Is Your Garden Hose Safe for Drinking Water?

Do you keep a bowl of water outside for your pets that you fill up with the water hose?

In an ongoing effort to minimize the toxins we and our pets are exposed to as much as we can, something that is often overlooked is the garden hose. Is your garden hose "drinking water safe"? If so, it will be labeled as such. If it's not, it's likely the water will contain lead, bromine, phthalates and other toxins that are leached from the hose and/or the fittings on the hose into the water. 

Researchers at HealthyStuff.org, a project of The Ecology Center, which is a Michigan-based nonprofit environmental organization, discovered that half of the vinyl (PVC) hoses they tested contained electronic waste (e-waste) vinyl contaminated with toxic chemicals.

In a study they did in 2016, 32 garden hoses from 6 national retailers (including The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Amazon) were tested for lead, cadmium, phthalates, bromine (associated with brominated flame retardants); PVC plastic, antimony, and tine. Water from select hoses was also tested. These chemicals have been linked to birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, hormone disruption, premature births and early puberty in laboratory animals, among other serious health problems.

You can read about the study here and the test results can be found here. Do you see your garden hose on this list?

“The good news is that none of these chemicals are necessary in garden hoses, and a number of safe hoses are available,"  said Gillian Miller, Ph.D, a staff scientist at the Ecology Center.

They offer some helpful tips on buying safer garden hoses here. After learning about the toxins found in water hoses, I bought a safer drinking water hose, (the last one on this list) to use for filling up the pets' water bowls.

Structured Water Garden Unit

Even better, now we have structured water coming through the hose (and the rest of the house), which neutralizes all toxins by changing their molecular structure, rendering them harmless to us and our pets. This is the best defense against toxins yet! Learn more about this new technology and how it works in my book Structured Water: Nature's Gift, in this article, and also on our website - just click on the structured water tab.

Reversing Cancer in Dogs

Yes! This is wonderful news. Check out this state of the art facility outside of Austin, Texas that is a one-of-a-kind sanctuary for dogs that have cancer! They not only treat them and are a forever home if necessary, but they are reversing cancer in some cases with diet and then adopting them out! This is amazing and so exciting!

Watch this short video or learn more by going to their website at Ketopetsanctuary.com

Zoopharmacognosy: Animals' Clever Use of Nature's Medicine

Zoopharmacognosy is the study of how animals self-medicate in the wild. After watching a video of Dr. Karen Becker interviewing Caroline Ingraham, and also videos of it being applied to dogs, I was totally fascinated with this! 

Caroline Ingraham is the founder of Applied Zoopharmacognosy and has spent three decades researching and observing how animals heal themselves.

Dr. Becker states, "In applied Zoopharmacognosy, Caroline and other practitioners bring remedies to animals that don't live in the wild, providing them with a wide range to choose from to bring themselves back into health. Empowering animals to self-medicate often results in a swift and complete cure." She offers plant extracts in different forms including using essential oils. Caroline shares some interesting cases in the interview as well as explaining why sometimes dogs will eat things that poison them.

This is really amazing. This is the future of natural medicinal healing for animals! Back to nature, that's what it's about. Nature has the answers. Check out the videos here:








Read the transcript of the interview here.