Politics and Water Don't Mix but You Can Stir Them Up

Our country is bubbling over whether or not to make health care available to all citizens regardless of income and ability to pay. From my viewpoint this issue should not be an issue and instead reality. All of our citizens, like citizens of all other advanced countries who already have universal health care, are inherently entitled to health care when it is needed. As important however is the avoidance and prevention of needless and avoidable diseases. The health care systems are designed to help you recover after acquiring disease, but very ineffectual in preventing diseases. Our country spends about 2-3 billion dollars annually treating diseases, many of which could be prevented if our country and our politicians had the will to do so.

Unfortunately politics and water don't mix, and consequently our people will continue to suffer from avoidable and deadly diseases that are caused by toxic and carcinogenic man made chemical substance that are in drinking water that we all consume and depend upon. All water on Earth has been toxified by our collective ignorance of reality and the ongoing production and widespread use of toxic and carcinogenic substances that are the direct output of the most profitable and ubiquitous worldwide petrochemical industry, and our nearly indiscriminate utilization of substances that poison the very ground we walk on and the water we drink. We blithely ignore the consequences until some noteworthy event exposes a local problem and as soon as it is out of the news we forget and fail to connect the isolated bit of news to the big picture. We seem to assume that we will all be protected by the brotherly arms of local, state, and federal agencies that have the responsibility to assure safe drinking water. Sorry folks, if you believe that then you are just as likely to believe that the tooth fairy will put a gold doubloon under your pillow.

In the same way that the health insurance industry in the USA has hoodwinked many of us into believing that they really aspire to provide affordable health care, the petrochemical multinational corporations have successfully induced us to believe that all the chemical substances they produce and are contained in millions of consumer products are as safe as pure spring water. We have become so gullible that we unconsciously acquiesce and fall into a dream-like trance that enables us to believe the advertisements and propaganda that the chemical industry and their purveyors promote. Since water and politics don't mix our elected officials are very happy to accept bountiful campaign donations from the petrochemical corporations that resist all regulatory action to limit their activities and potentially reduce corporate profits.

For those of you who are skeptical of my remarks please avail yourselves of the opportunity to start to become informed about the most important aspect of health preservation: safe drinking water free of toxins and carcinogens. First, visit your local water department or sanitation office and request all the information that they have regarding water quality. If you don't understand some of the material ask questions until you are satisfied that you understand the material. Than I suggest that you obtain two government publications that are available on line or by regular mail from the Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of health, respectively. The first is the EPA Toxic Release Inventory Report that contains partial information about toxic and carcinogenic chemical releases caused during production of these substance and is reported annually. Every member of Congress is issued a copy of this report that lists approximately 750 man made chemical substance of the over 3,000 commonly used in every day consumer products. Read it and ask the EPA questions until you are satisfied that you understand the implications and content sufficiently. The second government report is the NIH Report on Carcinogens that also is published annually and submitted to every Congressional member. This report lists about 275 of the thousands of carcinogenic substance found in human beings who have consumed contaminated water and describes the potential cancerous outcomes of exposure. You may not understand some of the medical and chemical terms in these two publications, nonetheless you will certainly begin to get the picture of how these chemicals found in some drinking water threaten our health and how avoidance could help prevent diseases rather than try to cure or remiss them after we get sick.

The purpose of this blog is to engage you in matters that are vital to prevent diseases and disabilities that are caused by man made toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that are in our drinking water at different locations in our country. Future blogs will engage you in more dialogue to promote greater public awareness and stimulate action aimed at political action instead of silence. We must stir up the apparently oblivious majority of Congress and force them to drink the water that they ignore. Perhaps then we will begin to foster preventive health programs starting with the elimination of toxic and carcinogenic chemical production and use.