| Research
has been conducted on the effect manganese in water supplies
can have on your health. Water testing can tell you if manganese
is in your water. Once found, you can install the right water
filter type system to remove it.
A new study from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine
claims that you risk permanent nervous system (brain) damage
if you regularly inhale water vapor when showering, which
contains manganese.
What is Manganese and how does it get into your water?
Manganese is one of the most abundant metals in the earth
and is used extensively in making steel, welding rods, paints,
fireworks, fertilizers, varnish, livestock supplements and
so forth. It's also added to gasoline to reduce engine knocking.
Manganese is likely found so extensively in water supplies
because it is highly abundant in the earth and because of
its use in gasoline.
Most everyone is exposed to small levels of manganese from
the food they eat or mineral supplements they take. Low levels
of manganese are essential for good health, but high levels
of manganese are toxic.
What Researchers Found Regarding Water & Manganese
The analysis was conducted by Dr. John Spangler, M.D. and
Dr. Robert Elsner, Ph.D.
They analyzed the levels of manganese that caused central
nervous system damage in rodents by accumulating inside their
brains. They then reviewed medical literature and animal studies
to determine how much manganese people would absorb by using
water to shower a mere 10 minutes a day.
They found that by using tap water to take brief, daily showers
over the course of 10 years, children would be exposed to
three times the level of manganese that the rodents were exposed
to and adults would be exposed to 50 times more.
This also indicates that adults using tap water to take "brief
showers" for only one year would still be exposed to
five times more manganese than those rodents who suffered
brain damage.
The doctors felt that even though all individuals could be
at risk from manganese toxicity as a result of their water
supply, children, pregnant women, the elderly and those being
treated for liver disease are at the highest risk, even when
exposed to low doses of manganese when showering.
Additional Facts
These doctors are very concerned about your exposure to manganese
levels that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently
says are safe for drinking water. The EPA standard for "safe
levels" of manganese in drinking water supplies is 0.5
milligrams per liter.
But that standard for manganese is a "secondary standard,"
which means the EPA only considers manganese to be a nuisance
and not a health hazard. And because it is a secondary standard,
it is completely unenforceable by the EPA.
So, if your water supply has high levels of manganese, the
water company is free to say that it is completely safe--even
when it could, in fact, be the exact opposite.
Worse, the EPA standard was based on anticipated exposure
by ingesting drinking water. But this new study states that
"drinking water" is not the hazard for exposure
to manganese toxicity. Instead, the danger is absorbing manganese
from water vapor inhalation when showering.
By the way, in the years since the EPA standard was set, and
before this latest research, other studies have shown that
inhaling manganese dust could result in nervous system damage,
learning and coordination disabilities and behavioral changes
that are very similar to Parkinson's disease. In fact, back
in 1993 the National Institute of Health issued a statement
that occupational exposure to manganese for periods of just
six months to two years could result in a disease of the central
nervous system that resembles Parkinson's disease.
Moreover, these researchers feel that inhaling manganese from
water vapor bypasses the blood supply and travels directly
to your brain. Once there, it can cause extensive nervous
system damage.
How Much Manganese is in Your Water?
Whether you are on a public water system or a private well,
you really should find out if manganese or other dangerous
contaminants are in your water. If you are on a public water
system (85 percent of people are), chances are good that you
are exposed to some level of manganese, trihalomethanes, haloaecetic
acids, chlorine and other harmful contaminants.
Once you determine the type and level of contaminants in your
water supply, you can get the right water treatment system
to purify it; and you can consult your health practitioner
to help reverse any damage you may have suffered from exposure
to those contaminants.
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