Is My Tap Water Safe?
February 18, 2018
What is wrong with drinking tap water? Learn about contaminants that can get into our water supply and how to make it safe. Today’s guest, Richard Grassie, water expert, talks about ways to eliminate toxins from your water.
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Transcript
DAR: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness, a company providing nutrition therapy and classes to a wide variety of people who struggle with health challenges. I'm Darlene Kvist. I've been a certified nutrition specialist and a licensed nutritionist since 1996.
LEA: That is amazing Dar.
DAR: That is a long time and I've also sat right here in this seat, the MyTalk studio and out of those mornings on Saturday morning, probably most of those 13 years.
LEA: Thirteen years you've been with Dishing Up Nutrition. That's great.
DAR: And you know what? Guess what? I still love it.
LEA: When you're passionate about nutrition it doesn't go away.
DAR: That's right. You know, I just want to share in the benefits of eating real food. Of course, my friends tell me that it's the only thing I really know, and honestly that is true.
LEA: Well at least you know a lot about something.
DAR: That's true. So today I'm really pleased to have Lea Wetzell, she's over there laughing, who's also a certified nutrition specialist and a licensed nutritionist and she's joining us today as our co-host. And I want to brag a little bit here about Lea. Lea is so knowledgeable and she's so committed to helping people feel better. You know, one thing that you have to know, Lea walks her talk.
LEA: Yes I do.
DAR: There is no diet pop in the break room or any of that stuff.
LEA: No donuts for me.
DAR: So let me tell you, if you get an opportunity to have a consultation with Lea, you leave the counseling room inspired and ready to take on the challenge of healthy eating because I know she'll share her amazing story about how she has put her own autoimmune disease into remission. That's amazing, Lea, and it's been years now. It isn't just a few months. It's been years.
LEA: Right. Right. Dar, thank you very much for that introduction. It melts my heart, but all true. Yes, I really am passionate and so are you. I'm not going to ask my friends if they think that I'm only knowledgeable about nutrition. I hope, but you know, I'll just leave it there.
DAR: Well, you know, we only have so much brain power. So we were doing it on the important things in life.
LEA: You know, the only thing I would say that you left out is I'm also a mom to two amazing kids. Oliver who is now five and Lucy who is 16 months. And really, yes, I love, I love helping people understand what they are putting in their mouth affects their long-term health. But even I didn't know that until it really, you know, as far as the, especially the autoimmune connection until I came to work at Nutritional Weight & Wellness 11 years ago.
DAR: Wow, 11 years.
LEA: Yeah, about almost 11 years. Yeah. OK. So we got to switch to the day's topic today because it's a very important one for everyone's health. We're going to ask you a question - how healthy is your drinking water? When you turn on your faucet and you see water coming out of the tap, do you ever stop and think, is the tap water safe to drink?
DAR: I bet no one ever thinks that, no. You know, in our Nutrition 4 Weight Loss classes, we really encourage people to drink 8 to 10 glasses of filtered water for better weight loss and for better health.
LEA: Right, water is important.
DAR: Our class members want to know why are we saying filtered water? Someone always asks, so what is wrong with regular tap water? So we've asked our water expert, Richard, Richard Grassie to join us here today to answer those questions. And even if you listeners have a question for Richard, he's got the answers, he's very knowledgeable. So you could just call our studio number. Maybe it's stump Richard this morning.
LEA: I think that would be fairly challenging. OK. Richard is the owner of Richard's Custom Water Systems and has been educating people about the benefits of safe water for the past 25 years.
DAR: You know, how many years has it been Richard?
RICHARD: 35, 35.
LEA: 35, 35 years.
DAR: Richard, you and I have known each other for that long.
RICHARD: I remember way back when it was just you and your former partner and that was a long, long time ago. I lived in St. Paul then, it was a lifetime ago.
DAR: I know, I think first and foremost, Richard is a water expert and I think we've kind of mentioned that he's not trying to sell you a water system. He truly wants you to have safe water to drink. Even safe water to bathe in. So Richard, good morning to you it's great having you here.
RICHARD: I'm thrilled to be here.
DAR: So our first question, again is, hey, what's wrong with drinking tap water?
RICHARD: Too many contaminants.
DAR: So what does that mean? Too many contaminants. What's in there?
RICHARD: So the big, the big picture is we live in a country with over 100,000 man-made chemicals. There's about 100 that cities have to test for. And some of the ones that should be tested for aren't, and whatever water comes in contact with is now part of water.
DAR: So it slips through and comes out our tap.
RICHARD: That's correct. And only one percent of what gets into water causes taste. You cannot tell water quality by taste.
LEA: Interesting because that is what a lot of people base the quality and the purity of their water, is how does it taste?
DAR: Well, a lot of times I think in August here in the Twin Cities area, our water gets a funky smell or funky taste if you're drinking tap water.
RICHARD: Drinking water from a refrigerator, or you're letting the water tap run until it gets cold. When you make anything cold, you numb your ability to taste. So you can't tell anymore if it's cold.
DAR: So let's talk about a couple of things that we know is in our water, that tap water. Chlorine.
RICHARD: Chlorine is added. It started being added to the water supply in this country at the turn of the nineteenth century because of the concern of waterborne disease, typhoid, cholera, etc. And the interesting thing was at that time of our, the growth of our country, the main, a slaughterhouse for pigs and cows was Chicago and they were having an awful lot of cattle dying from the water being contaminated. So they brought this technology from Europe called chlorination and we're now purifying the water for our cattle. The mortality went up and somehow either the somebody in New Jersey, whether it was the mayor of New Jersey or, or whether it was the governor of New Jersey, found out that these cattle and pigs were doing well. So the statement in this book that I read said if chlorination is good enough for the pigs and cows of Chicago, it's good enough for the people of New Jersey.
DAR: And so then it has started to spread.
RICHARD: It spread all over the country as the form of water treatment, chlorination.
DAR: So Richard, let's stay with that chlorination a little bit. What's the downside of the water being chlorinated? Because we know that that's what we're getting when we're drinking tap water.
RICHARD: Right. Well, chlorine is bleach.
DAR: OK, most people don't know that.
RICHARD: Chlorine is bleach. Um, it's just not good for us. The level of it that in water is not good for us, but now in 2018, because there's so many man-made chemicals currently in our water supply, when they come in contact with chlorine, there's a whole new category of products called trihalomethanes, which are absolutely hazardous.
LEA: So toxic.
RICHARD: Absolutely toxic.
LEA: And it goes through the tap?
RICHARD: Yes, so we're not only consuming chlorination, we're breathing it in, into our lungs when we shower and bath. Plus our entire body is an absorption site when we're in a shower.
LEA: Our skin is very absorbent, right?
RICHARD: Now because chlorine isn't as effective as it once was, cities are now on the trend to move from chlorination to chloramines. And chloramines are worse for us. They're combination of chlorine and ammonia. Anybody that wants to learn about chlorine doesn't have to believe me. Just look up chlorine, the hazards of chlorine, and chlorination and water supplies. Google it. And you're going to get so much research. This is so much upfront now if people want to look.
DAR: So logically when I'm thinking about this, I want to get that out of my tap water.
RICHARD: Correct. So a simple filtration will remove chlorine. A simple filter in a refrigerator will remove chlorine. As long as it's replaced regularly.
DAR: Lea are you kind of signaling me.
LEA: Yeah, we have to take a break, but we definitely want to get back to this topic.
DAR: Because I want to get back to chlorine and also fluoride.
LEA: Yes, definitely. All right. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you today by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. This morning we are discussing how you can have safe drinking water with expert Richard Grassie. Questions for Richard today, please give us a call in the studio.
DAR: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Here's an interesting fact. I bet you don't know this one. By the time you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated.
LEA: That is Interesting. People wait till they're thirsty, right?
DAR: Yep. So if you have dry skin or dry eyes, how many clients do we see Lea with dry eyes? It's often a sign of dehydration. Other signs of dehydration that you may often experience are headaches, foggy brain, hunger, fatigue, dry, itchy skin. Dehydration is the leading cause of daytime fatigue.
LEA: That is interesting.
DAR: Isn't it? Yeah, you know, we recommend drinking 8 to 10 glasses of pure water. Such a simple remedy for so many health problems.
LEA: It's rare that I don't have a discussion with a client about water. Yes. So we are back to our discussion about what is in our tap water. And before break we were talking about the common chemical a lot of people know of as chlorine. Um, that is in our tap on which we discovered that's been in there since the turn of the 1900s. Right. So, question for you Richard. What are the negative health effects of drinking chlorinated water?
RICHARD: Part of it is, part of it is what happens when chlorine interacts with other man-made chemicals. They are called disinfection by-products. Chlorine by itself is dangerous, but DBPs are 100 times more toxic. Now, according to the US Council of Environmental Quality, the risk of cancer to people who drink chlorinated water is 93 percent higher than those who don't.
DAR: Wow, that's amazing.
RICHARD: Well, that's almost a hundred percent.
LEA: So again, as we talked about it before break, you know, as far as if we just focused on chlorine. Your basic, you know, uh, your refrigerator or your basic
RICHARD: Yes, most simple filters use carbon as an absorption media. And it will absorb chemicals that are suspended in the form of a gas which is where chlorine is. It is also typically where the taste is.
LEA: Right, but we know that is the tip of the iceberg, right? As the contaminants in our tap water and we wanted to get to another big contaminant.
DAR: And that's fluoride.
RICHARD: Fluoride is a solid and so carbon does not affect fluoride. So with simple filtration, fluoride passes right through.
LEA: You said it's a small molecule, so it goes right through carbon filters.
RICHARD: Well, it's a small molecule so that it's more difficult to remove. And carbon does not affect it.
DAR: So Richard, some of the downside of having fluoride in your water? I mean a lot of people think it's a great thing.
RICHARD: Well, first of all, the fluoride in the toothpaste is a different form of fluoride than that's what's in our water supply.
LEA: We think of fluoride for strengthening our enamel, correct?
RICHARD: Correct. Plus, when it's in toothpaste, so that's sodium fluoride, and hopefully it's pharmaceutical grade. When it's in the toothpaste, you brush your teeth and you spit it out.
DAR: It doesn't goes into your cells.
RICHARD: Right, it's not going into every cell of your body. Plus, the fluoride typically in our water supply, about 90 percent of it is from wet scrubbing systems of the phosphate fertilizer industries.
DAR: So it comes from the fertilizer industry.
RICHARD: That's right. It's now sodium fluorosilicate or fluorosilicic acid. So it's not sodium fluoride. It's a waste product. It's a man-made product.
LEA: Ok so man-made waste product.
DAR: And that's in our water.
RICHARD: That's what's added to our water in this country. And there's research now that has nothing to do with the health of our teeth. We are not the healthiest country with our teeth. In fact, there are studies that show that countries that don't fluoridate and countries like the U.S., one of the few countries in the world that does, tooth decay dropping no matter whether you fluoridated or not because of better mouth practices, better hygiene.
LEA: Like brushing teeth and flossing your teeth regularly.
RICHARD: But there are 50 reasons to oppose fluoride. I have found on fluoridealert.org. lots of research and one of them is how fluoride affects the thyroid.
DAR: And we as nutritionists, I bet almost every client who comes in has a thyroid problem.
RICHARD: Well, the symptoms are depression, fatigue, weight gain, muscle and joint pains, increased cholesterol levels and heart disease. And this one specific drug, synthroid, was the most prescribed drug in 2010.
LEA: Yeah and I think that is still common even in 2018. And that synthroid is the, uh, the common drug prescribed for hypo or slow functioning thyroid.
DAR: Right. So when we stop and think about that, so we know that the common refrigerated filter will help get rid of the chlorine but not the fluoride.
RICHARD: Because fluoride is a dissolved solid. So we have these two aspects. We have the chemicals that are suspended in the form of a gas, which simple filtration removes or reduces. And we have the more difficult things that were solid at one time that are now totally dissolved in the water.
DAR: OK. So if people in class ask us, is my Brita filter or my refrigerated filter OK? Well not really.
RICHARD: For me, it's a start though because people have to start someplace, right? Right. It's just not a solution in the long run. Not at all. So if we were to measure water, there's a there's a meter, an expensive meter that I carry that can show the level of dissolved solids in the water. It depending on the city. If it goes through a Brita filter or doesn't, the effect is almost zero. Because the amount of fluoride varies from city to city because they have to get it to the farthest point, just like chlorination. If you're close to the water treatment plant or you're the furthest away, they have to have a certain amount at the end, so all the way through it could be higher and then they average it.
DAR: Interesting.
LEA: It's really interesting. Yes. So I think we should get into the other general things that we find in our tap water. You know, we talked about those thousands of contaminants, but there's, you know, millions of people that become ill every year from things like parasites and viruses and bacteria in our drinking water. Most people believe that tap water is safe and free of bacteria, parasites and viruses. So how can this be happening, Richard?
RICHARD: I think there's just an onslaught of chemicals. Water is the universal solvent, so takes a piece of anything and everything that comes in contact with. In fact, the Corps of Engineers does studies, I think it's every 10 years on the water and you know, different aspects of our infrastructure and water consistently gets a D minus. If we look at the news or read the paper, just skim it every day, and I found last year just the city of Blaine as an example, not to point a finger at Blaine, but Blaine had two water boil alerts.
DAR: And what does that mean?
RICHARD: Boil alert is because e-coli bacteria got into the city water supply and boiling will kill it.
DAR: Well, that's the important part for people to understand.
RICHARD: And that's not good. We don't ever want to have that happen, but it's coming more and more in this country, but the thing that I felt good about is all of our clients and Blaine, didn't have to worry about it because our system will not allow disease-causing waterborne microsystems to penetrate it.
LEA: Right.
DAR: Very good.
LEA: That's awesome. We need to get back to this topic again after our next break here. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. As nutritionists and nutrition educators we love to teach nutrition, especially nutrition that is life-saving. That said, this February we're offering the Preventing Heart Disease Class for half price, a full 90 minute class for only $12.50. That is a huge deal. We have classes in our St. Paul Office on Wednesday, February 21 from 6:30 to 8:00 PM and our Wayzata office next Saturday, February 24 from 11:30 AM to 1 PM. We'll be right back.
DAR: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition, and thank you for listening to this show or podcast about the importance of drinking filtered water. So you have to think just how important is water for your health? Considering that 72 percent of your body is water, did you know that? 72 percent so it's really important. You know Dr. Daniel Amen, author of Making a Good Brain Great, calls water brain medicine. Better than a lot of tranquilizers or are, you know antidepressants or all those. You know the first rule of brain nutrition is to hydrate your brain with water. If you're suffering from chronic migraines, here's a simple solution. Try drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water daily and in 6 weeks see if you have fewer migraines.
LEA: Good simple goal, like a trial.
DAR: Clean water is a cheap medicine with no bad side effects. Only good ones.
LEA: I love that. Oh, so back to our topic at hand, our tap water and what is in our tap water and is it safe for us to be drinking? And we have our expert here, Richard Grassie and he's been very, very knowledgeable on answering a lot of our questions about waters and one big one that scares me, and I know, you know people that do find out about it too, is what about pharmaceuticals?
RICHARD: Pharmaceuticals are being found in the water supply throughout the United States. It's not isolated pockets.
DAR: It's kind of scary, isn't it?
LEA: Every state?
RICHARD: Every state, yes. And so in 1974, the Safe Water Drinking Act was passed and cities had to test for 22 chemicals. Forty years later that list is grown to about a hundred out of a potential hundred thousand. Fluoride is not on the list. So there isn't any government agency has to test for it. And how does it get in the water? How does it get into our water supply? Well what do people do with their out-of-date pharmaceuticals? Flush them down the toilet.
DAR: Or it comes out in urine, right?
RICHARD: Yes. I didn't want to say that. This is your show, you can say it.
LEA: But that is very true because you're not absorbing all of the medication. Some of it is flushes through your system.
RICHARD: And someone like me, I mean I'm not perfect by any means, but I don't even take aspirin. I don't take anything. But I also don't drink tap water. Not knowingly do I drink tap water. And I really focus on restaurants that have good water. And that is growing slowly, not as fast as I would like to see.
DAR: So they put ice in water to cover the taste.
RICHARD: Numb your taste so you cannot taste it.
DAR: So you don't even know you're drinking poor water.
LEA: So to cycle back. I think you had said that fluoride wasn't tested, but you mean pharmaceuticals are not tested regulated or not regulated?
RICHARD: Pharmaceuticals, they are not regulated. Not the hundred chemicals that cities have to test for.
LEA: So we really don't have documentation other than people testing.
RICHARD: Independent. It's all independent. There are companies now that are non-profit that are researching our water supply. There's a number of them, and again, all a person has to do is Google. Simple and they'll be overwhelmed, sadly, with the research.
LEA: So how do we get pharmaceuticals out of our water supply?
DAR: Does going back to the refrigerated filter or the Brita filter?
RICHARD: Not really touching. We're back to that dissolve solid. It's the dissolved solids. So those passed right through.
DAR: So then the person that was drinking that tap water, they might be getting extra antibiotics. Or they might be getting somebody else's antidepressant or who knows.
RICHARD: So then the argument becomes: but all these things are in such low amounts, how come this low, our body becomes the filter. It is over time.
DAR: And we as nutritionists and people who are practicing nutrition are drinking that 8 to 10 glasses of water every day. So we're probably getting more than somebody who is not practicing good health habits for drinking water.
RICHARD: Well, hopefully all of your staff is drinking better water.
DAR: Well they are because we have all your filter systems in our offices. Definitely.
RICHARD: Right. And I'm a proponent of removal technology, not taste and odor technology and not reduction technology. We want removal and we want it kept out. That's where other systems are weak. They may start pretty good, do a decent job, but a year later when that system should be maintained, not even close to the quality that it started at. And that's what our technology excels at. Constant removal.
DAR: Richard, I think I've heard people in class talk about, you know, they have a filter in their refrigerator, but then they have to replace it and they don't get in the habit of replacing it.
RICHARD: And we are back to it's cold coming out of the fridge. It's cold, right?
LEA: Yeah. That's really. Yeah. Important information. So other things of concern, you know, we are talking about a little bit what's been in the news of late, there's industrial waste that we need to be concerned about, whether it's, you know, from big companies, agriculture, pesticides, you know, underground fuel tanks, septic leaks, farm runoff, insecticides, herbicides.
DAR: Well, I think Richard, let's talk a little bit about, we have a big lawsuit coming up here in Minnesota. Minnesota is actually bringing a lawsuit against a big manufacturer here in St. Paul, 3M. I mean maybe just kind of fill people in on what that is and you know, they'd been reading about it in the paper probably.
RICHARD: Well, Minnesota is seeking $5,000,000,000 in damages from 3M. In what could become one of the largest environmental lawsuits in our country's history. $5,000,000,000. How could any company even withstand that? But it all started in the 40s and ended in 2002, where there were these PFC, chemicals, perfluorochemicals.
DAR: And they were using that chemical in what products?
RICHARD: Fire-fighting foam, stain repellents such as Scotchguard, and of course non-stick cookware which we all at one time in our lives used right? And then 3M disposed of these chemicals in landfills in Oakdale, Woodbury and Lake Elmo ending in the 1970s. So this is something that was done years ago. They could have put it in tanks, some kind of drums and overtime they rust out and start to leach out, leach into the aquifer, which is where we get our water from. It's a slowly moving river in all wells, whether it's a city well or a private well, they're just digging a hole down into these aquifers. The only difference a little bit is city water, like Minneapolis, St. Paul. St. Paul water is fed from the Mississippi through a chain of lakes. Minneapolis gets it from the Mississippi River and some of the surrounding cities. So when we go further out we get into city wells, further out we get into private wells, but they're all basically coming from a similar source.
LEA: Wow. It is amazing.
DAR: How amazing. So all these contaminants, PFCs are what they're talking about. Now let's go back to filtering systems, so does a typical, you know Brita or refrigerated filter filter those out?
RICHARD: Yes, it can. Yes. Yes. We were commonly constantly removing PFCs from shower water, house water when we do whole house filtration where we're removing these chemicals that were or are suspended in the form of a gas that get released into the steam and vapor. So carbon, especially catalytic carbon will remove.
DAR: OK, but they removed the tap water that we're drinking, but what about all the bath water that people are so keen on? And then that gets absorbed transdermally probably.
RICHARD: Right. A nice hot shower. What do we like about a hot shower? It's breathing in that wonderful steam and that's where these chemicals, again are suspended in the form of a gas, get released.
LEA: Right. And our skin is absorbing a lot of those toxins too.
RICHARD: Our body is an absorption site.
DAR: Lea, do you want to talk a little bit about your own personal experience with lead? Just for a couple of seconds and then then let's come back after break.
LEA: Yeah, I was just sharing with them in the break room and I think I talked a little bit about this last time we were on the show with Richard. But I have a really old house. My house was built in 1900 and when we first moved into our house, happened to be around the same time that I had a doctor visit for my son and he tested high for lead and so we were trying to figure out what sourcing that was coming from. And one of the things we found out was it was part of our water supply because our pipe from the streets, original lead pipe, uh, from 1900. And nobody told me I had to find this information out and we had to pay out of pocket to have it replaced. But that has helped.
DAR: That wasn't like thousands and thousands of dollars but worth it, right? Oh yeah, definitely.
LEA: Yes. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. We believe this water information is so valuable that we encourage you to share it with your friends and family. There are two ways they can listen to today's podcast. Number one, they could go to our website weightandwellness.com and click on podcast on the header on the top. Then click on today's show Is My Tap Water Safe? Or they can go and download our free Dishing Up Nutrition app from iTunes. That is simple and we really thank you all for listening today and sharing Dishing Up Nutrition with your friends and family.
DAR: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Next week tune in to hear about how to improve your memory with food and vitamins and the hosts Kara and Carolyn. If you want to know some more information about water systems or how you get your water tested, Richard can give you some ideas of how to get a hold of him.
RICHARD: Well, thank you Dar. We have a pretty new, very new, I think I'm very happy with our new website. You can find it at richardswater.com or I can be reached at 952-240-0470.
DAR: So if people just have questions about water or filtering, you'll answer.
RICHARD: Yep. I can talk. I'll talk to them on the phone and I can come out and have it a little more personal.
LEA: Excellent. Well we have a caller today, Barb. Thank you for calling Dishing Up Nutrition. Do you have a question about water for Richard?
CALLER: I do.
RICHARD: Good Morning Barb.
CALLER: Good morning. I am wondering, I have been drinking alkaline water and I'm wondering if Richard has any information that he can give the listeners about drinking alkaline water and the benefits.
DAR: If it's OK, Richard, let's get her phone number later and you call her back on that one because we're just looking at how to get safe water first.
RICHARD: I do have a lot of information about that. I'm happy to share with you.
LEA: So hold on the line and we'll get your number. Thank you.
DAR: So our other caller is no longer with right? OK. All right.
LEA: So then we wanted to talk quickly about, we have a few more minutes, well water. So what, is it safe?
RICHARD: We hope it is safe. There is a new study out now that over the lifetime of a well in Minnesota, 25 percent of those wells over their lifetime will have bacteria getting into the well. Now I find that people kind of have a little bit of a false perception about well water thinking, well water is better than city water, but they only test for three chemicals on private wells for them to be considered safe. And this whole thing about maximum contaminant levels, like arsenic is the new one. It's intensely toxic. It's measured in parts per billion, not parts per million. And the legal limit now is 10 and I'll literally have someone call me saying, well we just got a report from the city and we're over the limit. Can you get us in the limit? And I think, OK, you don't want it at all. This limit business is all guess work. Maximum contaminant levels, to my knowledge, are not based on anything other than guessing.
DAR: So my question, is your refrigerated filter or Brita going to take that out?
RICHARD: No, no. Does not take out arsenic, does not take out bacteria and it does not take out nitrates. And those are the three things that our wells are tested for.
LEA: OK what else, potential contaminants?
RICHARD: So the water cycle is when it rains, what's ever in the atmosphere, what's ever on the ground, what's ever in the ground eventually ends up in the water supply because a well is just a hole dug through the earth into a slowly moving river called an aquifer. What happened upstream could be in your water. It's not necessarily even where you live, it's upstream from you not flowing fast like a river. It's slowly moving, but it's still susceptible to whatever we've been dumping into the ground.
LEA: And things like farm fields and industrial.
RICHARD: Oh goodness, yes, yes, yes, yes.
DAR: So let's kind of go back to looking at the type of filtration that we can put on ours so we have safer tap water.
LEA: Yes, how can we get rid of these contaminants.
RICHARD: So I feel very grateful. Thirty five years ago, I was very disillusioned when I came into the industry. I was selling an RO system that I was told removed 99 percent. That's a reverse osmosis system. It was national brand company I worked for told me removed 99 percent. I'm in a home about a month later after I'd sold the system, testing their water and it was 75 percent removal so it wasn't even close. But that spurred me into a desire to find an American manufacturer that didn't compromise at all. And so I've had the rights to a product from a company in Florida called Aquathin, one hundred percent American, which I love. And without a doubt it's multibarrier RODI system.
LEA: What does that stand for, RODI?
RICHARD: Reverse osmosis plus deionization. So deionization removes what RO does not. It's also coupled with sediment and carbon, three different forms of carbon. But it is a removal technology. There's nothing in the market that takes water and keep it at this level and that I'm grateful for. And every year when we test systems, because we tested systems for all of our clients on a yearly service, we can tell them and show them how pure their water is. So we measured this parts per million business and purified water by definition, cannot measure more than 10 parts per million of dissolved solids. Um, the two highest cities, Chaska and Robbinsdale are around 500 to 600 parts per million. Minneapolis will range from 90 to 240. The outer cities will range anywhere from 250 to 450. So we're going to take that down to one to two parts. I'd like to keep it there, but will be a below 10 after a year.
LEA: OK, that's great.
DAR: So let's just kind of recap because that's, people still have a hard time understanding this. We start with the carbon filters like Brita, the refrigerated, and that does remove some things.
LEA: What does that capture?
RICHARD: Well, again, we're separating these two topics that we have the chemical suspended in the form of a gas. That's where pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, detergents, synthetic organic chemical compounds, which are man-made, chlorine, kind of chloramines. That's where those are, so those get absorbed into the filter. If you want to purify water, you have to do that plus you have to remove the difficult things that were solid at one point that are now totally dissolved in the water. Heavy metals, lead, nitrates, salt, salt based substances, hexavalent chromium, pharmaceuticals and nitrates, aresnic. Yes, pharmaceuticals.
DAR: And that takes what type of filtering?
RICHARD: To do it completely, it's RODI. It's the multibarrier technology. Reverse osmosis helps. The issue is, is different levels of quality of reverse osmosis. Just because it's reverse osmosis doesn't mean that it's done well. It's kind of like the vitamin industry, right? There's really crappy vitamins that people should never buy all the way to the ones that work.
DAR: Yeah, that's right. Right. Very good.
LEA: Very, very helpful information today, Richard.
RICHARD: I appreciate it. I love being on your show. The whole thing is education. An educated consumer can make a better decision.
DAR: Yes. Oh, one of the things that we often hear is, well, I can't afford to have good water.
RICHARD: Well let's put it this way. If you are 70 to 72 percent water, where is the priority here? Anybody can afford to do something. Anybody.
DAR: Well, one of the things that we thought is if you stop for a cup of coffee for $5. So if you times that by seven, you know, and then you times that by 52 weeks, I mean you're spending…
RICHARD: You bought a really good system just with the coffee you were drinking every day.
LEA: Like it's manageable and you can budget. Anybody could really budget it in.
RICHARD: I think it's about how much do we care about our health.
DAR: And I think a lot of times Richard, it's also people lack the understanding and the knowledge of what they need to do.
RICHARD: Well, it's a confusing market because everything's the best. Everybody has the best. The filter in the refrigerator they're told that it's the best thing. The thing that goes to the pour through pitcher, it's the best thing. So people are confused, that's where I excel because I can really make it understandable and clear, very easily so people can say, "Oh, OK, I really can do this." Not so expensive after all. Now, I don't have to worry about making the wrong decision.
DAR: Right, exactly.
LEA: So people can find you at?
RICHARD: On richardswater.com or call me direct at 952-240-0470.
DAR: And I think the, one of the nice things about Richard is he's educating, he's not selling. So you don't have to worry about that.
LEA: Right. Well thank you guys. Our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing.
