Water & Air – Filter Systems News

3D image from NASA depicting spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater.

We’ve heard endlessly about the possibility that Mars, the far away red planet, has water, but recently we’ve gotten closer to a confirmation. Last week NASA revealed that its “Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [has] revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.” And, according to an article published in the New York Times, scientists note that “shifting dark streaks on the surface of Mars are signs that water is flowing there today.”

Ice has been plentiful on Mars for quite some time but scientists have been looking for evidence of water because it could lead to the possibility of life outside the scope of Earth. While ice is important, “the recipe for life, at least as we know it, calls for liquid water, carbon-based molecules and a source for energy” and “chemical reactions for life come to a halt when water freezes.”

The data collected by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is being pored over by Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona. McEwen notes that “the best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water. We have this circumstantial evidence for water flowing on Mars. We have no direct detection of water.”

The observations of the data reveal seasonal discrepancies and that

“some aspects of the observations still puzzle researchers, but flows of liquid brine fit the features’ characteristics better than alternate hypotheses. Saltiness lowers the freezing temperature of water. Sites with active flows get warm enough, even in the shallow subsurface, to sustain liquid water that is about as salty as Earth’s oceans, while pure water would freeze at the observed temperatures.”

While it may be too early to get your hopes up about water or life on Mars, these findings bring us closer than ever to an exciting breakthrough about how we perceive life in the universe.

Instead of focusing on a Water Charity this Tuesday, we chose nonprofit organization Project WET. This organization focuses on water education through reaching out to teachers, community members, children, and parents in the United States and around the world. Project WET achieves this goal through publishing informative water materials in different languages, creating school curriculum for different age groups, and sponsoring trainings around the world. Project WET also organizes community water events such as the Global Water Education Village. This event is held every three years at the World Water Forum, the last one was held in Istanbul, Turkey. The goal of the Global Water Education Village is to discuss local actions in water education that are successful at reaching children.

Project WET is committed to reaching out to audiences around the world and in ushering water education into the twenty-first century.  Most recently, Project WET has teamed up with the National Park Service.  In a press release issued on June 22, 2011, Project WET and the National Park Service announced that they would be collaborating on an educational series titled, “Discover the Waters of Our National Parks.”  This science based program will include hands-on activities, videos, special workshops, online courses, guides and an internet portal. Project WET President, Dennis Nelson stated, “Water connects our national parks to each other and to the people of the United States through the water cycle, making national parks a perfect springboard for educating people about water.” This project is going be launched at select national parks within the next year, so keep a look out at your local park!

Project WET’s website offers lots of links for parents, educators, corporations and museums.  If you want to get involved, there are plenty of avenues for that, too. Of course, you can donate on their secure website in any amount you choose, but you can also choose some more innovative ways as well. For example, you can sponsor a classroom and provide a Water and Sustainability Kit which includes copies of various activity and educational booklets for every child.  If you want to be more hands on, you can train to become a Project WET facilitator. After completing the course, you can deliver workshops to teachers and educators in your area. A great way to get involved in your community for a worthy cause!

So this week, Project WET is our pick for a great water focused organization. If you’re a teacher, parent or just someone interested in making a difference through water education, be sure to check out Project WET!

You’ve seen the image before. A hot summer day, everyone sweating, and a fire hydrant is opened up. Water goes everywhere and kids scream in delight. While we all view that as classic summer fun, a recent article in the New York Times suggests that the city of Chicago isn’t eager to join in on the fun because opening up a fire hydrant is illegal. And now the city is looking for way to crack down on it.

Chicago has been going through a heat wave recently, with heat indexes climbing up to 108 degrees on some days. The city has taken issue with the opening of fire hydrants because it affects the way the Chicago Fire Department operates and how it extinguishes fires. Chicago’s Department of Water Management released a few figures that have the city worried. Over 18,000 fire hydrants were opened illegally in 2010 and open fire hydrants lose nearly 34,000 gallons of water per hour. The resulting total damage adds up to “hundreds of thousands of dollars” every year as well as low water pressure for several citizens.

Alternatives to opening fire hydrants have been offered, including by Alderman Edward Burke of the 14th Ward. His plan involves a new bill that calls for the opening of water recreational facilities, such as pools and spray parks, though locals are unconvinced that these facilities will ever be opened. Not to mention that the cost of a full water park has a price tag of $400,000.

Alderman Robert Maldonado of the 26th Ward of Chicago supports Burke’s new bill. But he also has reservations that echoes the complaint many in the community have. “It’s a tradition of decades and decades and decades to open up those fire hydrants,” argues Maldonado.

It’s a tough decision for city planners and officials to make. Opening fire hydrants is part of the city’s colorful history and one of the more fruitful methods for combating growing heat problems. But it’s also a costly expenditure for the city and its citizens, and alternatives like Burke’s water facility bill may hopefully offer the compromise many are seeking.

A Fragrance with Social Commitment

Is there really such a thing as a fragrance providing water to those who need it? Until now, this is a subject that definitely leaves you scratching your head. Tous H₂0 is an aquatic fragrance developed by perfumer Sonia Constant that provides water to people who live in countries where water is a precious commodity.

Tous H2O is a new ecochic perfume for women inspired by the brand’s H2O jewelry collection that is the union of beauty and sustainability. This fragrance features organic alcohol with notes of organic lemon, organic lavender, rose, jasmine, mandarin, cedar, white amber and Australian sandalwood from sustainable development. The glass bottle is made from 25% recycled glass while the packaging and handling is carried out by the Special Employment Center of the Arco Iris Foundation, using materials certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The Forest Stewardship Council was created to change the dialogue about and the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide.

So just how does this fragrance provide water? Proceeds from the sale of each bottle of Tous H2O will be destined to fund Oxfam UK projects, an NGO which specializes in action programs to increase access to safe drinking water in situations of drought, emergencies and conflict in disadvantaged countries.

Water is the theme behind this perfume, from the droplet-inspired bottle to the light, fresh scent, which has top notes of lemon and lavender that mingle into rose and mandarin. For every bottle sold, 15 liters of water will be provided to one person each day for ten days in one of those countries where the organization is working (15 liters = 15.85032315 quarts). According to international standards, 15 liters of water is what it takes for each one of us to bath, shower, cook and clean every day.

Last week NASA celebrated the legacy of a spirit, though one that’s mechanical. In May 2011 the space organization sent its final transmission to Spirit, a rover stuck on that inhospitable red planet known as Mars. NASA first experienced problems with Spirit since April 2009 when the rover got stuck in sand beneath Mars’ crust. Spirit was engineered with solar panels that provide the rover with energy, but with Spirit’s untimely fall those solar panels were pointed away from the sun. On top of that the Martian winter slowly approached and NASA soon lost contact with its prized machine.

NASA has tried everything to reach Spirit, utilizing Deep Space Network antennas and Mars orbiters, but eventually decided that attempting communication was futile and that it was time to retire the hardworking rover.

While losing contact with Rover has been a dour moment for NASA, the organization highlights all of the accomplishments Rover has achieved and the scientific breakthroughs made in understanding the red planet’s aquatic properties. John Callas, Exploration Rover project manager, notes that the Rover (accidentally) contributed to the “evidence of ancient hot springs.” Spirit’s right wheel malfunctioned in 2006, two years after arriving on Mars’ surface, and while dragging the wheel into the ground “revealed deposits of amorphous silica widely thought to have formed in hydro-thermal systems. Apparently, Mars once had water and the energy to warm it.”

Callas also notes that the Spirit provided “evidence of a thick atmosphere and ‘sweet water.’” Mars is known for having a thin atmosphere that prevents the growth of life, but Spirit found evidence of carbonates. Callas states that “the carbonates Spirit found formed in surface water that could only exist with a thick atmosphere sitting on top of it to prevent rapid evaporation. Moreover, the chemistry of the carbonates tells us that the water wasn’t acidic like other ancient water on Mars.” In other words, billions of years ago the possibility of life was not as remote as it appears now.

Finally, the Spirit provided “evidence of an active water cycle.” After Spirit’s tumble into the soft sand, its wheels dug up sulfates in the soil. “These minerals appear to have come in contact with water perhaps as recently as a million years ago,” says Callas. A million years is certainly a long time, but is quite recent in geological terms, so this evidence supports the theory that Mars has an active water cycle.

While Spirit is no longer sending us transmissions about its adventures on the Red Planet, its legacy lives on at NASA headquarters. The data uncovered by the plucky rover will be pored over by scientists for years, possibly leading to even bigger breakthroughs to come.

Think your pet’s the cutest? Post a photo on the Filters Fast Facebook page — if your photo gets the most “likes”, you will win a dog or cat water fountain!

To enter into the contest, just like our Facebook page and post a photo by 3 p.m. on Monday, May 16. At that time, we’ll move all of your photos into a separate album and allow people to vote on your photos by liking them. The voting will end at 3 p.m. on May 23, when we’ll announce the winner of the Dog It Water Fountain or Cat It Water Fountain (winner’s choice).  It probably goes without saying, but the pet must actually be yours to qualify. If it’s easier, you can also e-mail photos to daniel@filtersfast.com.

Just like people, it’s very important for your pets to stay hydrated. These water fountains provide a continuous supply of fresh and filtered drinking water. The water recirculates throughout the fountain, which exposes it to more oxygen and makes it more appealing to cats and dogs. Anyone who has ever offered their dog water from a garden hose knows this is the case! Water also helps to maintain proper kidney function in cats and dogs.

Even if you don’t live in Japan, on the US west coast, or in other nearby areas that have been affected by radioactive particles from the recent earthquake disaster, you may still be in danger of radioactive waste.

Perhaps you recall a post we did last year on the movie GASLAND, a documentary on the dangers of natural gas drilling. Director Josh Fox traveled to parts of Texas, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, and revealed in his film horrific truths about how the natural gas industry is poisoning our water and air, causing chronic illnesses among residents in drilling areas. Some residents featured in the film were even able to light their tap water on fire. If you’ve seen this Oscar-nominated film, you may already be aware that the wastewater produced from natural gas drilling – also called hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ for short – contains radioactive materials like radium and uranium that occur naturally in deep rock formations, at levels way higher than is safe for wastewater treatment plants to handle. Unreported, confidential studies by both the EPA and the drilling industry have concluded that the radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in waterways, thus increasing the possibility that it ends up in our drinking water.

Natural gas drilling companies are exempt from many of the federal environmental laws that were written to protect our air and water supplies from radioactive chemicals. What’s more, they target locals in areas that are rich in natural gas, and offer to pay them thousands in exchange for drilling rights that force these residents to keep quiet about their experience, and prevent them from bringing any lawsuits. $100,000 is a lot of money, so most of these people blindly accept the offer, not knowing that soon after they might be gulping gasoline.

If you’ve been a victim of this scheme, you may want to invest in a water filtration system that removes radioactive particles. Katadyn emergency water filters are used by militaries and disaster relief organizations during environmental disasters where access to safe drinking water is scarce. While it may not fully protect you from the threat of radioactivity, as we’ve mentioned before, you can never be too careful.

If you’ve recently discovered that you can light your tap water on fire, purchase a Katadyn emergency water filter, run your home’s water through it, and see what happens. If it filters out the flammable substances, then send us a video, and we will feature you in our Filters Fast “Will it Filter” video series.

The Pentek AS-301E 3-Stage Arsenic Reduction Water Filter system reduces arsenic III and IV, along with chlorine taste and odor, from your water. Arsenic is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and must be detected by an arsenic water test. If your water is contaminated with arsenic, it’s very important that you invest in a filter to remove it, because it is linked to bladder, lung and skin cancer, along with kidney and liver cancer. To learn more about this carcinogenic substance, check out our post, “The Dangers of Arsenic in Drinking Water.”

This weekend, we are offering the Pentek Arsenic Reduction Water Filter system at an incredibly low price. Regularly $329.99, we are pricing this system at only $175.99 for 2 days only!

**Please note: this is NOT an April Fool’s joke.

So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. This water filter system has been discontinued and we only have two left to sell. So order yours now, at this unbelievable price, before they are all gone. This sale ends Sunday at 11:59 p.m.

In light of recent news regarding the aftermath of the Japan earthquake, we have talked a lot about emergency water purification. Katadyn manufactures a variety of emergency water filters, and this weekend we are offering the Katadyn MyBottle Water Purifiers, in blue or green, for only 34.95 ($15 off!)

The Katadyn MyBottle is the only personal water bottle purifier on the water filter market that is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Katadyn water filters are often used by the U.S. military, international militaries, NATO and relief organizations during environmental disasters when access to clean water is scarce. The MyBottle can be dipped directly into lakes, rivers, streams and other freshwater sources, and removes all viruses, bacteria, cysts and other impurities. The carbon cartridge also reduces the bad taste and odor of chemicals, making treated water taste even better. This bottle can protect you from waterborne illness while on your next camping trip, or even during a visit to a foreign country where the tap water is unsafe. It filters up to 26 gallons of water and uses combination Virustat filter and cyst filter technology.

Replacement Katadyn filter cartridges can be purchased at FiltersFast, but go ahead and order your Katadyn water filter bottle today, as this special offer ends Sunday at midnight.

Excessive fluoride consumption may lead to dental fluorosis - a condition characterized by splotchy teeth.

Water fluoridation – once considered one of the 20th century’s greatest accomplishments in public health – is now admitted to be a cause for concern by U.S. government officials, dentists and scientific researchers, alike.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced, last Friday, plans to lower the amount of fluoride in drinking water after recent scientific research revealed an increase in levels of fluorosis in young children. Fluorosis is a condition characterized by tooth streaking or spottiness due to excessive fluoride consumption; in most cases it is mild and hardly noticeable, and poses little cause for concern, but in extreme cases, teeth may actually be pitted by the mineral. While fluoride has been found to reduce the risk of cavities, too much of it can lead to dental fluorosis, or worse, skeletal fluorosis, a condition characterized by brittle bones, increased bone fractures and crippling bone defects. (For more information on the water fluoridation controversy, see our most recent article, “All About Water Fluoridation” – a comprehensive collection of educational resources centered on the issue of fluoride in drinking water.)

Fluoride ingestion also occurs when toothpaste is swallowed. Though most children swallow minimal amounts while brushing, over time it adds up. Fluoride may also be found naturally in certain foods. Health officials are finally recognizing that the mineral is more accessible now than it was when water fluoridation first began; adding it to municipal drinking water supplies, therefore, may  not be as necessary as was once thought. Fluoride is now being called “too much of a good thing.” (You know the saying… “everything in moderation… even moderation.”)

The standard amount for fluoride in drinking water, since 1962, has been a range of 0.7 ppm in warmer climates to 1.2 ppm in colder climates where less water is consumed. The new standard would be set at 0.7 ppm regardless of climate. The maximum allowable amount of fluoride is currently 4 ppm. The EPA is reviewing whether to lower this number; however, opponents of fluoridation claim that even 2 ppm is too much.

While water fluoridation may have been a success in the 20th century, the 21st century may soon announce a new victory – the reduction of fluoride in municipal drinking water – a policy that will enable us to live longer, healthier lives; and when we finally do see our graves – an inevitable fate caused by none other than old age – we will do so while flashing a healthy, white, unspotted toothy smile.

If you have not yet done so, please vote in our poll to the right of this post!