General Facts
Health Facts
Fun Facts
Health Facts
Level of activity and body weight determine
the amount of water a person needs to maintain proper hydration.
In general, people should drink eight 8-oz. servings of water
per day, adding more for each hour of activity.
Source: International Bottled
Water Association
Thirst is not a good indicator that
the body needs to be replenished with liquids.
Source: International Bottled
Water Association
A person will die after 4-10 days without
water. Most people could live a month or longer without food.
Source: Raintree Illustrated Science
Encyclopedia
If the amount of water in your body
is reduced by just 1%-2%, you feel very thirsty. If it's reduced
by 5%, your skin will shrink and you'll have difficulty moving
your muscles or thinking clearly. If it's reduced by 10%,
you'll die.
Source: The New Book of Knowledge
The average adult loses about two and
one-half quarts of water per day through elimination of body
waste, sweating, breathing.
Source: Junior Science Book of
Water
Last year, more than 45 million Americans
drank tap water from sources containing Cryptosporidium, a
microscopic parasite found in the feces of infected humans
or animals, in their raw or finished water. In 1993, more
than 100 people died in Milwaukee because of Cryptosporidium
in their tap water.
Source: National Association of
People with AIDS
To reduce risk of exposure to Cryptosporidium
and other microbial contaminants, drink: - tap water that
has been at a full and rolling boil for one minute. - bottled
water that is from a protected underground source or that
has been subjected to distillation, reverse osmosis, or one
micron filtration. - water run through point-of-use filters
that are NSF certified 53 for cyst removal.
Source: National Association of
People with AIDS
Current testing methods for Cryptosporidium
are imprecise and miss about 90% of the parasites in the raw
and finished water.
Source: National Association of
People with AIDS
Approx. 75% of U.S. community water
supplies are disinfected with chlorine to kill disease-causing
germs. But disinfection does not remove chemicals and metals
such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's), chloroform, arsenic,
lead, and mercury.
Source: World Book Encyclopedia
Water polluted with human and animal
wastes can spread typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and other
diseases.
Source: World Book Encyclopedia
In the 1854 epidemic of the Broad Street
Pump in London, 616 deaths from cholera occurred in 40 days
as a result of infected human sewage leaking into the well.
Source: McGraw Hill Encyclopedia
of Science and Technology
The treatment of water to remove pathogenic
organisms had its beginnings in about 1892, after Dr. Robert
Koch had traced the cholera epidemic in Hamburg, Germany,
to its unfiltered water supply.
Source: Encyclopedia Americana
In the 4th century BC, Hippocrates,
"the Father of Medicine," advocated the boiling
and filtering of polluted water before drinking.
Source: Encyclopedia Americana
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