Fake Water Ionizer Comparison Sites - Beware!

MANIPULATING TEST RESULTS – WHILE APPEARING LEGIT!



There is some tricky business going on today on the internet. Testing ionizer performance can easily be manipulated, even if they go to great lengths to tell you how they are not. There are basically three ways to manipulate test results: 1) control the performance variables, 2) Doctor the test vessels, 3) play tricks with the camera. BUYER BEWARE of performance tests which carry no certification. You should only trust test results obtained by a third party credible source that is willing to certify the test results.Let’s look at each of the ways tests can appear to be legitimate but are dishonest and manipulated:

Testing where you cannot see the voltage settings on the ionizers: This would be the easiest trick they can play. The scenario is easy: the person performing the test tells you the ionizer is on the highest setting, but the camera does not bother to zoom in on the control panel of the ionizer so you can see it. As you view a performance video pay attention to:

· The close up shots of the control panel of each ionizer.

· Look to ensure the highest setting is selected and that you can actually see this.

Manipulating Flow Rates: You can always achieve higher pH and ORP readings with reduced flow rates. Simply put, speed up flow rate, you get less performance; slow it down and you’ll get more performance. As you view a performance video pay attention to:

· The individual flow rates on each ionizer – can you see them individually and close up?

· Are all the ionizers running at the same time? If so be suspicious – it would be easy to control flow using an in-line valve. You could slow flow to one ionizer to increase results and speed up flow on another ionizer to decrease results.


Additives: Some units have mineral ports. Additives can be introduced to increase or decrease performance.

· White vinegar can be added to the port of an ionizer to decrease performance

· Mineral additives can be introduced to increase performance

· Again, who did the test? Are they credible?

In the end ask who was controlling the settings? A technician from an Independent EPA Certified Analytical Lab would certainly be the most trustworthy.


DOCTORING TEST VESSELS – Even if they state that the test vessels are brand new. Here a few ways in which they can appear brand new but completely skew results:

· Ammonia or bleach – both liquids are extremely powerful alkaline substances. Both also happen to be clear liquids. Here is a simple an powerful way in which to alter results: Take what appears to be a new cup, swirl some bleach or ammonia in it. Pour it out. Allow to dry. Now your vessel appears brand new – but will powerfully alter the results. Add water and you will have a high pH result.

· White vinegar or muriatic acid – both liquids are extremely powerful acidic substances. Both are also clear liquids. Test results can be doctored to lower results using the same method but substituting an acidic. Add water and you will have a lower pH result.


PLAYING TRICKS WITH THE CAMERA OR NARRATIVE– this form of manipulation is easiest to understand. Through editing you can start or stop a film easily creating results that are falsified. Magic can fool your naked eye; imagine what type of magic can be crafted using a camera! Through deft narrative you can be hypnotized into thinking that a test appears to be performed honestly. This is also the easiest to remove doubt from. Believe only facts that can be certified. As you view a performance video ask:

· Who is making the rating or video? Who actually performed the tests?

· Is the person testing (and standing behind the results) credible? Can they be believed?

· Would you prefer to believe a technician from an Independent EPA Certified Analytical Lab would certainly be the most trustworthy.


Lastly lets look at the motivation. Most of the current comparison sites have top ranking in the “Sponsored Links” section on GoogleTM. Why on earth would an objective review site pay GoogleTM to get to the top billing in the search engine rankings? Could it be they stand to profit? The only criteria they offer you are their homegrown video “performance tests” which attempt to appear unbiased and objective. Again, ask the salient questions. In the end you will find it is a slick, yet essentially dishonest approach to offering a comparison. It is designed to direct you to their specific brand, which of course they rank the highest. Additionally, they focus only on pH and ORP and leave out some other crucial performance considerations. In short, when you look past a clean-cut image and a smooth articulate delivery, where are the facts that you can trust?

WHAT YOU SHOULD BELIEVE – It is especially important when considering performance testing that you trust only facts. There are more and more “comparisons” showing up on the Internet lately; how can you know which to believe? The following criteria will help you distinguish what is truly factual from that which appears to be, but in reality is not.


QUESTIONS TO ASK TO DETERMINE A GOOD TEST

Is the Test Independent, Third Party? You will want to know the party performing the test has no motivation for a specific outcome. Ideally a test would be performed by a company with absolutely no business ties to any brand. There are tests on the Internet that appear to be objective but in reality are not. In a few short minutes of internet searching, we found an interesting website depicting the ties of one comparison site to a specific brand. A good litmus test to apply is does the entity performing the test make income from the sale of ionizers? Can you verify this?

Is the Test Scientific? Look for good solid scientific testing using:

o Top quality instruments. Measuring pH is relatively common (example: pool and fish tank maintenance) and the equipment to do it is fairly accurate and readily available. Measuring ORP is another story entirely. ORP is expressed in millivolts (1/1000 of a single volt) and measures extremely slight, and highly variable differences in the electrical properties of water. Instruments that measure ORP range in price from $100 for a handheld “tester” to over $3,000 for more sophisticated laboratory equipment. Look for the more sophisticated and expensive laboratory equipment.

o Solid lab protocols and flawless execution. There are many factors which can be manipulated easily in a video. You will want verify that all possible variables that could affect the outcome of testing were strictly controlled such as settings, flow rates, age of the ionizer

Are the Results Certified? You want to see results certified by a credible authority, which will stand behind the fact that it is an Independent Third Party that has employed proper scientific protocols. The litmus test here is easy: would the certifying party have anything to lose if they were caught falsifying certified results? An analytical lab with an EPA certification on the line would be a good bet to provide facts that are verifiable and trustworthy. A guy standing in a kitchen would not.

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Fish in U.S. Rivers Tainted With Common Medications

Study is part of government strategy to tackle issue

(HealthDay News) -- Fish from five U.S. rivers were found to be tainted with traces of medications and common chemicals, according to a new study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Baylor University.

The common antihistamine diphenhydramine (Benadryl), an anticonvulsant and two types of antidepressants were among the seven types of pharmaceuticals found in the tissue and livers of fish from waterways in or near Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. Each river is considered "effluent-dominated," because they receive large amounts of wastewater discharge from nearby sewage treatment plants.

While federal standards exist for treated wastewater, they do not address pharmaceuticals or most personal care products, and little is known about the effects they have on the environment and wildlife. This study is part of a federal strategy to address the issue.

Previous research has concluded that behavior vital for fish survival, such as mating and fighting, can be affected if too much antidepressant residue collects in their systems.

While other studies have found pharmaceuticals and personal care products in wild river fish, this is the first time multiple compounds have been found in fish from several different locations, co-lead investigator Bryan Brooks, an associate professor of environmental sciences at Baylor, said in a news release issued by the Texas-based university.

The medications and chemicals found from among the 36 tested for were, aside from diphenhydramine:
the cholesterol drug gemfibrozil (Lopid), which researchers say had never before been found in wild fish;
diltiazem (Cardizem), a medication that helps control high blood pressure;
carbamazepine (Tegretol), a drug used for epilepsy and bipolar disorder;
norfluoxetine, an active ingredient in the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac);
the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft);
galaxolide and tonalide, common odor-enhancing ingredients in soap and other hygiene products.


Galaxolide and tonalide were found in the highest concentrations in the fish tissue, while the others were more concentrated in the liver, which processes foreign substances that enter the body.

The study was presented Wednesday at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Salt Lake City, while the results also are to be published in a special online edition of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

People Turn to “Network Marketing” in Soft Economy

People turn to “network marketing” in soft economy
By CHRIS POLLONE
Reporter
Published: February 17, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala—While her husband was searching for full time work, Jennifer Grissom of Birmingham decided to make a little money on the side on top of her full-time job.

“I had to find some way to get an extra line of income that worked in the hours I had available to me,” she said.

Since November, Jennifer’s been selling skin care products for Arbonne International.

The company relies on a network of sales consultants who recruit other people to sell the product as well.

The more people a sales consultant recruits, the bigger her potential earnings are.

It might sound like a pyramid scheme to some, but marketing experts say it’s not.

“These are legitimate businesses, though you want to make sure you’re working for a good business, always,” Dr. Betsy Holloway of Samford University’s Brock School of Business said.

It’s called “network marketing” or “multi-level marketing” (MLM) and it’s been around for decades.

Watch Video: http://www.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/people_turn_to_network_marketing_in_soft_economy/59952/

For information about the IonWays business opportunity please contact:

Greg & Monika; Clowminzer
Independent IonWays Dealers
http://www.AlkalineBuzz.com
Greg@AlkalineBuzz.com
760-930-9604 / 760-481-5003

AP IMPACT: Tons of released drugs taint US water

By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers - Mon Apr 20, 1:45 AM PDT
- U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

In this photo taken on Feb. 26, 2009, aeration basins are seen in operation at the Wilmington Wastewater Treatment Plant in Wilmington, Del. Scientists took samples from the Delaware River nearby and found elevated concentrations of the painkiller codeine that are prompting them to try and track the source of the drug; this treatment plant handles sewage from a nearby pharmaceutical factory that makes codeine. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

Federal and industry officials say they don't know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them — as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories.

As part of its ongoing PharmaWater investigation about trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, AP identified 22 compounds that show up on two lists: the EPA monitors them as industrial chemicals that are released into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water under federal pollution laws, while the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The data don't show precisely how much of the 271 million pounds comes from drugmakers versus other manufacturers; also, the figure is a massive undercount because of the limited federal government tracking.

To date, drugmakers have dismissed the suggestion that their manufacturing contributes significantly to what's being found in water. Federal drug and water regulators agree.

But some researchers say the lack of required testing amounts to a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy about whether drugmakers are contributing to water pollution.

"It doesn't pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they're creating," said Kyla Bennett, who spent 10 years as an EPA enforcement officer before becoming an ecologist and environmental attorney.

Pilot studies in the U.S. and abroad are now confirming those doubts.

Last year, the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in American drinking water supplies. Including recent findings in Dallas, Cleveland and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties, pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans.

Most cities and water providers still do not test. Some scientists say that wherever researchers look, they will find pharma-tainted water.

Consumers are considered the biggest contributors to the contamination. We consume drugs, then excrete what our bodies don't absorb. Other times, we flush unused drugs down toilets. The AP also found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities.

Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.

Utilities say the water is safe. Scientists, doctors and the EPA say there are no confirmed human risks associated with consuming minute concentrations of drugs. But those experts also agree that dangers cannot be ruled out, especially given the emerging research.

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Two common industrial chemicals that are also pharmaceuticals — the antiseptics phenol and hydrogen peroxide — account for 92 percent of the 271 million pounds identified as coming from drugmakers and other manufacturers. Both can be toxic and both are considered to be ubiquitous in the environment.

However, the list of 22 includes other troubling releases of chemicals that can be used to make drugs and other products: 8 million pounds of the skin bleaching cream hydroquinone, 3 million pounds of nicotine compounds that can be used in quit-smoking patches, 10,000 pounds of the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride. Others include treatments for head lice and worms.

Residues are often released into the environment when manufacturing equipment is cleaned.

A small fraction of pharmaceuticals also leach out of landfills where they are dumped. Pharmaceuticals released onto land include the chemo agent fluorouracil, the epilepsy medicine phenytoin and the sedative pentobarbital sodium. The overall amount may be considerable, given the volume of what has been buried — 572 million pounds of the 22 monitored drugs since 1988.

In one case, government data shows that in Columbus, Ohio, pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. discharged an estimated 2,285 pounds of lithium carbonate — which is considered slightly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and freshwater fish — to a local wastewater treatment plant between 1995 and 2006. Company spokeswoman Marybeth C. McGuire said the pharmaceutical plant, which uses lithium to make drugs for bipolar disorder, has violated no laws or regulations. McGuire said all the lithium discharged, an annual average of 190 pounds, was lost when residues stuck to mixing equipment were washed down the drain.

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Pharmaceutical company officials point out that active ingredients represent profits, so there's a huge incentive not to let any escape. They also say extremely strict manufacturing regulations — albeit aimed at other chemicals — help prevent leakage, and that whatever traces may get away are handled by onsite wastewater treatment.

"Manufacturers have to be in compliance with all relevant environmental laws," said Alan Goldhammer, a scientist and vice president at the industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Goldhammer conceded some drug residues could be released in wastewater, but stressed "it would not cause any environmental issues because it was not a toxic substance at the level that it was being released at."

Several big drugmakers were asked this simple question: Have you tested wastewater from your plants to find out whether any active pharmaceuticals are escaping, and if so what have you found?

No drugmaker answered directly.

"Based on research that we have reviewed from the past 20 years, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are not a significant source of pharmaceuticals that contribute to environmental risk," GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Kate Klemas said the company's manufacturing processes "are designed to avoid, or otherwise minimize the loss of product to the environment" and thus "ensure that any residual losses of pharmaceuticals to the environment that do occur are at levels that would be unlikely to pose a threat to human health or the environment."

One major manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., acknowledged that it tested some of its wastewater — but outside the United States.

The company's director of hazard communication and environmental toxicology, Frank Mastrocco, said Pfizer has sampled effluent from some of its foreign drug factories. Without disclosing details, he said the results left Pfizer "confident that the current controls and processes in place at these facilities are adequately protective of human health and the environment."

It's not just the industry that isn't testing.

FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly noted that his agency is not responsible for what comes out on the waste end of drug factories. At the EPA, acting assistant administrator for water Mike Shapiro — whose agency's Web site says pharmaceutical releases from manufacturing are "well defined and controlled" — did not mention factories as a source of pharmaceutical pollution when asked by the AP how drugs get into drinking water.

"Pharmaceuticals get into water in many ways," he said in a written statement. "It's commonly believed the majority come from human and animal excretion. A portion also comes from flushing unused drugs down the toilet or drain; a practice EPA generally discourages."

His position echoes that of a line of federal drug and water regulators as well as drugmakers, who concluded in the 1990s — before highly sensitive tests now used had been developed — that manufacturing is not a meaningful source of pharmaceuticals in the environment.

Pharmaceutical makers typically are excused from having to submit an environmental review for new products, and the FDA has never rejected a drug application based on potential environmental impact. Also at play are pressures not to delay potentially lifesaving drugs. What's more, because the EPA hasn't concluded at what level, if any, pharmaceuticals are bad for the environment or harmful to people, drugmakers almost never have to report the release of pharmaceuticals they produce.

"The government could get a national snapshot of the water if they chose to," said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, "and it seems logical that we would want to find out what's coming out of these plants."

Ajit Ghorpade, an environmental engineer who worked for several major pharmaceutical companies before his current job helping run a wastewater treatment plant, said drugmakers have no impetus to take measurements that the government doesn't require.

"Obviously nobody wants to spend the time or their dime to prove this," he said. "It's like asking me why I don't drive a hybrid car? Why should I? It's not required."

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After contacting the nation's leading drugmakers and filing public records requests, the AP found two federal agencies that have tested.

Both the EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey have studies under way comparing sewage at treatment plants that receive wastewater from drugmaking factories against sewage at treatment plants that do not.

Preliminary USGS results, slated for publication later this year, show that treated wastewater from sewage plants serving drug factories had significantly more medicine residues. Data from the EPA study show a disproportionate concentration in wastewater of an antibiotic that a major Michigan factory was producing at the time the samples were taken.

Meanwhile, other researchers recorded concentrations of codeine in the southern reaches of the Delaware River that were at least 10 times higher than the rest of the river.

The scientists from the Delaware River Basin Commission won't have to look far when they try to track down potential sources later this year. One mile from the sampling site, just off shore of Pennsville, N.J., there's a pipe that spits out treated wastewater from a municipal plant. The plant accepts sewage from a pharmaceutical factory owned by Siegfried Ltd. The factory makes codeine.

"We have implemented programs to not only reduce the volume of waste materials generated but to minimize the amount of pharmaceutical ingredients in the water," said Siegfried spokeswoman Rita van Eck.

Another codeine plant, run by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Noramco Inc., is about seven miles away. A Noramco spokesman acknowledged that the Wilmington, Del., factory had voluntarily tested its wastewater and found codeine in trace concentrations thousands of times greater than what was found in the Delaware River. "The amounts of codeine we measured in the wastewater, prior to releasing it to the City of Wilmington, are not considered to be hazardous to the environment," said a company spokesman.

In another instance, equipment-cleaning water sent down the drain of an Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc. factory in Denver consistently contains traces of warfarin, a blood thinner, according to results obtained under a public records act request. Officials at the company and the Denver Metro Wastewater Reclamation District said they believe the concentrations are safe.

Warfarin, which also is a common rat poison and pesticide, is so effective at inhibiting growth of aquatic plants and animals it's actually deliberately introduced to clean plants and tiny aquatic animals from ballast water of ships.

"With regard to wastewater management we are subject to a variety of federal, state and local regulation and oversight," said Joel Green, Upsher-Smith's vice president and general counsel. "And we work hard to maintain systems to promote compliance."

Baylor University professor Bryan Brooks, who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment, said assurances that drugmakers run clean shops are not enough.

"I have no reason to believe them or not believe them," he said. "We don't have peer-reviewed studies to support or not support their claims."

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Associated Press Writer Don Mitchell in Denver contributed to this report.

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The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate (at) ap.org

I Have Been Holding Out On You

Dear Friends,

I recently talked with someone who found out what we are
up to and he was really upset that I hadn't shared this with
him sooner.

Well, I figure now is great time to let you know what my
wife have been up to for the last year other then just
having our first beautiful baby boy.

Monika (my lovely wife) and I had been talking about
a business we could do together for some time and
then we stumbled on something amazing.

A very good friend of ours Dr. Charles Richard starting
talking about this amazing new water he had discovered
and just couldn't stop talking about it.

I was never a big water drinker so I didn't pay much
attention to him.

Somehow Charles was able to make a real impression
on Monika and she really wanted to explore the water
for both it's health benefits and also as a possible
business.

OK, now I enter the picture with concerns that my wife
is going to get into some kind of scam, even though I
completely trusted our friend Charles I was still very
skeptical.

So, I started doing all kinds of research to debunk the
water.

What I discovered was eye opening and life changing.

So here is what we've been up to.

We started by drinking alkaline water and then sharing
it with friends.

Then we started to educate people about some very
simple concepts about health and the importance of
proper hydration, pH balance, and redox.

The results have been unbelievable.

What we have learned is that lifestyle related diseases
such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart
disease, and various types of cancers are directly linked
to your diet.

If you eat a proper diet and drink alkaline water it will
prevent you from being constipated and developing
disease.

If you or someone you know is suffering from a
life-style related disease please let them know about
this opportunity to get well.

So, if your interested in learning more about this you
can watch a short video and sign up for an ebook at
our website www.AlkalineBuzz.com

As I mentioned I have done a tremendous amount of
research and have now posted just under 100 blog
articles on related subjects such as:

• pH Miracle and Weight Loss
• pH Miracle and Diabetes
• The Facts About Drinking Bottled Water
• Pharmaceuticals Found In Our Tap Water
• Water The Chemistry Of Life

View More Blogs: Click here

Watch YouTube Videos here: Click here