OrderWaterFilters.com - Water Secrets Blog

I want to take the opportunity to wish all of you who read my blog a very happy and healthy new year to you and your families. For all of you I hope you have a source of clear, clean potable water, and if not that you are filtering it so that is now that way.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:30 PM | PermaLink | |

"From All Corners, a Rush to Get Clean Drinking Water to Survivors in Stricken Areas" as reported by Denise Grady and Lawremce K. Altman for the New York Times."Nobody was prepared for a disaster of this magnitude, said Vanessa Tobin, chief of water and sanitation for Unicef."

So for this last day of the year tanker trucks, pumps, disinfecting kits, and even bottled water, as reported in my blog are being rushed to the victims of this awful natural disaster.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 4:34 PM | PermaLink | |

Well you thought you heard it all. "Purported Elvis Water Brings $455 Bid on eBay" reports from Miami, FL by Reutersand syndicated to KATC3 News in Acadiana, LA this unusual story. Apparently Elvis drank some water from a styrofoam cup at his last concert, three months before his death in 1977. The left over several teaspoons of water was auctioned on ebay.com and fetched $455.00, frozen not including the cup. Amazing story to me.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:28 PM | PermaLink | |

"Forget OPEC. The next cartel may export drinking water." says Mark Clayton of the The Christian Science Monitor. An entrepreneur, Terry Spragg, is apparently filling ocean-going bags full of clean water for sale to water-poor nations. According to the article " If that seems far-fetched, consider that less than 2.5 percent of the world's water is fresh. That vital resource is threatened by pollution, waterborne disease, and shifts in rain patterns caused by global warming, recent studies show. All of which, in some eyes, leaves the world on the verge of a scramble by private companies and countries vying for rights to available water." Interesting and scary stuff.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:00 PM | PermaLink | |

We've added a few new features here in the past day.

Each blog post has comment and trackback capability.
There's a blogroll in the left nav bar that Steve will be adding to shortly
In addition to the RSS feed, you can now subscribe to our weblog headlines via email and get an email notification once a week.

Posted by Griff Wigley at 7:36 AM | PermaLink | |

Well, as those who have been readers of my blog, you know that I am no fan of bottled water. However, in the case of the tragic tsunami in Asia, I certainly understand that an exception should be made. "Supplies of drinking water heading south" reports that the Waterworks Authority of Bangkok, Thailand is shipping 20,000 bottles of drinking water to the devastated costal provinces. Certainly this is a wonderful idea, and in this case most definately better than nothing.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 3:55 PM | PermaLink | |

The Orange County Water District (California) is suing several companies that it contends has failed to clean up toxic chemicals that could contaminate the underground water supply. "Orange County Water District sues companies for alleged contamination"tells the story. It is wonderful to read about a municipal water authority getting after those that pollute our precious water sources in the name of profit. As a supplier of water filters I truly believe that tap water is our best source for drinking. It is municipal authorities like the Orange County Water District who illustrate why I am right. If only the bottle water industry was so straight forward with the public.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:58 PM | PermaLink | |

I have posted many times here before about the bottled water industry's deception. How with all the false statements, and the most problematic of omissions, that of the actual sources of the water that is processed for each bottle, we are fooled. Well here is confirmation, once again, that others also feel the same way. "Bottled Water Flim-flam" by Krista Camenzind, says it all once again.
"After testing more than 1000 bottles of water from 103 different companies, the NRDC uncovered microbial content in excess of state guidelines in one-third of the brands it sampled. The NRDC also discovered synthetic organic chemicals in one-fifth of its samples, usually at levels below state and federal limits."

On another note, I do want to wish all who read this a very Merry Christmas, and also a good supply of water you can depend on, an by that I mean not from a bottle.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 2:53 PM | PermaLink | |

If you check out my December 16th blog, "A time for filtering water?", I wrote about the contaminents found in the drinking water in several Massachusetts communities. Well good news for one of them today. "State water ban lifted: No trace of perchlorate found" has said the drinking water in Tewksbury is clean. It gives me no greater joy than to publish this news, as a partial retraction of my previous blog.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:06 PM | PermaLink | |

A published report today from Suzhou, China, "300 mln people drinking unsafe water" says that some 300 million people, primarly in rural areas, are drinking unsafe water, despite the government of the Peoples Republic of China dedicating a lot of money to the problem.
Wang Shucheng, minister of Water Resources blamed the poor drinking water on polluted rivers and lakes in China. "To safeguard drinking water safety is the top priority of Chinese government's efforts to protect water resources, Wang said." All I can say is their problems with drinking water sound much worse than here in the U.S.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:43 PM | PermaLink | |

Clear Water Action, an environmental group, has released the findings of the New York State DEP that indicated elevated levels of the contaminant perchlorate in nine upstate communities. This finding included the Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, NY. Read "Group releases findings on drinking water". The blames the EPA for not regulating the contaminant. This is not the first time I have pulished or hear this kind of report. It is another good reason to use water filters.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:46 PM | PermaLink | |

Apparently EPA agrees that chorine being used to remove bacteria from municipal water supplies is not healthy and a substiute should be developed. Apparently according to "Drinking water treated with chloramines found to contain highly toxic chemicals, says EPA" the search for alternative additives to chorine for the municipal water systems, have been shown to be much more toxic than what they have found using the chorine.

According to Michael J. Plewa a genetic toxicologist in the department of crop sciences,"This research says that when you go to alternatives, you may be opening a Pandora's box of new DBPs(disinfection byproducts),and these unregulated DBPs may be much more toxic, by orders of magnitude, than the regulated ones we are trying to avoid."

Well, just get one of our maintenance free water filters and you will never have to be concerned about when and if the EPA mandates a change in the standards for the disinfection of municipal water systems.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 3:36 PM | PermaLink | |

I found this on the web: "Environmental Health Issues Water Cancer & Chlorine". This article, contains statements by several doctors that all agree that there is a link between drinking chlorinated water, as supplied by most municipal systems in the U.S. and cancer and other maladies.

Now as you know, removing the chlorine from your drinking water is simple. Any of our maintenance free water filters can do that cheaply and easily. I am no alarmest, but this is a very troubling piece of research.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 6:03 PM | PermaLink | |

The Boston Globe reports some problems with trace amounts of contaminants, including MTBE, found in 17 communities in the State. The article, "Report cites trace chemicals in water Warns of dangers from non-regulation" is alarming. Well, I hope these communities find their way to this website. It is for situations just like this that we carry such an array of water filtering products here.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 4:48 PM | PermaLink | |

There has been a rumor spread all over the internet that drinking water from plastic bottles, if frozen, was dangerous. In,"Researcher Dispels Myth of Dioxins and Plastic Water Bottles" written by Rolf Halden, PhD,PE, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Health Sciences at the Center for Water and Health, at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health, he addresses that rumor. Quoting directly from the article, Dr. Halden states "First, people should be more concerned about the quality of the water they are drinking rather than the container it's coming from. Many people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water, so they buy bottled water instead. The truth is that city water is much more highly regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water is not. It can legally contain many things we would not tolerate in municipal drinking water." I have been saying the same thing repeatedly in my blog here, as well as elsewhere on this website.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:42 PM | PermaLink | |

It seems that the government of Ontario, Canada, has taken step to beef up the laws protecting its water supply. "New rules to protect Ontario's water"says that these are "tough new rules on those who take water from the ground and is taking stronger measures to protect watershed-based sources." Nice to write here about a government that cares about their environment and puts it funds towards protecting it.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:54 PM | PermaLink | |

Go to the site Nestle Water North America. The brands posted there, and the sources of the water quoted simply boggle the mind. Under U.S. Brands, Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Great Bear, Ice Mountain, Ozar, Poland Spring, and Zephyrhills. Imported brands Aberfoyle, Acqua Panna, Perrier, S.Pellegrino, and Vittel. While all these brands date back a long time ago, The Nestle Company wants you the consumer to believe that the source for them has remained the same. As I have written here in the past, Poland Spring for one, and it follows for all, with their massive distribution, have multiple sourcing for their product which is never revealed. If they did reaveal it for all these brands there would sure be lots of embarrassment I am sure.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 8:01 PM | PermaLink | |

The EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, has lowered the level of allowable arsenic in drinking water, and Socorro,NM has joined the pilot program for disadvantaged communities to test ways of dealing with the new guidelines. Arsenic in water has been a problem in mostly the western part of the US. The lowering of the standard for arsenic in drinking water is indicative of the Federal Government's policy to play roulette with the public health. Meanwhile the study is testing four methods of cutting arsenic in the drinking water. I wonder if one of them is the only NSF certified, carbon block filter system like our model cbtas Maybe the EPA should visit this website?

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 9:19 PM | PermaLink | |

The Food Directorate is part of a national food safety system that involves Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and provinces, territories and municipalities. They have compiled a listing of questions and answers concering bottled water sold in Canada. As no surprise to me, the matter of bacteria in bottle water was discussed. The answer, according to the article is "Bacteria are found in most bottled waters sold for drinking purposes." Nice to know that in Canada, they are honest with their consumers, and admit what we in the U.S. sometimes fail to.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:19 PM | PermaLink | |

"To Filter or Not to Filter?"is the last section of that FDA article I wrote of yesterday. It correctly states that it is much cheaper to filter the water from your tap, then to purchase bottled water. It does make one statement, however that is incorrect. Stew Thornley of the Minnesota Department of Health in the article says "that consumers need to be careful about maintaining these filters. Typically, specific instructions are included with the purchase of the product. Without proper maintenance, he says, it's possible bacteria or other contaminants can build up in the products." I guess Stew never heard of KDF based maintenance free water filters which create a hostile environent for and bacteria to form, as in our Model 2400.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 6:57 PM | PermaLink | |

The Food and Drug Administration has supplied a comprhensive guide for U.S. consumers, "Bottled Water: Better Than the Tap?". In it they explain how bottled water is regulated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). This is because bottled water is transported over state lines. Under this Act, the Agency does inspect bottling plants. They do not inspect or regulate the source of the water. This is the inherent flaw in bottled water. With wide distribution and multiple sources of the water supplied to the bottling plants, there is no standard, and moreover, no disclosure from suppliers of bottled water, just where it comes from. Even the FDA in this article agrees that tap water is just as safe. They also say that as for taste and odor, they recommend you filter at home, just as the bottled water manufacturers do at the bottling plants.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 1:18 PM | PermaLink | |

Forgive me for a bit of self-promotion. It seems to me that the one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give anyone on your list this holiday season, would be a water filter. As a reminder, our Model 2400 supplies 5000 gallons, maintenance free, or five years worth of pure tasting and odor free drinking water, at a cost of just $39.95. This is also suitable for those of you who have wells, as long as your source has been tested and showed that the only problem was taste and odor.

Another wonderful gift, if there is a woman on your shopping list, would be one of our wonderful shower filters, which remove chorine, which takes the nutrients from their hair, and dries their skin. Just starting at $34.95 for at least a eighteen months of much more manageable hair and softer skin.

Water filters, the gift that truly keeps on giving.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 1:25 PM | PermaLink | |

Deception can take many forms. One look at the Aquafina website and you will discover their deception though omission. Yes they explain in a very beautifully done demonstration how they use reverse osmosis to purify their water. The same system, by the way, you can purchase from waterfilters-r-us, model P3500ro, for the bargain price of $199.95. What Aquafina fails to tell us is exactly where they source the water to input into the reverse osmosis system. At least if you buy ours, you will know where yours comes from. What is Aquafina hiding? I bet we all would be surprised and very nervous about their product.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 5:49 PM | PermaLink | |

We have have always said the the best reason to filter your drinking water is to improve the taste and odor of it. Here is another surprising one. The Kansas City Star reports "Household chemicals contaminate drinking water, testing shows". Well once you read it, you will agree that the best thing the article says is that the contaminants found were trace amounts so small as not to create a risk to the populace. Still, it also could not hurt to use one of our maintenance free water filters, each featuring three micron filters. Just a thought.

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:34 PM | PermaLink | |

I thought after years in this water filter business, I had heard it all, at least until now. The BBC reported that diluted amounts of Prozac has been detected in the drinking water accross the Pond. Fortunately they do say it was diluted amounts and did not pose a real threat to the British populace. What the article made me think about was that here at waterfilters-r-us.com, we offer one replaceable cartridge which removes vertually any contaminent to drinking water imaginable, except arsenic, our Model # P2901rc. Very honestly, we never considered the need to filter out Prozac or any drug for that matter. You never really know do you?

Posted by Stephen Betheil at 11:03 PM | PermaLink | |

We've now added RSS to this weblog. What's RSS?

It's a radio signal for a website, most commonly used for weblogs. More technically: "Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site." See Intro to RSS for more info.

The Newspaper Association of America site has an informative article titled Syndication Made Simple. "Just as free e-mail newsletters enable publishers to directly reach readers and promote online and in-paper content, RSS "pushes" headlines and succinct, one-sentence article descriptions to those who subscribe to the no-cost feeds."

The other side of syndication is aggregation. Here's an article from Wired News that explains why aggregators are all the rage: Aggregators Attack Info Overload.

Lastly, here's the Wikipedia citation for RSS.

This icon is the cue that we're RSS capable. So train your aggregator to grab content from the Water Filters R Us syndicated weblog. The live link is on the top right of the weblog page.

Posted by Griff Wigley at 2:11 PM | PermaLink | |