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Water: Clean Safe Healthy I

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Part One in a Three-Part Series

Water - The Liquid Of Life

The body requires a daily supply of fluids to lubricate our joints, regulate the body's temperature, serve as shock absorbers inside the eyes, spinal cord, and in the amniotic sac in pregnancy, and to function as the solvent for minerals, vitamins, amino acids, glucose, and other molecules. As you can see, water is very important for every function within the human body.

Although a person could live without food for weeks, the average healthy person can only survive three to five days without water. Communities have been built around water and wars have been fought over it, but the biggest problem facing us now is not so much where to find the water, but how to find water fit enough to drink and remain healthy. Click here to read an ancient story concerning an individual's right to water, based upon the claim that the water belonged to the community.

Studies conducted in the 1970's by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed the presence of a great deal of chemical contaminants and high levels of heavy metals in municipal water supplies. These findings led to the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974 whose standards, at that time, limited the amount allowed for 10 chemicals, 6 pesticides, bacteria, radioactivity, and turbidity (cloudiness) based on the amount of each substance that an individual could consume in a lifetime without seemingly adverse health effects, taking into account exposure from other sources.

On Aug. 6, 1996, President Clinton signed the Reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act, bringing to a successful conclusion years of work on the part of water professionals and a broad range of public interest groups throughout the nation. To read all about it, click here.

So, whose responsibility is it to help ensure a clean water supply for all of us on this planet? I believe that the answer to this question lies with each of us. But how do we go about keeping our water clean, safe, and healthy for generations to come?

Don't Trash Your Water

Personally, I do not think we can begin to discuss water as it relates to our health, until we talk about the health of our water and how to keep it fit for us to drink. Many of us do not have a clue what we are doing to the environment by the way we dispose of commonly used household products. In order to do our part to help keep the water supply clean, each of us must learn how to properly dispose of the many products we buy and use every day.

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