Plastic is Poison
I was extremely disappointed in the plastic bottle and water article last week [Cover story, Aug. 12: “H2 Woe”] and saw it as yet another example of scientific illiteracy in the popular media (Zane’s comments about Wi-Fi a bit ago were another). While the article did a nice job on sustainability and corporate legerdemain, it did not address a major health issue and what would likely more effectively address the bigger ecological issues: the leaching of plasticizers (technically phthalates) into water and their function as endocrine system disrupters and estrogen mimics.
Plasticizers mimic the action of hormones, blocking or stimulating relevant receptors. Estrogen mimics, in large enough concentrations, have been documented to produce a variety of physiological responses by the body: abnormal infertilities, breast and prostate cancers, neurological problems in newborns, impotence, precocious breast growth, hyper-activity etc. In addition, plasticizers are difficult for the body to detox so they are stored in fat tissue and slowly accumulate underneath the radar (so to speak) until they erupt in undesired physiological adaptation. In an EPA study, 100 percent of human fat samples were found to contain various plasticizers (not to mention dioxin—a cancer causing compound).
What can you do: 1) reduce use of plastic water bottles and plastic wrapped foods in which food substances have been heated or stored for more than a day or so, 2) eat or juice plenty of indole-type compounds (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, collard greens, cilantro) that detox estrogen mimics, 3) educate yourself in environmental medicine subjects.
Not all plastics leach the same things or at the same rate or hold stuff for the same length of time, but the plastic found in the PTE1 plastic water bottles, in which water has been stored for likely a long time, is worthy of serious concern.
And while one bottle will not make much difference, many plastic bottles in which water has over many years coupled with other exposures increasing your total toxic load, may well do so. And here in NM whatever you do—don’t have them sit in the sun. And if you don’t trust the objectivity of your water supplier get some facts; they are more useful than emotional reactivity and unfounded assertions. Split the cost with a few people who share your water supply and get a water test kit or send a sample to American Environmental Health Foundation, www.ehcd.com, for testing.
JR Ristorcelli
Santa Fe
Wetter water
Your cover story on today’s bottled water backlash was absent an entire facet of what really makes healthy H2O.
While I recognize the environmental quandary over bottled water, it’s a critical mistake to think if water is completely pure then that’s as good as it gets. There are other important factors to take into consideration such as pH, mineral content, ionic conditions affecting surface tension (hardness or softness) and even the direction of electron spin, which makes water life-detracting or life-enhancing.
In fact, distilled water is so energetically deadened that it will leach a corresponding degree of our own life-force energy. This has been shown to be true by ultra-sensitive, subtle energy detection technology as well as displayed by Kirlian photography.
So therefore I (as many others) drink only 100 percent spring water that is vibrationally alive and is well on the plus side energetically.
It’s been scientifically validated that energetically active water is wetter and more absorbable and hydrates and cleanses our bodies of toxins better. It’s also factual that water has the ability to copy and memorize information and so removing the physical impurities and toxins from the water is not enough—the remaining frequency signatures of the contaminants must also be removed. That water retains a vibrational memory of bygone substances is a central tenet of homeopathy.
This means that neither municipal water treatment plants nor home purifying units (not even reverse osmosis in stores) will remove the corresponding remnants of the electromagnetic frequencies of the pollutants that are detrimental to our health.
And for those needing visual proof of this, one needs to look no further than the fascinating work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, whose frozen water crystal photos show drinking water from city municipalities as disastrous images (no matter the standards) as compared to water from natural and dynamic sources that form beautiful, jewel-like crystals.
Richard Dean Jacob
Santa Fe
Pro Park Police
The recent article about the Canyon Neighborhood Association’s and Upaya Zen Center’s opposition to the Caretaker Housing in City Parks initiative would have been better placed in SFR’s LOSER column.
I have long maintained that the city needs to provide affordable housing to its police officers, and the police need to have a more visible presence in our neighborhoods. What better way to address both needs than the Caretaker Housing in City Parks initiative?
On this point, there are more important facts to consider than were presented in the article [Outakes, Aug. 13: “Space Out”].
First, although there were “only” 25 reported incidents in Armijo Park from January 2005 to July 2008, according to the complete Santa Fe Police Department reports there totalled 849 police calls logged during that period from Cerro Gordo Road, on which Armijo Park is more-or-less centrally located. Cerro Gordo Road is less than two miles long. These 849 calls included allegations of aggravated assault, burglary, auto burglary, auto theft, suspicious persons, harassment and criminal damage to property, among others.
Secondly, Armijo Park is essentially a large vacant lot with only a few amenities for park-goers. Those of us who live in this neighborhood appreciate open space, but we also share serious public safety concerns, as witnessed by the number of calls logged by the SFPD. A drive-by inspection of the park from Cerro Gordo Road shows plenty of space in which to build a suitable 1,200-square-foot home for an officer, and still leave most of the property available for public use.
Lastly, the city has a continual need to attract and retain qualified police officers. As part of that equation, during my tenure as city manager, our elected officials were told of the pressing need for affordable housing for those officers that will also enable them, importantly, to become an integrated part of our community in ways that transcend their jobs.
Public safety issues and affordable housing needs remain community-wide problems, and we should all be part of the solution.
Asenath Kepler
Santa Fe
Correction: SFR’s review of Radamisto [Performing Arts, July 25: “Opera, Seriously”], had errors in the names of two singers. Tiridate was sung by Luca Pisaroni and Polissena was sung by Laura Claycomb. SFR regrets the errors.
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