Have You Noticed the Focus on Water Lately?
By Connie Kuusisto

Over Labor Day weekend, a tragic outbreak of E. Coli bacteria in upstate New York made the national news. Two people died. Hundreds of fairgoers became severely ill; dozens were hospitalized.

The tragedy came just 3 ½ weeks before the phase in of a new clause to the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. This clause, called your "right to know" mandates that city water authorities must provide water quality reports to each household in the nation.

The reports were due in your mailbox this past October. Did you notice it?
Appearing with little fanfare, the reports may well have been overlooked by
millions of Americans who've become accustomed to throwing away their junk mail.

I urge you to pay attention and take a second look at the information you are entitled to. These water quality reports are a real wake up call, or at
least they should be. Far too many people in the United States continue to assume that the tap water in their communities is fundamentally safe for drinking and bathing.

Yet nation wide, industries pollute the air, and eventually the ground water, with 8.8 billion pounds of toxins per year. That's 35 pounds of toxins per person according to the Clean Water Network.


As a certified Personal Trainer and Aerobics Instructor, I've been in the
habit of examining and recommending nutritional supplements and antioxidants to my friends and customers. But the subject of local water and family health never crossed my mind, at least not for any length time. After all, there's plenty of bottled water available. Right?

Big money is being made on bottled water in the U.S. but the general public doesn't know that the regulations governing the sale of water only state that bottled water be "as good as tap water." In many cases that's what's inside the plastic bottle with the designer label: tap water from someplace else. You are paying top dollar to drag home bottles of water containing toxins!

I'm drinking far more tap water than I thought I was and you are too. Worse yet, so are our children. Recently I decided to attend a weekend seminar on water filtration and learned some astonishing things about the potential health risks associated with our domestic water supply.

According to an article in USA Today, "studies suggest that a million or so Americans suffer gastrointestinal sicknesses each year from bad drinking water, and about 1000 may die." We shrug these symptoms off as "a case of the flu: or "something I ate" when in fact it was the water in the glass.

Children are more vulnerable to the toxins found in food, air, and water.
Because they drink more water as a percentage of their body weight than
adults do, they are at a greater risk for health problems. The Clean Water
Network reports that asthma rates for children tripled in the 1980's and
childhood cancer rates have increased 10% over the last 20 years. Maybe
you're like W.C. Fields who swore to everyone he met that he never drank a drop of water. But even Fields would have been disturbed to find that taking showers can be a health risk according to the American Chemical Society. Showers and baths provide greater exposure to toxic chemicals than drinking water from the tap. The amount of chlorine absorbed by your body during ten minutes of showering is equivalent to the amount contained in two gallons of tap water. And the steam in the shower is the perfect delivery system. Your pores are wide open in the heat. The toxins directly enter your skin and are inhaled by your lungs. Chlorine is an inhibitor of the endocrine system and a major carcinogen.

Statistics show that one out of every three Americans will get cancer in our lifetime. Evidence suggests that as many as 2/3 of all cancers are linked to our use of water.

As a fitness professional and a mother of two I'm no longer taking things at face value. I urge you to research this issue. Go online. Get involved. Above all else, don't assume that the bottled water you're using or the water from your tap, or even the well water you're pumping is free of contaminants and toxins. Don't assume that a water pitcher filtration system is all you need: it won't protect you in the shower. Nor is it advanced enough technologically to eliminate the numerous contaminants in your water.

There are new water systems for the tap and shower that are affordable.
Although there are others out there, I've discovered one such product:
"Aquasana" from New Vision International, a company devoted to "enriching the quality of families' lives." Aquasana has been proven in the laboratory to be the most effective means of filtering water where you use it the most, in your home, for drinking, cooking and bathing. Visit www.aquasana.com  to learn more.

Whatever you choose to do, don't ignore the water quality report you should have received in the mail: consider it a gift from the Federal Government! If you overlooked the report, call your local water utility company and request another copy. Remember, this is the age of interactivity. Please feel free to visit me online at WellnessCoach@aol.com  or contact me at 1-800-373-6991 for additional information on how to interpret the report you receive in your mailbox.

Connie Kuusisto, a resident of Yorktown Heights, New York, is, besides being a MOM, Manager of Admissions at the not-for-profit organization "Guiding Eyes for the Blind". Certified as a Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Kickboxing Instructor, she has established her own business as "Your Wellness Coach." She is also a representative for "New Vision International" a family-oriented health and nutrition firm. Visit her at
www.nvionline.com/YourWellnessCoach  and request this free cassette Water Warning: Think before you drink.

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