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Fluoride folly

Whether our city water supplies should be fluoridated is certainly a contentious issue with many organisations like the Australian Dental Association vocal advocates on the benefits of fluoridation. However, the science is not so clear-cut. Writing in the Guardian on the latest push in the UK to fluoridate water supplies, Ben Goldacre says:

“The reality is that anyone making any confident statement on fluoride speaks way beyond the evidence. In 1999 the Department of Health commissioned the centre for reviews and dissemination at York University to do a systematic review of fluoridation and its effects on dental health. Little new work has been done since. In the review, 3,200 research papers, mostly of very poor quality, were unearthed. The ones that met the minimum quality threshold suggested there was vaguely, possibly, around a 15% increase in the number of children without dental caries in areas with fluoridated water, but the studies generally couldn't exclude other explanations for the variance. Of course, the big idea with fluoride in water is that it can reduce social inequalities in dental health since everyone drinks it. But there isn't much evidence on that either.”

What is clear to us at Noble Beverages is that people should have a right to choose whether their water is fluoridated or not. However, in Australia, we are not given this right to choose and local authorities fluoridate our water supplies.

That’s why Noble’s Pureau removes all fluoride from our water. Noble’s Pureau is the only water in Australia that guarantees that it is 100% free of fluoride. We’re proud of this fact and proud that there is at least one fluoride-free product on the market for people to purchase. It’s a pity that we’re not given this choice at the tap.

Posted by: Noble Beverages on 22 April 2010
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More bad news for BPA

More bad news for the chemical Bisphenol-A, which is used in hard plastic containers like office water coolers and can linings. According to new research from the Yale School of Medicine, exposure to Bisphenol-A (BPA) during pregnancy can cause permanent abnormalities in the uterus of offspring and the reprogramming of genes. Read more about the full study here and remember, Noble’s Pureau is proudly 100% “BPA-Free”.

Posted by: Noble Beverages on 10 March 2010
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Choice on BPA

Australia’s consumer advocacy group Choice has warned that “there’s growing evidence that food can be contaminated by harmful chemicals from some types of plastic.” And they pick phthalates and BPA (Bisphenol-A) as chemicals to be especially wary of. “There is, however, growing scientific evidence that even at these lower levels of exposure, phthalates and BPA may be causing problems such as infertility, obesity, breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease and diabetes.” As we’ve pointed out before, the packaging Noble’s Pureau uses is 100% free of all BPA and phthalates. We recommend reading the entire Choice report here and carefully choosing the packaging used with your food and beverages.

Posted by: Noble Beverages on 30 January 2010
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Safe tap water?

More than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States. We can safely assume that Australia isn’t far behind, yet our tap water is only monitored for 70 different contaminants. In the U.S., the Safe Water Drinking Act only regulates 91 contaminants. The result, according to the New York Times, is that the water Americans drink can pose “what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.” Even though the Times article is about American tap water the questions it raises should cause everyone to seriously consider whether drinking tap water in Australia is the best choice for one’s health and wellness. We recommend reading the entire article, which is part of the excellent Toxic Waters series, here.

Posted by: Noble Beverages on 6 January 2010
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Polluted waterways

The New York Times has been running an excellent series called Toxic Waters: a series about the worsening pollution in America’s waterways and regulators’ response. Their latest story is about overflowing sewerage systems, and how drinking water supplies can become contaminated. The story says: “There is no national record-keeping of how many illnesses are caused by sewage spills. But academic research suggests that as many as 20 million people each year become ill from drinking water containing bacteria and other pathogens that are often spread by untreated waste.”

Do sewers overflow in Australia? You bet. Every metro water supplier has information on overflows. Is this a cause for concern? Certainly. Cross-contamination into waterways is a reality of antiquated and overstretched sewerage systems (read Australia’s Guidelines for Sewerage Systems here – page 12 gives details on human health affects). It’s yet another reason to think very carefully about the water you are drinking and to choose water that’s 100% guaranteed to be free of all bacteria. In Australia, only Noble’s Pureau gives this guarantee.

Posted by: Noble Beverages on 24 November 2009
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