Did you know that although water is the healthiest drink you can choose on a plane, you can still get off dehydrated no matter how much you drink? Bottled water on planes leaves a lot to be desired on account of how hydrating it really is not.

The quality of water you consume is an extremely important factor in the acutely dehydrating aircraft cabin. Bottled water contains dissolved organic and inorganic matter. This matter is measured in total dissolved solids(TDS). Most bottled waters have tds counts in the hundreds. If you could separate this matter in the water it would look muddy. This reduces the amount of water by volume and its ability to keep you hydrated. Read more

Using products with antimicrobial chemicals must be a great way to protect your health. After all, you’re killing loads of germs while you wash your body and clean your house — and that’s a good thing, right? Not according to biologist and engineer Rolf Halden of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. In fact, he’s sounding the alarm these commonly used chemicals aren’t safe for human health and the environment. What’s more, they don’t even work better than plain soap and water.

The two most popular antimicrobial compounds, triclosan and triclocarban, are now a billion dollar a year industry and are found in a host of personal care products. Triclosan is added to plastic containers, toys and even clothing, too. First patented in l964 to kill germs before surgical procedures, the compound was pushed on consumers in the l980s when antimicrobials were hyped through massive marketing campaigns for “anti-germ” hand soaps. By 2001, a whopping 76 percent of all liquid soaps contained the chemical. Read more

More than half the water in China is so polluted as to be undrinkable, and nearly a quarter is so toxic that it is unsafe for even industrial use, according to the latest survey by the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The ministry divides water safety into six categories, the first three of which are safe for drinking and bathing. Samples taken from all of China’s major rivers and lakes in the first half of 2010 show that the percentage of water in categories I-III increased to 49.3 percent from 48 percent in 2009. Another 26.4 percent of China’s water is considered safe for agricultural and industrial uses (categories IV and V). The remaining 24.3 percent falls into category VI, unsafe for any use. Read more

Natural gas drilling operations are springing up both in the U.S. and the U.K., but opponents say that the industry is destroying groundwater and very seriously polluting the environment. After some residents living near natural gas drilling operations began noticing that their tap water was literally flammable, opposition groups in the U.K. started petitioning the government to stop the extractions until proper safety assessments are conducted.

A recent report covered by NaturalNews highlights the destruction being caused in Pennsylvania by the natural gas industry as well. “Fracking” chemicals, or those used to extract natural gas from the shale, end up polluting nearby water sources, even despite efforts to prevent contamination. According to that report, at least 1.28 million barrels of industry waste go unaccounted for every year, which means they are now most likely somewhere in the natural environment (http://www.naturalnews.com/030941_n…). Read more