Arsenic, the Poisoning of a Nation
I am Dr Patrick Flanagan, and this is the latest edition of my
Dr Health Secrets newsletter.
I am a scientist with over 300 inventions related to health,
longevity and medicine. This newsletter installment is about
toxins in our water and food supply. I found that some
substances are far more widespread than I thought. So I decided
to write this newsletter about arsenic and its effects on your
body.
Childhood Memories
It seems like only yesterday when you could relax with the
knowledge that you weren't drinking raw sewage, parasites, or
caustic chemicals. I remember the days as a child when I could
grab a glass from the cabinet and fill it with some nice, clean,
cool, refreshing tap water and drink it down on a hot summer
day. Truth is, I have found research on toxins showing that
chemicals have been finding their way into our water supplies
for almost a hundred years. Fluoride was added in 1945, but
chlorine took the lead in 1911, when it was first added to
public drinking water as a "disinfectant."
Up until recently, health advocates and environmentalists found
their pleas falling on deaf ears in regards to how unsafe tap
water truly is. When I told people twenty years ago that their
tap water was poisoned, they could not believe me even though
there was plenty of data proving it. Even ten years ago people
were suspicious of such claims, but due to recent health scares
with water supplies and bottled water, people are starting to
stand up and take notice.
Many people boycott drinking tap water on taste alone; chlorine
is often noticed by the palette and rather unappetizing. Others
have shied away because of health concerns, but the fact still
remains that most people still use water in many other aspects
of their daily lives: bathing, laundry, dish cleaning, cooking,
coffee, tea, etc.
I Smell A Rat
The next substance I want to tell you about is arsenic. Arsenic
on the periodic chart is atomic number 33, but arsenic is so
much more than a simple number. Still widely used today, arsenic
is commonly found in wood preservatives, agricultural products,
glass, and most notably, rat poison. Yes, rat poison. This
harmful and toxic chemical is currently residing in your tap
water. This is not a comforting thought.
The EPA strongly pushes for regulations on cancer causing
materials and typically doesn't allow a substance that has more
than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing cancer to be within our
water. At 0.5 parts per billion, arsenic has a 1 in 10,000
chance of causing cancer. Do you think that arsenic levels
within public drinking water never rise beyond 0.5 parts per
billion? I wish I could say that they did not, but most of us
know otherwise.
Arsenic levels range all over the charts, and in 18 states,
including Arizona, California, and Nevada, arsenic levels are
at, and even sometimes greater than, 0.5 parts per billion.
Assuming we were all drinking water from just the 18 states with
arsenic at the accepted level of .5 parts per billion, then out
of the current U.S. population of 296,241,806 roughly 29,624
people could develop some form of cancer from arsenic.
Currently, arsenic is found in the drinking water of over
22,000,000 American homes. This number is only accounting for
the areas that actually had their water tested. There are still
vast areas of this country that have no idea what their drinking
water contains. Arsenic poisoning over an extended period of
time can lead to damage of the central and peripheral nervous
systems, heart and blood vessels, serious skin irritations and
problems, birth defects, reproductive problems, and many more.
As of late, scientists and medical professionals have argued
that arsenic isn't safe at any level within drinking water.
Tune Up
With all of the harmful chemicals that are fighting their way
into your body at every given moment, help your body's defense
team strike back.
There are numerous ways to pull heavy metals out of the human
system. Some methods work for you and help support your body's
health at the same time. The process of pulling heavy metal out
of a human system is called "chelation" (key-LAY-shun). Silica
is a natural chelator and there are special forms of
microcluster