Says systems can decrease exposure to carcino

 

 Lisle, IllinoisIn addition to cancer-causing agents, water quality experts are examining other emerging contaminants, such as those found in personal care products and pesticides. Many of these are endocrine disrupting chemicals which interfere with normal hormonal function. WQA provides Gold Seal certification for products that remove a variety of contaminants. 

 

 

 

“This reaffirms what independent testing shows,” said Peter J. Censky, executive director of the Water Quality Association. “Home water treatment is a proven final barrier against many harmful chemicals.”

The report is entitled “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risks: What We Can Do Now.” In it, the panel states, “Individuals and families have many opportunities to reduce or eliminate chemical exposures. For example, filtering home tap water or well water can decrease exposure to numerous known or suspected carcinogens or endocrine-disrupting chemicals.”

The President’s Cancer Panel is a three-person body that reports to the President of the United States on the development and execution of the National Cancer Program. Members serve three-year terms, and at least two of the three panel members must be distinguished scientists or physicians. The President appoints one of the members to a one-year chair position.

 

Consumers can learn about different treatment systems and find locally certified dealers by visiting the WQA Web site’s Gold Seal and Find A Water Professional features. The Gold Seal program uses independently developed standards to certify devices. A copy of the panel’s report can be obtained at pcp.cancer.gov.

— In its official annual report, the President’s Cancer Panel is recommending that people use home filtering devices to decrease exposure to cancer-causing agents.

The Water Quality Association is a not-for-profit international trade association representing the residential, commercial, and industrial water treatment industry. Its membership consists of both manufacturers as well as dealers/distributors of equipment. WQA is a resource and information source, a voice for the industry, an educator of professionals, a laboratory for product testing, and a communicator with the public. WQA has more than 2,500 members.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Physicians rarely promote the curative properties of H2O, but Dr. Batmanghelidj, M.D. has studied water’s effect on the human body and has found it to be one of the best pain relievers and preventative therapies in existence. I was one of the last people to interview the late Dr. Batmanghelidj, and I listened in awe as he shared his research and stories about “The Healing Power of Water.”

In a fascinating one-hour phone conversation, Dr. B. shares:

• Which common ailments and “diseases” are actually caused by dehydration

• Why many doctors use water-regulating antihistamines to alleviate pain

• How Dr. Batmanghelidj unintentionally discovered water’s healing properties

• Why most people are chronically dehydrated and suffer from symptoms of dehydration that are labeled “diseases”

• Which ingredients in soft drinks deplete the body’s water reserves

• Why thirst is not a reliable indicator of dehydration

• Why the body produces cholesterol and how water keeps it in balance

• Why Dr. Batmanghelidj believes the public is being mislead about AIDS

• How dehydration impairs mental functioning

• Why some organizations want to withhold alternative health information from the public

• How lack of water causes depression

• Why popular beverages are no substitute for water

• How dehydration causes the vascular system to constrict, leading to hypertension

• How to recognize signs that your body is starting to dehydrate

• Why restaurants push you to drink disease-promoting soft drinks

• Why and how water effectively treats pain and inflammation

To read the entire article click on this link http://www.naturalnews.com/Report_water_cure_0.html

The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal. Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.

But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.

Other recent studies have found that even some chemicals regulated by that law pose risks at much smaller concentrations than previously known. However, many of the act’s standards for those chemicals have not been updated since the 1980s, and some remain essentially unchanged since the law was passed in 1974.

All told, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed since 2004 to drinking water that did not meet at least one commonly used government health guideline intended to help protect people from cancer or serious disease, according to an analysis by The Times of more than 19 million drinking-water test results from the District of Columbia and the 45 states that made data available.

In some cases, people have been exposed for years to water that did not meet those guidelines.

But because such guidelines were never incorporated into the Safe Drinking Water Act, the vast majority of that water never violated the law.

This is just a portion of the article written by the New York Times. To read more click this link 

 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

          We bought our water softener and purifier from you about three years ago.  We moved into a new home and it has by far been our best purchase.  I have wanted to write many times but just haven’t gotten around to it. 

          We have just returned home from a trip to Washington State where the water is very hard.  We do a lot of traveling and I just cannot believe the difference in the water in all the places we travel in comparison to the water in our home.  When I am at home I notice I never have to use lotion on my skin.  My skin is so soft when I get out of the shower but when we travel, it is dry and I end up buying lotion.  Our clothes are softer and I use about 1/4^th of the amount of soap I use to, for laundry, dishes, etc.  We have these crystal glasses that I love and my girlfriends have warned me about water spots from putting them in the dishwasher.  Well, I have been doing it for three years and they are as beautiful as the day we bought them.  We love it so much we even put soft water in our pool. We use less than ½ the chemicals we used in our old pool.  I am a doctor and I love it when my patients tell me how much better they are feeling.  It leaves me feeling like what I do makes a difference.  I thought you might not hear a lot of that in this line of work. 

          From a very happy customer, THANK YOU!

 Sincerely,

 Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Hall

 

Whether a water supply is labelled “soft” or “hard” is dependent on the presence of two highly soluble minerals, calcium and magnesium. From a Health standpoint, these minerals have no adverse effects and are, in fact, essential daily nutrients. However, when calcium and magnesium permeate water, they buildup on contact surfaces, possibly plug pipes and damage water heaters, and decrease the effectiveness of soaps and detergents. At this point the water is said to be hard.

Water hardness is expressed in one of two units of measurement. The first unit is parts per million (ppm) of calcium carbonate, a term equivalent to the concentration of dissolved calcium and magnesium. Using this equivalent simplifies hardness calculations. One ppm means that one unit of calcium carbonate is dissolved in one million units of water. Parts per million is also equal to milligrams/liter (mg/l). A second expression of hardness is grains per gallon (gpg) of calcium carbonate. A gpg is used exclusively as a hardness unit and equals approximately 17 mg/l or ppm.

 If you have your water tested, the report will use one or both of these units to tell you how hard your water is. Since the level of calcium carbonate means little to water consumers, water specialists have classified levels of hardness.

 We have been testing tap water all over Orange County for decades, however in the last 5 years we have seen a large increase in Chlorine levels in tap water throughout the County. Because of this and the Hardness of the water many people are suffering from dryer skin conditions and more difficulty with brittle hair. There are many different water filtration systems to handle this situation.

 Granular Activated Carbon is one of the most efficient ways of removing the chlorine from the tap water. There are different kinds of carbon and some are more efficient then others.  KDF is also another media that is used to remove Chlorine. Filtering Water in homes is the most effective way to have safe healthy water for your family.

Many people are concerned about drinking water from the tap. We can be very helpful in this regard as far as what areas should be most concerned and/or what are the best solutions for you.

Water Softening?

I am sure that there are plenty of discussion points between club members that polarise opinion. I cite the theory and practice of steam injectors as one (but more of that in a future article). I propose the benefits of water softening as another. Although I have no direct experience of members’ debates on this matter, I have heard that it has been the subject of some discussion in the past and, at one point we even had a softener ready to install – although it was subsequently decided not to do so. I have not penned this  submission to the newsletter to stake my claim to the title of “instant expert”, rather to promote further debate on a subject that I think worthy of serious consideration.

I declare an interest in the matter because, with a loco boiler currently under construction, I would like to avoid the problems associated with scaled up fittings and the subsequent need to descale the boiler during its future working life. I have direct experience of installing and running a soft water system at home and can vouch for the benefits to my domestic heating system. I believe that these benefits would be even more clearly seen by all loco owners if we can locate and install a water softener at the Park.

How Does Water Become Hard or Soft

If we are to understand the process of water hardening we should first remind ourselves of the natural water cycle:

• Water from the oceans, rivers, lakes and streams together with stored water in plants and soil is evaporated by the sun’s energy and forms clouds;
• When the clouds can no longer support the mass of water contained within them precipitation occurs and rain falls;
• The rain runs off the surface of the land (overland flow) and infiltrates into theland structure towards the ground-water table;
• Underground flow is exploited where it collects as “ground water” by pumping into treatment systems, storage in reservoirs and subsequent delivery to the consumer;
• Consumer waste water is returned to the rivers and oceans after treatment and the cycle begins again.

Rainwater is naturally soft, but as it percolates through chalk and limestone it dissolves and collects minerals from the geological sub-structure. This dissolved chalk, lime and other minerals causes the water to harden depending on the amount of material subsumed. Living on the South coast with the chalk South Downs behind us, the mains water supply that we receive at the park contains a very high level of dissolved material. It is this dissolved material that we see as scale in our kettles, domestic water systems and loco boilers.

Hardness is measured in degrees Clarke (no relation) – the hardness of the water supply in the Hove Park area is 17.5 degrees Clarke and is classified (by Southern Water) as “Very Hard”.

The Effects of Hard Water

The minerals contained in hard water settle out as unsightly deposits of scale whenever water is heated, or when cold standing water evaporates. Examples that we see at home include:

• White marks, stains and scale on sinks, baths, toilet bowls and around the base of taps;
• Blocked shower heads;
• Scale deposits on all water heating elements;
• Clogging of pipework and premature failure of water heaters.

These last two examples are the most germane to our hobby. The efficiency of a model loco boiler can be seriously degraded through the build-up of scale. The efficiency loss in a domestic heating system with 1/16” (1.6mm) of scale is in excess of 12%, in a miniature boiler where the tubes are mounted closer together than in a domestic system the loss could be even more pronounced.

Although these levels of scaling may sound extreme, how may of you have realised the extent of scale on your own locos before removing the boiler blowdown valve completely and observing the tell-tale white material which, in extreme cases, has blocked the valve completely.

At its most extreme scale build up around the foundation ring of a boiler can deny access to the boiler water and result in irreparable damage to the boiler around the firebox base. I leave it to the reader to consider the consequences of neglecting a boiler to such an extent.

Boiler Descaling

Despite the potentially disastrous consequences of not descaling a boiler which uses hard water, there remains some debate over the benefits of boiler descaling. Some suggest that the descaling process causes more trouble by loosening deposits which remain in the boiler and can become detached during subsequent steamings. Others, although disliking the process, appreciate the improvements in steaming that a “clean” boiler can bring and are prepared to put up with the inconvenience of routine descaling.

But wouldn’t it be better if we could provide treated water so that members need not descale their loco boilers at all. Think of all the savings in time, materials and anxiety that providing soft water would bring. Commercial water softeners for domestic use are widely available now. They occupy a small amount of space (many are designed for mounting under a kitchen sink) and are simple to install. I am sure that we could install one at the Park easily and with minimal disruption to the existing plumbing.

Water Treatment Methods

Water Softening

Water softening is the only process which eliminates scale completely. Commercial water softeners remove water hardness through ion exchange. The hard water is passed through a cylinder containing ion-exchange resin in the form of millions of tiny beads. The resin attracts and exchanges the hardness minerals in the water producing soft water as a result. Periodically the resin is automatically “regenerated” (or cleaned) by rinsing a small amount of brine through the cylinder. The brine reactivates the resin and the waste is discharged to a drain.

Water softeners are normally installed “in line” with the mains water supply, downstream of the drinking water tap. They need a mains power supply (240V AC) and a drain. Routine maintenance only involves topping up the salt supply which is held within the unit.

Chemical Water Conditioning

Chemical water conditioners normally dissolve polyphosphates into the water stream as if flows through the conditioner. Polyphosphates are a compound of Sodium, Calcium and Hexametaphosphate. Polyphosphates have been used for many years in the water treatment industry and are recognised as “food safe” i.e. they can be used directly in the drinking water supply. The dissolved polyphosphates suspend the hardness minerals thus significantly reducing hard water scale. No softening of the water is involved.

Chemical conditioners are normally installed “in line” with the mains water supply at any point after the mains stopcock. They require no electrical supply but do contain a phosphate cartridge which requires changing from time to time (typically every 12-15 months in a domestic environment).

Magnetic Water Conditioning

Magnetic water conditioners work by passing the hard water through a very strong (up to 600 gauss) magnetic field. When the water is subsequently heated the hardness minerals precipitate into the body of the water as individual particles rather than clusters of particles which stick together and form scale. As a result the scale should pass through hot water systems easier. Magnetic water conditioners are thus scale reducers rather than scale eliminators.

Magnetic conditioners are normally installed “in line” with the mains water supply at any point after the mains stopcock. They require no electrical supply and only contain a magnet which should not require servicing.

Advantages, Disadvantages and Costs

Below shows the relative merits and typical cost of each of the methods described above:

Water Softening

Advantages

1. Full water treatment
2. Scale elimination
3. Scale reduction of existing contamination

Disadvantages

1. Cost
2. Needs electrical supply
3. Needs drain
4. Consumables (salt)

Cost – £500

Chemical Treatment

Advantages

1. Cost
2. Does not need electrical supply
3. Does not need drain

Disadvantages

1. Introduces chemicals into the water supply
2. Less effective than water softening
3. Consumables (phosphate cartridges)
4. Does not elimination scale
5. Does not reduce existing scale

Cost - £100

Magnetic Treatment

Advantages

1. Cost
2. Does not need electrical
3. Does not need drain

Disadvantages

1. Less effective than water softening
2. Less effective than chemical treatment
3. Does not eliminate scale
4. Does not reduce existing contamination

Cost – £50

Some Practical Experience

Three years ago I installed a water softener in our current house when I replaced the boiler and hot water cylinder as part of a general refurbishment of the plumbing and heating systems. The softener serves both a holding tank and an “on demand” electric shower quite successfully.

At the time of installation I noted that the pipework in the hot water system was fairly well scaled-up and it was clear that the system was not operating at peak efficiency. We could not afford to replace all the copper pipework at the time so settled for the installation of the water softener to prevent further scaling and hopefully reduce or eliminate the existing scaling.

Recent re-plumbing in the bathroom has necessitated the removal and re-routing of some of the original boiler to hot water cylinder pipework. The change in the state of the pipes is remarkable – the scale has disappeared and the system is clearly more efficient. The soft water has actually dissolved away the original hard water scale.

Summary

Water softeners are not cheap but, if you consider that one of the club’s greatest assets is the goodwill of those members who regularly run their locos for passenger hauling, and that those members overhaul and service these locos at their own cost, you might suggest that we should be doing all that we can to minimise that cost. Boiler maintenance and refurbishment is itself an expensive component of the running costs of a loco – some would argue a dominant cost. Without doubt installing a water softener would be a major investment but one that would, in the long term, benefit the “internals” of many locos which run regularly at the park, and indirectly the “internals” of many member’s wallets.

If the club feels that the cost of a water softener cannot be justified then I suggest that we should seriously consider the installation of one of the other types of conditioner – either chemical or magnetic. Neither of these alternatives will eliminate the scale problem in the way that a softener will, but they will go a long way to reducing the problem and allowing members’ locos more steaming hours between those awful descalings.

I’m sure that many readers of the Lobby will have their own ideas on the pro’s and con’s of providing treated water at the Park. I look forward to the usual spirited debate and hope that we can all give the subject a good and fair airing.

Although one should never volunteer for anything, if we do choose to proceed further with the provision of treated water at the park, I am happy to “champion” the process and do some more groundwork (even the installation!).

Andy Clark

McCowin Filtered Water Systems

• Drinking Water Systmes
• Filtered Water
• Bottled Water
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