In this eye-opening episode, Paul the Waterman sheds light on the persistent pollutants lurking in our water supply. Highlighting the significance of water softeners and the threats posed by 1,4-Dioxane and microplastics, Paul provides a thorough analysis of current challenges and effective methods to mitigate them. Discover why advanced filtration systems are crucial and how they can lead to significant improvements in water quality for a healthier life.
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Welcome to Water Talk with Paul the Waterman brought to you by Water Pros. Paul the Waterman is Colorado’s expert on all things related to the water we use and drink in our homes. Have you ever thought about where your water actually comes from? Is it safe to drink? Is it harmful to my health, my skin, or my hair? Paul the Waterman knows water and he has the answers. So get ready to talk to the Waterman yourself right now. Call in with your questions to talk with your host, Paul the Waterman.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Water Talk, the only show of its kind. I don’t think there’s anybody else out there doing a show like this, and I’m glad to have you with me, and I’m glad to be able to do it. And boy, we got some, as always, interesting information to cover. So, doing research, it amazes me how far back… The information’s out there. For example, we’re going to talk, one of the topics today is about 1,4-dioxane. It’s a contaminant. It’s in our water supply. Not only that, but it’s something that also is in the shower vapor. So it’s in our water, it gets in the hot water heater, and then like everything else, the chlorine, the chloramines, 1,4-dioxane, it can be converted to steam, and we breathe it in. And what it’s something that I thought when I first, you know, found this EPA unregulated contaminant, I thought it was something that was new that was just newly discovered. But then, you know, doing research for today’s show, I find that this is a topic that’s been talked about, you know, it’s 10 years ago. And why hasn’t this, just like the PFAS contamination and the microplastic contamination, why hasn’t this been a topic that’s been brought to the forefront today? But here’s the other big question. Why hasn’t this contaminant been listed in our water quality report that every municipality, public or privately owned, is obligated to give to every single customer to let them know exactly the quality of the water that they are being provided to and being, you know, what you’re paying for. So 1,4-Dioxin is, you know, it’s another forever chemical. Basically, it doesn’t break down in water. It stays, and it also gets in our air, again, from taking a shower, the shower steam. So we’re going to cover that. We’re also going to go over the basics of operation of water softeners, how a water softener functions and operates. I think that’s important. I talked to customers this week, and there’s still, unfortunately, folks out there that think, that, you know, there’s salt-free water softeners, and salt-free water softeners just do not exist. That’s just something that’s not real technology. You know, what a water softener does, it uses a filter media called resin, and resin is something that was invented in Germany in the late 1800s. And resin is a petroleum-based product. Now it’s a synthetic. It’s a plastic. Because when it was a petroleum-based product, falsehoods were told that basically if you have a water softener, you’re drinking gasoline. And that just wasn’t the case. But those are things that were said back in the 70s. And so with water softening resin, it has a negative charge. And then water, when it comes in contact with resin, water hardness is called calcium carbonate. And so calcium carbonate has an opposite charge of resin. So when water goes through the resin, the resin grabs the calcium. And so that’s how hardness is removed. Now, the sodium chloride is the detergent. It’s not a filter media. It’s not a filter mechanism. It’s the detergent. And the sodium chloride or salt water basically causes the resin to neutralize to where the hardness then can be rinsed during the backwashing process, or we call that a regeneration process in the industry term. And then all the hardness in its liquid form is sent down the drain. The byproduct of a water softener, Is sodium carbonate so calcium carbonate and sodium chloride, so the calcium and the chloride go down the drain the sodium carbonate is what’s left over that’s the ion exchange and because there’s an ion exchange process. I am thinking that people out there that want to sell a magnet technology, they think, well, a magnet’s going to repolarize the hardness. Well, a magnet’s not going to repolarize a liquid. It’s not going to happen. A magnet’s not going to repolarize a rock because then what happens is when air comes in contact with calcium carbonate, it oxidizes and it converts to a scale. It’s a rock, isn’t it? People, you see hard water buildup on your faucets and your fixtures, it’s a rock. And then how do you remove that at that point? Well, a lot of people try to use vinegar, which is very effective. Some people use that harsh chemical called CLR, I believe it is, that is like an acid, and you have to wear rubber gloves, a mask, and goggles. It’s poison, and that basically dissolves the calcium. But then that’s a harmful chemical that ends up in our water supply, and we don’t want that. So the easiest way to get rid of hard water is soft water. Absolutely. Soft water will dissolve existing hard water buildup. And so what you do with the water softener is that you program it to water usage, water hardness, so then this system is designed to give you soft water 24-7 no matter how much hard water you use. Now, the more water that you use… then that’s gonna really determine how often the system has to go through a cleaning cycle. So in some cases, based on the water quality, we’ll recommend a dual tank water softener to be used. Soft water is the first step then to help with drinking water filtration. In drinking water filtration, the most common filter in the world today, everybody knows, it’s familiar to them, is activated carbon. The most effective activated carbon, in my opinion, is catalytic high activated carbon. And catalytic activated carbon is, it’s from a coconut shell based granular carbon that is specifically designed for the reduction of chloramines in hydrogen sulfide from potable water. So chloramines is the disinfectant that they use. to sanitize water chlorine plus ammonia so carbon is absolutely designed you know for the removal reduction of chlorine so you know you can’t say a filter system is an absolute i think you know it just you mean nothing is absolute except you know reverse osmosis uh technology and they you know even then you know we like to say it gets reverse osmosis gets 99.999 of the contaminants that you know i was at a house this morning in denver we put a whole house reverse osmosis system in and that whole house reverse osmosis system has a built-in tds meter total dissolved solids and in that system was just pern like a kitten it was giving zero That was, you know, basically 100% pure H2O. And, you know, these folks decided that with everything out there and the research they’ve done and they’re concerned about, you know, pharmaceutical contamination, they’re concerned about hormone contamination. And so that’s the, you know, their choice is a whole house reverse osmosis. So when you have a water softener and then you incorporate H2O, with a carbon filter which is catalytic highly activated carbon filter that’s again majority of it is made from you know coconut shells you know this is something that is the ones to step in whole house filtration because One, you want to get rid of the hardness. Two, you want to get rid of the total chlorine content because you don’t want to be bathing in water with total chlorine content because the chloramine doesn’t dissipate. It stays in the water. And so if you have a conventional hot water heater, it’s going to accumulate in that hot water heater. So when you take a shower, you’re breathing that in, that steam. full of chlorine chloramines and that’s something that gets inside your lungs and it’s just not healthy for us and also can create dry skin skin irritation eczema is something that you know can occur and so you know when you take out the hardness then we attack the total chlorine content And then you supplement or use a reverse osmosis, I should say use a reverse osmosis, point of use reverse osmosis at your kitchen sink. Now you’re really, you know, taking care of the pharmaceuticals and other contaminants and you’re allowing the reverse osmosis to focus on those elements because it won’t be occupied by hard water or the total chlorine content. So now back to 1,4-doxin. So I have some clips that I found online. You can go to YouTube. You guys can type in 1,4-doxin in my water and you can listen to the same clips that we’re going to listen to today. But I think it’s important because it’s in our household products. It’s in everything we basically use from soap, shampoos, and even in makeup. And I will say this, and I don’t think that I’m being too extreme when I say this, okay? I do not believe that water is safe for human consumption. Based on all the research that I have done, no way. We really need to take responsibility and we have to filter our own drinking water, our own cooking water, our own household water, because the municipalities aren’t going to do it for us. And the reason why I say that is because if you go back and you research PFAS contamination, and you do it on YouTube, you’ll see videos as far as 10 to 15 years old talking about PFAS contamination. And that’s something that I, in the water treatment industry, right, wasn’t really made aware of until, you know, 2024 when the EPA, you know, was doing webinars. And then, you know, people in Denver and Adams County were, you know, receiving letters about PFAS contamination. And it’s something that PFAS have been in our water supply since the 1970s. and so that’s a major concern then go to youtube again type in pharmaceuticals in my water and you’ll see stories that date back 12 10 years old where the ap was actively involved and it’s kind of funny the ap was really leading the way of letting people know hey there’s contamination in our water supply and all of a sudden now they’ve gone silent i haven’t seen any new videos from the AP talking about the quality of our water. And I wonder if that’s for a reason, if they’re doing that on purpose. So, you know, again, I encourage everybody to do your research because then you’ll see for yourself that what I’m bringing to the table and trying to talk to everybody about every Thursday here in Water Talk is I just want everybody to become aware that, you know, water is life. Water is, you know, water is everything. And without clean water, you know, is there going to be a clean us? And with, you know, there’s cancer rates that are increasing and especially, you know, among some young people. And is it because the quality of the water that we’re using? Because water is in food processing. It’s in the food we eat, the vegetables, the meat. PFAS contamination. I mentioned several times I’m worried about PFAS contaminating our farmland, our farm ground, because PFAS is in the human waste. It’s in the septic system. And then they give away that human waste as fertilizer to farmers free of charge. And so farmers use contaminated waste or fertilizer that’s full of PFAS. So there’s a lot to really pay attention to. So what we’re going to do is let’s take a quick break and then we’ll come back and start with our first audio clip.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
What’s in your water? Are you concerned about drinking hormones, antibiotics, or dangerous chemicals? Paul the Water Man here from WaterPros. Don’t wait to be sure your water is free from those contaminants. Have our professionals help with affordable solutions. Visit WaterPros.net today.
SPEAKER 05 :
If you have hard water, smelly water, or water that just tastes bad, improve the quality of your water with the professionals at WaterPros. Water is a precious resource that’s a part of everyday life. Harmful cleaners, forever chemicals, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals end up in our water supply and they don’t just magically disappear. Water treatment should not cost tens of thousands of dollars or require long-term financing. For KLZ listeners, a complete WaterPro’s water treatment system start at only $31.95 installed. See why people are trusting the professionals with Water Pros. Water Pros is a family-owned and veteran-owned business dedicated to providing you the best in water treatment for less than the other guys. Go to waterpros.net today and request your free water test. Or call 303-862-5554. That’s 303-862-5554. And ask for the KLZ Listener Special. $31.95 for a whole house water softener and point of use reverse osmosis.
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You’re listening to AM560 KLZ, your home station.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Water Talk. I’m Paul the Waterman. How’s everybody doing out there today? So… One more thing before we get to our audio clips. We talk about microplastics and there was a study done here in the United States and basically they tested cadavers and out of the 51 samples from routine autopsies, they found microplastics in the liver, kidney and brain. And surprisingly, the brain samples contained up to 30 times more microplastics than other organs. So right there, first question, is that part of the problem with the Alzheimer’s disease that’s plaguing our country today? That’s something to think about. Okay, let’s hit our first clip.
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Tide, Gain, Arm & Hammer, 7th Generation and all laundry detergents were banned in New York State as of January 1st, 2023. But all of these products are still on the shelves. So what actually happened and why can you buy these illegal products? It’s a really interesting story that boils down to a few key elements. The first being a New York State environmental law that went into effect in 2023. A small little laundry detergent company called Ingredients Matters posting a press release with pretty confusing information that in turn caused a lot of cleaning influencers to post their clickbait garbage reposting this information without doing any additional research. To properly cover the story, I want to do my due diligence, so I interviewed all of the big players involved in this. That includes the New York State DEC, Ingredients Matters, P&G, Procter & Gamble, and ACI, which is the American Cleaning Institute. So to all of those people, thank you for shedding some light on this and giving me clarity. So let’s dive right into this. And for those who don’t know me, my name is Zach. I’m a fourth-generation dry cleaner and laundry enthusiast. And I want to provide an in-depth walkthrough of this New York State 1,4-Dioxin law because I received so many questions and comments and DMs about what all of this meant and how their bodies and laundry would be affected. And for those unfamiliar with this funny-sounding chemical, 1,4-Dioxin, and its ban in New York State, you should know that it is a harmful manufacturing byproduct that exists in our cleaning products. And what’s wonderful is that New York State is cracking down on it because 1-4 dioxin is not exactly good for us humans or the environment. To start this story, we’re gonna time travel back to 2019 when these laws were passed by New York State. The goal of these laws, Articles 35 and 37, were to limit certain chemicals that are harmful to us humans, and more importantly, the environment. Some chemicals they want to limit in these laws include mercury, phosphorus, and our focus of this piece, 1-4 dioxin. And for context, the EPA has deemed 1,4-dioxin a probable carcinogen, which is not great. So something we should probably, if not definitely, avoid. So these New York state laws cover a few categories. Cosmetics, personal care, think shampoo and body wash, and home cleaning products. That’s where us and laundry detergent get involved. basically new york state said that any product that’s going down the drain needs to be regulated much more closely what’s challenging for us as consumers is that new york state didn’t provide a list of what was okay and compliant and what’s not so going back to 2019 once these articles were turned into laws manufacturers were given about two and a half years or until december 31st of 2022 to become compliant with these new regulations This means that this wide array of cleaning products all needed to be compliant by January 1st of 2023. And as for these products to actually be compliant, cosmetics required 1-4 dioxin to be below the 10 parts per million threshold. And for personal and cleaning products, it needs to be below two parts per million. And what would happen if manufacturers did not comply? Well, this was one of the questions I was really passionate about and asked the New York State DEC about it. And here is their answer. Hello, Zach. The department may test products subject to this law to assess compliance. Any product that is not covered by a waiver and that does not meet the allowable limits would not comply with the law. In terms of any addressing action, the department would have to evaluate the circumstances of each case, including who is responsible for the sale and distribution of the non-complying product and the best way to approach and achieve compliance with the law.
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So basically, the state of New York got their general assembly, their state assembly got together and banned 1-4-Dioxine. Now, that hasn’t really taken effect because, you know, they still, you know, are selling these products and they’re basically Tide laundry soap, shampoo, and makeup. And Tide is one of them and Tide’s most popular laundry soap, I think, in the market today. But a couple things that they said that I think is very key is, you know, they want to regulate what goes down the drain. And that’s important. Why is that? Because what goes down the drain gets right back into our water supply. And that’s why I’ve said before, you know, one of the first steps to help with our water quality about what goes down the drain is a water softener. Because with soft water, you eliminate other contaminants that get down the drain to clean up after hard water. And we cut back on soaps. And by cutting back on soaps, then we can cut back on those harmful chemicals like 1,4-Dioxin because we use 98% less. So, you know, to really help our water quality in our long-term care, water softening, in my opinion, is step one. So if you get contamination from makeup, from soaps and detergents, from 1,4-dioxin, which is still… Now, the EPA… is saying that this is a possible carcinogen, it’s still an unregulated contaminant. And we’re gonna hear that this 1,4-dioxin does not break down. It’s just like the PFAS or the forever chemicals that last. And 1,4-dioxin is also used as a stabilizer and other chemicals in manufacturing processes. So it gets into our water supply, you know, in household use and in manufacturing practices as well. So they mentioned something that’s unique here is that the contamination level between 10 part per million and two part per million. Now think about this. They regulated PFAS from a part per billion and then they went down to four part per trillion. So I’ve always said this, you don’t need a large contamination number to have a contamination problem. And I think that’s something that, you know, has plagued us from the very beginning when they realized that they had an issue back in the 70s on several different contaminants. The first thought was, well, it’s going to be so diluted it won’t mean anything because the contamination level is at a part per trillion or a part per billion. How can that affect us? Because that’s really small. You know, one part per billion is one drop of that contaminant in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. So you could see where their logic was. Well, that couldn’t hurt us, but obviously that was wrong. And now we have a big problem today. If you have any questions, give us a call here at 303-477-5600. 303-477-5600. I love your input and your thought in this. So when we do laundry and we have the Tide and we do shampoo and putting on the makeup, are we thinking that we’re contaminating ourselves? Are we thinking? No, we don’t. Have they told us? Do they put a warning label on the bottle? No, they don’t. Luke, can we jump to the second clip?
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All right, so obviously we have Christina with us again today, back by popular demand. And we’re going to be talking about 1,4-Dioxane. So I’m going to let her… get into it, but it is one of the contaminants that we don’t really talk about too much at Hydroviv. And Christina is going to kind of get into why that is. It was kind of out of the media, back in. And so we just wanted to make sure that if you live in an area where 1,4-Dioxane is really prevalent, that we can talk directly to you and you can have a better understanding of what this contaminant is. And everything you need to know about the safety of it and how to remove it, X, Y, Z. So let’s get into it. What is 1,4-Dioxane, Christina?
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Okay, so one for dioxane is a synthetic chemical. So it was synthesized. It’s manmade. It doesn’t exist in nature. And in my research, it said it was first synthesized in 1863. So it’s been around a long time. And then the chemical structure is actually kind of cool. I won’t put it up, but I wish I had my organic chemistry kits from before so you’d be able to see it. But it’s actually… It’s a cyclic ether, so there’s two oxygens, and then it just forms a hexagon. So it’s kind of cool. But the reason it’s used is it’s a solvent or a stabilizer when making other chemicals. So they use it in a lot of things. They don’t use it as its own thing. So you’ll find it in things like paint strippers, dyes, greases, antifreeze, de-icing fluids, and also consumer products like deodorants, shampoos, and cosmetics. And you won’t see in the ingredients one for dioxane. but what you might see is that it’s a by-product or a low level contaminant in things like polyethylene glycol or PEG, which sometimes you’ll see that as a surfactant or something like a, um, something that allows your, um, shampoo to not separate, you know, the different components of the shampoo. And so detergents, foaming agents, emulsifiers and solvents, um, So if it uses polyethylene glycol, there may be some 1,4-Dioxane associated contamination, but it wouldn’t be in there as a separate ingredient.
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OK. So if you go to your bathroom cabinet right now and try to look for 1,4-Dioxane, you won’t find it?
SPEAKER 09 :
You won’t find it listed as a separate item, no. OK. But it is used in combination. It is used as an associated chemical in a lot of the manufacturing. So apparently bench scientists use it. It’s used to purify pharmaceutical ingredients. How I first heard about it is Many, many years ago, I worked for a company that made filters, like microporous membranes, and they actually used 1,4-Dioxane in its manufacturing process, and that actually caused a very big problem later on, but we can get to that later. But yeah, so it’s found associated with a lot of things, but you won’t necessarily find it by itself. Okay. Cool. Well, not cool, but interesting. Right. It’s interesting in a concerning way.
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Yeah. So I guess, you know, why do we care about 1,4-Dioxane in these products? And we’ll get to it in a second. in regards to drinking water, but why should we care? Are there health impacts associated with 1,4-Dioxazine? What do we need to know about how it affects our bodies?
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Well, so there’s two forms of 1,4-Dioxane. There’s the airborne form, and then there’s also the form that is in drinking water. And so they do know, and I just had my notes. Where are my notes? 1,4-Dioxane poses a cancer risk when it’s released into the air and people breathe it. And this is according to the EPA, you know, that it’s regulated as a hazardous air pollutant. So they do have more studies, they do have information on 1,4-Dioxane as being hazardous when it’s airborne. But it doesn’t stay around in the air, it degrades in the atmosphere and then It’s very miscible in water. It’s highly soluble and it’s been found in groundwater. And because it’s so soluble, it disperses in the water very, very quickly. And it’s also very hard to…
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So that’s something really important I wanted you guys to hear is that it can cause cancer when we breathe it in from the air and it’s going to be in the air because it’s in the soap products that we use, the cleaning products that we have, especially when we take a shower and then the steam. so this is something again that you know i wish they would list on the water quality report because we know what’s in the water supply Total trihalomethanes, for example, I’ve talked about before, are in our water. It’s a disinfectant byproduct, and that’s a contaminant that they list. I’ve seen it in water quality reports. The chloramines is a contaminant disinfectant byproduct that they list in the water quality report. But we really need to know about 1,4-dioxin. We really need to know about, you know, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and the PFAS, forever chemicals. Now, they’ve sent letters. You know, we mentioned this before. I know the city and county in Denver sent letters out stating that their water supply exceeded EPA limits for PFAS. I know Adams County sent out letters stating the same thing. And this is something that we just, it all adds up. And this is why I say, you know, I’m concerned. I don’t think the quality of the water that is being provided to us is safe to drink. Let’s take a quick timeout.
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SPEAKER 03 :
With Forever Chemicals in your water, it’s crucial to think about the quality of your water. Paul the Waterman here for WaterPros. Be sure your water is safe with affordable solutions from WaterPros. Visit WaterPros.net today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Forever Chemicals, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and total chlorine are real contaminants in our water. Clean water is essential for our everyday life. Water is the best flushing agent our bodies can use. We cook with water, we bathe in water, and we grow our food with water. Call WaterPros for your free in-home evaluation. WaterPros can educate you about the concerns of forever chemicals, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and total chlorine, and discuss ways to remove these contaminants from your family’s water supply. Call 303-862-5554 and request your free evaluation, or go to WaterPros.net to request your free in-home consultation. Water Pros is a family-owned, veteran-owned business dedicated to offering the best solutions to meet the needs of the water concerns we have today. Call 303-862-5554 today or www.waterpros.net. KLZ 560, your home station. Welcome back to Water Talk.
SPEAKER 03 :
So something that just hit me while we’re at break, microplastics. A study found that the amount of microplastics in the brain samples increased by 50% between 2016 and 2024. Now I mention that because we’re just, we’re talking also about 1,4-Dioxin. So don’t you think there’s a possibility that chemical contaminants, carcinogens, Like 1,4-dioxin could not get on microplastics? Absolutely. So any kind of carcinogen that we’re worried about, trihalomethanes, for example, and 1,4-dioxin, they could absolutely get on those microplastics that’s being absorbed in our body, and then those microplastics takes those contaminants to other places. 50% increase from amount of microplastics have been found in the brain from samples from 2016 to 2024. Most of those microplastics were composed of polyethylene, a common plastic used in everyday products like bottle caps and plastic bags. So think about that. Let’s put this all together. We have microplastics that are penetrating the human body. They’re getting small enough where we can breathe them in in the air and there absolutely is a problem with microplastics in bottled water, problem that in Colorado, you know, the two major universities tested every single body of water in the state and they tested positive for microplastics. They’re in our rainwater. And now we’re learning about 1,4-Dioxin, which was a contaminant that I thought was something that was new a year ago. I remember being on Scott’s show on Haystack Help Radio, and I remember telling Scott, hey, breaking news, you know, 1,4-Dioxin. I thought this was a brand new story back then, and now I’m shocked to find out something that’s been going on for a very, very long time. And how is this not… actively being published all over the airways. People have a right to know. Am I wrong for that? But the microplastic contamination, we have to think now, other carcinogens and other contaminants can jump on these microplastics, and now they’re going to take all over our body. And especially if, you know, getting into the human brain. Remember when we first talked about microplastics and we talked about that it was, you know, found in the placenta, found in, you know, in male sex, you know, reproduction organs. And then we did a story about microplastics and how it started in the contamination of the bottled water industry. And now we find out that they’re basically all over the place. So this really scares me. If we have microplastics that can penetrate every aspect of the human body, then every other contaminant that we’re concerned about, I think we have to look at it the same way. This is why, folks, it’s more important now than ever that we really think about treating our own water. So we start with the water softener. The water softener removes the hardness. We want to do a whole house total chlorine filter. And then we want to have a point of use reverse osmosis. I can see why. And I’m grateful that this is happening because, you know, it’s going to help in the long run everybody. You know, people who choose to do a whole house reverse osmosis are spot on because that’s what it’s going to take to get that pure water. But think about this. When you remove the contaminant, then what you send down the drain, there’s no really contaminant that you’re sending down the drain because you’re cutting back on a lot. Do you know… um soft water is a natural detergent on its own by itself there’s a company out there that that that advertises you know um chemical free carpet cleaning what are they using they were using high quality pure reverse osmosis water and it’s that water all by itself that cleans the carpet no cleaning agents no soaps and that’s what they advertise so it’s high quality h2o is what they’re using When you think about our water quality and you think about the kind of water that we’re using, we should use, we should adopt the same, the marijuana industry. They use high quality pure reverse osmosis water for their plants. And then they inject minerals to that water to feed the plants. Why is that? because you’re smoking and inhaling and they don’t want any unnecessary harmful carcinogens that the plants will absorb. So think about the farming and the contamination in the water that we use. High nitrates, nitrogen in the farmland that’s contaminating well waters in Illinois and Minnesota. Forever chemicals, the PFAS are contaminating our farmlands and we even did stories regarding PFAS contamination in family farms in Maine and Wisconsin, and a dairy farmer that had to basically euthanize all his dairy cattle because of PFAS contamination. So I bring all this up because we add the microplastics to the issue, and all these contaminants that we’re talking about can attach to the microplastics. This is something that I think is going to be expanded upon and something that don’t be surprised when researchers find out that, you know, even diseases and viruses, you know, will latch onto microplastics and spread that way. But definitely, you know, it’s a pathway for harmful carcinogens. If you have any comments, you have any questions what we’re talking about, give me a call because I’d love to talk to you about this. 303-477-5600. Earlier in the show, I mentioned catalytic activated carbon. And one of the things I want to talk about real quick, jumping back to the activated carbon side of things, I know that carbon is used in well water to remove iron content. So activated carbon is like a sponge. It absorbs a lot of organics out of the water. But one of the things with activated carbon is it has to have dissolved oxygen concentration of up to four part per million to ensure that effective removal of iron and hydrogen sulfide. So that’s why if someone sells, if you go out and someone tries to sell you an iron filter or carbon filter, and on that control valve, there’s a little port that draws in air. Well, I can tell you from experience that you’re not going to oxidize iron that quickly. So there’s no way, if you have ferrous iron or clear water iron, and clear water iron, as it’s running through the carbon filter, they have this little port where it’s supposed to draw air, that there’s just no way you’re going to get enough oxygen that’s going to oxidize that iron instantaneously. So as it goes through the water, the fact that it’s going through the water in the slow process, that water is passing right through it. What the carbon traps and what accumulates when you’re not using water and the water sits in that carbon filter, and then just by the process of sitting in that carbon filter, the iron will oxidize. An effective way to remove ferrous iron is ion exchange resin or water softening resin. So I just wanted to cover that topic. If you have well water with high iron content, a dual tank water softener is absolutely the key to success because resin loves ferrous iron, it loves hardness, and it pulls it out before it oxidizes. And the folks that live in well water, if you have one of these single tank systems, catalytic carbon for iron or berm or gosh, what’s the other one? Heavens to murder, green sand. That’s the third one that people, you know, other companies like to use as an iron filter. And short-term effectiveness, because eventually iron takes over those units. And one of the reasons why is iron oxidizes inside those tanks. And then those tanks have no choice but to use the same dirty water to backwash. So, you know, if you’re using the same dirty water to try to backwash a filtration system, it’s like using the wash water to rinse your clothes. You’re not going to be effective. Okay, so back to microplastics, back to 1,4-Dioxin, back to all the contamination that we have in the water today. Dr. Andrew West, a neuroscientist at Duke University, basically says that the levels of microplastics found in the brain are most unbelievable. It says it raises different questions about potential neurological impacts with these particles. Well, absolutely, it’s going to happen because we know that these microplastics are going to carry other carcinogens. Okay, we have one more audio clip I want to play regarding 1,4-dioxane.
SPEAKER 01 :
How dangerous is the chemical 1,4-dioxane if it gets into your water? It may seem an obscure question, but if you live somewhere where there’s dioxane contamination, it’s an important one. 1,4-Dioxane, let’s call it Dioxane for short, is a colourless, flammable liquid that’s used as an industrial stabiliser and solvent. It dissolves readily in water and doesn’t easily biodegrade, which is potentially a problem if it gets into the environment. And to make matters worse, it’s considered a probable human carcinogen by the US Environmental Protection Agency. All of this is not good news if the stuff somehow gets into your water supply. But just how worried should you be if your supply is affected? According to toxicology studies, dioxane, not to be confused with the similarly named but chemically different dioxin, can damage the liver and kidneys if consumed in large quantities. However, an adult would need to be drinking a couple of microliters of the stuff every day or around half a thousandth of a teaspoon for serious harm to occur. This is for non-cancer health risks though. When it comes to cancer, things look somewhat different. Based on animal studies, the US EPA estimates that if an adult spends their life drinking water contaminated with just three and a half micrograms of dioxane for every litre of water, that’s less than one millionth of a teaspoon, they have a one in one hundred thousand chance of developing liver cancer. But what does this mean in reality? The city of Ann Arbor provides a useful case study here for making practical sense of a somewhat academic risk assessment. From the 1960s to the 1980s, tens of thousands of gallons of dioxane were released into the environment to the west of the city. Aquifers underneath the city were contaminated and some dioxane ended up in private wells. Cleanup operations are still ongoing and there’s a groundwater use prohibition zone where contamination levels are excessive. There’s also a fear that the contamination could reach the city’s major water source, a local river in the future. And over the past few decades, some people will have been exposed to the chemical. The Michigan cleanup limit for dioxane is 85 parts per billion, or just under 20 millionths of a teaspoon per liter of water. This is the theoretical level of contamination people could be exposed to before action is taken. So a useful question is, what’s the cancer risk at this level? Following the US EPA analysis, if you were to drink water contaminated with dioxane at 85 parts per billion your whole life, your chances of developing liver cancer would be around 1 in 4,000. This sounds high, but it’s based on some assumptions that may not be realistic, such as assuming that affected adults will be drinking two litres of contaminated water every day of their life for 70 years. So what if we consider a more realistic scenario? Imagine, for instance, that you’ve lived in Ann Arbor for 20 years and only drink one litre a day of tap water. Your highest dioxin-related cancer risk in this case is closer to one in 30,000. Still high, but much lower than the one in 4,000. Or imagine you’re a teenager who drank 10 litres a week of contaminated water for 10 years before leaving for college. According to current research, your cancer risk would be closer to one in 35,000. These calculations do need to be treated with some care. There’s still uncertainty over how one…
SPEAKER 03 :
So what I wanted to share with you out of those three clips today was, you know, just the basic information of the hazards of 1,4-doxin. And it’s something that, you know, it’s not an emergent contaminant. It’s a contaminant that’s been in our water supply for years. It’s just something that, you know, we’re starting to learn about. I’m starting to learn about. And, you know, again, you know, I’m just surprised because last year, you know, when I first broke the story a year ago, you know, with Scott, I thought, man, oh, man, this is something brand new. And it’s not. Just like the PFAS contamination, right? I thought the PFAS contamination was something that was newly discovered and found out that it’s been going on for years and years and years. How can 3M create a contaminant and then discharge it in the water, in the wastewater, and bury it in the ground and have something that’s this harmful and they’re still allowed to be in business today is beyond me. And I’m not trying to say anything, you know, it’s just a question. How can you create a contaminant like PFAS or forever chemicals that don’t break down, that last forever and contaminate the water supply, the food supply? And we’re not having more of an environmental impact issue saying, hey, wait a minute, this has to stop. Or why are we not having the EPA get more involved than what they are now? This was a slow process for the EPA to get involved. And the EPA is still not really involved as they should be with 1,4-Dioxin. But if you remember the story, this is something that they started in the 80s that they knew about. Lawsuits started in the 90s regarding this contamination of forever chemicals. And now in 2024, they did a webinar saying, hey, this is something that we really need to pay attention to. They started at having something at a contamination level at a part per billion. And now they want the contamination level to be down to four parts per trillion and And then it has been updated to basically say zero. There should be no contaminants of forever chemicals in the water supply. And it just, that amazes me. And then common sense is a dying commodity in today’s world. And the fact that we’re not thinking that the microplastic contamination can also bring other carcinogens into the body with the microplastics. That amazes me. Point of use reverse osmosis will absolutely help reduce these contamination concerns. Nanofiltration is a reverse osmosis membrane. It’s at 0.001 micron. And that would be, you know, your way to filter the water to attack the nanoplastics, the microplastics, the pharmaceuticals. But it all starts, as I, you know, stated in the beginning of the show, with the water softener. With a water softener, removing hard water eliminates the use of contaminants to clean up after hard water that get into our drinking water supply. One of them is 1,4-Dioxin. And 1,4-Dioxin with soft water, you use less laundry soap, you use less shampoo. And that’s something, you know, by using less, then we’re, you know, helping eliminate that chemical contamination footprint. So water treatment is not only a necessity for a healthier you and a healthier life, but it’s truly a necessity to help our water quality environment. It really, truly is. I wanted to talk today about activated carbon filtration. And that’s something because carbon is probably one of the most overused filter medians in the market today. You have to understand that carbon filters have its limitation. And one of the things that carbon filtration don’t work well with is with hard water. In case and point, have you ever gone to, maybe it’s your home or a neighbor’s home, and they have a refrigerator with a water dispenser, you know, water dispenser and ice maker, and you see the hard water stains and buildup, that’s proof right there that that carbon filter that’s in that refrigerator is getting overrun by calcium carbonate, which is hard water, which a water softener will easily remove. But it’s not designed and they don’t work well with carbon filtration. I think toxicologists have to really start taking, you know, studies and testing to see with this microplastic issue, you know, it’s troubling that it’s penetrated the brain. It’s finding the brain. There is a news story that I saw that we have enough microplastics in our body that makes up a credit card. But what we have to do is, you know, think about banning plastics. Go back to the day where we bought our products that was wrapped in paper and in aluminum cans. Metal containers. Because guess what? Aluminum rust, metal rust and breakdowns and disappears. But plastic lasts forever. You take a plastic fork and you set it outside and you leave it there. And it’s going to be the same density when you go back five years, you know, you know, from now, when you first put it there, it’s not going to change. It’s not going to break down, but what about, you know, a nail or a screw and you set it outside and see what happens with that. We have to start getting back to, I say this word too much sometimes common sense. So going forward, Think about, you know, the chemical contamination. Think about the products that you use in your home. Think about a water softener where a water softener will eliminate the use, cut back on soap usage by 95 to 98%. Do you realize that, and I’ve got this video up in YouTube, you know, you can check out and listen to, you know, past shows. If you go to YouTube and type in Paul the Waterman, you can check out, you know, our past shows. We post them on YouTube. But we have a video there. It’s called, you know, you do the washcloth test. You take a bottle of water, which is bottle water, soft water, and you take a washcloth, and you rinse that washcloth with bottle water. So you get a mixing bowl and put the washcloth in the mixing bowl, pull the bottle water over the washcloth, and then you kind of knead it like you’re making dough. And then, you know, after a few seconds, you pour that water into a glass, and you’re going to see all the trap soaps. It’s in that washcloth. So when you get lint out of a dryer, that’s broken down fabrics from clothes. And why is that clothes breaking down? Because hard water sticks. Hard water breaks down the fabric. If you get, you know, a pinhole, you know, in a favorite T-shirt that you like to wear, that’s because hard water and soap build up. So with a water softener, you’re using 95 to 98% less soap. And in some cases, you can just, you know, throw the towels in, especially, you know, bath towels, and just wash your clothes in soft water. Because you’re going to have trapped soap in that towel anyway. And again, you know, I mentioned to you this a little bit ago, there was a carpet company that’s out there making a living off of using clean, pure H2O to clean your carpets. And that’s, they do advertising, you know, chemical free, no soaps. And they’ll come in and clean your carpets. And that’s what water, that’s how water is a natural cleaner. Soft water, water that’s not occupied by hardness or iron will dissolve pretty much any stain that you have. And that’s the truth of it. So let’s think about this. Let’s do this. If you guys have any questions, you know, reach out to us next week. I’d love to answer any questions that you have. You can shoot us an email. You can always give us a call here at 303-477-5600. But think about, you know, just everyday use. Think about, you know, your water, how the water interacts in your life, what you cook with. Think about the plastic wraps, the plastic containers that we use to pull off, you know, from the meat that we get from the deli or from the, you know, the steak that we buy from the meat counter. It’s all wrapped in plastic. Plastics break down, you know, in clothing in the washing machine and get into our water environment that way. So, you know, we really have to think about that. We have to think about the 1,4-dioxin that’s a contaminant. A carcinogen that’s in everyday cleaning soaps in our laundry soap and our shampoo that, you know, is harmful that we’re breathing in in the steam when we take a shower. That’s a cancer-causing carcinogen. We have to think about, you know, the trihalomethanes that are in our water supply. We have to think about the pharmaceuticals that are in our water supply. There’s just so much to think about, isn’t there? So thank you very much for being with us today. I hope everybody is blessed.
SPEAKER 07 :
Remember to reach out to Paul the Waterman with your questions and water filtration needs, and be sure to tune in to Water Talk Thursdays at 2 p.m. to talk with Paul. And for more information, find him on the programming page at klzradio.com.
