Healthy Water for Healthy Skin

Information sheets

Information sheet 1

Granular Activated Carbon [G.A.C.]

The Activated Carbon filters that we are highlighting come in many types and sizes but are all designed for basically the same functions that filtering of drinking water from household supplies and all are small enough to fit neatly below the sink that they are supplying the water at.
GAC is the basic level of filtration and (generally) comes in an Industry Standard size of 10 x 2.5 inch it comprises of an outer casing and is loose filled with granular activated carbon, as with all Carbon Cartridges their primary function is to improve the drinking water quality, taste and odour of the water supplied to houses by water companies and to remove Chlorine, Volatile Organic Compounds, Chlorinated Hydrocarbons and Organic impurities.

What is Activated Charcoal?
Bituminous coal, peat or coconut shells are finely ground and super heated in the absence of oxygen to a temperature of 540 deg C to bake off any impurities and then subjected to superheated steam to 870 deg C to “activate” it, by doing this under carefully controlled conditions it creates a network of cracks and pores to greatly increase its surface area, its large surface area allows the activated carbon to adsorb large quantities of a variety of organic molecules.
GAC does not physically remove Chlorine as is normally supposed, but acts as a catalyst and changes it from molecular chlorine (Cl2) to chloride (Cl) GAC also oxidizes Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) to Sulphates that do not cause taste and odour problems. GAC filter cartridges must be carefully designed and have the correct water flow rates pass through them for optimum performance the longer the water is in contact with the carbon the better it works, so they must never be connected to the normal kitchen tap for example but instead must be connected to a specially designed drinking water “faucet” that helps to control the through put of water to approximately .6 of a gallon per minute flow rate.
One of the largest applications for GAC is point of use drinking water taps, fridge freezers, vending machines, and water coolers.

Is too much water bad for you?

Is it possible to drink too much water?

Probably yes, but it would be very rare indeed and the reverse (not drinking enough) would be thousands, if not millions of times more likely.
There has been much said about water intoxication, where it is suggested that people have become “drunk on water” not a bad trick if you can do it, but as water does not contain alcohol it would be pretty hard, however if a person drank an extraordinary amount of it in a sustained manner over a relatively short period of time, especially when exercising or dancing in a hot “clubbing” situation an imbalance of salts in the body could (and can) have an affect on the brain, known as Hyper hydration and can be fatal.

The body and its organs work at a natural rate to water from the system, however if it does not get enough the body become dehydrated and that is a very common occurrence, less common is having too much water in the system and this can happen if a unnatural amount is drunk and it cannot be processed and removed from the body quickly enough and body fluids get over diluted and an imbalance of electrolytes occurs leading to hyponatremia, an over dilution of sodium in the blood plasma.

The main problem with drinking water however is the opposite; people are just not getting enough! We are continually being told that we must drink 2 litres or eight glasses of water a day to ensure correct hydration and to aid toxin elimination from the body, this however is not strictly true as many factors must be considered e.g. body size, activity level, humidity level, air/room temperature etc, so some people will require more and some less.
When Doctors and others advise that 2 litres of water should be drunk daily they should make it clear that the water could be taken as other useful and healthy fluids, and could be consumed as diluted fruit juices, herbal infusions or fruit teas or of course water (preferably filtered) but not as coffee, colas and other sugary carbonated type drinks, beers, wines and spirits as all of these add to the toxin level in the body and add to the burden put on your organs, if you are also having your “five a day” portions of fruit and vegetables you will also be adding to your “eight a day” of water.
It must be remembered that when consuming all of that water that you will also be consuming chlorine so a good quality water filter is highly recommended

Why drink bottled water?

I don't know how accurate this is but recent research has shown that the second most popular hand held "accessory" is a bottle of water, the first being a mobile phone.

After reading this I became more aware and started looking and sure enough there were joggers, walkers and people just strolling about the streets of London with there little bottles, mainly the half litre size and mainly the type with the none spill drinking valve and what was slightly surprising to me was that it was mostly young people! So they are either more aware of the health issues of drinking more water or it has become the thing to do, a trend or even a fashion statement

Whatever the reasons that people are buying and drinking bottled water , it is seen as one of the largest growing areas of non alcoholic drinks on the market and that is why international companies like coca-cola, Schweppes,Nestle's and others have turned to bottled water during the last few years.

With market analyst predicting continued growth during the next ten years bottled water will continue to be a huge problem for dwindling land fill sites as the vast majority was in plastic bottles, last year sales was over 380 million and growing fast, leaving somewhere between 350 to 420 million bottles to be disposed of in the UK alone. In 1998 just 900 million bottles were sold and by 2002 that had grown to 200 million and with growth predicted to exceed 3000 million in the next five years....

So what happens to all of these bottles? most of them are transported to our rapidly dwindling land fill sites where they will take up to a thousand years before the decompose leaving their chemical residues to contaminate the soil. A small amount are sorted out and recycled, but it is a very expensive operation and some are even made into rolls of insulation similar to fibreglass lagging.

There are many reports that suggest that "most" people when test could not tell the difference between bottled water and tap water, but I suppose that really depends on how "loaded" the surveys are as mostly they are done by television companies who seem to want to "prove a point" in favour of tap water.Give them some of my bad tasting, chlorine infested water and test it against a bottle of Highland Springs water and there would no definitely be a very different outcome, it just depends on how and by whom the test is done.

I would never dream of drinking tap water at a restaurant (even if it's free) and always opt for bottled water, now that's not always good water, as with all things there is good and bad, but it is always a better choice than the undrinkable jugs of chlorine flavoured water some of my friends choose!

So if you want good, healthy and great tasting water what can you do?

The best thing to do is to use your tap water for washing and bathing in and any of the other things that it is invaluable for, and either buy bottled water and help in the waste of even more fossil fuels (yes, plastic bottles are made from oil) and help to create more greenhouse gas by transporting it all over the world, and then to help to fill our land fill sites! or you can choose the best and most Eco friendly way to give your self high quality drinking water in your own home - Filter and purify what you already pay for, your tap water.

Your "general purpose" tap water is amongst the safest water there is world wide wide, yet it is not 100% safe (perhaps nothing is) with high levels of chlorine being added to it to keep it free of most diseases and problems it just becomes tainted with chemicals and has bad taste, remove these elements at source (your kitchen tap) and you have all of the benefits of the work that your water supply company do and all of the benefits that a simple drinking water filter system can bring to you, great tasting sparkling clear and fresh water, on tap 24/7 and at a fraction of the cost of bottled water.