WATER: TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT WATER
WATER EVERYWHERE—BUT IS IT SAFE TO DRINK? Water is an extremely complex element. There was a time when I had a full file drawer of test data from water purification device manufacturers, all supposedly written by scientists, and all full of contradictory data. Unfortunately, each manufacturer of a water purification device had its own paid scientists to prove that its product was the best. But I was constantly seeking the bottom line. What product is, objectively, “the best?” It wasn’t an easy answer to find. In part, this is because of water’s enormous complexity and the various components that contaminate water under different circumstances. Plus, to the best of my knowledge, no company, agency, or government had ever taken all the water purification devices and tested them all with control water that contained measurable amounts of known pathogens. Such a test would not only be time-consuming and expensive but would still perhaps leave many...