As a result of talking with the water treatment people near me, I learned that they are now using chloramine instead of just chlorine. Chloramine is made from a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Remember how you’re not supposed to combine chlorine bleach and ammonia because it forms a deadly gas? That’s in our water, unless your water comes from a source without it. And that’s not the end of it. If you combine chloramine and dichlorophenol, it makes chloroform. And when the body metabolizes that, it forms phosgene.

Chloraminated water keeps killing germs longer than chlorinated water, even though chloraminated water doesn’t kill them as quickly. Chloramine stays in the water longer. It won’t gas out. It won’t boil out. I will kill your fish. You can’t use it for kidney dialysis patients because it would kill them. Sound like it stays active long enough to kill the “good bugs” in your digestive tract, which can lead to food allergies because the “bad bugs” (molds, yeast, candida, anyone?) take over.

If you’re going to keep your immune system healthy, you need to keep your “good bugs” healthy. If you surround yourself with germ-killers all the time, you’re going to find that the “good bugs” are eliminated long before the “bad bugs” are.

I think this article is interesting because, when I switched from a bath soap containing Triclosan to one without it, I noticed that I no longer felt fatigued when I finished showering. I noticed it the first time I used the non-Triclosan soap in more than 30 years. I was not expecting anything like that to change. I was just trying to reduce the load of germ-killers in my body. But this article helps explain why I did not feel weak and fatigued after showering with non-Triclosan soap.

I think we should spend less time trying to kill all the germs around us, and spend more time trying to encourage our “good bugs”.

“After being exposed to concentrations of triclosan equivalent to those found in the wild for 7 days, the minnows were significantly worse swimmers than minnows that hadn’t been exposed to triclosan, and were less effective in swimming tests that simulated the the act of evading a predator.”

Hemp cannabis products are safer, greener and naturally antibacterial. What the federal government says is safe or dangerous depends more on lobbyist influence than pure science. If safety and effectiveness were the benchmarks, triclosan would have never been imagined or produced.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robbie-gennet/donald-rumsfeld-and-the-s_b_805581.html

If this link is blocked, check Huffington Post for one place to find it.

In light of questions raised by recent animal studies of triclosan, FDA is reviewing all of the available evidence on this ingredient’s safety in consumer products. FDA will communicate the findings of its review to the public in winter 2012.

At this time, FDA does NOT have evidence that triclosan added to antibacterial soaps and body washes provides extra health benefits over soap and water. Consumers concerned about using hand and body soaps with triclosan should wash with regular soap and water.

No, I don’t think everyone is freaking out for no reason.

WHY should consumers be tricked into buying something that “protects them from h1n1, etc.” when it actually doesn’t?

WHY are chemicals allowed to be in products if their safety is unknown?

WHY isn’t this being taken more seriously after multiple studies, linking triclosan to allergies, hormone problems, etc.?

WHY is triclosan put in products when it is not needed over soap and water?

Oh yeah, because the companies can say “OH! new antibacterial formula!! because you’re a good person and you have to buy this to protect your family! if you don’t your kids will get sick! you have to buy our product so you can clean everything!!”

…and that’s exactly what the consumer does. Talk about “the sky is falling.”

There is just simply NO reason for people to be exposed to something if the safety is unknown. Sure, maybe they’ll find out triclosan is totally safe (doubt it). And that’s FINE. It shouldn’t be in products in the meantime though.

I feel strongly that Triclosan should not be in toothpaste and other products and will read the labels.