Indoor Air Quality Important for Good Health

Why does Indoor Air Quality matter?

The air quality of our indoor environments affects our health and often contributes to structural degradation and building failures within our homes.

Consider the Facts

• According to the American Lung Association of Minnesota, elements within our home and workplaces have been increasingly recognized as threats to our respiratory health. The most common pollutants are radon, combustion products, biologicals (molds, pet dander, pollen), volatile organic compounds, lead dust and asbestos.
• The Environmental Protection Agency lists poor indoor air quality as the fourth largest environmental threat to our country.
• There are an estimated 40 million individuals in the United States who are affected by allergies. Learning how to control a homes environment to reduce allergen levels is important for managing allergies and asthma. Individuals who suffer from asthma, or have other respiratory illness may potentially be at a greater risk for health complications associated with poor air quality in their homes.
• The prevalence rate of pediatric asthma has increased from 40.1 to 69.1,—a 72.3 percent increase. Asthma is the sixth ranking chronic condition in our nation and the leading serious chronic illness of children in the U.S.
• In the house, poor indoor air quality can result in structural rot within the walls and attic and around window framing from excess moisture.
• Common pollutants can enter our houses through air leaks in the structure.
• Common housing problems or failures that occur in our homes include: musty odors and mold growth, window condensation, structural rot, peeling paint, back-drafting appliances, damp basements and ice dams, or build-up of ice on the roofs edge, and high utility costs.
  
  
  
  

From the American Lung Association

RainSoft Air Purification Products

RainSoft air purification systems treat the entire home, not just one room. Our systems mount directly into the ductwork of your home, providing cleaner, fresher air throughout the entire house. With advanced UV light and ozone lamp technology, the AirMaster Ultra system eliminates airborne contaminants in your home. 

For more information contact:

RainSoft of Atlanta

2125 Barrett Park Drive Suite 106
Kennesaw, GA 30144

(678) 364-7700

RainSoft of Atlanta, an authorized RainSoft Dealer

Or locate a RainSoft Dealer near you.

RainSoft Reviews can tell you what people in your area are saying about RainSoft.

What is Safe Water? Listen Here to Learn More

What is Safe Water? This audio file from the USGS can tell you more.

If you have questions about your drinking water RainSoft can answer them. Your RainSoft Dealer can also perform a Free In Home Water Test.

Home Water Treatment

With two premium drinking water systems, RainSoft water treatment delivers a higher quality and better tasting drinking water experience. Not only will the water from a RainSoft drinking water system in your glass taste distinctly better, but so will all of the food and beverages you make with it.

Ultrefiner reverse osmosis water systems are RainSoft's premier drinking water system. Using advanced RO technology, the Ultrefiner provides highly polished drinking water that filters out smaller particles that can be missed by less refined drinking water systems.

For out-of-the-way convenience, Hydrefiner drinking water systems deliver a continuous supply of clean, fresh water from right under your sink. Utilizing a compressed carbon-block filter, the Hydrefiner eliminates bad tastes and odors from home drinking water.

RainSoft of Atlanta

2125 Barrett Park Drive Suite 106
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Phone: (678) 364-7700

or locate a RainSoft Dealer near you.

To read what others in your area are saying about RainSoft, check out RainSoft Reviews.

Drinking Plenty of Water Key to Good Health and Make Sure It's Pollutant Free

Water: The most important ‘nutrient’ for health, vitality, longevity and fat loss

Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 10:49 am | Updated: 11:50 am, Tue Aug 28, 2012.

By Paula Owens Special to AFN 

Water is one of the most important nutrients and often overlooked for detoxification, losing body fat, and optimal health. Your body is approximately 70 percent water, your brain tissue approximately 75 percent water, and your blood is 83 percent water.

Many people are chronically dehydrated and consume a majority of their calories from sugary, caffeinated beverages. You can become dehydrated from an intense workout, excessive sweating, too much alcohol consumption, working outdoors in the heat, use of OTC drugs, when you’re sick (disease, diarrhea, vomiting), starvation, or just not consuming enough water.

Symptoms of dehydration include fatigue, poor concentration, headaches, low back pain, constipation, Charley horses and dry skin.

A few benefits of water are:

• Helps lower elevated cholesterol

• Weight maintenance aiding with fat loss

• Eliminates waste and flushes out toxins

• Central nervous system and brain function

• Regulates body temperature

• Transport nutrients

• Lowers cortisol

• Boosts metabolism

• Lubricates your spine, bones, joints and muscles

• Stimulates digestion

Before meals, enjoy a cup or two of water with the fresh juice from a lemon or lime. Doing so creates an alkaline environment and is helpful for digestion. In a study, those who drank two cups of water before each meal lost an average of 5 pounds more weight over a 12-week calorie controlled diet than those who followed the same diet but did not drink the water.

To avoid BPA and other chemicals from water in plastic bottles, store your water in a glass bottles. Better yet, consider installing a reverse osmosis water filtration system in your home to filter your water from impurities such as fluoride, contaminants, and chemicals.

Ten popular U.S. bottled water brands contain mixtures of 38 different pollutants, including bacteria, fertilizer, Tylenol and industrial chemicals, some at levels no better than tap water, according to laboratory tests recently conducted by Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The bottle water industry has also contributed to one of the biggest environmental problems facing the world today. Only one-fifth of the bottles produced by the industry are recycled. The remaining four-fifths pile up at landfills, litter our neighborhoods and foul our oceans.

Read more...

RainSoft Water Systems

Our drinking water systems provide bottled water quality straight from the faucet. Ultrefiner RO drinking water systems are our premier reverse osmosis systems that utilize advanced technology for better tasting, cleaner water. Hydrefiner drinking water systems are installed under your kitchen sink and use a compressed carbon block filter to better treat and filter bad tastes and odors from your drinking water. 

RainSoft of Atlanta

2125 Barrett Park Drive Suite 106
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Phone: (678) 364-7700

www.rainsoftofatlanta.com

Or locate a RainSoft Dealer near you

Staying Hydrated One Way to Reduce Kidney Stones in Kids

Daily Checkup: Drinking water cuts youngsters' risk of painful deposits

Summer is peak dehydration season, so now is a good time to make sure your kids are drinking enough water. Besides the familiar problems of irritability and heat exhaustion, dehydration can lead to the formation of kidney stones, even in children.

BY KATIE CHARLES / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WHO'S MOST AT RISK

Summer is peak dehydration season, so now is a good time to make sure your kids are drinking enough water. Besides the familiar problems of irritability and heat exhaustion, dehydration can lead to the formation of kidney stones, even in children.

“Most people, adults and kids, just aren’t drinking enough water to properly process the minerals that are coursing through our body,” says Mount Sinai’s Dr. Grace Hyun.

“Kidney stones are salt deposits that form in the urinary tract when urine concentration is off balance, which in kids is usually due to dehydration,” says Hyun. In the last few decades, it has become increasingly common for kids to be diagnosed with kidney stones.

A body’s normal hydration can be disrupted in three ways. “The most common ways are the intake of too little liquid or too much salt,” says Hyun. “A minority of patients are born with a faulty mechanism for maintaining correct salt levels.”

The kidney stone is made of a combination of the minerals normally found in the blood. Despite the presence of  calcium, drinking milk is not a primary factor that leads to kidney stones.

When kids develop urological problems, whether urinary incontinence or kidney stones, the underlying cause is almost always that they aren’t drinking enough water. “It can be hard to get kids to drink water — so often they say, ‘Water doesn’t taste good,’?” says Hyun. “I know it’s a challenge for parents, so I recommend drinking water with every meal and not keeping any other beverages in the refrigerator.” To prevent urological problems, Hyun recommends drinking four to five glasses of water a day, which should lead to urination every two and a half to three hours.

ESSENTIALS - WATER

Some children form kidney stones due to an underlying cause they were born with. “If the stones are due to an inborn metabolic disorder, they could drink all the water in the world and still have kidney stones,” says Hyun. “In these cases kids need to receive medical treatment.”

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Kidney stones present themselves in the same way in children and adults. “The symptoms can be quite acute: flank pain, nausea, vomiting and sometimes blood in the urine,” says Hyun. “The classic kidney stone pain is a renal-colic pain that starts in the flank and radiates around to the lower abdomen — you can’t get into a comfortable position and it is very painful.” Usually doctors use ultrasound or a noncontrast CT scan for diagnosis.

It’s not the kidney stones themselves that cause pain. “It’s when the stone suddenly blocks the ureter or flow of urine, which causes a backup of pressure that patients feel real pain,” says Hyun. “It’s tougher to diagnose kidney stones in those kids who have vague abdominal pain — because lots of healthy kids have a nonspecific pain.”

Get Informed. Start with the American Urological Association (www.urologyhealth.org) for user-friendly search engines and a toll-free hotline: 1-800-828-7866.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Get Informed. Start with the American Urological Association (www.urologyhealth.org) for user-friendly search engines and a toll-free hotline: 1-800-828-7866.
 
Eat Less Salt. “There’s a lot more salt in processed foods than in a home-cooked meal,” says Hyun, “Poorer diets and the obesity epidemic probably play a role in the increase we’re seeing in pediatric kidney stones.”
 
Drink Enough Water. “WATER, WATER, WATER, AND IF YOU DRINK A GLASS OF ANOTHER LIQUID, THAT DOESN’T COUNT,” SAYS HYUN, “4-5 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY IS AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL.”
 
Recognize Dehydration. The rule of thumb for maintaining urological health is that everyone--men, women, and kids--should urinate every 2.5-3 hours. “Urine that’s bright yellow, dark, or has a strong odor is a sign of dehydration,” says Hyun.

Grace Hyun Grace Hyun is a pediatric urologist who treats children for problems ranging from congenital disorders to kidney stones. An assistant professor of urology and pediatrics, she performs over 300 surgeries a year.

To Read the entire article click here.

The RainSoft Water Difference

RainSoft drinking water systems are a simple, cost-effective solution to providing cleaner, better tasting water right from the tap. And don't forget environmentally friendly! With home water filtration systems from RainSoft, you can get bottled-water quality water, without the bottle. Our premium drinking water systems include: 

Ultrefiner II Premium Drinking Water System - advanced home water filtration systems that deliver highly polished "ingredient water" for all kitchen uses. 

Hydrefiner Water Filtration Systems - a compressed carbon block filters out bad tastes and odors and reduces harmful contaminants.

Contact your RainSoft Dealer for more information.

RainSoft of Atlanta

2125 Barrett Park Drive Suite 106
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Phone: (678) 364-7700

www.rainsoftofatlanta.com

Or Locate a dealer near you.

Cafe Sells Filtered Tap Water

Molecule, Water-Only Cafe, Sells Filtered NYC Tap Water In East Village Store

By Serena Solomon, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

EAST VILLAGE — A new café recently opened up on East 10th Street — but don't expect to find customers sipping on lattes.

Molecule, aka the Water Café, is filtering New York City tap water down to its purest form and serving it for $2.50 to thirsty local patrons using a custom-made device worth more than $20,000.

"It's about treating water a little more consciously, mindfully and respectfully," said co-owner Adam Ruhf, 32, who has a background in music and activism.

But the store is not only planning to peddle its gallons for in-home use, as passersby can stop in for a quick gulp — complete with an option to add vitamin supplements to their H2O cocktails.

The store has been in the works for 18 months, with Ruhf taking the concept of self-service water shops in Los Angeles and building on the theme.

"This is like a water store 2.0," he said of the opening, which was first reported on EV Grieve.

Ruhf knows first hand the healing properties of purified water, claiming that drinking it regularly helped eased the pain caused brought on by two serious car accidents that left him without a spleen and a leg held together with metal pins.

"It's more of an intuitive thing about cleanliness," he explained of how water helped him recover. "Not wanting toxins [from unfiltered water] to further inhibit my recovery."

His store, located between First Avenue and Avenue A, first takes city water heavy with chlorine, fluoride and compound metals and sends it through its towering 8-foot filter behind the counter.

Read more...

Drinking Water from RainSoft

Discover the benefits of RainSoft drinking water systems, and taste the difference in your drinking water today.

A difference you'll notice with every glass.

• Delivers clean, delicious water at the push of a button

• Takes out impurities that faucet-mounted filters can't

• Saves money compared to bottled water

• No more lifting or storing heavy 5 gallon bottles

• Better for the environment

"When my son's friends play at our house, they ask for water instead of soft drinks. Our RainSoft water is that good!"

The RainSoft Difference

RainSoft drinking water systems are a simple, cost-effective solution to providing cleaner, better tasting water right from the tap. And don't forget environmentally friendly! With home water filtration systems from RainSoft, you can get bottled-water quality water, without the bottle.

RainSoft of Atlanta

2125 Barrett Park Drive Suite 106
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Phone: (678) 364-7700

www.rainsoftofatlanta.com

Air Quality Levels Important for Those in Poor Health

Hazy days of summer can boost air pollution, health risks for many

Ground-level ozone and forest fire smoke are common in summer

OLYMPIA - In Washington, we welcome warm sunny weather, ready to spend more time outdoors in the garden and on hiking trails. Summer is also wildfire season and a time when ozone levels rise, making it more difficult to breathe for people with heart and lung diseases.

“It’s important for people who have conditions like asthma, bronchitis, and heart disease to pay attention to air quality reports,” said State Health Officer Dr. Maxine Hayes. “Air pollution makes it hard for everybody to breathe. And poor air quality affects people with heart and lung diseases earlier than others. If you live in an area that has forest fires, make sure to protect yourself from smoky conditions.”

Older adults are vulnerable because they often don’t know they have these diseases. New research suggests that breathing air that has high “particulate” matter, or fine particles, can also be risky for people who are obese or have diabetes. Children are vulnerable to polluted air because their lungs are still growing and they spend more time outdoors.

Different things cause summer air pollution. Several consecutive days of sunny, hot weather will increase ozone. Wildfires like the ones that have broken out in central Washington recently produce smoky air that contains fine particles and toxic chemicals. Cars and trucks generate exhaust. On calm days when the air is still, air pollutants build up. Ongoing climate changes are projected to cause additional bad air quality by increasing wildfires and ozone pollution.

Everyone can lower their exposure to air pollution by checking air quality conditions before taking part in outdoor activities, especially people in high risk groups. When air pollution is high, people should limit outdoor activity and choose less strenuous things to do — such as going for a walk instead of a run. Pollution levels are often highest at midday or in the afternoon, so exercising earlier or later may be wise. Indoor exercise is another option.
Read more...

Visit our website for information about air filters for your home.
www.rainsoftofatlanta.com

After the Wildfires Water Quality Suffers

'Chocolate Milk Shake-Like' Debris Mixture Overwhelms Treatment Plants, School Of Mines Study Says

Alan Gathright, New Media Producer | TheDenverChannel.com

GOLDEN, Colo. -- Rain runoff following a wildfire can compromise drinking water quality and overwhelm water treatment plants with a "chocolate milk shake-like mix" of debris, according to a new study by the Colorado School of Mines.

This can affect tap water that might have a smoky taste and could fail to meet federal drinking water standards, says engineering graduate students whose study suggests ways cities government can protect drinking water after a wildfire.

This is a real-time risk for communities like Colorado Springs, where the Waldo Canyon Fire has scorches 15,324 acres of hillside terrain, and the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood watch for the wildfire's "burn scar" Wednesday afternoon.

In the study, School of Mines graduate researchers worked with the city of Golden on scenarios exploring how a fire in the Golden area would adversely affect the water supply in Clear Creek, the city's source of drinking water.

"This project simulated a range of detrimental wildfire run-off conditions utilizing a surface water treatment pilot plant at the Colorado School of Mines in close collaboration with the City of Golden's drinking water treatment plant," said Professor Jörg Drewes.

The study found that rain runoff mixes leftover wildfire debris and sediment that can thwart purifying mechanisms inside downstream water treatment plants.

"While impacts of wildfires have been studied by scientists from forestry, biology and hydrology, this study is the first that combines these experiences with water treatment engineering and focuses on adverse effects on drinking water quality and appropriate response strategies," Drewes said.

Here's a link to the study: http://tinyurl.com/7lee3pa