Tap water and weakened immune systems

[Sally C]

I thought I would mention something that our oncologist told us when my husband's neutrophils were very low.
Even though public water is somewhat purified your water supply may very well be like ours. Our oncologist told Don not to drink tap water as there are still impurities in it that could harm those with weakened immune systems. I went to our county utilities web site and it had the same type of warning as you get at restaurants concerning raw food and compromised immune systems. I stopped drinking out of the tap long ago. We have a filter on our refrigerator and use that for coffee and drinking at home and keep bottled water to take out.
It may be something you want to look into.
God Bless,
Sally

[PattiDean]

Thank you Sally for passing along this important information!

Patti

[donna j.]

As I was preparing for my transplant I was directed to drink only bottled water, and none of the spring bottled water. I only drink bottled water like Disani. Tap water for cooking is ok if it boils for 5 minutes.

Donna

[Greg H]

Hey Sally!

Great advice. We have a reverse osmosis purification system with a three gallon tank under the kitchen sick. We got it because our well-water had arsenic in it. We have city water now, but the RO system makes it much more palatable.

I'm not sure whether it filters out all biologicals (we were focused on the arsenic when we got it), but it might be a worthwhile investment for immune-compromised folks. I don't recall that it was outrageously expensive.

Take care!

Greg

[milliken2]

Hi Everyone;
We have well water, but still use bottled water for drinking or eating (like boiling pasta). If your water supply is anywhere near a river - you will get heavy metals in the water. Heavy metals never dissolve - they just settle to the bottom of the river, and then when you get a heavy rain or thunderstorm - of course the river starts to churn, and some of those heavy metals get into the water system, and DO NOT get filtered out - therefore, anyone drinking from a municipal water supply may get these into their body. Boiling water gets rid of the bacteria - but NOT the heavy metals.
I urge all MDS patients - or any patient for that matter - to NOT use a city/municipal water supply - no matter how much you think it is filtered.
Take care everyone.

((((HUGS))))
Beth

[milliken2]

Hi Again;
Just as an aside to my prior post - when I was getting my Bachelor of Science in Nursing my senior nursing research project was on the high incidnce of cancer in Lawrence County New Castle, PA. I did a random study of the city people - cucasians, asias, blacks, middle eastern, etc, as well as different religious backgrounds. In the city proper - one in three had suffered some type of cancer. When you moved out to the 3 townships that surround/adjoin the city - some of which had city water - it dropped to one in six - and when you went out farther yet - the other 3 school districts that surround the previous 3 - all had well water or bottled water - and the cancer incidence dropped to one in 20 - and the only commonality among everyone was water. I was even able to speak to some Amish families. So - the farther you got away from the city water supply - the less chance of developing cancer.
Both Earl and I were raised in the townships around New Castle, but when we were growing up - we still had wells. The sewer/water supply didn't get there until I was avout 16, and it still has not gotten all the way to where Earl was raised.