Don’t let the title of this post fool you: There’s not much of a chance that the seasonal flu virus or the H1N1 flu virus would survive conventional chlorine-based water treatment. You probably cannot get the flu from drinking tap water.

However, Environmental Health News reported earlier this year that arsenic, a common drinking water contaminant, could make you more vulnerable to the flu.

In a recent experiment, low-dose exposure to aresenic compromised the immune system to mice and made them more vulnerable to the flu virus. The metal contaminant altered the function of certain immune cells. The results suggest that people exposed to arsenic in drinking water may be more susceptible to illness and death when infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring metal that leaches into ground water. U.S. Geological Survey maps show high concentrations of arsenic in the ground water in Texas, Nevada, California, Oregon, Montana, North Dakatoa, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

Home water filters will remove arsenic from your drinking water to bolster your immune system and protect you against the flu.

Here are some other common-sense flu prevention tips: Exercise daily, eat nutritious foods (including organic fruits and vegetables), drink plenty of filtered water, and get plenty of rest. Avoid touching your face, and frequently wash your hands with soap and hot water.

The Charleston Daily Mail reports that an Associated Press investigation found contaminants in school water supplies at public and private schools in all 50 states. The study found unsafe levels of lead, pesticides, and other toxins.

“It’s an outrage,” said Marc Edwards, water quality expert at Virginia Tech. “If a landlord doesn’t tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail. But we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep school children safe?”

Schools with well water have the worst contamination. According to EPA data, roughly 1 in 5 schools with their own water supply have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The Associated Press of EPA data found:

• Water in 2,250 schools across the nation breached federal safety standards.
• Those schools had more than 5,550 separate violations.
• In 2008, the EPA recorded 577 violations – up from 59 in 1998.
• California, which has the most schools of any state, also recorded the most violations with 612, followed by Ohio (451), Maine (417), Connecticut (318), and Indiana (289).
• Nearly half the violators in California were repeat offenders. One elementary school in Tulare County, in the farm country of the Central Valley, broke safe water laws in 20 instances.
• The most frequently cited contaminants were coliform bacteria, lead, copper, arsenic, and nitrates.

Dr. Gina Solomon, a San Francisco physician who serves on an EPA drinking water advisory board, said, “This tells me there is a widespread problem that needs to be fixed because there are ongoing water quality problems in small and large utilities as well.”

It’s not just the water in schools that is contaminated. Water in homes and offices is contaminated, too. But children are more sensitive to the effects of contaminants. Toxic chemicals in water can alter their development.

Many parents have started sending their children to school with their own non-toxic, reusable stainless steel water bottles so that they don’t have to drink from school fountains.

To keep your children safe, invest in a home water filter, and bottle your children’s water at home.

After reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (highly recommended), I was inspired to roll my chair away from the keyboard and hit the asphalt. Nearly a month later, my legs are still sore, but I can easily run two miles now. And next month I’m running in my first 5K race! I’m confident that I’ll be able to finish the race in less than 30 minutes. I won’t win any medals, but it will be a great accomplishment for me.

Because of my new hobby, I’ve been researching hydration for runners. Most people know that you lose a lot of fluid during a long run and must replace that fluid by drinking water. But did you know that you can actually drink too much water on a long run? In 2002, a young woman died in the Boston Marathon because she drank too much water and developed hyponatremia (diluted sodium levels in the blood). So, if you’re a long-distance runner, don’t feel like you have to drink water just because you’re passing an aid station. At the same time, you need to stay well hydrated. So how much should you drink? Just pay attention to your body. Drink when you’re thirsty; don’t drink when you’re not thirsty.

After researching hydration, Dr. Timothy Noakes, MD, author of The Lore of Running, said, “Humans evolved the thirst mechanism over millennia . . . We concluded that if you drink according to the dictates of thirst, your performance will be optimized.”

I’ve noticed that many distance runners carry a plastic water bottle with them. Unfortunately, the plastic bottles pollute their water with toxic chemicals, and the plastic bottles are an environmental nightmare. Even BPA-free plastic bottles contain other petrochemical toxins that leach out, especially when exposed to sunlight and heat.

A stainless steel water bottle is much healthier and more eco-friendly. Stainless steel does not leach chemicals into the water, and you can reuse the washable bottle. And if you drop it, that’s okay. It’s made of steel! To help you hold onto your bottle while you’re running, consider fastening it to your hand with a velcro strap. Some runners strap a bottle to each hand. And remember to pay attention to your thirst!

Fasting, or abstaining from food for a set period of time, continues to grow in popularity as a pathway to weight loss as well as general health enhancement. There are all different kinds of fasts. A fast may last from just a couple of days to 40 days. People often do a pure water fast, where they only drink water, or they may do a juice fast or fruit and vegetable fast.

Fasting allows the body to detoxify and heal itself. It also promotes weight loss and lowers blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. I’ve fasted a few different times, and each time, once I got past the first few days, I felt a tremendous increase in energy. (I’ve only fasted for a week at a time; longer periods of fasting can zap your energy.)

If you’re planning to fast for health, you must drink plenty of pure water. Your body needs even more water when you’re fasting. The water will flush out toxins and waste. If you’re drinking polluted water (like tap water or most bottled water), then you’re only adding to the body’s toxic load. Get a home water filter before you begin your fast.

Always talk to your doctor before starting a fast. Fasting can be difficult. You will get hungry, and you may experience headaches and other symptoms of detoxification. Drink plenty of water to reduce these symptoms.

Since a pure water fast can zap your energy and cause unwanted side effects, Dr. Jeffrey Cartwright and Dr. Doug Pray developed the Novolife Cleanse Kit to help you during a fast. The system combines an herbal ultra cleanse to help your body eliminate toxins, meta boost capsules to enhance your body’s fat burning, and a protein meal replacement. The Novolife system also comes with a detailed plan for a 7-day fast. Well, it’s not a total fast because you’re allowed to eat at certain times; it’s more of a a strict cleansing diet that offers all of the benefits of a fast without the unwanted symptoms. I lost five pounds in one week when I did the Novolife cleanse!

Remember, talk to your doctor before you start a fast and make sure that you have a source of purified water.

Nearly one-third of the drinking water supplies in the United States come from underground streams and springs originating in caves or passing through them, according to a recent article in Environmental Health News.

“People need to be aware that there’s a subterranean ecosystem and that what happens on the surface impacts these unique ecosystems in a very real way,” said David Culver, a biologist at American University. “When caves are threatened, the threats almost always come from surface activity.”

Beacon Cave in West Virginia has been contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from an old electric manufacturing plant above the cave. The PCBs now contaminate the water of the Bluestone River, which supplies drinking water for several towns on the Virginia-West Virginia border.

“The problem is extensive and it’s serious,” said Tom Aley, an expert in groundwater hydrology and president of the Ozark Underground Laboratory in southwest Missouri.

The world-famous Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky was contaminated with raw sewage from a nearby hotel.

Dirt runoff from logging operations – which likely contains diesel fuel and other petroleum products – is flowing into Whispering Canyon Cave at Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The runoff contaminates drinking water downstream as well as the salmon.

Twin Cave in Oklahoma has been contaminated with 48 different compounds, including banned insecticides chlordane and DDT. Officials suspect that people have been illegally dumping waste into a nearby sinkhole.

“There’s this perception we live on top of an infinite filter and that what you dump on the ground will somehow be cleaned up,” said Aley.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. All those dumped and spilled chemicals end up in our drinking water.

Polluted water in caves endangers not only our drinking water but also the wildlife in caves. Many cave animals are now on the endangered species list because of poor water quality.

Aley said that these endangered animals should serve as a warning sign to people who drink the same water: “If pollution is killing off the snails and arthropods, that ought to be an appropriate warning to the people who also make use of that water. If they can’t live well and prosper, why should we expect people who use the same water to live well and prosper?”

Luckily, we humans have the option of using home water filters to remove dangerous chemicals from our water before we drink it.

One of the most common questions I get from customers is: “What kind of water filter do you have at home?”

Excellent question! Thanks for asking. I have an Aquasana AQ4000 countertop water filter at home, and I highly recommend it to anybody who has a public water supply.

The AQ4000 filter is a simple, no-frills water filter that gets the job done. It eliminates chlorine, lead, VOCs, THMs, MTBE, TCE, atrizine, benzene, and other dangerous, synthetic chemicals. The most popular Aquasana water filter also removes chlorine-resistant parasites like cryptosporidium and giardida.

I also like the fact that this filter leaves natural minerals in the water. Some water purifiers remove trace minerals, which makes the water more acidic in the body. In my opinion, it’s best to drink natural water without contaminants. I don’t like the idea of drinking unnatural water.

The AQ4000 water filter is also very easy to install and use. I’m not a handy man by any means, but it only took me a few minutes to install the filter. Other filters I’ve tested have been a little leaky after installation, but there were no leaks or drips with this one. Replacing the filters is even easier – no tools required – they slide out and snap into place with ease. Besides the filter cartridge replacements, the AQ4000 is totally maintenance-free.

You cannot find a better water filter for under $100. That’s why this filter has won the Consumer Digest Best Buy Award for six years in a row. If you’re shopping for a good water filter on a budget, consider this one first. You will notice a big difference in the taste and quality of your water.

On 08/30/2009, The Stamford Advocate reported that city tests showed that homes near a former landfill in Stamford, Connecticut have toxic pesticides in their well water.

Testing found two pesticides, dieldrin and chlordane, which have both been banned for years because of their toxicity. And the citizens of Stamford have been drinking them for years – unless they have home water purifiers.

One private well had levels of dieldrin 43 times higher than state safety standards; the same well had levels of chlordane four times the state limit. Chlordane can cause nervous system problems and increase the risk of cancer. Dieldrin can cause neurological, reproductive, and immunological problems.

Ruth Kwartin owns one of the homes where the well water tested above state limits for the pesticides. She has been drinking the well water for years, and she and her husband have both been stricken with cancer. Her husband died after he developed a rare tumor on his spinal cord. Kwartin is currently battling uterine cancer.

“This is an issue that needs to be addressed,” said another resident. “I shower in the water, I cook in the water, I make my daughter’s formula with it. It just blows my mind.”

I’ve written about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch before:

Did you know that there’s an island of plastic garbage in the Pacific Ocean that’s twice the size of Texas? It’s known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That’s right, the world’s largest landfill consists of millions of pounds of plastic floating in the ocean near Hawaii.

On 09/02/2009, the San Jose Mercury News reported that scientists recently returned from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with samples of the water and marine wildlife. What did they find? Plastic, plastic everywhere – an “inconveivable amount of tiny, confetti-like pieces of broken plastic.”

“Marine debris is the new man-made epidemic. It’s that serious,” said biologist Andrea Neal.

Neal, lead researcher on the project, found that jellyfish are eating the pieces of broken plastic. The jellyfish, in turn, are eaten by fish like salmon. Then we humans eat those fish!

That’s right, your wild-caught salmon may contain toxic bits of plastic on top of those healthy omega-3 fats. And the pieces of plastic not only contain toxic, hormone-altering chemicals, but they’re also thought to absorb long-banned carcinogenic chemicals like DDT and PCBs.

Nobody knows exactly when the Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed, but it’s there now, and it’s huge. Last month, two ships went to the patch to carry out the most extensive research to date.

“Every day, every night, we’d pull up samples and pour the water through a sieve. It would be completely clogged with tiny pieces of plastic,” said of the California Environmental Protection Agency. “It was so disturbing!”

If you’d like to stop contributing to this environmental disaster, stop buying disposable plastic products. Stop drinking from plastic water bottles! Take your own reusable grocery bags to the store, and invest in a reusable stainless steel bottles or glass water bottles.