Why is the allowable safe limit for Fluoride in our water, according to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, 1.5mg/L—more than twice what the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) recommends?
That should make you stop and think about who is correct, and if the experts can’t agree, what is the safe limit for fluoride in our drinking water?
Here are a few facts to consider about the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines:
- Fluoride has been used as an oral health drug in most Australian tap water since 1953. Even though it is a drug for oral health, dose and body weight are not considered. It’s a one-dose-fits-all approach, which is contrary to the standard guidelines for the dosage of most drugs.
- Naturally occurring Fluoride is different from the fluoride that is added to most drinking water. Artificial fluoride often produces by-products such as fluorosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride.
- Chronic fluoride ingestion of 1 ppm of fluoride in drinking water can cause tooth mottling (fluorosis), and an exposure of 1.7 ppm will produce mottling in 30–50 % of patients.
- 50 Studies have linked fluoride with reduced IQ in children. (Source- www.fluoridealert.org) Fluoride Levels in Water: IQ reductions have been significantly associated with fluoride levels of just 0.15 to 1.38 mg/L (Bashash 2017); 0.7 to 1.2 mg/L (Sudhir 2009); 0.88 mg/L among children with iodine deficiency. (Lin 1991) Other studies have found IQ reductions at 1.4 ppm (Zhang 2015); 1.8 ppm (Xu 1994); 1.9 ppm (Xiang 2003a,b); 0.3-3.0 ppm (Ding 2011); 2.0 ppm (Yao 1996, 1997); 2.1 ppm (Das 2016); 2.1-3.2 ppm (An 1992); 2.2 ppm (Choi 2015); 2.3 ppm (Trivedi 2012); 2.38 ppm (Poureslami 2011); 2.4-3.5 ppm (Nagarajappa 2013); 2.45 ppm (Eswar 2011); 2.5 ppm (Seraj 2006); 2.5-3.5 ppm (Shivaprakash 2011); 2.85 ppm (Hong 2001); 2.97 ppm (Wang 2001, Yang 1994); 3.1 ppm (Seraj 2012); 3.15 ppm (Lu 2000); 3.94 ppm (Karimzade 2014); and 4.12 ppm (Zhao 1996).
- 97% of Western Europe has rejected tap water fluoridation. The only Western European countries that allow salt fluoridation are Austria, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
- Tooth decay rates have declined precipitously over the last 50 years in Europe, as they have in the USA.
- World-leading health expert Dr Mercola advises that even at the so-called safe dose of fluoride, links have been made to conditions affecting the heart, brain and thyroid, as well as behavioural issues such as autism and ADHD.
- The following chart from www.fluoridealert.org shows Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth levels in children under 12 from the World Health Organisation between 1970 and 2010.
“Although the prevalence of caries varies between countries, levels everywhere have fallen greatly in the past three decades, and national rates of caries are now universally low. This trend has occurred regardless of the concentration of fluoride in water or the use of fluoridated salt, and it probably reflects the use of fluoridated toothpaste and other factors, including perhaps aspects of nutrition.”SOURCE: Cheng KK, et al. (2007). Adding fluoride to water supplies – British Medical Journal 335(7622):699-702.
The great fluoride debate continues. In the meantime, if you would like some help removing fluoride from your drinking water while the experts battle to discover if it is making our kids less intelligent and not doing much for their teeth, don’t hesitate to get in touch today.
Australian Tap Water is the “Best” in the World?
We hear comments like “Australian Tap Water is the best in the world” from people occasionally when we perform free Water Consultations. So, let’s break that down and look at the quality of water coming from our taps.
Firstly, we must be very clear here that we acknowledge that the water suppliers nationwide do a fantastic job of delivering water that complies with the government standards outlined in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). Adding a sanitising agent to water is essential to prevent mass public outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and other water-borne diseases, bacteria, and parasites.
We are not suggesting that chlorine be removed from the water—only that it makes sense to remove it at the end of its journey before you consume or use the water. Learn more about the benefits of water filtration here.
Facts about your tap water
The maximum amount of free chlorine in Australian tap water should be under 5mg/L – yes, that’s right for those of you who are thinking about your swimming pool test kit – that’s the very top of the gauge – in fact, if you took that sample to the pool shop, they may say not to let the kids swim in it for a little while as it might sting their eyes. If you Google ideal swimming pool chlorine levels, this will come up at the top of the page:
Regardless of how frequently or what system you use to add chlorine to the water, the chlorine level should stay between 1.0 and 3.0 parts per million (ppm) to maintain a healthy pool. Any higher, you start to run the risk of red eyes and swimmers’ itch.
1 ppm = 1mg/L
OK, so we have hopefully illustrated that although the chlorine levels in your tap water may comply with the ADWG in that the chlorine is under 5mg/L, this is not very hard to do—even for an overdosed pool sample! Now, we are certainly not stating that your tap water has 5mg/L of chlorine in it; it is simply that this is the limit.
Have you ever noticed animals drinking the pool water and thought ‘that’s gross- they mustn’t be able to taste the high amounts of chlorine in that!’. In fact, dogs have a better sense of smell than we do. What they have probably recognised is that there isn’t much of a difference between what can be in their bowl and what’s in the pool.
OK, so that is chlorine, and the limits are allowed in your tap water. If you are OK with the levels potentially being consistent with a healthy pool, then keep drinking without a filtration system.
When we consider chlorine in tap water, we need to consider some other concerns. Firstly, it can be absorbed by your skin, and there are risks associated with inhalation in a hot bath or shower. The second concern centres around disinfecting by-products (DBPs) such as chloroform and other trihalomethanes (THMs).
Anecdotally, many people contact us because they have just come back from a remote site up north, from another country like Bali, or from the country on rain tank water. After a few days of using the water in the city, their skin is dry and itchy. Our customers tell us that they experience a dramatic difference in the feel of their skin and hair after installing their systems.
But let’s not just rely on stories from customers; let’s look at what the scientists say:
The World Health Organisation publication https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/wash-documents/wash-chemicals/chlorine.pdf?sfvrsn=88760f74_4
States ‘It has been reported that asthma can be triggered by exposure to chlorinated water. Episodes of dermatitis have also been associated with exposure to chlorine and hypochlorite’ (Page 4).
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1990.tb00542.x
Chloroform Exposure and the Health Risk Associated with Multiple Uses of Chlorinated Tap Water
Wan K. Jo , Clifford P. Weisel , Paul J. Lioy
Their abstract states:
‘Recently, showers have been suspected to be an important source of indoor exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOC). The chloroform dose to an individual from showering was determined based on exhaled breath analysis. The post-exposure chloroform breath concentration ranged from 6.0‐21 μg/m3, while all corresponding background breath concentrations were less than 0.86 μg/m3.
The internal dose from showering (inhalation plus dermal) was comparable to estimates of the dose from daily water ingestion. The risk associated with a single, 10‐min shower was estimated to be 1.22 10‐4, while the estimated risk from daily ingestion of tap water ranged from 0.130 10‐4 to 1.80 10‐4 for 0.15 and 2.0 L, respectively. Since the estimates of chloroform risk from domestic water use for the three exposure routes—ingestion, inhalation, and dermal—are similar, all routes must be used to calculate the total risk when making policy decisions regarding the quality of the municipal water supply.’
The ADWG says this about DBP’s such as THM’s:
Whilst every effort should be taken to minimise the formation and concentration of DBP, this should never be done in a manner that compromises disinfection as poor microbiological quality represents a greater and more immediate risk to human health than short-term exposure to DBP (Hrudey 2009). (This quote is from the ADWG section 10.3.7. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/reports/aust-drinking-water-guidelines.pdf)
In conclusion…
So it looks like we really need to think twice before jumping into that shower or bath! Based on their findings, it exposes you to more dangerous VOCs than drinking chlorinated water.
So there you have it! In a nutshell, yes, your water is compliant and in line with global chlorine limits. Still, they generally compare the risks associated with it to the risks of cholera and typhoid outbreaks.
If you want the best of both worlds, you can have safe and sanitary water delivered to your home and then remove the chlorine.
So, yes, your water is safe, but our question is, “Do you want better water?”
