Water willies, part 2 A regulatory "glass half full" Despite the modern American mania about drinking more tap or bottled water (all of it fluoridated, it seems) I clued you in on in the last Daily Dose, there are occasional glimmers of hope that a more reasoned view might creep into the mainstream consciousness… Not about excess water consumption (that would be too much to hope for), but about the dangerous fluoride in much of the water being consumed. According to an Associated Press article from March 22nd, the results of a recent study on water-borne fluoride requested by the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that high levels of the mineral (anything over 4 mg/liter is officially unsafe, according to EPA guidelines) could cause TOOTH AND BONE DAMAGE. Well, hallelujah! I've only been warning of this for 20 years or more… The research, executed by a division of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that fluoride-related problems (like tooth discoloration and weakness and increased bone fractures) begin to increase in frequency once levels of waterborne fluoride exceed 2mg/liter, suggesting that the EPA limit SHOULD be around half its current saturation. (Actually, it should be zero.) According to the article, around 200,000 Americans live in areas that where the water naturally exceeds this current way-too-high EPA limit, while another 1.4 million guzzle water with 2.0 - 3.9 mg/liter of fluoride. A full 160 million (more than half the U.S. population) live where artificial fluoridation of the water "only" reaches around 1.2 mg/liter at the highest. To all of these folks, I say: If you won't spring for a high-quality H20 filter that rids your drinking water of fluoride (whether natural or added by the government), drink as little water as you can get away with - or drink only bottled water that DOESN'T contain fluoride. You can still get this, if you look around. If the bottle doesn't trumpet "Contains Fluoride!" in bold type on the label (water-bottlers love to advertise the fact nowadays), chances are it's fluoride-free, or at least has no ADDED fluoride. It's still not as good as quality filtered water - and it's way more expensive in the long run. But here's how to make it all a moot point, if we can get the mainstream media to play ball. To read more about fluoride in our water…visit
http://www1.youreletters.com/t/351714/2908015/786467/0/ **************************************************** Catching the mainstream in a Catch-22 All right, here's my plan for getting folks to stop drinking so much water - and by default, consuming way less fluoride: We start a grassroots campaign to persuade the media to choose its champion: Their precious environment or the water-swilling fitness freaks (I'm betting they'll pick the environment). Here's what I mean… According to the Earth Policy Institute: - Manufacturing the plastic bottles for bottled water uses enough oil to run 100,000 U.S. cars for a year!
- Millions (if not billions) more gallons of fossil fuels are burned transporting bottled water across the country or around the world
- 86% of the plastic bottles used to package bottled water in the U.S. end up as litter or garbage
- Byproducts of incinerating these bottles belch into the atmosphere in the from of toxic chlorine gas and heavy metals linked to all kinds deadly health issues
Aside from this, there's the fact that much of the developing world (like China, India, and Africa) is in the throes of a massive water shortage - with no end in sight. Although unknown to most Americans, WE are facing the same crisis. (See Water Wars which will appear in the August issue of Real Health Breakthroughs.) So basically, if we could just get the mainstream media to realize that their darling bottled water is contributing to global warming (I don't believe this, but THEY do), and that the Americans they try so hard to portray as wanton consumers are hogging up more than their fair share of yet another limited natural resource that others need more, they'll have us all rationing water like we're crossing the desert! And for once, I'd agree with them (albeit for a different reason: better health). But maybe this is aiming high. After all, this is the same media that's been telling us all for years to drink a half-gallon of water every day - but to only flush our toilets once a week to save water! Never muzzling what's anti-guzzling, William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
