When I was growing up, the health of the environment was far from top of mind. The world I knew and played in every day was taken for granted. When I had my own children, I became a little more environmentally astute. I started with recycling, hoping that engaging my children in that practice, might have an impact. As my awareness evolved, I realized the important role parents play in educating their children on ways to preserve their future and their world.

Environmental educator David Sobel said, “One transcendent experience in nature is worth a thousand nature facts.” Studies have shown that when children are connected to nature between the ages of 5 and 10, they’re more likely to develop more compassion about their environment, a compassion they’ll likely carry throughout their lives. So what can you do to help your child develop an interest in environmental preservation? The following steps show how easy it can be!

Create a Nature Trip

Go for a nature walk, picking up cans, bottles, paper along the way, all of which can be recycled. This exercise will raise awareness about the damage from littering and encourage personal responsibility for keeping the earth clean. A nature field trip is also a great way to motivate children to ask questions about flowers, birds, trees, and more. The more children know about the life cycle, the more interested they will become in preserving it.

Start a Garden

Getting kids involved in the food that comes into the house naturally improves their food choices, thus reducing the risk of obesity. Further, teaching kids to garden and allowing them to choose what vegetables they would like to grow, encourages healthy eating habits and a dedication to locally grown, seasonal foods.

Visit a Recycling Plant

Try taking your children to a recycling plant where they can witness the recycling process from garbage to product. Many plants offer tours, so check your local community.  Kids will find it fascinating, and they will better understand the importance of recycling.

Create a Compost Bin

Composting is an ideal way to instill a sense of environmental advocacy in children. No matter where you live, you can compost. Plus, kids love it! Composting is such a great exercise for kids because they can witness the entire cycle of the food off their plate (that would normally go into a landfill) into useful soil that is garden ready. By composting, children will learn to value organic wastes as a resource instead of thinking it is useless garbage. Composting is a great way to empower your children by helping them understand how their actions can have a positive effect on the environment.

Turn Off Lights and Preserve Water

Kids are notorious for leaving lights on, and as they advance into the junior high years, showers go on forever. The best way to teach children the value of saving resources is to make a game of it. For example, every time a light is left on or a shower goes beyond a certain limit, they have to put 5 cents in a jar for each slip-up. Conversely, if they haven’t left any lights on and have honored the water limitation, 5 cents goes in to the family jar. At the end of the month, the family can select a fun way to spend the money, maybe even donate it to an environmental effort.

Remember, children want to help. And if they can do something that grownups do, they’re in.  Not only will you be teaching by example, you’ll be allowing them to get involved and connected to Mother Earth. They’re never too young or too old to for you to teach them about the value of preserving their planet for their future.

The Dervaes family grows more than 6,000 pounds of food a year, on 1/10 acre located just 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles.

With over 400 species of plants, 4,300 pounds of vegetable food, 900 chicken and 1,000 duck eggs, 25 lbs of honey, plus seasonal fruits throughout the year, they are able to produce  over 90% food they eat, and they sell food on their front porch making about $20,000 a year.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/NCmTJkZy0rM

Follow the Dervaes and their Urban Homesteading activites at http://urbanhomestead.org

We at OLM are not fans of sunscreen or sunblock. The problem is that we have not found a totally safe and benign topical way to protect the skin from sun damage besides coverage with clothing and hats.

Sunlight has numerous health benefits including the most well known, vitamin D. Most of us do not get enough vitamin D. And anyone who eats well and is in relative good health can enjoy sunlight. As with everything else having to do with health, believe it or not, a healthy diet full of a wide variety of organic, nutrient dense fresh produce is the very best way to prevent, heal, and reverse premature aging, damage, and skin cancers that can be caused by the sun.

Simply limiting exposure to shorter periods until the skin builds up its natural defenses is the best way to be able to play in the sun without the worry of sun damage. But we live in the real world, and not everyone has time to build up the their sun tolerance for a week in order to enjoy 8 hours at the beach with nothing more than a swimsuit.

Exaggerated Dangers of Sunlight

When we first learned about the dangers of too much sun exposure, we ignored the dangers of not enough sun exposure, which as it turns out, leads to greater incidents of cancer, including the more dangerous form of skin cancer.

“There are two types of skin cancer,” says Dr. Michael Holick, one of the world’s leading authorities on vitamin D and vitamin D deficiency. “There’s what’s called non-melanoma skin cancer and there is no question that excessive exposure to sunlight and sunburns will damage the DNA and induce skin cells to become cancerous. That is non-melanoma squamous and basal cell cancers. They are typically easy to detect, easy to treat. They’re not lethal, for the most part.

“Melanoma is a different story. Most melanomas occur on the least sun exposed areas. Occupational sun exposure decreases your risk of malignant melanoma.”

And to top it off, vitamin D, what you get from our vilified sun, is one of the best preventers of any and all types of cancer!

For more on sunlight, skin cancer, and vitamin D, check out our article, Sunlight and Vitamin D.

Dangers of Sunscreens

So we all got scared of skin cancer, and what did we do? We started slathering on toxic chemicals that kept our skin from appearing and feeling burned while we sunbathed . Thinking we were totally protected, we cooked these chemicals into our skin, causing serious damage to out skin, our liver, our DNA, etc.

And guess what happened? Skin cancer rates rose right along with the use of sunscreen.

Canada Proposes Stricter  Sunscreen Regulations

If Canada’s planned rules take effect, this would likely prompt much needed changes in the sunscreens sold in the United States.

“Sunscreen companies won’t make better products until they are forced to,” said Sonya Lunder, Senior Analyst at Environmental Working Group. “EWG welcomes Canada’s efforts to improve sunscreen protection, particularly because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears unable or unwilling to wrap up its sunscreen rules more than thirty years in the making.”

For more on Canada’s Stricter Sunscreen Rules, checkout The Environmental Working Group’s article.

EWG

The Environmental Working Group has just released its 7th annual Sunscreen Guide.This guide rates the safety and efficacy of over 1,400 sunscreens, lotions, lip products and makeups that advertise sun protection.

“The vast majority of sunscreens available to the consumer aren’t as good as most people think they are, but there are a handful of products that rise above the rest,” said Sonya Lunder, senior research analyst at EWG and lead author of the report. “The best advice for concerned consumers is to use sun-protective clothing, stay in the shade to reduce intense sun exposure, and schedule regular skin examinations by a doctor. And turn to EWG’s guide to find the best sunscreens for skin that isn’t protected by clothing.”

“Despite an increasing awareness of the sun’s risks, rates of melanoma – the deadliest skin cancer – have tripled over the past 35 years, with an annual increase of 1.9 percent per year since 2000,” Lunder said.

The Environmental Working Group states, “Part of the reason for the increase may be the decades of deceptive marketing claims by sunscreen manufacturers, EWG researchers said.  EWG believes that the federal Food and Drug Administration should press companies to stop selling high-SPF sunscreens (above 50+), which account for 1 in 7 products on the market. As a result of misleading and confusing marketing claims, consumers frequently misuse sunscreens and spend more time in the sun than they should, putting themselves at greater risk.” We contend that that sunscreen’s toxic chemicals are the biggest culprit.

Sunscreen Ingredients to Avoid

Retinyl Palmitate: In sunscreen, exposed to the intense rays of the sun, Retinyl Palmitate builds up in the skin elevating the risk of skin cancer and other health issues.

Oxybenzone: Also known as methanone, 2-hydroxy 4 methoxydenzophenone and benzophenone-3. The Environmental Working Group states that 56% of sunscreens contain Oxybenzone, a penetration enhancer (causes other chemicals to be able to penetrate skin). This chemical is known to cause allergic skin reactions that can spread beyond applied areas. Oxybenzone disrupts the human endocrine system and can damage the cardiovascular system.

Octinoxate: The most widely used sunscreen ingredient, octinoxate helps other ingredients be absorbed more readily. Studies show that this chemical is likely responsible for disrupting the endocrine system by altering hormones. The chemical’s effects on estrogen levels are harmful for humans and our environment. Octinoxate is likely the main culprit for premature aging due to the fact that it produces free radicals that attack and damage our skin cells.

Benzophenone-3 (B-3): Can damage DNA.

Amino Benzoic Acid: Otherwise known as PABA, para-aminobenzoic acid, Vitamin Bx or padimate O, Amino Benzoic Acid  is a nontoxic UV filtering compound. But researchers have come to find that Amino Benzoic Acid can amplify cellular damage.

Homosalate: Like oxybenzone, homosalate can mimic bodily hormones. Our bodies cannot remove this chemical at the common rate of absorption so it accumulates to very toxic levels over time.

Paraben Preservatives: There have been many reports of serious chronic and acute side effects associated with Paraben preservatives. Derived from plant and petroleum sources, these preservatives may cause irritation and allergic reactions. More importantly, the chronic effects of Paraben use are known to disrupt and mimic hormones and cause reproductive toxicity. As a suspected carcinogen, it has connections with breast tumors, skin cell damage, and oxidative stress on the body’s tissues, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Octocrytene: This synthetic UV absorber may produce oxygen radicals that cause cell mutation resulting in increased production of free radicals that are known to damage DNA, which may lead malignant melanoma skin cancer.

Artificial Ingredients: Scents, colors, and preservatives are never good to put on your skin. They are absorbed into your body, and when baked in the sun, many of these ingredients can become even more dangerous,. Like, for starters, many artificial ingredients when cooked into the skin produce DNA damaging free radicals. These artificial ingredients are bad for us, bad for the environment, and should be avoided anywhere, in food, sunscreens, supplements, etc.

The Safest Effective Active Sunscreen Ingredient

While there are many totally natural, completely safe, and edible ingredient options that offer some protection from the sun, the highest SPF you can get from them is about a 5 (see our homemade recipe below). But for a higher level of sunburn protection, we choose zinc oxide. Not the nano technology kind which is composed of zinc oxide particles so small they are absorb into the skin. You don’t want to absorb zinc oxide.  And if you’re healthy, you shouldn’t absorb any non nano zinc oxide applied to the skin. It’s still not the kind of thing we want to put on our body. But for any significant SPF protection, it’s the best choice we know of.

For more on zinc oxide, check out this post by The Environmental Working Group.

Homemade Sunscreen

It’s easy to make your own sunscreen. But how effective is it? There are some efficacy issues to consider. And be careful. Don’t just slather on some coconut oil with zinc oxide and then spend 8 hours in the sun.

Homemade Sunscreen Warning

Before deciding to save a few dollars with the DIY route, consider some of the issues that arise when making your own sunscreen.

One problem with making your own sunscreen at home is that there is no effective way to test SPF levels. Another issue is mixing the ingredients. Sunscreen manufacturers use a high pressure machine called a homogenizer to break up zinc and/or titanium dioxide particles in order to evenly distribute them throughout he formulas. Mixing by hand, or even a blender can cause uneven distribution of the active ingredients leaving large areas of skin partially or totally exposed to UV rays.

And oils by themselves can actually contribute to sunburns by absorbing light which allows greater UV ray penetration. It should also be noted that store-bought sunscreens typically contain a of different ingredients to protect against the different wavelengths of UV rays. Zinc or titanium dioxide alone does not offer the same level of protection from sunburns.

That said, we still choose sunburn over cancer causing chemicals any day! And we are a fan of DIY projects. But regardless, when using sunscreen, and especially the homemade variety, use common sense with sun exposure. Reapply after getting wet. Use a hat and cover the body after or get out of the sun all together before you burn.

How to Make Homemade Organic Sunscreen

• 1/4 cup of aloe vera gel
• 1/4 a cup of coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of raspberry seed oil
• 5 tablespoons Shea Butter
• ¼ cup Beeswax
• 5 tablespoons Zinc Oxide

Coconut oil and shea butter are natural sunscreens (around SPF 5). The beeswax helps make lotion water resistant. Aloe moisturizes and protects against burns. Raspberry seed oil has an SPF of 25-50.

Zinc Oxide must be only zinc oxide and should not be nano particle technology (it should not be able to be absorbed through the skin). Be careful not to inhale!

Optional Ingredients – Antioxidants

• Green Tea (brew concentrated green tea and add ¼ a cup)
• 3 tablespoons of Vitamin E oil
• 10 drops Grapefruit Seed Extract

You can also add essential oils for scent, but avoid citrus as citrus oils can contribute to sunburns.

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except zinc oxide and heat until ingredients liquefy. You want ingredients to melt but not cook or become too hot for the next step, so watch closely and pull as soon as liquefied. We recommend a double boiler for this. You can also put the ingredients into a jar and put the jar into a pot of hot water on the stove at a higher setting.

Put ingredients into a blender with zinc oxide (the better quality the blender the better this will work) and blend with zinc oxide. If you don’t have a blender (or you have a cheap one that doesn’t mix well) then see above warnings.

Mix on highest setting until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed and then pour the solution into the container you will use to store it.  A pump container isn’t going to work very well for this. I recommend a mason jar.

Now place the product in the freezer for about 20 minutes. This will solidify the product so that the ingredients stay evenly mixed and don’t separate. Then put product in the refrigerator.

Keeping the product cool keeps the ingredients from separating. This allows us to have a more stable product without the use of the chemicals manufacturers have to resort to keep their product ingredients evenly distributed.

When ready to use, you can scoop some out and put into a smaller container to take with you, or put the whole thing in a cooler with your picnic.

And play with the recipe. Depending on the product consistency and the temperature you keep it at, you may find that varying some of the ingredients work better for you.

Application

If you know you’re going to be needing sun protection the next day, we recommend applying sunscreen liberally the night before and the morning or for greatest efficacy.

Notes

This recipe has an SPF of around 30. More or less Zinc Oxide will increase or decrease the SPF. It is water resistant, but if you sweat or swim do reapply.

More beeswax makes thicker sunscreen, less makes thinner. We like thicker to reduce ingredients settling and separating.

Remove the zinc oxide and you’ve got an amazing lotion that has a little bit of sun protection as well.

And for truly organic sunscreen, and a totally edible sunscreen (a light sunscreen with a low SPF), remove the zinc oxide and make sure all ingredients are 100% organic.

And here is an infograph we just came across from livelovefruit.com. Let us know if you try some of these oils!

Best Sunscreen

We like Solar Body Block 30+ by DeVita Professional Skin Care. It’s vegan, cruelty free, paraben free, titanium dioxide free, and has been tested and proven to be of SPF level 32. We liked it, so we got it for our store at Green Lifestyle Market.

https://www.greenlifestylemarket.com/solar-body-block-30-7oz-devita-professional-skin-care

You can check out the Environmental Working Group’s listing of Solar Body Block 30+ here

We Want to Hear From You

What, if anything, do you do for sunburn protection? Do you have any sunscreen recipes or ways to improve our recipes? Did you have any luck with the homemade sunscreen recipe or some of the oils listed?

My grandson, Joaquin, has been going through a phase where he says no sometimes when he means yes and yes when he means no. For him, it is not the wonder of life’s possibilities. It seems he does it just to have something to fuss about.  If we know he is setting himself up for disappointment, we do attempt to reason with him. But when he decides to hold firm to his decision, so do we. No do-overs.

I was thinking about this last night, and I realized that as adults every day brings us the potential for a do-over or a new direction, be it subtle or dramatic. Every day is a new possibility. Every moment, really.

So why is it so hard for us to change? We see something logically. We accept it. We choose it. We want it. And too often we sabotage ourselves. Too often, self-sabotage is followed by completely giving up.

Well this time I haven’t given up. Though I am doing very well on the smoking ban, I can’t say the same for my cleansing diet. I haven’t been eating badly. I just haven’t been eating what I said I would eat. I let life get in the way. Each day I said I would get back on track tomorrow. But I didn’t.

I also had a nagging fear. A fear that made me want to stay in denial and pretend everything was fine, even though I knew deep down in my bones that it wasn’t, and that I needed a serious long-term cleanse. I was afraid my blood sugar was high.

I know diabetes causes decreased blood flow and could be a part of the issue with my eye, but I didn’t want to face it. I didn’t want more food restrictions. I didn’t want any part of it. I didn’t want to know. But I had to face it and deal with it. So I finally tested my blood sugar and sure enough it was high–really high.

So I had a talk with Michael last night and got back on track to start my do-over today. Then once again, life happened.

I live with my youngest son and his family. We both work at the university, 27 miles from home. I had planned to juice my lemons this morning and make salad dressing before going to work.  My salad stuff was already made. But my son, Joel, called and said he left his wallet at home and needed it desperately, as soon as possible. For one second I thought, “My diet can wait until tomorrow.” But I didn’t wait.  I grabbed my salad, mixed up cranberry lemonade with stevia and cayenne from bottled lemon juice, and I ran out the door.

I could always buy what I needed for dressing at the store, right? Not today! My next challenge was Mother Nature. Right about the time I was ready to go to the store, sirens went off. Two tornadoes were passing by with torrential rain. I wasn’t going anywhere.

But I did prevail. I ate my salad plain.

So today has been a good day.

From foreign objects to bacterial contamination, the growing rates of hazards in processed foods are motivation to eat fresh!

When millions of pounds of food are processed each day, it is not surprising when a contaminant or two finds its way into the food. At minimal levels, these contaminants go unnoticed and undocumented. However, at elevated levels, contaminants can be dangerous or even fatal. Unfortunately, many food recalls do not occur until a number of people have become sick or injured.

2012 had its fair share of recalls and contaminations- notably the alarming arsenic levels in rice that prompted congress to limit arsenic in rice products. 2013 is already off to quite a start in food recalls. According to the U.S. FDA, these foods, among many others, were found to be contaminated:

• Beef lasagna made by Findus was found to contain up to 100 percent horse meat! This discovery prompted a mandatory testing of products containing processed beef by all companies. France and the UK are experiencing similar problems.
• LeanCuisine, distributed by Nestlѐ Prepared Foods Company, has been recalled for a misprinted “best before date”.
• Various dried mushrooms from DZH Imports contain high levels of sulfites that could trigger a fatal reaction in those allergic.
• Frozen Country Fried Steaks became contaminated with foreign particles when a plastic bin found its way into production, requiring AdvancePierre Foods to recall these items.
• Just when you thought natural food stores were safe, Whole Foods and its seafood division, Whole Catch, have recalled products: bagels with cream cheese, the cream cheese itself and sockeye salmon contained high levels of Listeria monocytogenes. A sometimes fatal bacterium, Listeria monocytogenesit can also cause miscarriage.
• Annie’s brand, a company that produces natural and organic boxed and premade foods took their frozen pizzas off shelves because of metal fragments. Metal pieces were also found in bagels by Thomas’, Sara Lee, Publix and Weight Watchers.
• A most recent recall is that of Organic Baby Spinach distributed by Taylor Farms Retail Inc. The spinach was found to have elevated levels of Enterohaemorrhagic E. Coli (EHEC). Symptoms include intestinal distress, fever, and nausea.

The big surprise in this list is the recall by the natural and organic brands. No mass produced food product is safe from excessive contamination, further demonstration that factory farming, organic or conventional, is a health hazard. Corporately produced foods all pose a potential heath risk. The food item is handled too many times by too many people, making it difficult to control quality and safety. Contamination can occur at any point in production, during the growing stage, harvest, processing or shipping. A single item comes into contact with a great many others, spreading contamination rapidly- making the act of investigating the source of contamination a challenge.

Purchasing food from a local farmer reduces the risk of contamination. First, because there is less quantity, it is easier to prevent the introduction of foreign material. Second, because the food is not warehoused for lengths of time with foods from other origins, bacterial contamination from other food sources is not a factor. Reducing the opportunities for contamination helps minimize the risk of particle or bacterial contamination.

With the risk of oral injury, bacterial infections, and other intestinal ailments, it is amazing that we continue to trust our conglomerate food suppliers. At what point do we abandon factory farming and support our local farmers and a healthier lifestyle?

Why Mary’s Little Lamb Shouldn’t be at School

We live in a country where fried chicken tenders and grilled cheese sandwiches are typical children’s meals. It’s not surprising that many people pay little attention to where their meats come from and what is in them. Are they natural, or not? 

Healthy Lean Proteins Can Help Improve Your Diet

The building blocks of a healthy diet include five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein foods. The amount of protein people should eat each day depends on their age, gender, and activity levels.

While most Americans do eat a sufficient amount of protein, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) points out that most people need to make more varied selections to include leaner options. Lean cuts of lamb are a healthy protein food that is often overlooked.

Lamb and other lean meats can be found at many meat markets and grocery stores, but consumers receive very little information about the protein they place in their shopping carts. Unless labeled otherwise, meat products often come from animals that were raised in feedlots and fed grains. These meats often contain traces of growth hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs that the animals received during their lifetimes.

GMO Foods: The Dangers

Feedlots are used in commercial factory farming because they allow farmers to contain more livestock in less space. The animals live in incredibly cramped, inhumane quarters, essentially living in their own waste. As a result, they frequently succumb to illness and constantly receive antibiotics. In addition, they are fed a diet that consists mainly of genetically-modified (GMO) grain, which is unnatural for both humans and animals.

A variety of commercialized GMO crops are grown in the U.S., and meats and other animal products such as eggs often come from animals that have been fed GMO foods. Anywhere from 85 to 91 percent of grain crops have been genetically modified. The reasons for genetic modification are often to increase production and reduce cost. Commercial growers can spray weed killers over the entire crop, but the weed killer is unable to kill the GMO plants. The plants that have had their DNA toyed with in the lab have been dubbed “frankenfoods” by those who are concerned about long term health of consumers.

GMOs can lead to unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects and health risks. These include but are not limited to allergies, toxins, nutritional problems, and even new diseases that are yet to be determined.

Understanding Organic Claims

Purchasing naturally raised foods is the easiest way to avoid foods that contain genetically modified ingredients. The U.S. and Canadian governments do not allow companies to label foods and products 100% Certified Organic if they contain genetically modified foods or ingredients. Unfortunately, foods that are labeled Made with Organic Ingredients may contain up to 70% organic ingredients—which means some ingredients may not be GMO-free.

Grass-Fed, Pasture-Fed Meats: The Basics

Lamb and other meats are often labeled with stickers reading grass-fed, a USDA term that means the animal was fed nothing but grass from weaning to harvest. Pasture-raised meats come from animals that were held in pastures rather than feedlots. Meat from  animals that were grass-fed and raised in local pastures are the only meats that are certain to be GMO free. There are substantial nutritional differences between meats from pasture-raised animals and those raised in feedlots.

Pasture-raised meats are comparatively:

• Lower in fat.
• Higher in protein.
• Lower in calories.
• Four times higher in vitamin E.
•  Higher in beta-carotene.
• Contain two to four times the omega-3 fatty acids, which greatly lowers risk of heart problems. Eggs from pasture raised chickens have ten times the amount of commercially-raised hens.
• Contain three to five times the level of CLA, which is a potent cancer defense.

Kindness to Animals

Animals do not fear the future. They live moment by moment, experiencing life and emotion in the short term. Animals raised in feed lots suffer each moment of their lives. Everything about that existence is unnatural and frightening. When the mass butchering begins, the animals are frightened by the smell of blood and by being hustled about, not knowing what is happening. This fear results in the release of adrenaline, which causes meat to be tougher than it would if the creature died while relaxed.

When animals are raised naturally, out in the pasture, they enjoy each moment of life. Rather than standing in their own waste, they live in the outdoors with sunshine, green grass, shade trees, and fresh, clear water. When the age of processing comes, there is no feed lot to endure. Most of the smaller growers are keenly aware of each detail and do their utmost to cause little fear for the herd.

While food labels can be confusing, it’s important for us to understand what we are putting into our own bodies. Spend a few minutes learning more about the dangers of GMOs and the importance of purchasing organic products and grass-fed, pasture-fed meats. The truth will shock you.

Chemicals and Other Contaminants You Really Shouldn’t Be Drinking

If you’re like most people, you use tap water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and drinking. Also like a lot of people, you may not have given a thought to what could be in that water—things like chemicals, microorganisms, and bacteria. If you’re concerned about your health, you should consider purchasing and installing a home water filtration system to ensure that the water you and your family members use is safe and clean.

Contaminants in Drinking Water

Recently, the Environmental Working Group analyzed almost 20 million drinking water tests that had been done by U.S. water suppliers between 2004 and 2009. The results showed that there were hundreds of different pollutants in American drinking water. Most of those contaminants have no safety levels set by the government; others exist at levels higher than recommended by health guidelines.

These contaminants may come from chemicals added by water utilities for treating the water, from industrial or agricultural contamination of water supplies, from chemicals leached from water pipes and tanks, or from wastewater treatment plants.

Chemicals Intentionally Added

Just a few of the chemicals intentionally added to drinking water include , supposedly for oral health, but the World Health Organization  does not advocate the addition of this toxic substance to water supplies where people have a good health structure. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends the removal of fluoride from drinking water in first-world countries. Fluoride consumption is linked to certain cancers, lowered IQ, and diminished thyroid levels.

Other chemicals that may be intentionally added to drinking water during the water treatment process are potassium permanganate, aluminum sulphate, hydrated lime, chlorine, and polyphosphate. Some of these chemicals are added to disinfect the water. Some are added for other purposes.

Unintentional Contaminants in Drinking Water

In addition to industrial pollution, common sources of unintentionally-added contaminants to drinking water are agriculture, factory farming, and the water treatment (disinfection) process itself.

Nitrates from fertilizer can infiltrate groundwater and run off into rivers and streams, contaminating water supplies. Nitrates are particularly dangerous to infants and children. Other agricultural contaminants include perchlorate, bromochloroacetic acid, MTBE, and Di-n-butylphthalate.

Trihalomethanes, bromate, haloacetic acides, and chlorite are among more than 600 by-products of the disinfection process. Most of these by-products are not restricted, nor do water treatment plants test for them.

Yet another group of contaminants in our drinking water are microorganisms. These may come from factory farm run-offs and sewage treatment plants. Some include Cryptosporidium, Giardi lamblia, Legionella, E. Coli, and a variety of viruses.

For every contaminant we test for, there are thousands we don’t. We don’t know the dangers of these chemicals in our drinking water, and no attempts are made to remove or prevent the contamination.

Types of Home Water Filtration Systems

One of the best ways to protect yourself against these contaminants is to install a home water purification system. There are several different levels of filtration that you can use. It depends on how many of those contaminants you want to remove and how much money you want to spend.

If you have a limited budget, a carbon filter system (pitcher, faucet-mount, or large dispenser) will remove chlorine, mercury, lead, asbestos, and VOCs. It will not remove fluoride, nitrate, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, or perchlorate. Some carbon filters are better than others.

The very best (and most expensive) way to remove the most contaminants from your water supply is to install a reverse osmosis (RO) system combined with a top-level carbon filter. Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane that holds all particles larger than water molecules. This type of system will filter out perchlorate, hexavalent chromium, fluoride, arsenic, and nitrates. These types of filters are used for drinking and cooking water only.

To kill off bacteria and microorganisms, an ultraviolet light system works the best. These filters do not remove chemicals, but you can install a UV system to your reverse osmosis and carbon filtration system.