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Sunday, March 26, 2006

Beryllium



Take a look at the contaminant Beryllium.

Beryllium is a metal that is found in soil, rocks, coal and oil.

Beryllium is used in multiple ways....some examples
are:

Air bags
Auto ignition
Power steering systems
FM radios
Cell phone (electronic connectors)
Batteries (contacts)
High-definition cable television
Underwater fiberoptic cable systems.
Fire extinguishers
Sprinkler heads
Applications in pacemakers,
Lasers used to analyze blood
X-ray imaging equipment
Military weapons guidance and radar navigation systems
Helicopters, fighter aircraft and tanks,
Surveillance satellites
Aircraft landing gear components

You are probably using it now as you read this..
It is in personal computers to connect the various
microprocessors they contain.

What does this have to do with Water?


Beryllium and other toxins typically get into
the water supply as a result of industries dumping
contaminants directly into streams, rivers and lakes,
pumping them into the air supply or burying them in
the ground. Then, rainwater eventually washes these
toxins into our water supply.



The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported
over 1 million pounds of beryllium and beryllium
compounds were disposed of in the environment.

According to the EPA report, these states released
the highest levels of beryllium into the environment:

Idaho
Indiana
Alabama
West Virginia
Ohio
Georgia
Texas
Utah
Michigan
New Mexico

So, how can Beryllium affect you?

Beryllium is a known carcinogen.

In addition it is a suspected cardiovascular, bastronintestinal,
kidney, respiratory, skin, and liver toxicant.

Simply put...Beryllium is bad for you.

How Does Beryllium in the Water Supply Enter Your Body?

It's believed beryllium will not enter your body from
skin contact, unless your skin is scraped or cut,
in which case beryllium can enter the wound.

But...

When you ingest water containing beryllium it can pass
from your stomach and intestines into the bloodstream.

From there, it's carried by the blood into the kidneys.
Beryllium leaves the kidneys through the urine. Some
beryllium can also be carried by the blood to the liver
and bones where it may remain for long periods of time.

Protect Yourself and Your Family

Don't assume that you can judge your water's purity by
the way it looks, tastes or smells. Be sure what you
are drinking...and what is in it. Even your local water
supply may contain beryllium...though you may not even
be notified because it is considered within the "safe limits"
as set by the EPA.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Too much fluoride can damage bones, teeth

Too much fluoride can damage bones, teeth

Federal standards may put children at risk, report warns


Updated: 4:12 p.m. ET March 22, 2006

WASHINGTON - Fluoride in drinking water — long controversial in the United States when it is deliberately added to strengthen teeth — can damage bones and teeth, and federal standards fail to guard against this, the National Academy of Sciences reported Wednesday.

The vast majority of Americans — including those whose water supply has fluoride added — drink water that is well below the limit for fluoride levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But the academy's expert panel said some 200,000 people in the United States may consume water that is at or above the government's standard because of naturally occurring fluoride.

Children exposed to the government's current maximum fluoride limit "risk developing severe tooth enamel fluorosis, a condition characterized by discoloration, enamel loss and pitting of the teeth," the academy said in a statement.

Children are at particular risk in communities with water at or near the federal limit, where about 10 percent of young people develop severe tooth enamel fluorosis, the report said.

The report does not examine risks or benefits from the purposely fluoridated water that millions of Americans drink, which contains about one-fourth the government's limit, or less.

But its findings were bound to boost the arguments of those who have long opposed addition of the chemical to public water systems for a variety of reasons. Half a century ago, some groups charged that putting fluoride in the water was a communist plot to poison Americans or make them ill. Government officials consistently denied the allegations.

Earlier reviews of health issues associated with fluoride have considered enamel fluorosis to be ugly but not a health hazard. But the new assessment considers it a health hazard as one function of tooth enamel is to protect the teeth and underlying dental tissue from decay and infection.

Over a lifetime, people who drink water with the level near the federal limit of fluoride probably have a higher risk for bone fractures, a majority of the panel concluded.

The EPA allows up to 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of drinking water — .000534 ounces per gallon — but the report found this level did not protect against known risks from chemical.

The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit watchdog organization, applauded the academy's report for raising health concerns about excessive fluoride in drinking water.

"The bottom line from the nation's top voice on science is that you can protect your children's teeth by brushing them and you can protect their bones by getting rid of fluoride in tap water," Tim Kropp, the group's senior scientist, said in an e-mail.

Well Water a Danger to Infants


Well Water a Danger to Infants


Formula can be tainted with nitrates,
linked to blood illness, experts say.



TUESDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Formula and food prepared with well water can cause nitrate poisoning in infants, leading the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to issue a warning for families using wells for their drinking water.

These families should have their water tested regularly, and breastfeed their infants if possible, the AAP said in a report in the September issue of Pediatrics .

The report also recommends that pediatricians ask new parents about well water use during prenatal and check-up visits.

Nitrates are a natural component of plants and some fertilizers, and they often seep into well water. Adults naturally pass nitrates through urine, but they can cause a dangerous blood condition in children that limits oxygen in the circulation.

An estimated 15 million families drink water from private, unregulated wells, and 2 million families drink from wells that fail to meet federal drinking-water standards for nitrate, accorin g to the AAP.

Academy experts added that because vegetables can have nitrate levels as high or higher than well water, infants should not eat those foods until after three months of age.

06-SEP-2005
http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/527781.html

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

911 Alert - More on Benzene in Soft Drinks

ABC News Story

A few years ago this was the same problem
that the water Perrier had.

The story (link above) has some disturbing
statments such as the FDA not wanting to
alert the public "yet" and that if these
levels of Benzene were found in city water,
the public would have had to be alerted due
to public health risks.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Benzene in Soft Drinks

The Benzene Trail
By Chris Mercer

03/6/2006 - The gamble by US authorities 15 years ago to let the industry deal with benzene residues in soft drinks has failed, and instead only kept those who needed to know in the dark.

Chemists from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said they were surprised that recent tests showed benzene levels in some soft drinks above the country's legal limit for drinking water.
They were not surprised, however, to hear the suspected source of the problem was two common ingredients regularly used in soft drink formulas – sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

That is because both the FDA and US soft drinks association have known about this for 15 years, as testified by an internal FDA memo, dated January 1991.

One FDA chemist, who was also at the meetings with industry back then, told BeverageDaily.com the industry had agreed to “get the word out and reformulate”. No public announcement was, therefore, ever made.

Yet, the FDA's discovery that some soft drinks still contain benzene above the US water limit, broken in February by a BeverageDaily.com investigation, shows how the decision to keep the issue private has gone badly wrong.

Both an FDA chemist and the US soft drinks association have admitted it was entirely possible that some soft drinks firms might not know of the potential for sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid to cause benzene formation in drinks.

Benzene is listed as a known carcinogen by the FDA itself. Yet, the agency has set no maximum limit for benzene in soft drinks and only re-opened its investigation of the issue after a concerned industry whistleblower had paid for independent testing.

Industry and regulatory authorities have assured there is no immediate risk to consumers' health from drinks containing benzene at the levels found to date.

But, BeverageDaily has discovered the reaction between ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate was causing enough benzene in drinks in 1990 for companies to change their formulas. And, there is uncertainty over how much a drink's exposure to heat can exacerbate the problem.

The communication breakdown broadens outside the US.

The FDA's new investigation has led to Britain's Food Standards Agency discovering soft drinks containing benzene above the UK's strict one part per billion limit for drinking water. It is unclear how long this situation has existed for.

In fact, few food safety authorities in Europe appear to have been officially aware that benzene could form in drinks containing sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid.

In Europe alone this, until a couple of weeks ago, at least included authorities in Germany, UK, Belgium and Denmark. The UK's FSA actually checked foods to monitor sodium benzoate content last autumn, but no check was made for benzene.

The European Commission was in the dark too. A letter from the Commission in December, seen by BeverageDaily.com, states it “is not aware of any scientific evidence relating to the formation of benzene as a result of the use of benzoic acid”.

In itself this is curious. Glen Lawrence, a scientist who helped the FDA with testing back in 1990, published a journal article in 1993 detailing how sodium benzoate could break down to form benzene in drinks also containing ascorbic acid.

Yet, authorities' lack of ‘official' knowledge has spun a web of complications.

It means there is no regulatory framework in place for monitoring benzene levels in soft drinks, which means those charged with protecting consumer safety and regulating product quality cannot do their jobs.

Product lists obtained by BeverageDaily.com show more than 1,500 soft drinks containing sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid or citric acid have been launched across Europe, North America and Latin America since January 2002.

In Britain, the Soft Drinks Association says the industry has tests to check for benzene. That is fine and commendable, but the FSA's job is not to test drinks for the industry; it is to make sure tests are being done and levels are acceptable.

The fact that no national guidelines exist on the acceptable level of benzene in soft drinks compounds the problem.

Both the American and British soft drinks associations have said the limit for drinking water – five and one parts per billion in US and UK respectively – is not applicable to soft drinks.

But, their stance may be hard to justify to consumers, notably because water is a main ingredient of nearly every soft drink. One food legislation expert in the UK told BeverageDaily.com any court investigating the issue would likely look to the water limit in the absence of a specific limit for soft drinks.

If there is one lesson to learn from all this, it is that a lack of openness over benzene in soft drinks in the US in 1990, means a problem that could have been dealt with has never properly gone away.

Now, as food safety bodies in several countries around the world scramble to find out what has been known by some for 15 years, benzene threatens to become another public relations nightmare for the soft drinks industry.

Ironically, that is exactly what the private deal in 1991 attempted to avoid. An internal FDA memo from December 1990 tells of how soft drinks firms “expressed concern about the presence of benzene traces in their products and the potential for adverse publicity associated with this problem”.