A lot of people think I’m weird when I ask, “Do you have a shower filter?”

Many people don’t realize that chemicals present in tap water vaporize into the air and enter the lungs during a hot shower. Unfortunatley, most tap water is chlorinated. Chlorine is not only a lung and skin irritant, but it creates carcinogens when it combines with other chemicals. Everybody knows that smoking is bad, but most people don’t know that you can inhale carcinogens in your shower, too! Those carcinogens go to your bloodstream, and chlorinated water is associated with an increased risk of several different types of cancer.

Chlorine also dries out the skin and hair, and a shower filter will give you softer skin and hair. And, of course, a shower water filter will make the water cleaner and thus make you cleaner. You’ll even notice that the filtered shower water enhances the lathering of soap.

I’ve been using shower filters for years now, and there’s one thing that I don’t like about them: I don’t like changing filter cartridges. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not difficult to change a filter cartridge – but it’s just a little annoying, especially if the filter has to be replaced every 2 or 3 months.

The Sprite High Output Shower Filter solved my problems. The filter cartridge needs to be replaced only once a year! The high output HOC filter cartridge contains 20 ounces of filtration media (KDF plus Sprite’s proprietary Chlorgon media). It removes free chlorine, combined chlorine (including all those dangerous carcinogens), lead, iron oxide, dirt, sediment, and odors. In my opinion, this shower water filter outperforms all others on the market. That’s not surprising since Sprite has been the leader in shower filtration technology for more than 15 years.

For those of you who have modern, upscale bathroom fixtures, the Sprite Solid Brass High Output Shower Filter offers a touch of elegance to fit your decor. It features all-metal construction with a jeweled finish. Regardless of your personal style, Sprite offers a shower filter that’s right for you.

If you don’t have a shower filter yet, order your Sprite High Output Shower Filter today! You’ll enjoy the benefits from day one.

The New York Times video above explains that Newport, Rhode Island beaches become contaminated with human feces whenever it rains. Signs posted on the beaches warn of bacterial contamination after rainfall.

The problem in Newport – and in many other cities such as Boston, Chicago, and New York – is the outdated sewer systems become overwhelmed by storm water. Whenever it rains, sewage spills out.

In 2009 alone, the city of Newport flushed 70 million gallons of sewage into the harbor.

Nearly 40 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act, these water quality problems persist. The Newport waste water treatment plant has been illegally polluting the waterways since the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, yet they have never been fined by the EPA.

In the last 3 years, 9,400 of our country’s 25,000 sewage systems have dumped human waste or other hazardous materials into our waterways. But only 1 in 5 plants that break the law are ever fined.

Your water quality is in your hands. Avoid bacterial contamination with home water filters.

MSNBC reports that bottled water sales slipped 3.2 percent in 2008 and are expected to drop another 2 percent this year.

Because of environmental concerns about plastic water bottles, many famous restaurants now serve filtered tap water instead of bottled water, and consumers are investing in reusable water bottles like glass water bottles and stainless steel water bottles.

Google has eliminated bottled water from its progressive campus, and state governments in New York, Illinois, and Virginia have banned bottled water at public events and in state offices.

“In some ways, bottled water has become the SUV of the ecological movement,” one environmental advocate told MSNBC.

But plastic water bottles don’t just pollute the environment. They pollute your body, too. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals leach into the water from the plastic. Studies show that much bottled water is no cleaner than tap water.

Want a steady supply of cost-effective, healthy water? Invest in a home water purifier.

In a lengthy investigative piece about water quality, The New York Times reports that the 35-year-old Safe Drinking Water Act regulates only 91 contaminants, but there are over 60,000 chemicals used in the United States.

Over the past few years, researchers have identified hundreds of unregulated chemicals that cause cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water. Are some of these chemicals in your water? Most likely. But it’s impossible to say since they’re not regulated.

Since 2000, not a single new chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. It’s as if industries are getting a free pass to pollute our waters. And even when they are caught polluting the water supply with regulated chemicals, punitive fines are usually light or totally absent.

Even though federal guidelines on water quality are lax, they are still not followed. Since 2004, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed to drinking water that did not meet federal guidelines for safety.  But in most cases this contaminated water was technically “legal” because many federal guidelines have not been incorporated into the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Your tap water may contain enough arsenic to cause cancer in 1 out of every 600 people who drink it – and it would still be perfectly legal. In terms of cancer risk, drinking water with this legal level of contamination would be the equivalent of receiving 1,664 x-rays.

“People don’t understand that just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks,” explained Dr. Pankag Parekh of the water quality division for the city of Los Angeles.

“For years, people said that American has the cleanest drinking water in the world,” said William Reily, former head of the EPA. “That was true 20 years ago. But people don’t realize how many new chemicals have emerged and how much more pollution has occurred. If they did, we would see very different attitudes.”

“There chemicals accumulate in the body tissue,” explained Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “There’s growing evidence that numerous chemicals are more dangerous than previously thought, but the EPA still gives them a clean bill of health.”

On the front of water regulation, it’s Big Business vs. Your Health – and Big Business is winning this battle

But you don’t have to lose the war. You ultimately have the power. You can ensure that your drinking water is free of chemical contaminants.

Home water filters remove dangers chemicals like arsenic from your water. Don’t leave your health in the hands of regulatory agencies. Take action today.

It’s not too late to order aquasana glass water bottles from Ambrosia Water Filters and receive them in time for Christmas. (But time is running out! Place your order today!)

These stylish glass water bottles make great gifts for eco-conscious and health-conscious individuals.

The bottles are not only eco-friendly but also budget-friendly. The 6-pack of bottles costs just $23.99. Place your order now, and you’ll receive 6 great Christmas gifts for only $3.99 each!

Your friends, family members, and colleagues will appreciate such a thoughtful gift (and they’ll never know that you only spent $3.99 on it!).

Our glass water bottles are extremely popular among green shoppers and people who are trying to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals.

Americans throw out over 60 million plastic bottles each day – in just one day. That adds up to a lot of plastic waste over the course of a year. Plastic bottles end up in landfills and in our rivers, lakes, and oceans. The problem has gotten so bad that there’s an island of plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean that’s bigger than the state of Texas. Google “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” to learn more about this environmental disaster.

But plastic pollution hits much closer to home. Plastic pollutes the human body, too. When you drink water from a plastic bottle, you swallow toxic chemicals from the plastic. Some of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors and may cause cancer. In fact, endocrine disruptors from plastic have been associated with prostate cancer, breast cancer, bladder disease, liver disease, diabets and reproductive and developmental problems.

Show your concern and your Christmas spirit by giving the gift of better health this year!

You can also get creative with your gifts by filling up the bottles before you give them out. One of my more creative friends ordered several glass water bottles as Christmas gifts, and she is going to fill them with her own homemade coffee liquer.

If you’re interested, here’s her recipe for coffee liquer:

- 2 cups coffe

- 1 1/4 cups sugar

- 2 cups vodka

- 1/2 vanilla bean (split)

Add the sugar to hot coffee and mix until dissolved. Let cool and add the vodka and vanilla bean. Transfer liquid to bottle. After 2 to 4 weeks, strain out the vanilla bean and pour liquer into a new bottle.

Yum! Now that’s a thoughtful gift!

Order your glass water bottles today.

“In most U.S. households, pouring a glass of tap water means exposing families to hundreds of distinct chemicals and pollutants, many of them completely unregulated,” reports Jane Houlihan, Senior Vice President of the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

A new study from the EWG found that 53.6 million Americans have hundreds of pollutants in their tap water. Tap water is not pollutant-free just because it meets federal standards!

The tap water pollutants in the study came from many sources: 97 agricultural pollutants including pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and manure; 205 industrial chemicals; 86 contaminants from waste water treatment plants; and 42 byproducts of water treatment processes. Most water treatment facilities use chlorine to kill germs, but the chlorine combines with other substances to form carcinogenic chemicals. Chlorination byproducts vaporize into the air during a hot shower, where they can be inhaled by the longs, and that’s one reason why shower water filters are quickly becoming standard; shower filters also produce water that’s easier on the hair and skin.

Chemicals that are not even regulated by the federal government were found in the water supply of 132 million Americans. These chemicals include perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel), acetone, freon, radon, and the weed killer metolachlor.

“The nation’s tap water has been compromised by weak federal safeguards and pitiful protection of drinking water supplies,” said Houlihan. “Utilities do the best job that they can treating a big problem with limited resources, but we must do better.

“It is not uncommon for people to drink tap water laced with 20 or 30 chemical contaminants. This water may be legal, but it raises serious health concerns. People expect better water than that, and they deserve it.”

You deserve safe drinking water. Invest in a home water filter today.

According to the study, the municipalities with the most contaminated tap water include Pensacola, FL; Riverside, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Riverside County, CA; Reno, NV; Houston, TX; Omaha, NE; North Las Vegas, NV; San Diego, CA; and Jacksonville, FL.

I don’t want to get into the controversial issue of whether or not man-made global warming is a real phenomenon. But one thing is certain: Rainfall has been increasing over the past few decades.

A few days ago I watched Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN as he explained how this increase in rainfall will affect our water quality. Here’s part of the transcript from CNN.com:

Dr. Gupta: NOAA data showed a 7 percent increase [in rainfall] annually since 1970. And this is from NOAA data, from the National Climactic Data Center. About a 7 percent increase annually overall. And also 14 percent increase with big rainfalls. Two-plus inches. So it’s raining more and it’s raining harder.

The problem, Brooke, is that you also have 1970s infrastructure as far as dealing with the extra water. So you have sewage pipes and storm water drains all sort of combining. And you can kind of see the problem there. You can get, you know, bacteria, parasites, viruses, all sort of into the drinking water.

And this isn’t just theoretical. It happened in Milwaukee where you had a huge rainfall like that and then the drinking water got contaminated. Four hundred thousand people got sick, 69 people died. So, you know, this is what happens when you have that sort of much water all mixing together.

CNN Guest Anchor Brooke Baldwin: So how do we protect ourselves from the nasty stuff, the bacteria? The diseases that you just mentioned? Because we need water.

Dr. Gupta: Yes, we need water. And I think part of this is going to be a message that, you know, our infrastructure has to improve over the last 40 years to deal with the extra water so we don’t have the co- mingling, if you will, of sewage and storm water. But you know, I think for the average person, there’s little things that they can think about. Heed warnings, for example, when it comes to, you know, swimming at the beach or a lake or something like that.

People can get pretty sick from swimming in contaminated water. Also use phosphate-free products. That’s fertilizer. Based on that same thing I was just talking about, that can wash into your ground water and cause real problems. Filter your water.

Baldwin: I was going to ask you. I got my water filter, am I safe?

Dr. Gupta: Yes. Yes…

Are you safe? Do you have a home water purifier? If not, invest in a home water filtration system today – just in case the infrastructure in your area breaks down and contaminates your drinking water. Be prepared, and be safe.

Customers often ask what kind of water filter I have in my kitchen…

I use the Aquasana countertop water filter. I’ll admit it: I’m frugal. I like a bargain. I know that a home water filter is one of the best investments I can make in my health, but I simply don’t have a lot of money to spend on it. The AQ4000 countertop system costs less than $100. The filter cartridges need to be replaced every 6 months – but there are only two people in my house, so we actually go about 9 months before we replace the filter. That means I spend about 18 cents a day on water filtration. Less than a quarter a day! That’s an expense I can live with. In fact, it makes me smile. I feel sorry for people who buy those expensive, inefficient reverse osmosis systems that cost an arm and a leg. The main problem with most reverse osmosis filters is that they remove natural minerals from the water in addition to contaminants. Ambrosia Water Filters offers a reverse osmosis water filter with a mineralizer that adds natural minerals back to the water after the reverse osmosis process. If I made a little more money, I’d probably install this system under my kitchen sink. But the Aquasana countertop filter has served me well, and I expect to be using it for years to come. It’s reliable and easy to maintain, and best of all, it always produces great-tasting water. See countertop water filters for more information about this system as well as other specialized countertop water filters.

Dr. Doug Pray recommends Ambrosia Water Filters in his new book I Don’t Go with Fat Boys: Weight Loss for People who Love to Eat.

Here’s an excerpt from the book (which is now available on Amazon.com):

You Are What You Drink

Be sure to drink purified water. Tap water or even bottled water may contribute to your body’s toxic load. You can find a quality home water purifier for under a hundred bucks. See www.AmbrosiaWaterFilters.com for several different options.

Today The New York Times reports that more than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Wate Act over the last five years, and since 2004 “the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substance like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.”

Fewer than 6 percent of the water treatment systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials.

Your water quality is in your hands. You cannot rely on regulatory agencies to deliver clean water to your tap. If you care about your health, start looking at home water purifiers.

The NYT analysis of data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in every state in the past five years. To cite one example, drinking water tests in Ramsey, NJ, have shown illegal concentrations of arsenic (a known carcinogen) since 2004.

“Those figures are particularly worrisome, say researchers, because the Safe Drinking Water Act’s limits on arsenic are so weak to begin with. A system could deliver tap water that puts residents at a 1-in-600 risk of developing bladder cancer from arsenic, and still comply with the law.”

In some areas of the country, the amount of radium detected in drinking water was 2,000 percent higher than the legal limit.

Why are American citizens drinking chemicals that cause cancer?

Carcinogens aren’t the only problem. In New York state, over 200 water treatment systems have been delivering water with illegal levels of bacteria since 2004. Only 3 of those systems were penalized for their violations.

Government officials say that enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act is simply not a high priority.

“There is significant reluctance within the EPA and Justice Department to bring actions against municipalities, because there’s a view that they are often cash-strapped, and fines would ultimately be paid by local taxpayers,” said David Uhlmann, former head of the environmental crimes division at the Justice Department. “But some systems won’t come into compliance unless they are forced to, and sometimes a court order is the only way to get local governments to spend what is needed.”

An anonymous enforcement official from the EPA said, “I proposed drinking water cases, but they got shut down so fast that I’ve pretty much stopped even looking at violations. The top people want big headlines and million-dollar settlements. That’s not drinking water cases.”

Scientific research shows that each year 19 million Americans become ill due to parasites, viruses, and bacteria in drinking water. Research also indicates that the increase in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other cancers are tied to the pollutants in drinking water.