aug 18 
Question by patrick
Send this post to a friendAs I am coming of age and asking questions about the world I live in. I'm learning quite a lot of stuff that sometimes I think I was better off not knowing about. One thing in particular is the use of fluoride in our tap water.
Everyone says 'yeah fluoride is good for your teeth' and so on. But they are not realizing is on our tooth paste it says 'if swallowed contact poison control immediately'. And that we are forced to swallow it many times a day, through our tap water and through the produce that we eat being watered with it and so on.
Along with other stuff in the water such as chlorine, what is the best way to get this all out? I'm thinking of buying either a counter top distiller or R/O unit. I've been trying to buy organically as much as possible. But cant seem to find the answer to my water problems as a broke college student.
Also I have come across people saying just having pure water with no minerals in it is bad for you also as it will leech out minerals in your body. Should I be adding minerals to my water if I use a distiller or R/O unit. Or am I just better off drinking Gatorade all the time since I am extremely active in sports everyday. And I know the need to keep my body hydrated but at the same time I wanna do it the safest way.
This has all seemed very overwhelming to me and I would appreciate if you got back to me. Thanks for your time!
Comments (2) |  |
1. 09/21/2007 08:19:13 AM
As a general rule, look for filters labeled as meeting NSF/ANSI standard 53. NSF-certified filters have been independently tested to show that they can reduce levels of certain pollutants under specified conditions. Those that meet standard 53 are geared toward treating water for health, not just for aesthetic qualities. Check out NRDC’s Consumer Guide to Water Filters for more details.
Most countertop and faucet water filters are activated carbon filters which will get rid of bad tastes and odors as well as impurities, including chlorine. Most people don’t need reverse osmosis (RO) filters, which are much more expensive, waste water, and are only necessary if you have unusual contaminants in your water that can’t be removed by a carbon filter. An inexpensive countertop filter pitcher reduces or removes most metals, chlorine, and other common contaminants.
As for your concerns about fluoride, toothpastes for adults contain much, much more fluoride than drinking water. Toothpaste in the United States have fluoride concentrations that range from 1,000 to 1, 500 parts per million (ppm); the EPA’s standard for drinking water is 4 ppm but the optimal concentration is 0.7–1.2 ppm. Children under 8 shouldn’t drink too much water that contains more than 2 ppm of fluoride, but healthy adults needn’t be too concerned about fluoride in their drinking water.
If you want to learn about other common tap water contaminants that you should be concerned about, check the 2003 NRDC report What’s on Tap?.
Unless you’re intensely active for hours at a time, drinking water before, during and after sports activity is just as good if not better than sports drinks like Gatorade. In addition, the ingredients in sports drinks and in bottled water are not always fully divulged on the label, and these bottled products are not even legally held to the same quality standards as tap water.
Most countertop and faucet water filters are activated carbon filters which will get rid of bad tastes and odors as well as impurities, including chlorine. Most people don’t need reverse osmosis (RO) filters, which are much more expensive, waste water, and are only necessary if you have unusual contaminants in your water that can’t be removed by a carbon filter. An inexpensive countertop filter pitcher reduces or removes most metals, chlorine, and other common contaminants.
As for your concerns about fluoride, toothpastes for adults contain much, much more fluoride than drinking water. Toothpaste in the United States have fluoride concentrations that range from 1,000 to 1, 500 parts per million (ppm); the EPA’s standard for drinking water is 4 ppm but the optimal concentration is 0.7–1.2 ppm. Children under 8 shouldn’t drink too much water that contains more than 2 ppm of fluoride, but healthy adults needn’t be too concerned about fluoride in their drinking water.
If you want to learn about other common tap water contaminants that you should be concerned about, check the 2003 NRDC report What’s on Tap?.
Unless you’re intensely active for hours at a time, drinking water before, during and after sports activity is just as good if not better than sports drinks like Gatorade. In addition, the ingredients in sports drinks and in bottled water are not always fully divulged on the label, and these bottled products are not even legally held to the same quality standards as tap water.
2. 09/20/2008 11:15:34 PM
On the Environmental Working Group\'s website, it states that \"The Environmental Working Group supports the use of fluoride in toothpaste, where there is strong evidence of its effectiveness.\" However, on Skin Deep, the cosmetic safety database, fluoridated toothpastes with sodium fluoride are given a hazard score of at least 8, which is a high hazard, and under toxicity it states that fluoride is carcinogenic and neurotoxic. This reveals that the Environmental Working Group is inconsistent with what it says on its its original website, http://www.ewg.org, and on Skip Deep, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. Why is this? And should I or should I not use fluoridated toothpaste?
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