Give Me Some Water
(sans the plastic)

Happy Green Wednesday to all and welcome to another weekly installment of "green thoughts".

I took the Pledge!
I took the pledge to never buy another plastic water bottle.

(more here , here & here)

As I mentioned in my first blog, My primary concern is that of my health, and it just so happens when you start to care about and are aware of your own personal health you begin to care about the health of the larger organism you are apart of…Planet Earth. It is a win win situation that I have been ignorant to for far to long.

I drink a ton of water throughout the day whether I am hiking peaks with my snowboard or working an 8 hour day in the field (as a carpenter/contractor) or sitting around at my desk working etc. As of lately my awareness of my health and that of the environments has become more paramount thus the recent pledge.

I can write for days about why to drink water but that is for another blog entry (maybe, maybe not). One quick note (just the tip of the iceberg (pun-intended)), every cell in the human body requires water as nourishment and to remove wastes so why fuel your cells with crap or not at all? You might as well put milk in your gas tank. more here , and here.

My major and primary reason for wanting to stop the use of the plastic bottle is because of the fact that most all of the bottles water comes in are made from a plastic which leaches a chemical called "Bisphenol A" or commonly called BPA. If you can taste the plastic of the bottle then you are most likely ingesting BPA. And even if your Crystal Geyser or whatevs taste great, it most likely had some BPA leach into it when the plastic was hot (or even sitting in the car) More here: BPAs Found In Plastics Linked To Several Diseases

The other reason for my desire to stop the use of the plastic water bottles derives from my awareness of the impact all those bottles have on the environment. Where do they all go? 60 million of them are disposed of daily! Not to mention the resources used in getting that bottle of water to me. I know from my own environment it can get ugly. You’d step into my truck as a passenger and usually 3 or 4 bottles would have fallen out. And usually every cup holder in that truck had a bottle in it. Then you’d go into my house and my garbage can was usually filled by the plastic water bottle, one on the desk, one next to the bed etc.

So how am I doing it?

Well I need to have water with me at all times so I started by buying some stainless steel bottles from Klean Canteen . There are many good bottles out there and I am sure I will try some others but I liked the price and look of these and what really sold me was the company itself and the fact that they are part of Yvon Chouinards (Patagonia founder) organization "1% For The Planet"
Also, I am trying to find the smallest most low profile camelback type of device to fit under my coat for snowboarding (Up to now I have carried a small plastic bottle in my cargo pocket) so that I do not look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame (not that anything is wrong with looking like that) and so’s I can sit on a lift chair comfortably. I am thinking of going with the camelback Hydroback 50 (black) and having a chest strap sewn onto it for a tight fit. Any other ideas please let me know. For the backcountry, My Dakine pack already has a place for my bigger camelback bladder and I can pack stainless bottles as well. I am still trying to figure out what those bladders are made of? Any rate, if you replace them yearly and keep them out of the sun it should help the rubber from breaking down (chemically) and they are reusable.

So now I am not using supposedly clean (bottled) water so where do I get my water. Well the tap water is better than a lot of the water that comes in plastic. For one, municipal water supplies are more regulated than the bottled water is. However I tested my water and found “acceptable levels” of all kinds of shit in it. And every once in awhile they dump a bunch of chlorine like stuff in it that you can smell, not to mention the gas it turns to in a hot shower! You can go here to look up the studies done on your particular water source.
The options for cleaning up your tap water are daunting! If your water is perfect (unlikely) except for chlorine and some simple particulates, then a Brita water filter should do the trick. If you have things like arsenic, lead and mercury etc. then a really good carbon block filter could do the trick. The next step up would be reverse osmosis which gives you some really clean water however in making a gallon of water you waste something like 3 gallons, u also need to store it cuz it does not make it quick enough (on demand) and most importantly (to me) is that in removing all the bad shit like lead, it also removes all the good natural minerals found in h2o that make water such a great natural drug. Another option is water ionization. Ionization is seen by some as hogwash and others as the answer to a healthier life and to preventing/curing cancers. (I believe in it) The systems are $$$bucks. Changing the chemical make-up of the water so that it is wetter thus more easily absorbed by cells, and more importantly you can change the alkalinity /acidity of the water so that it is more alkaline. Cancer and other disease thrive in acidic environments so if you can douche your cells with alkaline water you become superman to cancer (supposedly , in a nutshell) I’ll let you decide.
More here and here.

I am using my Brita filter for now until I employ my new water filtration system. I have found through my own testing/ my naturopaths testing and that from studies from the "National Tapwater Quality Database" that not even my water here in Tahoe is all that good. Mainly Olympic Valleys problem derives from years of damage done by the ski resort (blasting the tops off of peaks (squaw peak) etc)
I would rather drink the tap straight than expose myself to more BPA and all that the plastic bottle entails, so a brita at least will rid of the chlorine and other particulates. The filter I am installing will filter out the nastier stuff found in my water supply (mainly arsenic) My naturopath is recommending this filter: "Multi Pure MP880" and I am currently researching them to make my decision. Here is another place selling them

Lastly, If you have taken it this far with water then you should also be concerned with the water you are showering with. During the course of your showering your skin absorbs the water (not retaining it) this dermal contact can be bad for you. And when the water is hot and steamy, basically the chlorine turns to a gas (chloroform) .
More here.

So give it some thought and think about treating yourself right; forget about the plastic!

Peace out,
Dan





Links:
http://www.takebackthetap.org/
http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/tob/
http://www.mizulife.com/home
http://www.kleankanteen.com/
http://waterpurificationadvisor.com/
http://www.cleanwaterfund.org/
http://www.cleanwateraction.org/