good ol’ cast iron skillet along with stainless steel cookware.)

9. Minimize hard plastics in your kitchen. Hard plastic stirring spoons, pancake flippers, blenders, plastic cutting boards, measuring cups, and colanders regularly come into contact with both food and heat. Replace these items with wooden, metal, or glass alternatives.

10. Join an advocacy group. Food & Water Watch and Environmental Working Group will keep you up-to-date with current research and legislation regarding plastics and food and water safety.

Thanks to the work of people like the folks who produced Tapped the Movie, the bottled water industry is losing ground. One popular bottled water company recently reported a 24 percent loss in annual revenue. Keep up the good work, people!

Isn’t it bad enough that our drinking water is polluted with fluoride, chlorine, industrial chemicals, and pesticides? Appartently not!

Several recent studies have found pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water - from antipsychotics to sex hormones. An Associated Press investigation found pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supply of at least 41 million people in the United States.

When people take drugs, some of the pharmaceuticals pass through their body and exit in urine, which is flushed down the toilet. This water is treated before it enters rivers and lakes, and it’s treated again before it becomes drinking water, but water treatment plants do not remove all pharmaceuticals.

EPA scientist Christian Daughton explained, “People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that’s not the case.”

Then there’s the problem of hospitals and other health care facilities that flush old medicine down the toilet, as if the toilet makes the drugs magically disappear. It’s not magical, folks. It’s just a crapper.

Bovine drugs - such as the antibiotics given to cows - also end up in drinking water supplies. (Cows have to pee, too!)

According to the EPA, sewage treatment systems are simply not engineered to remove pharmaceutical drugs. In fact, the highest concentration of pharmaceuticals in drinking water tends to be near sewage treatment plans (suggesting that most of the drugs enter water from human waste).

Of course, the level of exposure to drugs in drinking water is low, but over the years, it can add up to cause harm. For instance, sex hormones can interfere with reproduction and development, and psyciatric medications can alter behavior, even at a low levels of chronic exposure. And antibiotics in the water only contribute to the development of more “super bugs.”

“These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations,” explains Dr. John Sumpter of Brunel University. “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.”

An under sink reverse osmosis water purifier is the best way to eliminate pharmaceuticals from your water.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my skin was really dry. We’ve had some uncharacteristically cold weather around Atlanta this year. Cold, dry air + artificial heat = dry skin.

I took two steps to clear up my dry skin problem: I started drinking more filtered water (including a full glass after breakfast), and I started taking one of my girlfriend’s fish oil supplements with that glass of water. Fish oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids that contribute to skin health.

And, as Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com recently explained, clean water is essential for skin health, too: “Far too many consumers are chronically dehydrated, and as a result they suffer systemic dehydration of their skin, which makes it look older, more wrinkled and less smooth. Drinking adequate water is crucial for supporting your skin health, but you’ve got to drink clean water to accomplish this, not tap water.

“The cleanest water, of course, is natural spring water. If you’re lucky enough to live near a spring, bottle up your drinking water from it (test it for contamination first, of course), and consume that. Don’t buy bottled water as it creates a mountain of waste (plastic bottles). Furthermore, the Bisphenol-A in the plastic bottles has been proven so toxic that it was recently banned from baby bottles in Canada.

“So what’s the next best choice for your drinking water? Bottle your own. Get yourself an Aquasana water filter, which is, in my view, the No. 1 consumer water filter on the market today.”

Great info, Mike! We here at Ambrosia Water Filters agree that the Aquasana water filter is the best value for home water filters.

Shower water filters also help dry skin by removing chlorine and other irritating chemicals from water. If you’ve ever spent a few hours in a chlorinated swimming pool, then you know how badly chlorine can dry out the skin!

Other tips for skin health in the winter:

Use warm water instead of hot water in the shower. Hot water tends to dry out the skin. As soon as you get out of the shower, apply natural skin lotion; this will seal in the moisture.

You may want to consider getting a humidifier, too. Humidifiers restore moisture to dry air. If you get a humidifier, be sure to use filtered water or distilled water. If you use regular tap water, the humidifier will produce a mist that contains tap water contaminants.

Today I venture outside the realm of home water filters to explore an interesting phenomenon dubbed the Avatar blues.

First of all, if you haven’t seen the movie Avatar yet, I urge you to go see it. This is one movie you’ll want to see in the theater.

If you’ve already seen the movie, you may (or may not) be surprised to learn that many viewers are leaving the theater feeling sad, depressed, and even suicidal. CNN reported on the Avatar blues recently and published several comments from fan forum sites.

“I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy,” said Philippe Baghdassarian. “But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.”

As CNN describes it, “the world of Pandora is reminiscent of a prehistoric fantasyland, filled with dinosaur-like creatures mixed with the kinds of fauna you may find in the deep reaches of the ocean. Compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia.”

Indeed, the 3D film shows us the majestic beauty of floating mountains and allows us to sense the serenity of a forest glowing with bioluminescence.

“I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place,” wrote Ivar Hill of Sweden. “But I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to Earth. I so much wanted to escape reality.”

I would like to suggest that maybe we don’t need to escape reality; maybe we simply need to dive into reality and truly experience it. It can be easy to lose touch with reality – with nature – when we’re constantly immersed in television, twitter, and facebook.

Do you remember the scene in Avatar in which Sam first walks outside in his avatar body? He runs barefoot, elated, and his toes kick up dirt. When was the last time you ran barefoot and felt the soil between your toes?

Pandora is not just a fantasy world of unreal beauty. It is a reflection of the beautiful, real world in which we currently live. In fact, those floating mountains were inspired by the Huang Shan Mountains in China. And if you travel deep into the Southern Appalachian Mountains, far away from all artificial lights, you’ll see the blue-green glow of foxfire, a type of bioluminescent fungi that grows on wood.

But it’s not just the physical beauty of Pandora that makes moviegoers wish they were there. It’s the spiritual connection between the people of Pandora and their environment. The Na’vi share the same biological makeup as the other living creatures on their planet. They can even physically connect to some animals and plants through the neural tendrils at the tips of their hair braids. The Na’vi respect each other, all forms of life, and their environment. They recognize that their environment is part of their identity.

Actor Stephen Lang (who plays Colonel Miles Quaritch in the film), commented, “Pandora is a pristine world, and there is the synergy between all of the creatures of the planet, and I think that strikes a deep chord within people. That has a wishfulness and a wistfulness to it.”

“Ever since I went to see Avatar I have been depressed,” wrote a forum user named Mike. “Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it. I even contemplate suicide, thinking that if I do it, I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora.”

I have a message for you, Mike: You are already living in a world similar to Pandora! No need to off yourself. The beauty of nature is all around you, but you have to make an effort to experience it. You cannot experience the beauty of foxfire by downloading images on firefox. It’s just not the same. You’ve got to get your feet dirty.

Furthermore, we humans are similar to the Na’vi. Okay, so we can’t physically connect with others via neural tendrils, but we have an amazing bundle of nerves in our cranium that allows us to connect with others through empathy, compassion, humor, and love.

I think that the Na’vi show us, as a society, what we might have been like in the past and who we might become in the future. Will we continue to disregard our spiritual connection to our environment? Will we continue to poison our planet and our bodies? Perhaps we will realize that we can have our own Pandora here on Earth by respecting all forms of life – focusing on what we share rather than how we are different – by living with purpose, and by experiencing the beauty all around us.