Amid insufferable temperatures and seasonal modifications, youngsters and adults ought to improve their water consumption, however are suggested to keep away from unfiltered faucet and bottled water as a lot as attainable, in line with a water know-how and sustainability knowledgeable.
“The entire purpose our firm exists is as a result of now we have a basic disaster in our ingesting water in america right this moment, and never lots of people are speaking about it,” Wealthy “Raz” Razgaitis, CEO of FloWater, instructed FOX Enterprise.
Raz, previously of Fortune 500 firms and international pharmaceutical leaders Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly, co-founded FloWater 12 years in the past to revive America’s ingesting water.
America’s water infrastructure is underfunded and outdated. In 2023, the EPA decided that the U.S.’s water infrastructure requires $625 billion over a 20-year interval to handle the problems, in line with the Infrastructure Report Card.
“From the governmental aspect, whether or not it’s federal or municipal, no person can resolve our infrastructure points in a single or two phrases,” Raz mentioned. “So, it’s a scorching potato. No person desires to speak about this and amplify what the issue is.”
“A variety of firms are profiting off of a extremely damaged water infrastructure.”
Raz instructed FOX Enterprise that shopper packaged items firms, particularly massive beverage manufacturers and power drink firms, are capitalizing on impressionable younger adults and combating for youths’ mindshare.
“I received personally captivated with this, watching my daughters at a younger age get, what I’d say is, programmed in the identical approach that I received programmed rising up by changing into actually fixated on sugary, caffeinated drinks,” Raz mentioned.
“It is a actual downside as a result of it creates lifelong behaviors, addictions, and dependencies that in the end result in cataclysmic selections downstream.”
Raz mentioned selecting between unfiltered faucet water and bottled ingesting water is like evaluating cigarettes.
“Seventy thousand to eighty thousand chemical compounds have been submitted to the toxicology division of the EPA during the last many many years,” Raz mentioned. “There are an estimated 50,000 chemical compounds in use in america right this moment. These chemical compounds are used for issues like pharmaceutical manufacturing, textile manufacturing, agricultural use, and in the end, fewer than 100 of these roughly 50,000 chemical compounds in use in america right this moment are regulated by the Secure Consuming Water Act of 1974, which has hardly been up to date since 1974.”
“We’re actually ingesting a chemical cocktail,” Raz mentioned.
In abstract, the SDWA was established to defend water high quality from widespread contaminants and was later amended and reauthorized in 1986 and 1996, in line with the EPA web site.
Raz, nevertheless, instructed FOX Enterprise that roughly 70% of Individuals don’t like or don’t belief faucet water, so that they resort to bottled water, which is riddled with micro- and nanoplastic contaminants.
“Our job is de facto to cease that cycle,” he mentioned of FloWater.
FloWater, a purified ingesting water system, is used to reinforce each the style and results of ingesting water. Raz based the model to get adults and youngsters to fall in love with water once more.
“The best way that we do that’s by taking the water that municipal programs ship, which they do the very best job they will presumably do given the many years of contamination which have occurred in our ingesting water,” Raz mentioned. “Then, we add a purification system onto that that radically modifications that faucet water. It reduces the unhealthy stuff and places good issues in there, delivering what individuals say is the world’s best-tasting water.”
Whereas Raz encourages workplaces, gyms, faculty districts, and different public locations to offer individuals with FloWater programs that value round $5 per thirty days, he isn’t specific about what system is used, so long as one is obtainable to customers.
The FloWater web site presents a water evaluation function for all zip codes within the U.S. to find out what precisely is of their faucet water.
“There are over 200 million Individuals estimated to be ingesting water from the faucet with PFAS in it,” Raz mentioned.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are broadly used, long-lasting chemical compounds, elements of which break down very slowly over time. There are literally thousands of them present in industrial, shopper and industrial merchandise, in line with the EPA web site.
“Over 56% of Individuals have been ingesting faucet water with lead in it,” Raz mentioned.
He added that microplastics present in bottled water develop into nanoplastics as a result of they don’t biodegrade, and people eat about one bank card’s price of plastic each week.
“The folks that don’t like that downside solved are individuals promoting shopper packaged items which might be wrapped in plastic and distributed,” Raz instructed FOX Enterprise.
For householders who don’t have entry to FloWater, Raz recommends a system with a triple filter and reverse osmosis, a membrane that’s impervious to contaminants and removes them right down to .0001 microns, in line with Raz.
Owners ought to have a system with a mineral filter that features calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium for the countertop or underneath the sink.
Programs for the house can value wherever from just a few hundred {dollars} to $2,000.
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