Water & Air – Filter Systems News

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!

“Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.”

– Charles Fishman, The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

Charles Fishman, bestselling author of The Wal-Mart Effect has most recently turned his attention to water. The leap from discounted mega-giant to Earth’s most essential resource may seem like a big one, but Fishman is interested in relationships-whether it’s to Wal-Mart or water.  Fishman first began his flirtation with water in a 2007 article entitled, “Message in a Bottle”, published in Fast Company magazine. In this piece Fishman lamented, “Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the United States. Last year, we spent more on Poland Spring, Fiji Water, Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani than we spent on iPods or movie tickets– $15 billion. It will be $16 billion this year” (Fishman, 2007).

Fast forward to 2011, and Fishman tackles both the history and future of water in our world. The Big Thirst seeks to open people’s eyes to the reality of water in the twenty-first century. Similar to what the book and film, Fast Food Nation did for revealing the atrocities of the United States fast food industry, Thirst delves into people’s water consciousness. For example, do you know where your water goes when it swirls down the drain, flushes down the toilet or leaves your washing machine? A majority of Americans have no idea.

Also consider that most Americans don’t know where the majority of their daily water usage comes from. Do you? In 1999, a group of researchers used electronic water-flow sensors in 1,888 homes for four weeks. The results showed that the primary way American’s use water daily is by flushing the toilet. About five times a day per person if you want to put a figure on it. We literally flush 5.7 billion gallons of water down the toilet a day (Fishman, 2011).

The Big Thirst’s strength stems from Fishman’s ability to storytell. He connects you to your relationship with water in a multitude of ways. Take for example, this excerpt, “Like so much of modern life, safe, reliable water and sewer service is both essential and a complete mystery. We have no idea where our water comes from, we have no idea what happens to it when the dishwasher is done with it. We have no idea what effort is required to get the water to us, and no idea what’s required to get rid of it. That ignorance doesn’t matter, until things start to go wrong.”

Water is an essential resource in our daily lives- and most of us do not understand how much we rely on it, how much goes into getting it to our faucet, and what we would do if it were to stop flowing freely. Charles Fishman explores these questions through fascinating stories intertwining his personal travels to the water bottling plants of San Pellegrino, Italy and Poland Spring, Maine.  The main question being, why don’t we value our most essential resource the way we should?

The New Jersey American Water and Scholastic is hosting a Tap for Tap Song and Dance contest for students in grades K-8. The purpose of the contest is to encourage students to help the environment by opting for tap water. To enter, teachers should have their students write a toe-tapping original song describing what makes tap water so special, and then choreograph a tap dance routine to go along with it. Teachers may submit entries by mailing in the song lyrics and a video of the dance, or by submitting the material online through the Scholastic Tap for Tap entry form. This contest is open to New Jersey public schools, private schools, home schools or dance schools.

Judging will be based solely on the song lyrics and how well it communicates the benefits of tap water. Three winning classrooms will receive a field day from New Jersey American Water, along with a brand new library of Scholastic books and a pizza party.

We thought this was a creative and fun way for students to learn about the benefits of opting for tap water over bottled water. Though the contest is currently open to students in the New Jersey area, perhaps teachers in other states can be inspired to host or participate in a similar event. Teach your kids about tap water now, so that they will develop good, environmentally-friendly habits from now into adulthood. Filters Fast offers several other ways for your students to learn about water and sustainability, including a WaterSafe Science Project Water Test Kit that can compare the water quality of up to 10 different tap water samples. For other ideas on taking your classroom to the next level, take a look at our “Educator’s Guide to Green Lessons and Activities,” as well as this collection of Energy and Science Projects for Students.

Dear Residents of Drexel, MO,

We heard about the herbicide problem in your water supply and thought it would be a good idea to write you and let you know that you don’t have to wait on your town’s Public Works Department to take action. You can reduce the level of atrazine present your water, straight from your kitchen sink.  And you don’t even need any special tools to do it.

Before we get into “how,” it’s a good idea for you to read the blog post we did a couple of months ago – “Sex Changing Chemicals in your Drinking Water,” – to find out why it’s so important that you rid yourself of this problem as soon as possible. We hear you’ve been relying on bottled water, which may seem like the answer, but as that blog post reveals, is in fact no better than drinking atrazine-infested tap water.

So go ahead and read that post. We’ll wait…

…

After reading that, you might be slightly worried, or very worried, which is perfectly natural. But there’s hope. As mentioned at the end of that post, we carry several brands of refrigerator filters, undersink water filters, and faucet filters that reduce levels of atrazine significantly. For your situation, we recommend a faucet filter, as these are the easiest to install. They attach directly to your faucet in minutes for fresh, great-tasting water straight out of the kitchen. Your neighbors will scratch their heads in wonder when they come over and see you drinking water from the tap.

Purchase a water filter online for a better price than you will find in stores, and we’ll ship it quickly, straight to your doorstep at an affordable rate. We hope you rest easy knowing that you now have access to clean drinking water.

Sincerely,

Filters Fast

Vice President of Communications for the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), Tom Lauria, refutes the argument that bottled water should be banned in colleges and universities, in a response to our recent article on banning bottled water.

His response is published in a separate article, “Bottled Water Vs. Tap Water,” and in it, he presents his reaction to both sides of the debate.  Overall, it’s pretty clear that he’s against a bottled water ban.  While we at Filter’s Fast advocate filtering tap water over purchasing bottled water, we do believe that everyone should have a chance to express their views, so we hope you’ll take some time to read and take part in the debate as well.  Perhaps you have arguments for the other side – Tap Water Vs. Bottled Water?  E-mail selwa@filtersfast.com if you’d like to participate.

What’s in your water? We at Filters Fast have compiled a list of the top ten most disturbing things found in tap and bottled water. Some of these may surprise you.

#10 – Chlorine

The chlorination of water is a disinfecting method used by water treatment plants to eliminate the presence of bacteria and other microorganisms in city supplies.  This seems beneficial, but consider the consequences: chlorine in water often reacts with other naturally-occurring elements to produce toxins that are carcinogenic. Prolonged exposure has been linked with several adverse health conditions like asthma and several types of cancer.

#9 – Lead

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Lead in water is a major concern for children and pregnant women, as it affects physical and mental development. Although measures taken over the last few decades have drastically reduced the amount of lead in water supplies, it is still often found in houses and buildings with old pipes. Water that sits for long periods of time in corroded pipes can become contaminated and, when drank, result in lead poisoning.

#8 – Cysts

Cryptosporidium and Giardia are two of the most common water-borne microbiological cysts. These protozoan parasites enter lakes and streams through sewage and animal waste. Drinking water from said lakes and streams is not such a good idea, unless you’re sure the cysts have been filtered out. You could end up with a mild to severe gastrointestinal illness.

#7 – BPA

BPA, otherwise known as bisphenol-A, is found in the plastic used in water bottles and other manufactured products. A large number of studies on BPA have found its effects on the body to be toxic. If BPA leaches into bottled water, it could result in many different types of cancer.

#6 – Fluoride

Ah, the Fluoride debate: to fluoridate or not to fluoridate.  Well, some maintain that fluoride in water is beneficial to dental health. Others claim it is linked to bone cancer and can actually cause dental fluorosis with extensive exposure. It’s all a matter of where your priorities lie. Sure you might die of cancer, but at least you can still flash those healthy, strong pearly whites during your funeral visitation, right?

#5 – Fecal Coliforms

Yes, you read that right. While bottled water companies market their product as healthier than tap, many bottles have been found to contain a small percentage of feces. What’s another word for feces?

You don’t want that in your water.

#4 – Pesticides and Herbicides

This might not sound like such a big deal, since pesticides and herbicides are regularly used to farm our world’s food supplies. But whether you eat them or drink them, these substances are toxic, and have been labeled “gender benders.” Studies have found that atrazine, a common herbicide, is able to turn male frogs into female frogs. Farm run-off puts these toxins in our water supplies, so unless you’re trying to induce a sex change, I’d be careful.

#3 – Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceuticals are scary, because they may be harder to filter than all of these other substances. Since pharmaceuticals do not biodegrade, throwing them in the trash or flushing them down the toilet may cause them to end up in your water supply. Ninety percent of pills can pass through humans unchanged, so that human waste becomes a factor as well. Repeatedly ingesting water contaminated with pharmaceuticals can disrupt normal hormone function or lead to cancer.

#2 – Natural Gas

Several homes across the country, all of which are near a local natural-gas drilling site, have witnessed the miracle of flaming tap water. The good news is that it’s easy to test for – hold a lighter up to your faucet. The down side is that you might get burned while doing so.

#1 – Crickets

In the words of Dr. Peter Gleick, “yes, crickets.” Gleick recently published a book called, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession With Bottled Water. In it, he discusses the contaminants found in bottled water that most people don’t look for. His examples include a 1994 recall on a Texas-manufactured, bottled, sparkling water that was found to be contaminated with crickets.

I don’t think it gets more disturbing than this, but I could be wrong.  Are these the ten worst things found in tap and bottled water supplies?  Perhaps you have some contaminated water stories you’d like to share.

It’s a question we’ve been bombarded with since yesterday morning, when the Associated Press published an article stating that United States manufacturers and drugmakers have legally released 271 million or more pounds of pharmaceuticals into water sources that often provide drinking water.
During this “PharmaWater” investigation, the AP identified 22 compounds present in drinking water. Included in these compounds are such chemicals as lithium, antibiotics, sedatives, mood stabilizers, sex hormones, skin-bleaching cream and chemicals used to combat head lice and worms.
Yet while drugmakers and manufacturers are certainly responsible for a large portion of the pharmaceuticals in our water, consumers of the pharmaceuticals are just as responsible for depositing pharmaceuticals back into the water supply. After taking these pharmaceuticals, consumers excrete the unabsorbed remainders into the toilet, where they enter the water supply. Flushing drugs down the toilet is a more direct way of doing this, and one that is surprisingly common.
Perhaps the only thing scarier than all of these pharmaceuticals in our drinking water is that there is currently no filter that removes pharmaceuticals from tap water. While companies are currently working on filters that remove pharmaceuticals from water, none do as of yet. Some theorize that filters using activated carbon may work, as the carbon has been shown to capture organic substances that may be found in pharmaceuticals. But as of now, the testing for pharmaceuticals is too insufficient to say whether or not this is the case.
So while we cannot say for certain whether these filters remove pharmaceuticals, we can say that many of our filters do remove contaminants that we know can be harmful to your health, such as arsenic, lead, chlorine, cysts, total dissolved solids, toxic heavy metals and bacteria.
Give us a call to discuss your specific filtration needs. Better yet, consider purchasing one of our many home testing kits, which will tell you exactly what is in your water (again, except for pharmaceuticals).
Then, when you know what’s in your water, give us a call and we’ll suggest a filter that will remove the undesired contaminants.

There are many reasons not to drink bottled water. But I can think of none so disturbing as the possibility you might be drinking a snail’s aphrodisiac. This according to a Wired Science article citing a German study that discovered snails bred at a much faster pace in water from plastic bottles than they did in water from glass bottles.
The study attributes this to the plastic bottles leaching active chemicals into the water – chemicals that mimic natural sex hormones. These hormones, however, apply to humans as well.
Now before you go touting the benefits of an aphrodisiac as inexpensive and readily-available as bottled water, think of the consequences. The xenohormone residue found in the study’s water can lessen virility in boys and cause the early onset of puberty in girls.
So until I find snails reproducing in my kitchen sink, I’m going to continue filtering and drinking my home’s tap water. It’s much cheaper, ecologically responsible and, most importantly, I can rest easy knowing I’m not overpopulating the world with gastropods.

Adorned in colonial waistcoats and tri-cornered hats, the men piloted their boat into Boston harbor to dump the unfairly priced beverages back into the rolling sea beneath. It was nothing short of a political revolt, an act of resistance urging the masses to take action against the injustices under which they had suffered for far too long.
We all recognize this scene as from the Boston Tea Party in 1773. But some Boston residents witnessed this demonstration just a week ago, and it wasn’t tea and taxes that was being protested against: it was bottled water.
Activists from the Think Outside the Bottle campaign performed this demonstration to draw attention to United Nations World Water Day on March 22. More specifically, it was an effort to convince more people to drink tap water, rather than its comparatively overpriced and ecologically-irresponsible equivalent.
So, America, rise up against your oppressors! Know your enemy, bottled water, and choose your weapons wisely. Whether you are looking for faucet filters, Brita pitchers, or even undersink or reverse osmosis systems, Filters Fast has everything you need to fight the good fight!

Despite the many studies and reports exposing bottled water as nothing more than tap water, one man is proving that our country might not be ready to tap out just yet: even when the water is blatantly marketed as tap water.
The Los Angeles Times recently reported on Craig Zucker, the founder of a new bottled water called Tap’d NY. As the name suggests, Tap’d NY takes as its source the same reservoirs and lakes that provide New York City with its tap water. The only real difference between the two? Price, of course, and one well marketed bottle.
A quick glance tells you this isn’t your parents’ bottled water. Rather than spell out the unnecessarily long word “Tapped,” the company has chosen to eschew needless letters in favor of a simple apostrophe. It’s a testament to the widely known fact that alternative spellings or abbreviated words just sell better.
The label also touts that “No glaciers were harmed in making this water.”
To be fair, some of the nation’s finest tap water does flow through New York City’s faucets. But that begs the question–why would anyone buy Tap’d NY if they can get the very same water in their own home? A BPA-free plastic bottle or glass decanter allows you to take this water wherever you go.
If you live in an area with off-tasting tap water, there’s a solution for that, too. You can filter the impurities from your tap water with any number of filtration systems, depending on the quality of your water. Our Brita pitcher systems, for example, are a great way to rid your water of the taste and odor of chlorine, as well as other contaminants.
The end result is water that often tastes better and is more healthy than its bottled counterpart, not to mention at a fraction of the cost. Better still, you won’t be contributing to the millions of bottles that go unrecycled every year. You know, so you don’t harm any glaciers while making your water.