LA Times, Saturday Feb 1, 2003

Today we live in a world of chemical pollution. Chemical production is a huge international business. Many chemicals are harmful as well as helpful. The farmer's crops are protected from insects, fungi and weeds through the use of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. Water is kept free from bacteria through massive chlorination. Cattle and poultry are treated with chemical antibiotics and hormones in order to produce more marketable products. Our highly populated industrial cities produce such high levels of air pollution that we must be warned about it on the nightly weather report. All these pollutants take their toll on our bodies and souls. Until we change the environmental laws, the best solution is detoxification.

In the modern world, our bodies are subject to many harmful substances under what we consider normal circumstances, i.e. the circumstances of our daily living at home and in the work place. Toxins can be organized in relation to the substances in which they are contained when they enter our bodies. These substances are air, water, food and radiation.

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One of the easiest ways for pollutants to enter the body is through the lungs. Breath in at the wrong time in the wrong place and there you are. Not only can air pollutants damage the lungs, but if they are small enough or soluble enough they can enter the blood through the thin lining of the air exchange system of alveoli in the lungs.

When we think of air pollution we immediately think of urban environments such as New York or LA. When I was younger, I always felt that when people started getting ill or dying from air pollution that the country would finally wake up and start to enforce clean air pollicies for large industries. During the term of President Carter, it seemed as if that might happen, but with the advent of the Reagan administration the country turned away from tough environmental legislation and enforcement. Now, I can only stare in wonder at the nightly newscasts that include the air quality broadcast as if it were as normal as brushing your teeth. Harmful effects from airborne pollutant exposure is hard to quantify, and its effects of such slow progressive pathology that most persons illnesses are hard put to confirm poor air quality as the symptomatic cause.

Next to oxygen water is the most important nutrient for life. Our bodies are composed of 65% water and it carries life giving nutrients to our bodies and carries away waste products. Unfortunately because it is such a good carrier water also carries polutants.

Our major sources of drinking water are surface water and ground water. Surface water serves about one half the population in the U.S. and comes from lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams. Ground water comes from underground aquifers and wells. Surface water can become contaminated by pesticide and fertilizer runoff, storm drain runoff, industrial wastes, leaking sewage and acid rain. Ground water can become contaminated by seeping pesticides and ferilizers, leeching industrial wastes, leaking gasoline storage tanks, discarded household chemicals, leaking septic systems and improperly created leech fields.

Increasingly Americans are avoiding drinking tap water. In many places there is good reason for this. Chlorination bi-products are quite toxic and in many places there is outright contamination from leaking pipes, cracked water lines and inadequate filtration and cleansing proceedures. The following information is taken from "Staying Healthy in a Risky Environment" Simon and Shuster pub.

"According to industry experts, Americans have turned to bottled water primarily for one reason: concern about the safety of public drinking water. However, bottled water, which costs almost 1,000 times as much as tap water, contains its fair share of contaminants.

A 1989 published study analyzed thirty-seven brands of domestic and imported mineral waters, measuring levels of numerous minerals and other chemicals as well as acidity. Twenty-four of the thirty-seven brands had one or more values that were not in compliance with U.S. drinking-water standards. The authors" conclusion: "It is unlikely that a survey of community water supplies would find as high a degree of noncompliance."

Bottled water need not originate from a spring or other pristine source. It is required only to come from an "approved source" meaning a source that meets drinking-water standards. That source may be the local community water supply.

At the national level, bottled water is regulated by the FDA, which applies the same health-protection standards to bottled water that the EPA applies to tap water. The FDA adjusts those standards as EPA regulations change. Bottled water should be as good as tap water, but there is no requirement that it be better.

• Sales of bottled water in the United States have soared over the last fifteen years.

• Americans spent $2.2 billion on bottled water in 1990, a 700 percent increase over 1975.

• One in twenty Americans now drinks bottled water and one in six in California.

• Still water. Still water is any bottled water without carbonation, which is usually sold in 1- or 5-gallon containers. It can originate from a spring or municipal source and can be natural or processed.

• Sparkling water. Sparkling water contains carbon dioxide, either present naturally or added to the water. Examples include seltzer water and club soda.

• Spring water. Spring water comes from a natural spring, such as an artesian well. A product sold as "natural" spring water has not been processed. Carbonation can be natural or from the addition of carbon dioxide. If carbon dioxide is added, it must come from a natural source if the word natural is on the label.

• Mineral water. Mineral water usually contains high amounts of dissolved mineral salts, such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, and iron salts. All waters have some minerals unless they are distilled. Some commercial mineral waters consist of tap water to which minerals and carbon dioxide have been added.

Distilled water. Distilled water is purged of most of its minerals by heating the water and condensing the vapor."

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Heavy metals; lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, iron, aluminum etc.

Other sources:

Radiation (natural and man made)

Airborne pathogens

IN FACT just about anything can be a toxin given the right quantity, length of exposure, and sufficient susceptability of the host.

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So what can we do?

Start with the basics.

• 1. Clean air (air filters indoors and environmental awareness and participation outdoors)

• 2. Clean Water (water filters or bottled water, pay attention to the source) (shower filters)

• 3. Clean food (Chemical, antibiotic, hormone and radiation free vegies, fruits, grains, meats and fish) (use of properly prepared fats and oils)

• 4. Exercise (aerobic exercise helps the lymph and circulatory system cleanse the body)

• 5. Detox (Put yourself on a detox program once every 6 months. The frequency depends on the area in which you live and how toxic the environment in which you function.) To obtain a consultation on detoxification click the grapes.
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