What’s the Problem with Plastic Bottles?

You may have read how many localities are banning the use of plastic bags  and decided to reduce the amount of disposables you consume, and that’s a great direction to be heading in.  But there’s another problem in the plastic-trash minefield that needs tackling — in the U.S., 1,500 plastic water bottles are consumed every second. Here’s why that’s a major problem for humans, the environment, and the animals on our planet. 

The Human Impact

Plastic bottles contain Bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical used to make the plastic hard and clear. BPA is an endocrine disruptor which has been proven to be hazardous to human health.  It has been strongly linked to a host of health problems including certain types of cancer, neurological difficulties, early puberty in girls, reduced fertility in women, premature labour, and defects in newborn babies – to name a few examples. BPA enters the human body through exposure to plastics such as bottled drinks and cleaning products.   It has been found in significant amounts in at-risk groups such as pregnant women’s placentas and growing  foetuses.   A study conducted last year found that 96% of women in the U.S have BPA in their bodies.

Bottled drinks also contain phthalates, which are commonly used in the U.S. to make plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible.   Phthalates are also endocrine-disrupting chemicals that have been linked to a wide range of developmental and reproductive effects, including reduced sperm count, testicular abnormality and tumors, and gender development issues.   The FDA does not regulate phthalates or class them as a health hazard due to the supposedly minute amounts present in plastic bottles.  This decision does not take into account the significant presence of plastics in the average American citizen’s daily life, the fact that phthalate concentration increases the longer a plastic water bottle is stored, or the fact that a bottled drink that is exposed to heat causes accelerated leaching of harmful plastic chemicals into the drink.

In addition to the negative impacts of BPA and phthalates on human health there are also growing concerns regarding carcinogens and microbial contaminants that have been found in test samples of bottled water.

Bottling plants also cause problems for the humans who live near them. Water extraction surrounding bottling plants involved millions of gallons of water to make the bottles. This often leads to local water shortages that affects nearby residents, especially farmers who need to provide food for the surrounding neighborhoods. 

The Animal Impact

Plastic bottle tops are currently not recyclable,  and as with plastic bags they often end up at the bottom of the ocean, and in the stomachs of a variety of animal species that mistake them for food.  One albatross that was recently found dead on a Hawaiian island had a stomach full of 119 bottle caps.

Marine life falls prey to this problem on a daily basis.  A sperm whale was found dead on a North American beach recently with a plastic gallon bottle which had gummed up its small intestine.  The animal’s body was full of plastic material including other plastic bottles, bottle caps and plastic bags. 

The Environmental Impact

Plastic bottles are made from a petroleum product known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and they require huge amounts of fossil fuels to both make and transport them.  In the 1970s the U.S. was the world’s largest exporter of oil, but now it is the largest importer.  If you fill a plastic bottle with liquid so that it is 25% full, that’s roughly how much oil it took to make the bottle. For a single-use disposable item, that’s a lot.

It’s harder to recycle plastic bottles than you think.  Of the mass numbers of plastic bottles consumed throughout the world, most of them are not recycled because only certain types of plastic bottles can be recycled by certain municipalities. They either end up lying stagnant in landfills, leaching dangerous chemicals into the ground, or they infiltrate our streets as litter. They are found on sidewalks, in parks, front yards and rivers, and even if you chop them into tiny pieces they still take more than a human lifetime to decompose.

Worse yet, in the case of bottled water, the plastic-making process requires over two gallons of water for the purification process of every gallon of water.

In the U.S., bottled water and tap water are regulated by different federal agencies.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates tap water.  Therefore, the enforcement and monitoring of water quality for bottled water vs tap water does not add up. Due to strict EPA policies, incidents of tap water contamination have to be reported immediately to U.S. citizens, however there is no such rule for bottled water, despite numerous bottled water recalls taking place over the years. 
 
Who’s to Blame?

The U.S. is the largest consumer market for bottled water  in the world, followed by Mexico, Brazil, and China.

Bottled water companies and beverage producers work together to turn huge profits. Manufacturers of bottled water advertise their products as being of higher quality, purer and safer than tap water, despite the fact that tap water is actually held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water. Some brands of bottled water have been found to be tap water in disguise.

Although several scientific studies have been done into the problems of chemicals found in bottled drinks, there have been various campaigns to undermine the results of the research. The American Chemical Council (ACC) still claims that BPA is safe. 

So Who’s Doing What?

In 2009 in Australia, the New South Wales town of Bundanoon voted to ban bottled water out of concern for the environment and the health of the local community. Selling or dispensing bottled water within the town precinct became prohibited, and drinking fountains and filtered water dispensers became common features of the town instead.

In 2010 Canada became the first country to declare BPA a toxic substance, with the European Union closely following by banning BPA from baby bottles in 2011. The United States, France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden have taken some steps to limit the use of BPA in products.

In order to reduce litter in the natural wonder earlier this year the Grand Canyon National Park Service approved a plan to halt the sale of bottled water within 30 days. Water stations are available at the park for visitors to refill their own water bottles. 

What Can We Do About It?

Reduce

• Avoid the need for bottled drinks altogether. You can save resources by drinking from glasses or water fountains whenever possible when you are out.
• Do the research. Don’t fall for advertising that tells you that bottled water is purer or safer than tap. If you are concerned about your tap water you can obtain a water quality report for your area and buy a water filter if necessary.

Reuse

• Invest in a BPA-free reusable bottle. Carry a refillable, BPA-free bottle when you are on the go, and refill it whenever the option arises. 

• Efficiently. Work out which plastics your municipality recycles and sort them accordingly.

But above all, reduce. Think of the whales and albatrosses and buy fewer plastic products in general, particularly when you know that you are unable to recycle them. It will probably have a much larger and positive impact than you think.

Are you drinking the WRONG Water?

Drinking water is critical to your survival.  There are two very important things you need to know and do regarding the water you drink. 

First, you need to drink enough water each day – you should drink one half your body weight, in ounces,  every day!  Second, you need to drink the right kind of water in order to reduce your odds of health problems like hypertension, and bone problems like osteoporosis.  The wrong kind of water is filled with chemicals and a variety of toxins which harms your body.  In addition, it put you in an acidic state and cause your body to leach essential minerals from your bones.  Of course when all this happens your body is more vulnerable to a variety of diseases and other degenerative issues.

The Wrong Water 

Nearly all tap water in the United States has all sorts of added chemicals as well as things that have leached into the water from industrial wastes and even pharmaceuticals that get into our water from water recycling plants and other sources.  This is the WRONG WATER!  Did you know that nearly all bottled water is just city tap water that has been put through a perfunctory purification process?  In addition, all the popular brand bottled waters are acidic.  Most tap water is, at best, neutral or slightly acidic.

City or bottled water is comes in large water molecule clusters (12-15 molecules per cluster), clusters this large are very hard for our cells to absorb.  This contributes to dehydration.  According to the American Medical Association (AMA), up to 70% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

Many types of “Purified” water are made by a process called Reverse Osmosis or distillation.  This process removes everything from the water…including minerals.  Minerals are essential to the body and if we don’t get them in our water (or food, but the majority comes from water) our bodies will rob it from our bones causing deterioration and osteoporosis.

Tap and bottled water is highly oxidizing.  Oxidizing is “rusting”.  When your body has oxidants you get free radicals which promote disease and aging. 

  

So…What is the “Right” Water?

 The right water is Ionized, Alkaline Water!  This water has many benefits:  It provides nutrients to the cells, it hydrates your body at the cellular level, it cleanses and purifies your system, and is loaded with antioxidants to neutralizes those free radicals and energizes your body. 

           

Alkaline water Detoxifies  It gently cleans your body.  It’s higher pH flushes toxins out through your kidneys.  Ionized Alkaline water increases  Antioxidant  levels in the body to help you fight illness and aging.  It reduces free radicals in your body by nearly 45%.  Alkaline water Hydrates better than plain water due to a small cluster size (5-6 molecules per cluster).   Increased hydration helps reduce blood pressure, results in improved digestion and proper waste elimination.  Due to increased mineral presence, especially magnesium, alkaline water can lower blood pressure.  Alkaline water has a higher pH which supports a health Metabolism. It helps raise urine pH. Low urine pH is associated with many metabolic disorders such as diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney stones and weight problems.   Because it is full of minerals, alkaline water helps maintain Bone Density.

Drinking Ionized Alkaline water is very important for your overall health.  While the FDA prohibits claiming alkaline water cures anything, there are many, many anecdotal stories from patients and physicians of amazing benefits from drinking ionized alkaline water.  In Japan and other countries alkaline water ionizers are considered medical devices and used in hospitals to treat disease.

So, where can you get alkaline water?  While it is possible to buy bottled alkaline water in some stores,  it is important to note that alkaline water loses much of its benefits (including drops in alkalinity and antioxidants) when sitting for long periods of time in warehouses or store shelves.  In addition, putting it in plastic bottles adds other problems.  Water bottles leach cancer causing PBA’s from the bottle into the water, particularly when those bottles sit in hot warehouses or on delivery trucks.  Worse yet, those plastic bottles, when emptied, sit in our landfills, strewn on our streets, and collect in our waterways causing environmental problems.

You should strongly consider acquiring your very own water ionizer.  They are a health investment that will pay for themselves many times over, in increased health for you and your family. 

Green Health Technologies has a selection of ionizers at very reasonable prices.   Check out the  Living Water or Velaqua or HydraPour ionizers at www.greenhealthtechnologies.com  .   Order yours today, it will be one of the best health investments you will ever make.

Serious Health Risks from Laundry Detergents

Consumer laundry products actually contain a long list of dangerously toxic chemicals.  Some are reported as ingredients on the labels, others are not.  In addition to dioxane, among the most toxic ingredients are sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) or sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), short for sodium lauryl ether sulfate, NPE (nonylphenol ethoxylate), and numerous so-called “phosphates”.

Two thirds of all common laundry detergents normally carried in supermarkets contain the deadly carcinogen, dioxane.   And according to laboratory tests, the levels of dioxane are considered “high” compared to the levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.
 

Over 16,000 studies show that SLS in any form causes eye and skin irritation, organ toxicity, neurotoxicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption, mutations and cancer.

NPE has been shown to cause kidney and liver damage, disrupted growth and metabolic development, decreased testicular growth and sperm count, and increased mortality.

Phosphates, the main cleaning ingredients in detergents and household cleaners, can cause nausea, diarrhea and skin irritations.  But some of their worst effects are in wastewater, destroying all life in lakes, streams and rivers.

This is a serious health problem for you and your family as well as for our environment.  So…What do we do about it?

The answer is LAUNDRY – NO DETERGENT, BLEACH, SOFTENER OR HOT WATER.  How do we do that and get our laundry clean, germ free and fresh?

Hospitals and the hospitality industry have been doing laundry for more than a decade that uses a technology that not only cleans using NO DETERGENT or Bleach or Softeners or HOT WATER, it kills 99.999% of germs and bacteria.

They had a need to clean linens and other laundry in a manner that didn’t cause premature wear on the laundry, but also killed the germs that are found in laundry used by multiple people.  We all know how dangerous hospitals are for a germs and infections.  Another problem found in these institutions was the skin rashes and irritations caused by the petrochemicals in the detergents and softeners.  By eliminating detergent and softeners that problem is eliminated.

That decade old technology is now available for home use.  An amazing product using a variation of this technology – originally developed in conjunction with the space agency for use aboard the International Space Station is available at an extremely affordable price.  As a matter of fact, it will pay for itself by eliminating detergent, bleach and softener costs, and reduced utility costs from the savings in hot water.

Green Health Technologies is proud to offer the Laundry Pure System.   Please check our website: https://www.greenhealthtechnologies.com to learn more about this fantastic product and how you can improve your health and that of your family and our environment and SAVE MONEY doing it.