CLEAN WATER, THE ESSENCE OF LIFE - Arsenic

Hello Friday,

Friday is a day to finish your goals for the week. It is a day to celebrate that which you set out to accomplish at the beginning of the week.

I know that Dan and I have goals, even being retired we still have obstacles during the week to face. Personally, when Friday comes rolling around, I look back at the accomplishments that I finished and feel blessed.

I can’t truly state that Dan and I have completely hunkered down, for we both had doctors’ visits which had to step out to. However, we are not joining groups or going to the store; until things get under control.

Dan and I have been reading from YOUR BEST LIFE by Joel Osteen. Today I would like to relate this one particular page, which I really felt had lots of meaning in not just my life, but others.

Hug Time 🙅🤗🙅

Good morning Friday ❣️ Life is precious, take each moment and smile. 🤗A hug delights and warms and charms, that must be why we were given arms.🙅

LETTING GO-

We live in a society that loves to make excuses, and one of our favorites phrases is “ITS NOT MY FAULT”. But the truth is, if we are bitter and resentful, its because we are allowing ourselves to remain that way. We’ve all had negative things happen to us. If you look hard enough, anyone can make excuses and blame the past for his bad attitude, poor choices, or hot temper.

You may have valid reasons. You may have gone through things that nobody deserves to experience in life. I don’t mean to minimize those difficult experiences, but if you want to live in victory, you can’t let your past poison your future.

Its time to allow emotional wounds to heal, to let go of your excuses and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Its time to get rid of your victim mentality. Nobody ever promised that life would be fair. Quit, comparing your life to someone else’s, and quit dwelling on what could or should have been. Quit asking questions such as “Why This”? or “Why That”? or “Why Me”? Let go of those hurts and pains. Forgive the people who did you wrong. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you’ve made.

I know, I have felt all of the above sometime in my life! It’s hard sometimes to let your emotions go free and realize that it is only hurting you.

Today, I’m still going to talk about our polluted water system. Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong. Lao-Tzu

Arsenic – causes liver damage, skin cancer and vascular diseases. I have known someone that was tested with high levels of arsenic in her body when we lived in Mexico. So, this piece is very heartfelt in my life and Dans.

Arsenic is an element that exists in various forms. There is elemental (metallic) arsenic, which is when arsenic combines with oxygen, chlorine, sulfur (inorganic arsenic); or when it combines with carbon and hydrogen (organic arsenic).

Generally, inorganic arsenic is more toxic than organic forms of arsenic.

Because it targets widely dispersed enzyme reactions, arsenic affects nearly all organ systems. The most sensitive endpoint from arsenic exposure is dermal effects.

Patchy skin hyperpigmentation, small focal keratoses, and other skin lesions are common effects of heavy chronic exposure.

It is difficult to establish strong associations between arsenic exposure and disease, as the prevalence and spectrum of diseases linked to chronic arsenic exposure differ not only between countries, but even within countries.

Arsenic can cause lung and skin cancers and may cause other cancers.

The association between chronic arsenic exposure and cancer is strongest for skin, lung, and bladder cancer. Liver (angiosarcoma), kidney, and other cancers have limited strength of association.

Water, the Hub of Life. Water is its mater and matrix, mother and medium. Water is the most extraordinary substance! Practically all its properties are anomalous, which enabled life to use it as building material for its machinery. Life is water dancing to the tune of solids.

Drinking water is like washing out your insides. The water will cleanse the system, fill you up, decrease your caloric load and improve the function of all your tissues.

Most of our exposure to arsenic we intake is primarily through the ingestion of food and water. Of these, food is generally the principal contributor to the daily intake of total arsenic. In some area’s arsenic in drinking-water is a significant source of exposure to inorganic arsenic. In these cases, arsenic in drinking-water often constitutes the principal contributor to the daily arsenic intake.

Contaminated soils such as mine tailings are also a potential source of arsenic exposure. The daily intake of total arsenic from food and beverages is generally between 20 and 300 µg/day. Limited data indicate that approximately 25% of the arsenic present in food is inorganic, but this depends highly on the type of food ingested. Inorganic arsenic levels in fish and shellfish are low (< 1%). Foodstuffs such as meat, poultry, dairy products and cereals have higher levels of inorganic arsenic. Pulmonary exposure may contribute up to approximately 10 µg/day in a smoker and about 1 µg/day in a non-smoker, and more in polluted areas. The concentration of metabolites of inorganic arsenic in urine (inorganic arsenic, MMA and DMA) reflects the absorbed dose of inorganic arsenic on an individual level.

Generally, it ranges from 5 to 20 µg as/liter, but may even exceed 1000 µg/liter.

In workplaces with up-to-date occupational hygiene practices, exposure generally does not exceed 10 µg/m3. However, in some place’s workroom atmospheric arsenic concentrations as high as several milligrams per cubic meter have been reported.

According to the CDC, over 15 million U.S. households rely on private, household wells for drinking water. Of those households, the U.S. Geological Survey and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 2.1 million people in the U.S. may be getting their drinking water from private domestic wells with high concentrations of arsenic.

We must treat water as if it were the most precious thing in the world, the most valuable natural resource. Be economical with water! Don't waste it! We still have time to do something about this problem before it is too late. Mikhail Gorbachev

Water brands with high level of arsenic

The Food and Drug Administration currently limits arsenic in bottled water to 10 ppb. But Consumer Reports is calling on the federal government to lower the limit to 3 ppb.

"Current research suggests that amounts above (3 ppb) are potentially dangerous to drink over extended periods of time," according to the Consumer Reports investigation.

Here are the brands that tested above that level:

Peñafiel (Keurig Dr Pepper): 18.1 ppb.

Starkey Water (Whole Foods): 9.8 ppb.

Crystal Creamery: 5 ppb.

Volvic (Danone): 4 ppb.

Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water: 3.8 ppb.

EartH20: 3 ppb.

Water brands with low arsenic levels

Consumer Reports determined that the following water bottles had non-detectable levels of arsenic, or below 3 ppb.

Aquafina

Arrowhead

Dasani

Deer Park

Essentia

Evian

Fiji

Glaceau Smart Water

Ice Mountain

Kirkland (Costco)

Life WTR

Market Pantry (Target)

Nestlé Pure Life

In researching, I note that people often drink bottled water because they think it's safer than tap water. A new investigation by Consumer Reports found that is not always the case.

The consumer-protection nonprofit found that 11 of more than 130 bottled-water brands had detectable levels of arsenic, and six of those had levels above 3 parts per billion — the maximum level Consumer Reports recommends.

Again, we need water, however; we need to rethink on the source and how we can protect ourselves from all the pollution in our water system. Next, I will follow with articles and blogs on just how we can do this.

Until tomorrow, I’m going to end with this quote, “Water is the mother of the vine, the nurse and fountain of fecundity, the adorner and refresher of the world.” Charles Mackay