The Water We Drink: Water Quality and Its Effects on Health [Paperback]

Joshua I Barzilay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

"Water, which most of us take for granted, sustains life but can also make us sick or even kill us. This straightforward and serious book gives to this neglected resource its appropriate priority. The Water We Drink speaks authoritatively to what will be the twenty-first century's top resource." --William Reilly, former administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Did you know that . . . about one-quarter of the bottled water sold in the United States originates from ordinary municipal water sources or wells? . . . clean, non disease-producing drinking water is a relatively new phenomenon? It has been around for only one hundred years. . . . in the past fifty years, average sperm counts have been dropping, and that part of the reason for this can be traced back to contaminants in drinking water? We all drink water and water-based fluids, yet most of us take water for granted. We assume that when we turn on the tap to fill our glass, bathtub, or washing machine, clean water will flow. But is it really safe? And if not, what can we do about it? The Water We Drink provides readers with practical information on the health issues relating to water quality and suggests ways we can improved the quality and safety of our drinking water. The Water We Drink begins with a review of the history of water, disease, and sanitation. The authors then examine health issues relating to drinking water, including infectious diseases, cancer risks, and the effects of mineral and heavy metal content. They look at the benefits and risks of bottled waters and of water purification systems currently available to consumers. A helpful glossary of terms, as well as a bibliography of additional agencies, books, and Web sites to consult for more information on drinking water and health, is also provided. Dr. Joshua I. Barzilay is in the division of endocrinology of the Southeast Permanente Medical Group and a faculty member at the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Winkler G. Weinberg is chief of infectious diseases for the Southeast Permanente Medical Group and the author of No Germs Allowed!: How To Avoid Infectious Diseases at Home and on the Road (Rutgers University Press). Dr. J. William Eley is an associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Drinking and bathing in water are risky activities. The authors of this book, medical doctors specializing in endocrinology and infectious diseases, demonstrate how current water purification methods control health risks but do not eliminate themAa theme they develop by providing a wide range of current information on water quality within a historical context. Featured are summaries of drinking water contaminants and their known health effects, a review of purification technologies for public and private supplies, including bottled water, and a discussion of government regulations. However, the range of potential contaminants discussed does not always mirror current public debate. For example, although controversies such as the possible contribution of aluminum in drinking water to the incidence of Alzheimer's disease are reviewed, and although fluoridation of public water supplies is discussed, the controversy over the potential health effects of fluoridation is not mentioned. Despite this quibble, The Water We Drink is a useful guide for the educated consumer who wishes to safeguard his or her health. For all public libraries.ANoemie Maxwell Vassilakis, Seattle
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The emphasis in the purification of drinking water has shifted from avoidance of infectious diseases to avoidance of chemical pollution. Barzilay and his colleagues give a brief history of the subject and then look at the methods, regulations, and science behind the current U.S. water supply. Their book is an attempt to give consumers the information they need about how the water purification system works, what problems it has, and where additional research is needed to clarify or dispose of those problems; accordingly, they cite relevant Web sites in the text so that readers can pursue particular subjects. The problems include antibiotics from farm runoff, dangerous because they can help raise the resistance of disease-causing bacteria, and chlorine, whose possible dangers need to be further researched and discovered. The authors even underline the faddishness of bottled drinking water. Appended tables of government-regulated and unregulated contaminant levels, of cancer-causing contaminants, and of mineral content in various bottled waters add further value to the informative, readable book. William Beatty --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813526736
• ISBN-13: 978-0813526737
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,476,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for many different professions and people, October 13, 1999

By 

E. Knicks (NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Water We Drink: Water Quality and Its Effects on Health (Paperback)

So many people can benefit from this book: nutritionists, nurses, physical therapists, sports medicine, environmental sciences, etc. I only wish the media would present such informatiion as clearly to the public as this book does.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a readable summary of a technical issue., June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Water We Drink: Water Quality and Its Effects on Health (Paperback)

The authors of this book have taken what is surely a very complex issue and made it both readable and informative. They cover all or most of the issues concerning both tap and bottled water and allow the reader to make up his or her mind about which course to follow. I particularly appreciated the history of drinking water going back to Biblical and Talmudic times. I think anyone who drinks water would benefit from this book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is Bottled Safe Now?, May 23, 2008

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Water We Drink: Water Quality and Its Effects on Health (Paperback)

Americans are drinking more than twice the bottled water we did a decade ago. Bottled water now is everywhere. Evian water bottle was popular as a fashion accessory in the '80s fashion scene in Los Angeles. From the corporate boardrooms of New York City to the campgrounds of Yosemite National Park, Americans are drinking bottled was as never before. In fifteen years (1984 to 1999), consumption in the U. S. tripled. In 2001, Aquafina, purified tap water of Wichita, Kansas, was the top selling brand replacing that from Atlanta, GA, bottled by Coca Cola, Dasani. The back lash in 2007 of the tap water aspect led to Poland Spring of Maine to become the top seller.

In 1820 was the beginning of bottling for resale the spring water at Saratoga Springs, New York, and used as a cure for stomach ailments, called "Doctor Clark." Twenty years later, Poland Spring in Maine started the most advantageous and successful American bottling (the #1 today) of water as a cure for kidney ailments. Napoleon III decreed that Perrier water was to be bottled for the good of France in 1863. Italians drink the most at fifty galloons a year.

In 1912, the water fountain for use in public buildings was invented by Hal Taylor. All this bottling and packaging goes back to King Cyrus the Great of Persia whose brilliance led to boiling drinking water to be carted in silver flagons to war. Da Vinci, in 1509, declared San Pellegrino water miraculous. The brother of Andrew Wyeth invented plastic bottles in 1968. Perrier water was packaged in green glass.

In 1976, the average American drank 1-6 gallons a year; by 2006 we drank a shopping 28.3 galloons. Noncarbonated bottled water is the fastest grtowing segment of the U. S. beverage industry. Recent annual sales have reached 3.5 billion dollars. Water is the perfect drink, healthyu, refreshing and satisfying in a way Cokes, 7Ups, juices or alcohol aren't. In the U. S. many of the earliest brands were associated with resorts and spa complexes. The mystique of today's normal thing to do (no longer a status symbol) was started in 1928 . Mythology that mineral water improves one's overall health is questionable. I can't stomach tge taste if nminerak water; just because we think it's healthy doesn't make it so. TVA uses so many chem,icals in the dams up and dow \n the Tennessee River.

At first in 1976, water was delivered in large bottles to homes and offices and at grocery stores in galloon jugs. It's more economical to purchase the heavy jugs, the mainstream water businesss is a force of nature. Compare bottled to tap water: now, the secret is out and we know it is safe only so far. Any water source can be tampered with to make it unsafe, like any food or medicine at any grocery store. Thanks to Al Gore and his vigilance about global warming, drinking water is under environmental scrunity like never before. Water, pure, healthy, perfect...until now. Toxins can be added anywhere along the way. There's nothing in it which is not good for you except for the additives utility companies use fjor purity to get the dirt out.

Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the U. . I wuse it in the jugs for my coffee. Recent annual sales have reached over 2.6 billion dollars. I've even ventured far enough off the tract to use artesian water for coffee, but mainly I stick to Spring water. It is hard to choose "good" quality as each grocery stocks up on their own brand and don't give the buyer a chaoice. Taste and water undergone reverse osmosis treatment determine the cost. Is water pure? Depends on the source.