USA Water Filter Blog

It’s almost a new decade, and the earth ain’t getting any younger, cooler, or less crowded. As travel enthusiasts (even if it’s via an armchair), there are plenty of small changes we can make that cumulatively have a significant positive impact upon the planet. When you consider the amount of fossil fuels required to fly or even take a weekend roadtrip, it makes even more sense to try and offset that footprint by traveling (and living) mindfully. Notice I don’t suggest actually giving uptravel: I’m eco-conscious, not delusional.

Fortunately, the eco-travel industry is exploding (be sure to do your research, to make sure companies aren’t just using the term as a buzzword). If you’re a business traveler who doesn’t have a choice on where you go or stay, there are still a number of things you can do to minimize your footprint. And FYI, there’s a growing choice of eco-gear and luggage available for all types of travelers these days.

While it’s simply not realistic to devote every waking moment to living a greener, cleaner life (I confess I love my car, and I certainly can’t afford to buy green or organic products all of the time), doing the best you can does make a difference.

Below, my suggestions for painlessly lowering a travel carbon footprint, no treehugging required.

1. BYO water bottle
It takes over a million of barrels of oil to fulfill our lust for bottled water in the U.S. alone, and those empty bottles have to go somewhere (hint: a landfill). Buying bottled is also just a waste of money, unless there’s a legitimate reason to drink purified water. Get a BPA-free bottle, and carry it to work, on the road, and in the air. You can even go one farther and bring your own filter or iodine tablets, so you don’t need to purchase water at all in areas where the supply is untreated.

http://www.gadling.com/2010/12/24/top-ten-simple-ways-to-lower-your-travel-carbon-footprint-in-201/

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If you reduce the amount of garbage you create you won’t have as much to recyle or throw away. You can also reduce the amount of materials you consume every day just by following a few reduction tips:

Reduce the amount of food you put in your lunchbag. Only bring what you’ll eat.

Reduce paper at home and at school by using both sides of the paper.

Save water by reducing the amount of time you stay in the shower. You can also save energy by having a slightly cooler shower.

Reduce trash by using rechargable batteries.

Avoid using disposable items, they only end up as trash. Instead stick with products you can use over and over.

Reduce paper and plastic by using a grocery tote bag instead of plastic or paper bags given out at stores.

Reduce trash by purchasing products with the least amount of packaging.

Reduce the amount of chemicals going into the environment by purchasing and using non-toxic cleaning products.

Reduce the quantity of clothing you buy new. Avoid rushing out to update your wardrobe with every fashion change. Take care of your clothes so they will last longer. When they no longer fit donate to charity.

Reduce the amount of bottled water you purchase by refilling small, single serving bottles from larger bottles. Better yet, refill your bottles with tap or filtered water.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=232343

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Tap water in at least 31 cities across the U.S. contains a chemical dubbed a “probable carcinogen” by the National Toxicology Program, according to a new nationwide analysis by the Environmental Working Group. Hexavalent chromium was made famous by the 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich,” and was a widely used industrial chemical until the early 1990s. It’s still used in some industries, such as chrome plating and the manufacture of plastics and dyes, and can also leach into groundwater from natural ore deposits underground. The NTP declared the chemical a probable carcinogen in 2008, and the EWG’s analysis comes just when the EPA is mulling whether to regulate it in tap water. The agency currently regulates the amount of “total chromium” in tap water and requires utilities to test for it, but that blanket term includes more than just the potentially cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, aka “chromium-6″ — it also includes the very different trivalent chromium, a mineral that humans need to metabolize glucose. California has taken the lead in restricting chromium-6 in tap water by proposing a “public health goal” of 0.06 parts per billion, and if the proposed rule is passed, it would be the nation’s first. But in the meantime, the EWG found the toxin in 31 of the 35 cities it tested, 25 of which had levels above the proposed California limit. Norman, Okla., had the highest levels, with 12.9 ppb, or more than 200 times the California goal. Other cities rife with chromium-6 include Honolulu, Hawaii (2 ppb), Riverside, Calif. (1.69), Madison, Wis. (1.58), San Jose, Calif. (1.34) and Tallahassee, Fla. (1.25). The obscure-sounding chemical rose to national prominence in the ’90s after it poisoned the water supply of Hinkley, Calif., and environmental activist Erin Brockovich helped lead a lawsuit against the local water utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, which in 1996 paid more than $330 million in damages. This doesn’t mean everyone should rush out to stock up on bottled water, however, since it carries its own baggage, and is often made from municipal tap water, anyway. “Bottled water is not necessarily any safer than tap water,” EWG senior scientist Rebecca Sutton tells CNN. “We just don’t have any guarantee that hexavalent chromium isn’t in that water.” Instead, she suggests filtering your own tap water at the faucet. “Getting the water filter is a great way to protect yourself and your family,” she says. “It’s a step you can take yourself, you don’t have to wait for government action.” (Sources: Washington Post, CNN, EWG)

http://www.mnn.com/home-blog/green-news-roundup/blogs/daily-briefing-mon-89

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When you see news reports about a cancer-causing chemical in drinking water everywhere you turn, you probably have a few questions. Of course you can read EWG’s full report, but on the off chance you’re pressed for time and just want to know the basics, we put together these 11 questions and answers.

1. What is hexavalent chromium?
Hexavalent chromium (or chromium-6) is a highly toxic form of the naturally occurring metal chromium. It is a well-known human carcinogen when inhaled, and recent evidence indicates it can cause stomach or gastrointestinal cancer when ingested in drinking water. However, a different form, trivalent chromium, is an essential nutrient.

People typically are exposed to chromium-6 by consuming contaminated water or food, and in some workplaces by breathing contaminated air. That’s a concern especially for those working in metallurgy or leather-tanning facilities. Ingesting or inhaling contaminated soil particles may also be a source of exposure. Widespread industrial use has led to detections of hexavalent chromium in two-thirds of current or former Superfund toxic waste sites.

2. How does it get into tap water?
Chromium-6 can get into water as a result of industrial contamination from manufacturing facilities, including electroplating factories, leather tanneries and textile manufacturing facilities, or from disposal of fluids used before 1990 in cooling towers. It also occurs naturally in some minerals. The widely used tap water disinfectant chlorine can transform trivalent chromium into the toxic hexavalent form.

3. Why is it a problem?
Exposure in tap water has been linked to cancers of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract in both animals and people. California’s Environmental Protection Agency has issued a draft public health goal based on the conclusion that levels of chromium-6 greater than 0.06 parts per billion (ppb) in tap water may increasecancer risk.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/hexavalent-chromium-11-answers-for-water-drinkers

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Low levels of hexavalent chromium, an industrial chemical used in the production of stainless steel and chrome plating, have been found in drinking water supplies across the United States, a new study by an environmental group has found.

Those who saw the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich” will remember hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium-6, as the chemical spreading in a plume beneath the town of Hinkley, Calif., from a disposal site run by Pacific Gas & Electric. The company ultimately paid $333 million in damages for the contamination after a class-action lawsuit.

The chemical has been linked to increased cancer risk. But Allan Smith, a professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, said the concentrations reported by the Environmental Working Group were probably no cause for concern.

“The public should not be alarmed by the very small concentrations being reported for most cities,” Dr. Smith wrote in an e-mail.

Other experts disagreed. Max Costa, chairman of the department of environmental medicine at New York University’s School of Medicine, toldThe Washington Post that the levels of the chemical were “disturbing” and said that states should strive to eliminate the presence of the chemical from water entirely.

California regulators have proposed a “public health goal” that would limit hexavalent chromium to just .06 parts per billion in drinking water, but industry groups call that level unrealistically low. The Environmental Protection Agency is studying whether to introduce a national drinking water standard for the chemical.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/weighing-the-risk-of-a-chemical-in-tap-water/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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he Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released their latest analysis of drinking water in which they found hexavalent chromium (widely known from the movie “Erin Brockovich”) in 89% of cities tested. According to the EWG, “this “investigation is the broadest publicly available survey of hexavalent chromium to date. The 31 cities with chromium-polluted tap water draw from utilities that collectively serve more than 26 million people.”

The following cities were found to have hexavalent chromium in the drinking water supplies: (the ten cities with the highest levels are noted in parentheses)

• Honolulu, HI (#2)
• Bend, OR (#10)
• Sacramento, CA
• San Jose, CA (#5)
• Riverside, CA (#3)
• Los Angeles, CA
• Las Vegas, NV
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Scottsdale, AZ
• Phoenix, AZ
• Albuquerque, NM (#8)
• Norman, OK (#1)
• Omaha, NE (#7)
• Madison, WI (#4)
• Milwaukee, WI
• Chicago, IL
• Ann Arbor, MI
• Louisville, KY
• Cincinnati, OH
• Buffalo, NY
• Syracuse, NY
• Pittsburgh, PA (#9)
• Villanova, PA
• Boston, MA
• New Haven, CT
• New York, NY
• Bethesda, MD
• Washington, DC
• Atlanta, GA
• Tallahassee, FL (#6)
• Miami, FL
• http://blogs.webmd.com/health-ehome/2010/12/chromium-on-tap.html

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ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was, on Wednesday, informed that 33 bottled water samples had failed to meet the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) standards.

The House was told that the Ministry of Science and Technology had fined the companies producing the bottled water which failed the tests, and that the contaminated water was being sold in the open market. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Pir Aftab Shah Jilani informed the parliamentarians that the PSQCA officials had properly checked the quality of the water and violators were punished accordingly.

PSQCA inspectors had randomly collected 63 samples of water of different companies recently, out of which 33 failed to meet the required standards. The companies whose product failed the test were fined. Jilani said only the bottled water bearing the PSQCA monogram should be used. He informed the House that PSQCA inspectors were also testing cooking oil and ghee, and they were empowered to cancel the licence of any company found violating PSQCA rules. He said the authority had the mandate, under PSQCA Act 1996, to monitor the quality of 78 products, and ghee and cooking oil also fell under its purview.

He said the Certification Marks Licence holders of the PSQCA were being monitored through a quarterly inspection programme and testing of open market samples. He informed the House in a written reply that two ghee and cooking oil factories in Karachi were sealed due to non-conformities during the last one year. Separately, the parliamentary secretary of overseas Pakistanis, Farhat Muhammad Khan, informed the House that constitutional amendments were required to enable the overseas Pakistanis to cast votes in elections.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\12\23\story_23-12-2010_pg7_24

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Every day, millions and millions of bottles of water are used. Across North America, people buy bottled water so they can conveniently carry it around with them all day. While the concept of buying water in bottles would have seem very strange 20 or 30 years ago, these days it is common place.

The problem with bottled water is not just about the environment, it is about your bank account as well. Water from the tap costs roughly $0.0015 per gallon, while bottled water costs upwards of $10 per gallon. That means bottled water is ten times more expensive than tap water.

Each year, roughly 8.6 billion gallons of bottled water are consumed in the United States. Around the world, 53 billion gallons are consumed. What makes this a problem is that it takes water away from municipal sources. Roughly 40 percent of all bottled water is taken from where we all get our tap water. Many bottled water brands also are not required to do as thorough testing as is seen with tap water. Over 20 percent of tested bottled water brands contains chemical contaminants in them that were at levels above what health limits were dictated at.

Tap water is tested for e. coli, it must provide a source for the water and to submit quality reports.

In contrast, bottled water is not.

To make bottled water each year, 17 million barrels of oil are used in the production of the bottles. That is enough oil to power one million cars for an entire year. Amazingly, it takes three times the amount of water to produce the bottle that the water itself goes into.

Water bottles are not biodegradable and will last as long as 1,000 years. Sadly, only one in five bottles are recycled. The other four bottles not recycled amount to three billion pounds of waste every year.

As we can see, bottled water is a very serious problem and not something that helps the environment or ourselves. Instead, buy a container for your water and get the water from the tap. You can also attach a filter to your tap if you worry about contaminants in the water.

http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2895599

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Forty years ago Kermit the Frog sang for the first time “It’s not easy being green.” He expressed his frustrations of being the color green and how “ordinary” that was.

Today “being green” has a whole new meaning. It’s about being environmentally aware and making choices that are earth friendly and responsible. Many people agree that we should do a better job of taking care of the earth, but most of us do little more than recycle. A major reason for our lack of action stems from the fact that most people don’t realize how easy it really is to be “green.”

There are lots of easy little things you can do around your house or work to get started. Here are a few:

REDUCE

1. Reduce the amount of water you use by taking a shorter shower. You can save 10 gallons of water for every two minutes you shave off your shower time. (Editor’s Note: In the interest of creativity, we’ve thought of another way to save water: Take a shower with your significant other.)

2. When washing your hands or just rinsing dishes, turn the faucet on at a fraction of the volume.

3. Reduce the disposable water bottles or cups you use. Instead of drinking bottled water, buy a filter for your faucets at home. Bring extra glasses and mugs to work instead of using disposable cups.

http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/12-12-10-reduce-re-use-recycle-19-ways-to-save-the-planet/

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A new analysis has revealed a potential carcinogen in the tap water of 31 U.S. cities and experts are looking for ways to reduce exposure of the communities. The chemical called hexavalent chromium, got public attention in the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich” and has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals by the NationalToxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health.

At present basic water filters like those made by Brita and PUR do not remove hexavalent chromium but several reverse-osmosis systems designed for home use can take the chemical out of water. Bottled water from municipal water systems can still contain hexavalent chromium or other contaminants.

The analysis report was revealed yesterday by the Environmental Working Group and is the first of its kind that checks on hexavalent chromium in drinking water to be made public. The group checked water from 35 cities and found it in 31. Of those, 25 had levels that were higher than a health goal proposed last year by the state of California.

Lynn Goldman, an epidemiologist and former top official at the Environmental Protection Agency who now serves as dean of the School of Public Health at George Washington University said, “This definitely raises the issue about a national drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium and why we don’t have one…This is the very first signal that there might be a problem…But it’s premature to say we know really what the level (of contamination) is, whether it’s there all the time or just intermittently and what the source is.”

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20101221/Tap-water-cancer-chemical-detected.aspx

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