Some Critical Comments Concerning Water Treatment Systems

Bottled Water

In 1981 there was an Irish businessman who must have known about the upcoming water quality problems as described in the preface (p.2). Because at an enterprise show he launched a new product when he bottled Irish water to sell to the public. People were confused and amazed. What? Bottling water and selling it in a country that is blessed by an overabundance of rain? Notwithstanding all the cat calls, Geoff Read founded Ballygowan, one of the most successful bottling companies for clean drinking water in Ireland or even Europe. But is bottled water, even if it is first class water, absolutely the best solution for everybody?

Waterwise says “No” for the following eight reasons:

  1. It is expensive Bottled water burdens a four person household with at least € 430.00 per year. (6 liters per day at 20 cents per liter.
  2. Awkward transportation Bottles are heavy and bulky items to carry from the store to your parking place and then from the car into your house.
  3. Logistic Bottles are spacious and you probably won’t buy your water every day. Where can you store all the bottles at home?
  4. It harms the environment Most water bottles are sold in PET bottles (Polyethylene terephthalate). This is bad to the environment. Look in your bin! What percentage of its volume is taken away by empty water bottles? Uncompressed plastic bottles in the household waste increase its volume strongly, thereby landfills are filled faster. The waste disposal is often via rivers, and all materials with a lower density than fresh water or sea water, including PET bottles include, swimming as flotsam or deface as garbage flotsam the coasts and beaches.
  5. It harms your health The polymers of the plastic bottles create estrogen similar hormones which are released in the water. Results from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany*. The drinking water is poured into hot plastic bottles, mostly made from PET. The PET is extruded directly from bottle-making machines. Here many polymer plasticizers (plastic softeners) dissolve in the water, rendering it mildly toxic.
  6. The water is dead Mostly bottled water is heated to 80o C before filling, which destroys the molecular structure of the water.
  7. Very soon after opening the bottles the bottled water tastes stale and it also becomes contaminated with bacteria very fast.
  8. Finally the bottled water is gassed To avoid bacterial contamination inert gas (CO2 or N2) is added to the bottled drinking water. However, this ensures the water is completely inactive, and increases the pH. * Martin Wagner and Jörg Oehlmann Endocrine disruptors in bottled mineral water: total estrogenic burden and migration from plastic bottles, publicized in Environmental Science and Pollution Research Vol. 16, No. 3, May 2009 p. 278 – 286.

Water Softeners to prevent lime depositions

Water softeners remove all lime precipitation causing minerals (Calcium) and replace them by Sodium. This makes the water soft. However by doing so they also eliminate other minerals such as the valuable Magnesium. The water now tastes ugly, it is not only lifeless but extremely unhealthy. It results in hypertension if consumed regularly. Finally high investment costs and the regular salt demand and the high water consumption for the back flushing makes it expensive. Back flushing also releases Sodium into the sewage systems.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis (also known as RO) is a method of demineralizing the water by pumping tap water several times under high pressure through extreme small membranes, which allow only water molecules to pass through. In RO all the minerals like the vital Potassium and Magnesium and over 99.9% of all essential minerals and trace elements are removed from the water. It is more or less an industrialized process, e.g. in water desalination plants.

There are many manufacturers of RO units. The prices for normal household units vary amazingly. Prices do not necessarily indicate the quality of the units. They depend on the marketing and distribution system of the relative provider. Nearly all RO manufacturers obtain the same membranes from companies either in the USA, or in Asia were they are made cheaper. Under general or normal conditions we would not recommend the use of RO systems in house/holds.

  • This process lowers the pH of the water down to between 4.5 and 5.5, which is slightly acidic.
  • After the water is treated in this way it no longer has any buffering capacity, which means the water is no longer protected from a tendency towards acidity.
  • This process also massively damages the natural structure of the Oxygen molecules.
  • RO converts the drinking water into a manmade product that does not exist as such in nature. For this reason consuming such “dead water” is extremely unhealthy.
  • Now many manufacturers realise that they are producing “dead“ water. They offer now a second stage after RO by using coral powder beds through which they let the dead water percolate hoping that this procedure will increase the pH and bring back some taste and activity. Although the water will remain acidic and RO-water is still an artificial compound. In 99% of the cases the pH of this water remains below 7. It is still overly acidified and the structure of the Oxygen molecules remains mostly destroyed. A simple pH test proves this evidence immediately. The problem of using RO is only whitewashed and the water is no longer a living organism.
  • RO water is also aggressive on certain water pipes and can destroy them. This includes plastic water pipes such made from low grade PVC pipes

To summarize: RO is not a natural process and not recommendable to treat water in house-holds. There might be some isolated cases where extreme water contaminations render the use of public water highly dangerous. In such events it is of course better for everyone to use “dead water”. However we recommend reactivating and vitalising this water as described under Stage 3 and Stage 4.

Ultra Violet Treatment (UV)

UV treatment of water deploys special lamps having very short wave lengths (below 400 μ) is widely used worldwide, mainly in large municipal drinking water plants and industrial water technologies. However, we do not consider this technology as useful instrument for households or small commercial units. It uses a strong chemical and energetic intervention. It oxidizes undesired products and renders them harmless. The UV radiation of these lamps alters Oxygen molecules by splitting two combined oxygen atoms (O2) into two single Oxygen atoms which react immediately to form an ozone molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms (O3). This causes an extreme strong oxidation process whereby it readily forms moulds stemming from unknown and possibly poisonous compounds. This can happen particularly when there are long chains of carbohydrates in the water originating from hormones, medical residues and similar components.

It is also suspected that carcinogen Nitrosamines can be formed by the strong oxidation process. Ozone is very reactive and kills all bacteria.  Another side effect of UV treatment is that bacteria remain as “dead bodies” in the water. The electricity used also has an influence on the water, similar to electro smog. We believe that in a healthy and conscious household it is not necessarily wise to use UV radiation to treat domestic water. Finally UV treatment is not a natural water treatment.

In general our activated carbon filter removes the bacterial contamination. In rare individual cases only it may be appropriate in a household. But the UV system strictly should be followed by at least additional carbon filters at the kitchen taps, to remove the “dead bacteria” and particular in view of mutation of compounds that remain in the water and must be removed.

Kangen Water

Much has been said about Kangen Water having positive effects on people with certain illnesses, and further that it can protect against possible illnesses occurring after severe operations. Suppliers of Kangen Water units put their attention on the pH effects. But you should keep in mind that the production of Kangen Water needs electricity to split the water into an alkaline and an acidic fraction. It is a kind of hydrolysis. We think that those needing a special water treatment after a serious operation or when a diagnosis for a severe illness had been made should receive this special water under supervision. Please be aware that Kangen Water units do not solve all water problems. Kangen Water is a medicine and not a main drinking water source.  We believe it is not natural water and sometimes it has been reported that Kangen Water has an unnatural taste.It is our opinion that Kangen Water needs our water treatment system to eliminate contaminants.

Grander Water

Grander water units are primary installed to activate and vitalize the water. The key component of the Grander Water unit is an ampoule in the centre of the system filled with water that is called the “Information Water” or “Primeval Water”. It is said that this water contains all positive information. The “Information Water” activates the water passing the ampoule and the positive energies are transferred to it. This process also called the Grander process changes the inner structure of water and returns the water molecules to a highly ordered state, making the water more stable.

We consider Grander Water under following aspects:

  1. The Grander system does not filtrate, the water. It has no physical or chemical or biological impact. Nothing is taken out of the water, nothing is brought in the water. If the is water contaminated with anything unwanted, such as bacteria, pesticides, medical residues and similar toxic compounds they will not be removed. If your drinking water is contaminated it stays contaminated.
  2. Water has the ability to affect each other. In the case of the Grander system the „Information Water“ will release its positive energy in the water passing by. However the bad information of the water to be treated informs the „Information Water“ in such a way that in time the effect of the „Information Water“ in the Grander Water ampoule lessens. It will not only loose its activity and positive information but might also even adapt the bad information.
  3. Environmental disturbances such as electro smog or other bad external impacts destroy the effect as well.

Components we would not use treating household drinking water

  • Chemicals
  • Chlorines
  • Silver (inorganic)
Scroll Up