of International Intrigue, Chlorine, and Tap Water

In January 2005, Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko, the informal leader of the Ukranian Opposition Coalition, became the third and current President of the Ukraine, after a revote, recount, and a runoff election against the state- sponsored opposition candidate.
Not exactly what one would call a clean victory, but given the story of intrigue that ran through this campaign, is one that certainly should have been expected.

In fact, during the campaign in 2004, Yushchenko became violently ill and was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes, due to a serious viral infection and chemical substances that are not normally found in food products. Yushchenko claimed such poisoning to be the work of government agents. After the illness, his face became heavily disfigured: grossly jaundiced, bloated, and pockmarked.

A British toxologist declared the changes in Yushchenko's face were due to chloracne, which can be the result of dioxin poisoning. Later, a Dutch toxicologist found levels of dioxin in Yushchenko's blood that were 6,000 times above normal and also stated his changes in appearance to be the result of chloracne.

Yuschenko, before and after dioxin poisoning

So, what is dioxin? It is the name given to an entire group of poisons mainly derived from and related to Chlorine, which is universally used to chemically disinfect water. Chlorine kills germs, bacteria and other living organisms, and is contained in every ounce of water that comes out of municipal water treatment plants.
Now, the levels of chlorine in municipal water are nothing compared to the immediate danger of deadly bacteria in untreated water, and chlorine is certainly the least expensive and surest method of protecting consumers against such dangers; and by its self, the amount of chlorine in tap water has been shown to be of a safe level for exposure. But coupled with all the other environmental exposures to dioxins, and the fact that these chemicals bioaccumulate in our bodies, prudence would suggest that we limit every exposure that we can control.
These compounds readily pass through the cell wall and attach to the fatty acids of the cell, disrupting the life sustaining functions. It should be noted that the EPA sets the recommended exposure level to these compounds at zero.

It has been estimated that the "shower steam" in your bathroom can contain up to 100 times the amount of chlorine than the water, because chlorine evaporates out of water at a relatively low temperature. If you bathe or shower in unfiltered tap water you are inhaling and absorbing an unsafe amount of chlorine into your body. This single daily exposure accounts for almost half of the average person’s dioxin intake.

If you are running for president in a former soviet bloc nation, you should be sure- get your water from a well. Repeated exposures to these chemicals will not help you build up an immunity, but rather, lay the foundation for your opposition’s plot to remove you as a threat.
If you are just a “regular” citizen simply concerned about your health, you may want to heed that same advice. After all, you may never be the specific target of a murderous plot, but; in light of the EPA's recommendations, you certainly can not be too careful!

Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water?

Americans are living longer and longer. It's all about advancement in medical research, and most of that advancement has to do with pharmaceuticals. We are a pill-popping Nation, and a new study by the Associated Press highlights our drug use is a most unusual way:
They have found a vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.

It's not that they tested some water supplies and didn't find pharmaceuticals, the study group found these drugs in EVERY test they conducted!

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

Image courtesy of  Danilo Rizzuti /

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

* Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.
* Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
* Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
* A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.
* The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
* Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

How could this happen? Its simple:

People take these drugs. They pass through their bodies and are flushed back into the system.
By law, our water treatment plants test and treat bacteria and metals- add chlorine and fluoride, but the federal government doesn’t require any testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water, and, therefore requires no testing or treatment for these contaminants.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

“We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

So maybe it's not just the hormones in the chickens we eat. Maybe its not only the antibiotics in the beef we eat. Maybe its not the chemical levels in our fruits and vegetables-
Maybe its our water!

Maybe we should think before we drink.