768 Million People in the World Live Without Access to Clean Water

More than 768 million people are currently without access to safe, clean, drinking water, and 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation.

This kills nearly 4,000 children each day, according to UNICEF.

A recent report shows that 14 nations  that are classified as low and middle-income countries where clean water and soap may not be accessible in comparison to more developed countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chile, Guatemala, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa, Kenya and Cambodia all suffer from sanitation and hygiene programs that can impact a child's growth.

The researchers looked at the effects of 9,469 children and calculated that if countries were to intervene in current programs and help create better support for water quality and soap, children under five could grown an extra 0.5 centimeters.

"We typically think that providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene is an effective way to reduce the incidence and associated deaths from diseases such as diarrhea-which remains the third biggest killer of under fives worldwide," said the reports lead author, Dr. Alan Dangour, a public health nutritionist from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, via the study. "For the first time our analysis suggests that better access to these services may also have a small but important impact on the growth of youth children."

He also added that "While there are some important shortcomings in the available evidence base, we estimate that clean drinking water and effective hand washing could reduce the prevalence of stunting in children under the age of five by up to 15 percent. This is potentially an extremely important finding, that identifies that improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene could be a key part of the tool kit to tackle the global burden of under-nutrition."

Researchers hope that with new studies, their findings could persuade other countries to address the problem affecting so many children across the world.

Obama Approves Raising Permissible Levels of Nuclear Radiation in Drinking Water

Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket Following Radiological Incidents

The White House has given final approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs. The final version, slated for Federal Register publication as soon as today, is a win for the nuclear industry which seeks what its proponents call a “new normal” for radiation exposure among the U.S population, according Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the radiation guides (called Protective Action Guides or PAGs) allow cleanup many times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted. These guides govern evacuations, shelter-in-place orders, food restrictions and other actions following a wide range of “radiological emergencies.” The Obama administration blocked a version of these PAGs from going into effect during its first days in office. The version given approval late last Friday is substantially similar to those proposed under Bush but duck some of the most controversial aspects:

In soil, the PAGs allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high as 2,000 millirems. This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period;

-In water, the PAGs punt on an exact new standard and EPA “continues to seek input on this.” But the thrust of the PAGs is to give on-site authorities much greater “flexibility” in setting aside established limits; and

-Resolves an internal fight inside EPA between nuclear versus public health specialists in favor of the former. The PAGs are the product of Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator for air and radiation whose nomination to serve as EPA Administrator is taken up this week by the Senate.

-Despite the years-long internal fight, this is the first public official display of these guides. This takes place as Japan grapples with these same issues in the two years following its Fukushima nuclear disaster.

“This is a public health policy only Dr. Strangelove could embrace. If this typifies the environmental leadership we can expect from Ms. McCarthy, then EPA is in for a long, dirty slog,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that the EPA package lacks a cogent rationale, is largely impenetrable and hinges on a series of euphemistic “weasel words.”

“No compelling justification is offered for increasing the cancer deaths of Americans innocently exposed to corporate miscalculations several hundred-fold.”

Reportedly, the PAGs had been approved last fall but their publication was held until after the presidential election. The rationale for timing their release right before McCarthy’s confirmation hearing is unclear.

Since the PAGs guide agency decision-making and do not formally set standards or repeal statutory requirements, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and Superfund, they will go into full effect following a short public comment period. Nonetheless, the PAGs will likely determine what actions take place on the ground in the days, weeks, months and, in some cases, years following a radiological emergency.


 Helen Caldicott

Researchers develop herbal method to remove Fluoride from drinking water

Researchers in India have developed a filter system based on a medicinal herb, which they say can quickly and easily remove fluoride from drinking water.

The technology described in the March issue of the International Journal of Environmental Engineering uses parts of the plant Tridax procumbens as a biocarbon filter for the ion.

Drinking water can contain natural fluoride or fluoride might be added as a protective agent for teeth by water companies. However, its presence is not without controversy while in some natural drinking water levels may be above those considered safe by the World Health Organisation. Chemist Malairajan Singanan of the Presidency College (Autonomous), in Chennai, points out that the WHO guidelines suggest that a safe level of fluoride is 1.5 milligrams per liter.

He adds that various techniques to reduce fluoride content have been tried including coagulation, adsorption, precipitation, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and electrodialysis. However, metal ions with an affinity for fluoride in a biocarbon matrix represent a promising new approach.

Singanan has investigated Tridax procumbens, which is commonly used as a medicinal herb in India, as a biocarbon absorbent for fluoride. Previously, the plant has been tested in the extraction of toxic heavy metals from water. He explains that by loading up plant tissue with aluminum ions it is possible create a safe biocarbon filter that will readily absorb fluoride ions from water warmed to around 27 Celsius passing through the filter.

His trials show that it takes just three hours to remove 98% of fluoride with just 2 grams of the biocarbon filter.

The biocarbon filter might provide an inexpensive way to defluoridate water in regions where the natural level of this mineral is high in ground water, including India, China, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Spain, Holland, Italy, Mexico, North and South America. It might also be adapted for those consumers who wish to reduce their exposure to fluoride, despite its dental health benefits, in parts of the world where it is added to the water supply for public health reasons.



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Fluoride: The Hard to Swallow Truth Documentary

The time has come and the new short documentary ‘Fluoride: The Hard to Swallow Truth’ has been released and is ready to be viewed for free on YouTube.

We highly encourage you to make copies of our work and spread it around as much as you can. For that reason we have made very cost effective DVD’s for others to obtain, watch in full quality and make mass copies of to share. You can buy DVD copies in paper sleeve made for mass duplication here!

Synopsis:
This short documentary looks at the initial theories behind the effectiveness of fluoride and where it originated. It goes on to show the lack of science behind the use of Fluoride and reveals Fluoride as a toxic waste substance that is being pumped into our drinking water. The documentary will conclude by delivering the “hard to swallow truth” of fluoride which pertains to why it is actually used.

Now if you still didn't have enough, more about tap water:

You’ve probably read countless articles about the horrendous quality of tap water and its numerous contaminants that attack your biology and have been tied to a multitude of health ailments. It is very rare, however, that you can actually see just how terribly polluted your tap water truly is.

 

Dr. Paul Connett is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dartmouth College. Paul is the Executive Director of the Fluoride Action Network and has researched fluoride's toxicity for nearly 11 years. He has given invited presentations to the Fluoridation Forum in Ireland, the Japanese Society for Fluoride Research and the American College of Toxicology. 

Conspiracy theories involving fluoridation are common, and include claims that fluoridation was motivated by protecting the U.S. atomic bomb program from litigation, that (as famously parodied in the film Dr. Strangelove) it is part of a Communist or New World Order plot to take over the world, that it was pioneered by a German chemical company to make people submissive to those in power, that behind the scenes it is promoted by the sugary food or phosphate fertilizer or aluminum industries, or that it is a smokescreen to cover failure to provide dental care to the poor. One such theory is that fluoridation was a public-relations ruse sponsored by fluoride polluters such as the aluminum maker Alcoa and the Manhattan Project, with conspirators that included industrialist Andrew Mellon and the Mellon Institute's researcher Gerald J. Cox, the Kettering Laboratory of the University of Cincinnati, the Federal Security Agency's administrator Oscar R. Ewing, and public-relations strategist Edward Bernays. Specific antifluoridation arguments change to match the spirit of the time.

Opponents of fluoridation include Arvid Carlsson, Dr. Marcus Williams, Dr. Charles Gordon Heyd, researchers, dental and medical, alternative medical practitioners such as chiropractors, and health food enthusiasts; a few religious objectors, mostly Christian Scientists in the U.S.; and occasionally consumer groups and environmentalists. Organized political opposition has come from libertarians,the John Birch Society,[citation needed] and from groups like Green parties in the UK and New Zealand.

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Update 01 februari 2013:

Six time Mr. Olympia champion bodybuilder Dorian Yates warns against drinking fluoride in tap water. Yates explains how fluoride calcifies the pineal gland in the brain, what Rene Descartes called “the seat of the soul,” and claims that it could even be a conspiracy to block humanity reaching higher levels of spiritual awareness.