Guest Blog by Tracey TieF
Owner and Operator of Anarres Natural Health
Charmaine Pang of Pangstars enjoys a glass of purified water.
When I was a newly minted Certified Natural Health Practitioner, I started Anarres Apothecary as a social enterprise storefront, online and mail-order resource for anyone who wanted body care, DIY supplies and housewares that are Good For You and Good For The Earth. For me, holistic health does not mean merely the health of our individual minds, bodies and spirits, but also the health of the Earth and all of its inhabitants. That’s why, for a dozen years, I’ve been a fan of Water Docs, and have offered Self Spa mini-workshops at festival screenings to show people how easy and affordable it is to create bath salts, body scrubs and face masks using fairly-traded, local and environmentally friendly ingredients. Naturally, I rejected the distilled water that comes in plastic bottles and needed a responsible water purifier to make the Anarres body care products with.
BAD WATER?
I am grateful that the water that comes out of my tap is drinkable, and I know that most people on our planet do not have this privilege, including upwards of 130 indigenous communities across Canada that don't have drinkable tap water. Nonetheless, I confess to having a sensitive nose, with a disdain for the scent of chlorine and living in old houses in old neighbourhoods my whole life has meant that my tap water has a good chance of containing lead. Looking up test results in my own postal code confirms this. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/05/20/lead_water_testing_results.html
UGH! TO PLASTIC PITCHERS AND WASTE
So, for the first 15 years of my time as an adult in Toronto, I used the ubiquitous plastic water pitchers with the plastic charcoal filled filters made by reprehensible companies with fake recycling programs. Often, I hesitated to replace the filters on time because I was so reluctant to throw out and buy new plastic. Eventually, I learned a hack to at least keep the plastic out of landfill: drilling a hole in the top of the filter, emptying the charcoal, and replacing it with bulk aquarium charcoal, then closing the hole up with a cork. “Good job, Tracey!”, I thought, except that for a while I composted the charcoal before it occurred to me that I was putting the unwanted metals and chemicals back into the earth that the charcoal had absorbed. YIKES!
WHAT SHOULD I DO INSTEAD?
I knew I wanted a better system and I was on the lookout. I did not want reverse osmosis - that simply wastes water, concentrates toxins and puts them back out into the environment. Reverse osmosis also removes minerals (effectively making distilled water), risking demineralizing the body. “Out of sight, out of mind” means that changing filters and cleaning the under-the-counter unit is easily ignored and forgotten about. I might even be making my water worse!
As a Certified Natural Health Practitioner, I wanted a water purifier that I felt totally good about (from the perspectives of personal and planetary health) and I didn’t want to continue supporting the dirty dogs who make the pitcher style filters. I also didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a purifier, or to be trapped into a cycle of buying really expensive replacement filters. I also didn’t want the risk of buying into dodgy science from a company that might be here today and gone tomorrow.
I FIND THE WATER PURIFIER OF MY DREAMS
When I started my Anarres Natural Health practice, teaching DIY product creation and selling fairly-traded and local ingredients and body care, I had displays in a number of home and health shows. At one show I saw the Stefani Water Purifiers, checked out the booth every day of the show, read up on the performance of the filters, and by the end of that show, promised myself that I would buy a Stefani. I learned more, I decluttered my countertop and I ordered and I even promoted and sold Stefani Water Purifiers to my DIY body care product-making students that year, only to discover that Life Spices (another retailer) was selling off their stock. So here I was with a system I adored, that I had sold to my students, and I absolutely HAD to import myself, so that we always had replacement filters!
I LEARN TO IMPORT!
This was the most epic adventure I’d ever embarked on. It involved introductions, decisions about shipping and insurance, the selection of a broker, the filling out (still) of the “mind-blowingly complicated, anything-could-go-wrong” wire transfer forms and the monumental (for me) minimum allowable order. Through this process, I got to know the Stefani people and the company - a kindly, committed, family business located in Brazil. When we discussed the challenge and expense of posting the terracotta water purifiers around North America, I asked why the Stefani family does not have its terracotta compartments made on each continent, so that they are more affordable to transport. My contact, Aguinaldo, told me that they are committed to continuing to hire and train local people off the street as potters, and that they do not want to lose the quality control they have over humidity and drying time that they have in their own plant that they’ve been developing since 1947. I am not simply dealing with a family business with integrity, but one, I am happy to say, that is also a social enterprise.
WHY DID I CHOOSE STEFANI WATER PURIFIERS?
I’ve been importing annually for a decade now, and along the way, I’ve discovered more and more reasons to support Stefani Water Purifiers. Here are my reasons to love my own Stefani Water Purifiers (a 16L at home, a 6L in our staff kitchen, a 16L in the front of the shop, and a 6L in the Workshop Room)…
TERRACOTTA - an unglazed red clay - is how water stays clean and safe for humans in clay channels underground. Terracotta water urns have been used all around the world for eons to keep water fresh. Water evaporates through the porous walls of the terracotta urn, cooling the water by a few degrees, so the water is always the perfect temperature to drink!
HEALTHY WATER USING NATURAL MATERIALS
The filter cartridges consist of three layers. The outer shell is a 0.5 micron-sized porcelain ceramic. The inner layer of the porcelain is infused with colloidal silver to kill germs and stop these from growing inside the filtered water. The inside is filled with activated charcoal from coconut shells. Because the filters are ceramic, not plastic, they do not leach hormone-disrupting chemicals into your water and into the landfill afterwards.
INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED TEST RESULTS
So many water filter companies make false claims about the performance of their water purifiers. When I wanted to expand into selling stainless steel water purifiers, I called the company’s customer service line three times to check their claims. One agent sent me the test result report that contradicted their stated claims. The second agent restated the falsified info posted on their website. The third agent told me I should not have been sent the result report and they had no new info for me. Of course, I will never sell these water purifiers, but their customers DO buy Stefani filters to replace the branded filters that cost 5 times as much!
THE RESULTS ARE IN
The down-to-earth INMETRO Certified test results show that Stefani water filters consistently remove and reduce the following impurities and contaminants:
99.9% Bacteria (Thankfully, municipally treated water is relatively free of bacteria.)
99.9% Amoeba (Thankfully, municipally treated water is relatively free of bacteria.)
99.7% Copper (Copper can build up in your brain, liver, and lungs, making you unwell.)
99.6% Lead (A problem when water travels through old water pipes. There is no safe level of lead.)
98.5% Chlorine (Possibly carcinogenic, it keeps germs out, but no longer evaporates, leaving a “chemical” taste and smell.)
99.4% Iron (Nutritional iron comes from food, since the body cannot easily absorb iron from water.)
99.4% Zinc (Drinking water containing high levels of zinc can lead to stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting.)
97.0% Bromoform (Tribromomethane is a chemical that is a possible contaminant of drinking water that has been chlorinated.)
95.0% Dichlorobromomethane (Dichlorobromochloromethane is a chemical that is a possible contaminant of drinking water that has been chlorinated.)
94.5% Aluminum (Aluminum salts are commonly added as coagulants during water treatment to remove turbidity, organic matter and microorganisms. Aluminum is also an impurity found in other water treatment chemicals and can leach into drinking water from cement mortar pipes or linings. Aluminum can build up in the body with effects on the nervous system and with possible connections to several diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Lou Gehrig's disease.)
93.0% Chloroform (Can contaminate groundwater, and can cause dizziness, fatigue, and headaches and may damage your liver and kidneys.)
93.0% Dibromochloromethane (Dibromochloromethane is a chemical that is a possible contaminant of drinking water that has been chlorinated.)
92.0% Dieldrin (Is acutely toxic to laboratory animals by the oral, dermal, and inhalation routes, affecting eyes, skin, and the central nervous system, producing irritability, tremors, and convulsions.)
87.0% Lindane (Acute exposure of animals to lindane results in neurological and behavioural effects.)
ESTIMATED RESULTS
>50% to <10% Fluoride, municipally added water (Adverse effects are found at 50ppm +, the EPA recommends 20ppm, and Toronto adds 6ppm. The detectable level is 5ppm!)
Which in turn, result in naturally fresh and 100% healthy water.
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Of course, using any at home water purifier will eliminate your use of single-use plastic water bottles, but we should expect a lot more from manufacturers. The Stefani company packages in a corrugated cardboard box with cardboard padding. The terracotta countertop Stefani purifiers are gravity fed, so they are safer and work in off grid cottages and homes. The Stefani does not waste water or concentrate toxins, whereas reverse osmosis units waste up to 70% of the water they filter, concentrating the toxins in the 70% of the water they put back out into the sewer system. I feel really good about the porcelain filter sequestering toxins so that these chemicals and metals don’t go back out into the watershed. Strangely, putting the used up filter in the landfill is the friendliest thing to do, because it has captured and holds onto the contaminants.
WIN A TERRACOTTA WATER PURIFIER OF YOUR OWN!
This year I am offering, as a prize for the Climate Change & Me photo contest, a Stefani terracotta water purifier of your choice - whether the 4L, 6L, 8L, 10L, or 13L is the best one for your household. You’ll receive guidance on how to set up and maintain your water purifier, and I promise I’ll always be there to help if you encounter any trouble, and I’ll always provide inexpensive replacement filters and parts for your unit. At Anarres Apothecary and AnarresHealth.ca, we are also donating 10% of the proceeds from sales of water purifiers and related products during the month of March to Water Docs! I hope you enjoy the sweet natural taste of terracotta purified water as much as I do and will continue your commitment to healthy water for all creatures on our precious planet.