012 Nicole Bijlsma – Healthy Homes, Healthy People (Part 2) - Unstress with Dr Ron Ehrlich

Nicole Bijlsma joins me back on the show to chat about water quality, plastics and what it means to have healthy homes, healthy people. Did you know that aluminium is added to the water supply? And what does it actually mean that we are fluoridating our water? What else can been found in our water and what impact does it have?
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Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Hello and welcome to Unstress. I'm Dr. Ron Ehrlich. Look, we just had to get Nicole Bijlsma back talking about healthy homes, healthy people. Now, as I think she mentioned in the last episode, she's doing a PhD in Building and Home Biology, the environmental toxins we're exposed to in our home but today we're gonna cover two or three, two I think, important subjects. That is water quality and plastics. Now, let's first talk about water quality. Let's just have a listen to it and stay around at the end and I'll share with you my own views on water fluoridation but it's a big topic. The other topic we're gonna cover is a huge topic, which seems also overwhelming but it's not. That is the topic of plastics. Arguably, it could be, it is one our biggest environmental challenges. I hope you enjoy this episode, this chat that I had with Nicole Bijlsma.

Welcome back, Nicole.

Nicole Bijlsma:                     Hi Ron.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Nicole, we had that program where we covered so much, really. We heard your amazing story, personal story, which led you into this field of Home Biology and we defined what it was. We covered in the last show all about the bedroom and some of the things that can come up. You gave 10 great tips again, which will be on that show, but today I wanted to pick up where we left off last time. We touched on water because water, I mean if we think sleep's the most important part of the day and the bedroom's the most important room in the house, well, water's a pretty important nutrient and there are some issues around water. Can you talk to us about what they might be?

Nicole Bijlsma:                     Sure. Drinking water is something, especially in Melbourne, that we all take for granted because it's considered to be one of the cleanest water supplies in the world because it comes from a forested catchment area that people can't access. The reality's most of the contaminants, especially in tap water, will be derived from the distribution systems. You've got hundreds of thousands of kilometers of pipe from the reservoir to your home and this is often where the contaminants can often arise. Of course, you also have things like pesticides that can be in the rivers. Many of the pesticides that are actually tested for are only a very small number compared to what's actually used in agriculture in Australia. That's also a big issue and a problem. Intact water, if we have a look some of the contaminants, we've got things like aluminum, for example, in my water supply in Melbourne, I get from Yarra Valley Water because most of it comes from the Yarra River. They add aluminium or alum sulfate as a flocculating agent. It binds to the sediment and then put it's to the floor so that it filters the sediment out of the water.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   That is added to our water supply just to draw the, a flocculant is something that gathers all the heavy stuff and drops it down so the-

Nicole Bijlsma:                     Yes.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   ... water's clearer. That's actually added to water. Okay. I didn't know that.

Nicole Bijlsma:                     And the level by the Australian drinking water guidelines of about .2 mg per liter, is based on aesthetics not health based guideline. Of course, aluminium's been correlated with Alzheimer's and dementia and more and more evidence coming out that there certainly seems to be a strong connection. The guidelines are not health based, they're based on the fact that consumers won't complain because they can't see se...