A Discourse on The Non-Toxic Pool
By: John M. Cohen
Nature’s Blueprint
I grew up in a family that would include going to hot springs on our wilderness journeys and I then passed those beautiful geo-thermal area visits on to my children who now take their friends to hot springs as a special place to go.
As a kid swimming in backyard pools caused my hair to turn green, mucus to get stuck in it and my eyes burned. This was the accepted norm that nobody thought any differently about but I knew the difference from how clean I felt in a lake, the ocean or those extraordinary healing hot springs.
When attending the Western Pool Show in the mid 90’s I remember an instructor saying, “don’t think of a pool like the human body”. That comment didn’t sit well with me. My oldest daughter, Napali, had a rare autoimmune disease at thirteen years of age in 1990, and by 19 had lost function of both kidneys and was and still is surviving on dialysis 20 years later. I learned about the kidneys with their network of multiple nephrons and that they represented the most advanced filters on the planet. Dialysis only removes about 10% of potassium and other inorganics of what the human kidney does. With my awareness about the healing properties of hot springs and applying my daughter’s failed kidney’s condition to the way water systems purify and the problems they have, my response to the pool-show comment about a pool and human body not being similar was “Why not?!?!”
Pool filtration is an evolving yet still archaic attempt in many ways to replicate aspects of the human kidney and the way the human body purifies its internal liquids. The problems and proper function of pool filter media or the clogging of embedded pool gunk being forced deep into the fabric of cartridge filters to the point where it can no longer be rinsed away, is relatable to the design of the kidney.
Other relationships between the human body and pool filtration have recently been shown by the Scripps Institute. Within our bodies atherosclerotic plaques internally generate ozone that attacks cholesterol and the consequent oxidation products. Also, observations of white blood cells when stimulated by infection producing H2O2, were startling. Ultimately the best economic format on Earth will be revealed as within our own cells. Nothing wasted, everything utilized. The same micro-format of purification systems that are operating within us internally is occurring in nature. Pool-show guy you are so wrong!
Also, within our arteries no space is wasted either. This space usage is also the fundamental concept for water to properly flow through the right shape of pipes and fittings promoting the least friction, turbulence and head (finally long 90 degree plumbing sweeps are being required). There are 60 million miles of blood vessels in our body, so there can be no red lights as our blood cells travel with a 95% oxygen capacity: delivery is critical. So magnificent our red blood cell design that they are not specifically dedicated to any particular organ, otherwise there would be a traffic jam with fatal consequences. These days some visionary architects are utilizing the connection of the human body’s biomechanical system to nature’s blueprints as the perfect operating blueprint to guide planning and construction formats for building new structures in our great cities and new homes. The socio-economic politics are affected as well. If you consider that buildings grow taller as our two-dimensional transportation systems remain flat on the ground the ensuing traffic and congestion grows as three-dimensional densely-concentrated populations increase in high rises that were not designed to be served efficiently from ground-level-only transportation. Bridges, elevated travel, monorails and whatever the future requires for access, changes, and how human beings move, think, acquire & interact require critical rethinking and rebuilding.
Translating Vision into Action means that if we want to improve the world we have to add to a body of knowledge already comprised of the best parts of the works of centuries of genius. This means constantly developing new frontiers of knowledge that require the alchemical art of translation, transformation and transmutation to understand what goes on inside structures in order to build and maintain bridges for a greater society.
Developing nontoxic pool technology was this kind of challenge also. It was unacceptable to create a large Tuscany-style pool or giant rock grotto pool, and then have people jump into a chemical vat. I always tell interested parties that we have been swimming in a WWI military weapon (originally used in 1915 on the Western front) derivative of mustard gas- Chlorine, an oxidized hypochlorite, that was later used to develop Agent Orange and DDT.
Why were pools built with heat returns on the surface, small pipes with one floor drain, dangerous high voltage under-water lights, white plaster that showed every issue, three bar bond beams, no grounding for metallic components, poorly circulating toxic sanitizing chemicals, etc. Was this all due to costs, lack of engineering knowledge or access to better equipment and materials?
For a more efficient and healthy progression in the swimming pool industry we must equate the process of how nature purifies, disinfects, and regenerates with its multiple similarities to how the human body purifies itself as an advanced guide to how man-made water systems should function. You can examine the direction of advanced physics and science working on the same connective relationship discoveries and hypotheses. The human brain is a battery; a collection of 80 billion batteries (neurons) and each one connects to 10,000 more. Neurons in our cells are so small they function on a quantum level.
For 130 million years ants have been a highly developed efficient collective, where their connective relationship has no central control. In a blade of grass or in an ant or in a human being there is no central control outside of the human super-conscious that when accessed is the only place in nature that can see behind the scenes of the creation force in action. Prevalent all throughout nature are life forms without central control. When our minds think together we produce a data network like the ants. Machinery must also think together to be ultra-efficient. If there is only one filter or one pool intake area, or one main sanitizer the equipment is imbalanced and cannot work together effectively. Just basic steps having several kinds of filtration and several kinds of sanitizers or many multiple intakes and returns would be a big evolution in the pool industry. A more costly initial installation expense but offset by the health benefits with systems that enhance each other and overlap function which lower long term maintenance costs by more effective operations. Modern day computer science is patterning its data network programming to many of the ways proven by 130 million years of ant colony efficiency.
Tests to find a way to use artificial quantum neurons to replicate the human brain and connect it directly to a computer are in progress. The great minds of science see everything connected and look at the universe as a string theory where the present is only the past or the future. Quantum science sees everything in existence flowing; even time is viewed as a river. So in a sense our mind, body and spirit are all bathing in life.
One of the vital components in the non-toxic water system is utilizing ionization to create ultra-fine particles out of copper, silver and zinc. The elemental basis of the sun is ionized hot gas. The sun turns on our genes; the sun is the vital force of our genetics. In 1953 ion generators were found to be very effective for numerous health issues but the FDA stepped in and restricted all health benefit claims to only be able to state that ionizers clean the air. The medical community continued to look down on ionization. On the other side of how ions effect human health are numerous tests that conclusively show that during dry hot wind conditions that are saturated with positive ions, blood levels rise in brain serotonin with documented increases of mood disorders, suicide and auto crashes. Turning attention to these comparative relationships to the macro universe will always keep new science on the right track.
Open bodies of water are biologically active, but when enclosed in a swimming pool or the human vessel we must define the operations of purification systems much more precisely. A major component of the human body is enzymes and hormones. In water we would relate that to things like algae, protozoa, amoebas, low voltage mineral charges, oxidation, ultraviolet radiation, and movement.
Since probiotics have been found to be completely relative to the human cardiovascular system flowing correctly then the stabilized super-concentrated vegetable-based pool enzymes widely distributed these days also produce great results similar to probiotics that help digest or breakdown nitrates, microbes, bacteria, bio-sludge, and oils. To help the pools cardio flow the use of these super enzyme products must stay stable and be highly resistant to chemicals and extreme conditions. Scientists were successful after the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in developing these beneficial enzymes that could tolerate freezing temperatures, high PH, moving ocean water and remain activated to consume the spilled oil.
One of the strong drawbacks of swimming pool salt water systems is the destruction of soil microbes and ecto/endo mycorrhizae beneficial bacteria, thusly contributing to groundwater pollution besides being caustic to almost every material used in swimming pool construction and as what I consider to be one of the largest public deceptions in American marketing. Full-page ads still run stating ‘a pool without chemicals’ – then the bottom of the ad reads, “…our salt systems produce 25% more chlorine…” STUNNING!
Most diseases in the human body are blood-related. Things get into our blood by injection. Pumping water is a direct reflection of the human mechanical design, even viruses inject their DNA into unsuspecting bacteria.
There are P.H. related (like Hypoglycemia and Diabetes) curable imbalances flowing through our bodies affecting hundreds of millions of people. There are now prebiotics that set the stage for probiotics to be even more efficient. This is all relatable to how water treatment will continue to evolve.
In simple terms about pool bacteria, if you just bought a house with a pool wouldn’t you change the cartridge or filter media so you are not swimming in someone else’s biofilm or filtered waste?
In other words the reason biofilms may be so nasty is that Free Chlorine (HOCI/OCI-) reacts rapidly with the outer protective mucous layer of a biofilm. Consequently, HOCI/OCI-, at the concentrations used in drinking water (<4ppm as Cl2), is depleted at the surface of the biofilm and nothing remains to penetrate the biofilm and inactivate any bacteria within the biofilm. Furthermore, little or no chlorine residual remains at the end of the distribution system.
In April 2017 Aqua Magazine published the article “Spa Soup – Why We Dump Spa Water” by Robert W. Lowry. Mr. Lowry states “ The average person brings 100 million bacteria into the water. These join other living organisms such as biofilm, parasites, virus, algae, mold, mildew and spores. Then we add swimmer waste such as blood sweat and tears; urine, saliva, mucous and other bodily fluids. Finishing the soup are the man-made products that dissolve off the skin and hair, including creams, oils and lotion, soap, deodorant, makeup, hair products, perfumes, and more.” He goes on to say “…the average spa user sweats up to three pints per hour at 102 degrees Fahrenheit…” And finally “…The water will also have what are called xenobiotics. This is a catchall term used to describe all the other things that don’t fit into a category, and includes household cleaners such as multipurpose cleaners, window and countertop cleaners and so on. Xenobiotics include pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). When sewage was tested for the top 50 different prescription medications in studies done recently in Australia, all 50 drugs were present. It seems entirely possible then that these drugs are in spa water too. After all, these drugs are excreted in sweat and urine.”
A recent Associated press study also using the term toxic soup has identified 46 medical byproducts in American drinking water with an estimated 41 million Americans affected. There are new things being found; Dioxanes, Chromium 6, and PFOA (Teflon byproducts). Many tests have shown in areas where natural fluoride is heavy in drinking water that there were much higher cases of osteoporosis than the average population. Tests have shown that Flourosalisic acid (Fluoride) displaces Calcium in human bone structures. The average potable water system contains 5 PP-Billion of lead (which is a neurotoxin) but often reaches 15 PPB, which is at an alert level for human beings. There are still pipes with lead in them which is what happened in Flint, Michigan as the water use was diverted to the Flint River without the proper anti-corrosive agents added and the lead in the city pipes was leached, poisoning some people for life.
Proposition 65 in California banned any lead from being present in stainless steel or any kind of pipe production. Unfortunately lead in solder is still present in pipes all over the country with an estimated 5 million people being exposed to it. As we ban something here China doesn’t have to follow those rules, so we purchase all kinds of stainless steel materials from them that has been adulterated with lead. The required extraction tests for metal have even shown traces of Mercury in Chinese stainless steel. With radiological, medical waste, hormones, etc. people are having their immune systems damaged with proven links to thyroid and breast cancer. Our software (the body) and our subconscious (our program) do not have an internal code to reprogram to sense radiation and most of these toxins affecting us.
A former resort employee at Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe just filed a lawsuit for being exposed to airborne bacteria that resulted in a respiratory condition known as hot tub lung. The New Mexico State Department of Health had similar investigations from twenty other people.
Linda Godsey, a 62 year old woman just died in October 2017 of legionnaires disease with her family filing a wrongful death suit against the hotel she stayed in where she was in and out of the pool and hot tub.
How we achieve advanced filtration and sanitizing to mitigate these problems is to observe how the human body handles the same problems as an encapsulated vessel of liquid (blood) with a pump (heart), filter (kidneys), P.H. Regulatory Systems, electric current balancing mechanisms, and automatic backwash functions. I consider God’s handiwork in physical manifestations as an unparalleled blueprint to follow in all aspects of design and engineering especially regarding the human body. This whole discourse is rather a poetic relationship between our micro internal universe and the macro external universe with a menagerie of similar functions. At this juncture in time in science there are no perfect complete explanations for anything inside our bodies. I can easily draw a comparison to how well pool filter grids are designed, being somewhat similar to our 27 feet of intestines with an active G.I. tract filtering out unfriendly intruders. If your gut biome isn’t in good condition you cannot stay healthy. The fact is we live in a microbial universe and our bodies are biochemical engines, so the poetic relationships to purification functions on the earth, in swimming pool equipment or within our bodies reveals extensive parallels to science and these synergistic comparisons.
Electric Forces
I began to incorporate experiments and research in the early 90’s to provide a non-toxic version of swimming pool water technology. Based on the similarities between our bodies and a pool I knew that P.H. is a reading of liquid and voltage. Water is very similar to our blood and the universe is a creation of waves, frequencies and forms of electrical currents. When we have a feeling in our hearts we are creating electrical and magnetic waves inside of our bodies with research showing that these waves extend many kilometers beyond the location of the physical heart. If humanity one day takes this concept to the level of collective pure consciousness we can love the entire world and everyone in it. The universe is set up for life to work, it is accelerating and expanding and even black empty space is not static. This means the correct voltage will be a healing or balancing regulatory force.
Present theory proposes that electricity, magnetism, light and some types of radioactivity are all manifestations of a single underlying force called the electro weak force. It unites the electromagnetic and weak forces, two of the four fundamental forces of nature, along with the strong force and gravity.
Besides theories most modern medical practice does not recognize that parasites are a huge problem. Our cells are 73% water and the human body averages carrying about one trillion bugs that activate in low oxygen environments in our blood and cells. The analogy would be just like a stagnant body of water, that the lower the oxygen content the faster the acceleration of algae, microbes, anaerobic bacteria, and destructive water-borne insect infestations.
Our cells operate at about 70millivolts. When there is an injury the millivolts rise. High P.H. is an electron stealer. Fewer than 30 millivolts in our cells sickness begins to occur. Low voltage frequencies are represented in dissipating oxygen and acidic environments where destructive activity like cancer growth can take place. High voltage in nature represents alkaline environments; where life becomes activated like our great-mineralized-sodium based oceans similar to our bodies P.H. or volts from lightning producing highly concentrated ozone. The multitude of alternative forms of elemental oxygen being discovered continues to expand as well. Dr. Jerry Tennant teaches how PH correlates perfectly with cell voltage. The institutes of developmental biology and Cancer Research in France states, “…Ultimately, the tumor microenvironment directs the development of tumor cells adapted to survive in an acidic surrounding where normal cells perish.
In an emergency administering Sodium Bicarbonate instantly shifts PH to less acidic raising the voltage of tissue and cells throughout the whole body so it may heal. Sounds like the sodas used in pool water. Low voltage also means that nutrients cannot cross the cell membrane and wastes cannot leave easily. If the tissues are drowning in waste and cannot utilize vital nutrition, they cannot perform correctly and eventually degrade. Once voltage is restored to the tissues, the intercellular pumps starts working, nutrients enter cells and waste leaves, the cells PH becomes balanced, the oxygen supply to the tissue improves and inflammation decreases …hmmm, parallels again to pool water, even the operation of cells is related to pumping.
Be aware that just like the pool industry being lock, step and barrel purveyors of the chemical industry, the American Medical Association and many big pharma companies have fought hard against the M.R.I. being utilized in the medical industry because it would significantly reduce certain large scale drug sales. In many ways like the pool industry we are also in the medical dark ages with a system that has fought against the use of electromagnetic healing equipment all the way back to Tesla’s multi-oscillators which when used properly charges the human bodies battery voltage to run at a normal rate that can save many lives during a medical crisis. We are comprised of 86% water and water shows highly effective charge manipulation results with bio-transmission wave testing. Wide band wifi signals are present everywhere with a transmission shown to be disruptive to human brain functions. The military is developing advanced signal reception that picks up your molecular residue just from something you have touched and then produces a reading of your entire bodies bio-resonance signature so that from great distances bio-transmission weapons will be able to shut down a specific individual human beings battery. It will stop people from functioning and put them in a non-operational fog.
We now know oxygen chemistry in the atmosphere, in the cell and in a decontamination process are similar. Returning back to why I knew how healing the hot springs were or swimming in the ocean is that being submerged in very mineralized alkaline water, which is filled with natural electrical voltage charges, supports a healthy environment.
A deadly toxin that is formed from Clostridium Botulinum can be isolated from soil and water worldwide. It grows in the absence of air or oxygen and is a spore former that causes a fatal illness known as botulism. Some spores even survive boiling water at 212 degrees. When salt or other minerals are dissolved in water they reduce the number of unattached water molecules available for microbial growth. C Botulinum does not grow well in 7% salt solutions and stops producing spores at 10%salt solution, which is the equivalent of a water activity (AW) of 0.93. AW is a measure of the free moisture in a substance. It is determined by dividing water vapor pressure of that substance by the vapor pressure of pure water at the same temperature. Soy sauce is 0.803 acidification with lemon or vinegar at 1.0 to 3.5, which also destroys C. botulinum. So the ocean environment or highly mineralized hot springs represent again nature’s blueprint for decontamination. The lemon is a perfect example of strong acidity that produces an alkaline result.
Pools that are not properly chlorinated or water balanced can cause rapid and excessive erosion of dental enamel, when acids wear away the enamel on a person’s teeth. New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry’s Dr. Leila Jahangiri told NYU’s news publication “improper pH levels can result in irreversible damage to one’s teeth.” “Case studies show that the effect occurs when the pH of the water ranges between 2.7 and 7”. In an epidemiologic survey made of 747 private club pool members published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, it was found that symptoms related to dental enamel erosion were reported by three percent non-swimmers, 12 percent of swimmers who were not members of the swim team and 39 percent of swim team members. The swimmers that were clinically verified with dental enamel erosion prior to the study trained regularly in the pool for competitive meets.
With this knowledge that regulating P.H. is the key to maintaining a healthy body, of course, that is why it is so critical to the condition of a body of water. Adding to this natural blueprint that water is purified by passing over rocks being aerated and bouncing off minerals (also creating minor electrical frequencies in the process) and with ultra-violet exposure which creates oxygen radicals up to ten times stronger than a chlorine oxidizer provides, then this type of system should be transferred from nature into a mechanical function. Water passing over rocks splits O2 molecules into two O molecules as it bumps against silver and other minerals. I would think that the largest organ of the human body, our skin, is then acting as river rocks, transpiring salts, minerals and oxygen as our blood runs along very porous cellular walls.
Nature's Mirror
If you visualize a rushing white-water river streaming down the forested mountains from the frozen distilled water snow packs, you know this water is very pure and oxygen rich. Take into account, what may seem like fads or hysteria about foods being gluten free, without processed sugars, sprouted first, low sodium or containing no cholesterol fats, are all actually substantiated scientific trends with substance in our evolving dietary habits. They have a direct relationship to water purification and the results of our digestive system’s processing of gluten (glue), pasta (paste), processed sugars (acids), non-soluble fats (cholesterol), and high sodium (insoluble minerals). With the ingestion of any of these categories the flowing mountain stream in our blood vessels and arteries begins to stagnate, leave pockets of fatty plaques that harden and foster all the bad actors from low oxygen conditions. The oxygen-free radical is an absolute necessity for our body’s metabolism to give us life. It’s the same basic process for the proper function of hydraulics and plumbing in any mechanical water system.
When I was six years old my father was attaching the wallpaper in our home by making glue with white flour and water. I was puzzled and asked him “don’t we eat that?”, from seeing the cookies and other things my mother used flour for, my senses knew food being glue wasn’t right. All the resultant conditions caused by fluid inhibitors, relate exactly to a vessel of water and hydraulic systems. An example of high PH and poor circulation is the causing of plaque-like formations in the filtration system where a standard halogen sanitizer becomes blocked, incubating a type of pneumonia called Legionnaires Disease. Another toxic bacteria- mycobacterium avium in the same class of bacteria that causes tuberculosis comes out of airborne spa bubbles, also from poorly disinfected areas in the arteries and kidneys of the spa where standard sanitizers aren’t reaching.
All the same low circulation issues that cause multiple types of problems in our bodies form similar types of unhealthy conditions in a poorly disinfected swimming pool or spa. Chlorine depending on circulation, mostly only kills microbes and bacteria. What gets rid of heavy metals, pesticides, nitrates, cosmetics, dissolved sun tan oils, chemical products, human secretions, chloramines, organic chlorides, cyanuric acid and other dissolved elements is not present in any standard pool equipment. The environmental protection agency states “Repeat exposure to chlorine can harm the immune system, respiratory system, and heart.” I also know first hand that the American Chemical Council made several serious lawsuit threats to a prior producer of one of the critical components in our non-toxic equipment consortium when they used the word chlorine with negative connotation. They had to remove the word chlorine and use the term ‘harsh chemicals’. Economics superseding and restricting information, is an unfortunate state and a great impediment to evolving as a culture and for mainstream health awareness, when powerful lobbying interests form blockades against real progressive bio-oriented treatments and equipment development.
Toxic Water
If the EPA states that a lifetime exposure to regular white bleached coffee filters develops an unacceptable toxic level of Dioxin in the body, wouldn’t logic dictate that being submerged in much stronger concentrations of Chlorine in a pool certainly could not be less impactful.
“Spontaneous Abortion and Stillbirths In Pregnant Women”
“… Swimming is popular among pregnant women because it can ease pregnancy symptoms while helping them maintain their muscle strength and relieve weight-bearing strain on the lower extremities. However, expectant mothers who swim in chlorinated pools can actually harm their fetus due to the toxic chemicals like chloroform, formed by a chemical reaction between chlorine and organic matter, says the U.S. Department of the interior and the United States Geological Survey. Belina Phipps, from the National Childbirth Trust, told BBC news that she supports the call for reducing chlorine content of swimming pool water since vast numbers of pregnant women in the United Kingdom swim and do aqua exercise programs as a means of fun and to help them cope with their pregnancy. In reference to the potential risks of chloroform and pregnancy – Phipps said “[it] offers a simple solution to limit chemical levels in swimming pool water by reducing the amount of chlorine used – a measure which the NCT would strongly support.” Reducing the amount of chemicals used would not only be beneficial to pregnant women but to all swimmers alike…”
The CDC has proven studies connecting asthma and respiratory diseases such as epiglottitis, which is a potentially life-threatening inflammatory condition of the cartilage that covers the windpipe. Swallowing too much chlorinated water can lead to liver and kidney problems and sodium hypochlorite found in chlorine and other compounds have the potential to produce liver cancer.
You might wonder why with so much information being forwarded now from research on proven and potential health dangers from the standard swimming pool, that the old practices just chug along. But just take for example that we allow worldwide consumption of high fructose corn syrup in food, which is made of aspartame or new market names for the same ingredients and depending on how the body breaks it down, is a proven neuro-toxin. Mercury is a banned substance for almost all uses but still allowed in our mouths. Whether scientifically proven harmful or not, how about common sense? Water needs to flush toxins, not be full of them!!!
Decades ago the allowable arsenic level in drinking water was 50 pp-billion. The set standard was found to be very unsafe and eventually changed to the current 10 pp-billion…why not zero? Infrastructure change and great expense.
So what makes the standard of 80 PPM allowed in drinking water for Trimethyl Halogens safe? At 30 PPM testing has shown results of rectal cancer. PVC when it is first used leeches tetrahydrofuran. Plastics are now being termed Bisphenol A (BPA free) with a growing demand to be free of the cumulative toxic impact.
A standard paragraph in the annual water quality report by the Los Angeles County Waterworks District reads;
“This report is intended to provide you with a better understanding of your drinking water. It contains information about where your water comes from how your water is treated and monitored and what contaminants may be present in your water.”
Then continues later….
“The sources of drinking water includes rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over land surfaces or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animal or human activity. Contaminates that may be present in source water includes; Microbial contaminants such as viruses and bacteria, that may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife. Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, that can be naturally occurring or result from urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining, or farming. Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban stormwater runoff, and residential use. Organic chemical contaminants include synthetic and volatile organic chemicals that are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production and can also come from gas stations, urban storm water runoff and septic systems. Radioactive contaminants, which can be naturally occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.”
Filtration and Sanitizing
Talking about old practices just chugging along, in Aqua Magazine’s September 2017 article about Ozone by Jim Lauria, he writes about a 2005 article on water “Water Conditioning and Purification” where it is estimated that up to 85% of the Chlorine used in a spa without any other water sanitizer is consumed in oxidation. A 2004 study by the environmental working group called “Skin Deep” talks about all the personal care products combined with sloughed off skin cells, hair, and oils combining to form scum, scale, and biofilms that can shield pathogens from disinfectants setting the stage for ineffective sanitizing or failure. In the October 2017 issue in Aqua Magazine, Barrett Kilmer quotes Dr. James Amburgey former CDC employee and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of North Carolina Charlotte; “ … if you’ve got a 1,000 gallon pool and you filter 1,000 gallons from the pool theoretically you’ve filtered the pool one time. But in reality you’ve only turned over 63% of the volume. That’s because you take some water out and put some back in for every cycle and it all mixes.” To get all the water through filtration takes about seven turnovers. In short you’ve got a recirculation system that’s only getting 63% of the water to the filter and a filter that’s only removing 25% of the small particles from that 63%. That is low treatment efficiency.
Another great oxidizer is a triatomic allotrope of oxygen (ozone), which is a form of oxygen in which the molecule contains three atoms instead of two. O3 is always present in trace quantities in the atmosphere. Shortwave solar ultraviolet radiation and lightning (again both high voltage electrical discharges) are constantly creating ozone in the form of a gas.
During my research in the early nineties a scientist for an advanced instrument company had incidentally through water cavitation produced hydroxyl free radicals (Nascent oxygen, hydrogen methane and clathrate sonoluminescence). How does the body internally produce ozone and H202? If just through moving water in a specific motion can produce these results then certainly we will prove that same aspect in our bodies of this liquid motion production is causing the same type of internal resultant oxidizers. I would call that “potentiate the synergy”.
Though a pool or our bodies, will not operate long at an acidic P.H. of minus 4 or high alkalinity of 9 plus, ozone subjected to either tipped P.H. scale produces more hydroxyl free radicals and less ozone in the high alkalinity environment or less hydroxyl free radicals and more ozone in a very acidic environment. So both of the major oxidizing components in ozone keep working, it just shifts the type of output percentages. Somehow the motion of water, our internal conditions and P.H. environments are all tied to my original comment that the universe is a creation of waves, frequencies and forms of electrical currents, just like the omnipresent magic of the human heart operating with life’s ignition key turned on. All these motions also create auto-ignition healing and balancing forces.
If you translated the heart’s efficacy data into the electrical cost of a pool pumps usage costs the translation would average about a $1.42 per day. If you take ozone’s power, about 150% stronger in equal concentrations as an oxidizer over chlorine and thousands of times faster as a disinfectant than chlorine, or use any kind of effective infusion of oxygen-free radicals, and apply a P.H. mineral balancing injection into the recirculating water treatment with advanced filtration in place, costs to maintain water should be reduced because the system is much more effective. This will lead to sophisticated non-toxic bathing and swimming systems as the norm.
The World Health Organization states that there are three ways for chemicals to enter the body. They are inhalation, digestion and absorption. When it comes to swimming, the possibilities exist for all three. Just during the writing of this article more and more information is being published, such as from the American Chemical Society with an article called progressive increase in disinfection byproducts and mutagenicity from source to tap to swimming pool and spa water: “Impact of human inputs”. The study showed 50 new DBP’s that are in a class called nitroimidazoles, which are found to be toxic. The study compared mutagenicity (ability to change one’s DNA) between pools and spas and among different sanitizers. They are seeing reactions with urine constitutes, pharmaceuticals and skin care products and 1.7 to 4.1 times more mutagenic conditions than tap water were found in various brominated and chlorinated pools and spas.
The way sunscreen was developed to seal your skin never made sense to me and now the E.P.A. is studying titanium dioxide (Tio2) a nanomaterial that protects skin from harmful U.V. Rays. In an article by Nate Taylor he states, “In the presence of water and UV radiation, it decomposes into other molecules, including reactive oxygen species that has been shown to cause tissue damage. To prevent this, sunscreen manufacturers wisely place a protective coating around the material, called aluminum hydroxide.
EPA researchers wanted to learn how the protective layer holds up against the rigors of a chemically treated pool.
“It was an exploratory study to see — proof of concept — whether or not this material became more toxic after the coating was degraded,” said Dr. William Boyes, a toxicologist who is helping lead the EPA’s emerging materials research.
Sure enough, results from the study show that, after three days in simulated pool water, the protective layer began to degrade, increasing potential toxicity.” The centers for disease control has also shown studies of increased risk of cancer due to chemical reactions generated by chlorine mixing with personal care products on your skin. The sun is often blamed but the CDC has shown that chlorinated water is causing a higher percentage of skin cancer each year besides extended bathing that causes a toxic substance on the skin forming rashes and various infections. Michael Phelps may not want to know about how much research is now revealing serious health risks from our standard pool sanitizing, disinfecting and filtering equipment.
Studies will intensify and more negative scientific information will be proven as old school applications from many untested corporate economic production bubbles are burst, and replaced with new efficient and sensible non-toxic applications.
So while we submerge ourselves in the waters of life, making sure that our water stays clean is of the highest earthly priority for the survival of humanity and our accompanying relatives in the animal and plant kingdoms.
Remember we were told in the good book that we are made of dust and shall return to dust. So that even in a way there is an inter-connectedness between life and machinery and to improve mechanical operations we must derive the methods used in the creation blueprint that we are all participants in. Perfect pool systems will be a collaboration between human and artificial intelligence to keep pace with serious advances in technology.
Our Future may be comprised of a light spectrum that switches on for a moment and your pool is instantly sterilized. We may develop equipment that magnetically removes all impurities by creating a non-water that turns the swimming pool back to virgin H2O similar to the process of nature stripping water back to raw H2O as it rises back to the sky as vapor. Pool floor substrate materials may directly transfer heat from solar exposure and store the heat in the pool shell. In our very near future PVC will be completely replaced with green rated plastic plumbing. One day the moment you jump in the pool water an exact specific molecular residue signature of your body will be read and a multi-oscillator will electrically balance and adjust your cellular voltage bio-resonance to its perfect operating potential while you swim.
Even amongst our great galaxies are representations of plumbing. When light becomes so congested that it can no longer escape the gravity of a black hole, it is for our minds to conjecture that even the great cosmos must have vortex drains that scoop up the mammoth cosmic debris and entire suns to continue the purification process required in all areas of the physical universe.
History
Non-toxic pool systems really have no history until very recent times, though aspects of this kind of water treatment have been used throughout recorded history. For example in 1980 there were very few spas equipped with an ozonator. Today every major spa manufacturer includes an ozone unit with the filtration package. My work hauling around 500 lbs. containers of 35% H202 in the early nineties was cumbersome, unheard of and debunked as an efficient oxidizer and unknown in the pool industry. I was looked at as a snake-oil salesman. Yet 25 years later H202 is sold in every pool store in the country. My good friend Steve Staples from Chlor-Free who maintains and services our non-toxic pool systems has also constantly been subjected to doubt and skepticism about the weaning from our industries chlorine addiction into the new healthy pool sanitizing technology.
In 1200 B.C. the ancient Phoenicians stored water in silver bottles to prevent spoilage from microbes. The Greeks and Romans by 500 B.C. routinely used silver and copper coins in water vessels though they foolishly poisoned themselves with lead plumbing. Hippocrates during the 4th century noted the healing benefits and anti-disease properties of silver. 19th century pioneers treated dysentery with silver and put silver and silver dollars in water containers and milk to slow bacterial growth. The 1800’s also saw silver sutures for surgical wounds, silver nitrate solutions for newborn blindness and as a treatment for typhoid and anthrax. In the 1920’s during World War I, before antibiotics there were over three million prescriptions written annually for medicinal silver prescribed to prevent infection. Silvers impressive history continues to date, being integrated into many areas of industry. In 1919 use of colloidal silver was successful by keeping the concentration low with a view that it is impossible to separate toxicology and pharmacology. By 1939 prolonged therapeutic action of colloidal suspension was in widespread use being administered in just about every way modern drugs are administered. Especially noted the remarkable beneficial action in infected states and the destructive effects on microorganisms and their toxins. Colloidal silver methods of production began as early as the 1860’s by using chemical action. The five methods used before 1938 were:
1. Grind
2. Wave
3. Liquid
4. Chemical
5. Electric
Electro sputtering was employed in 1898 and the electrical methods have proven to be the best process to create evenly distributed suspension that evolved into the electro colloidal/non-chemical systems we are using successfully today.
In 1785 ozone gas was recognized emanating from electrical machinery. By 1886 in Europe the ability of ozone to disinfect polluted water was recognized. In 1887 the first public pool in the United States opened in Brookline, Mass. In 1891 Germany had proved conclusive test results that ozone is effective against bacteria. The Netherlands in 1893 developed the first full scale ozone drinking water treatment system.
The early Amish started using hydrogen peroxide for water treatment and agriculture. They would spray it on their string beans after yielding and get additional pickings. They would spray it on their cabbage, cauliflower, and potatoes and the bugs would leave. On their alfalfa they got additional height in growth and found seeds to germinate faster with bigger seedlings after a soaking. It is far safer than any chemical insecticides and the diluted form used was completely safe for children and animals coming in contact with it. Hydrogen peroxide is the only germicidal agent composed only of water and oxygen. Like ozone, it kills disease organisms by oxidation and is considered the world's safest all natural-effective sanitizer.
To have real progressive change in the swimming pool industry we must create mechanical systems that produce more than the sum of their individual parts and replicate the perfect systems that nature has developed.
Present Day Alternative Products
Ozone – Disinfectant/Oxidizer: Eliminates chloramines and kills all known bacteria, viruses, cysts, yeasts, molds, mildew, and reduces most chlorinated hydrocarbons.
Corona Discharge Ozone – High voltage energy field concentration working as an antimicrobial Oxidizer that sanitizes and disinfects, highly effective against biofilm, reduces halogen levels, eliminates disinfection byproducts and preventive for infectious outbreaks. It is 10,000 times more effective than chlorine in killing a range of common pool pathogens and 25 times faster than hypochlorous acid in killing E.coli bacterium. Ozone is also a micro flocculent that clumps inorganic and organic contaminants together during oxidation.
Minerals – Antimicrobial/Antibacterial
Cartridge – A combination of silver colloids, silver chloride, coated limestone. Silver chloride is an insoluble salt formed by the strong attraction of silver ions & chloride ions
Cartridge – Re-energized calcium & magnesium ions (acts as polarized magnets that transmit energy to ions already forming tartar, dissolving it)
Zinc Oxide – Kills 15 strains of candida, staphylococci, streptococci bacteria pyocyaneus and most infectious bacteria
Ionization – Cathodic Atomization
Low voltage D.C. currents that electrically switch polarity by passing elemental metals between electrodes – Copper ions (CU+2), silver ions (Ag+) and Zinc ions (Zn+2) released into the water by electrolysis ion sanitization that effectively kills algae, bacteria, fungi and viruses.
Solar Charged galvanometrically generated polarity switching sanitization mineral colloids
Zinc Anode – Low voltage current producing zinc ions that give up their metal faster than any other metals (Sacrificial) to inhibit galvanic corrosion, stains, and some water sanitization
Submersible Ionization Technology
Water Activated – Cartridge with an internal silica sand filter saturated with colloidal minerals that are activated by water passing through very fine metal particles
An ionizing capsule that produces positively charged ions (cations) with copper and silver ions that form an electrostatic bond charging micro-organism cell walls with a negative charge (anions) which causes the outermost atoms produced by galvanic current to lose an electron thus becoming a positively charged ion. Palladium, Zinc, and carbon are part of the essential mineral combination. Positive ions attack the sulfur containing amino acid residues inside the photosynthesis
Advanced Oxidation – Potent sanitizer and disinfectant by synergistic action with Ultraviolet light absorbed by Aqueous ozone decomposing into hydrogen peroxide continuing reactions with ultraviolet light producing hydroxyl radicals
A process that creates potent fast acting disinfectant molecules (hydroxyls) that combined with split oxygen creates single oxygen radicals that are injected into the pool plumbing along with a residual level of hydrogen peroxide (1 to 3 ppm)
Advanced Filtration
High oxidation media – Removes through catalyst reaction iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide
NASA recycled shower water system- Inline micro-filter capsule with nano-capsules that purify 99.9% of viruses, bacteria, toxins, metals, and oils.
Modular wastewater treatment – Removes arsenic, heavy metals, toxic organics, ammonium and broad ranged contaminates
Process
Screening & filtration
Electro Physical (Ozone disinfection/Ion exchange)
Liquids/Solids separation (Micro filtration)
Advanced oxidation (gas-liquid mass transfer reactor)
Ion exchange with zeolites (ammonium destruct molecular contaminant polishing)
Ozone generation
Active Carbon Fusion – Creation and obtention of carbides and silversides through a radio frequency plasma process (Bacteriostat). Plasma reactor fused at 18,000 degrees F active charcoal is grafted to silver metal atoms. Silvered charcoal with the anti-tartar braid treats five categories
Suspended particles filtration
Extraction of dissolved substances
Bacteria elimination (disinfection)
Remanence (capacity of eliminating bacteria after treatment
Ancillary treatments for; algae, limestone (tartar/hard-water) anti-corrosion, water clarity
Active Carbon – High performance filtration by catalytic reaction and surface oxidation with nano layers that remove hard water, extracts dissolved substances, human secretion, heavy metals, trace nitrates, sulfates, nitrogen, pesticides, hydrocarbons, colorants, detergents, and chlorinated organic residues
Micron sediment pre-filter (rust, sediment, silt)
Additional soft grid filter (mineral binding into scale prevention) Biomass flocculator
Copper, zinc, mineral stone (reduces chlorine, water soluble heavy metals and inhibits bacteria and algae)
Activated Carbon (reduces herbicides, pesticides, & other chemical compounds. Contaminant grabbing media to prevent clogging or media channeling).
Filter with by-pass (reduces any remaining sediment and organic particles at a fraction of one micron)
Ultra-Violet filter (additional bacteria & virus protection)
Filtration by catalytic reaction - and surface oxidizer with nano-layers that removes hard water, extracts, dissolved substances, human secretions, heavy metals, trace nitrates, sulfates, nitrogen-pesticides, hydrocarbon, colorants, detergents, and chlorinated organic residues)
Regenerative Media Systems – Perlite-coated media filters to one micron. Expels perlite into suspension and recycles at high gpm rates with long intervals between backwash
Liquids – Removal of mono or copolymer flocculants, metals, phosphorus, bio-sludge, soaps, and other particulates that prevent scum lines, foam, and stains
Hydrogen Peroxide – A 5.1 oxidizer that is more active than chlorine and will neutralize chlorine. It contains an extra oxygen molecule from inserting an oxygen atom with non-toxic results after burning up living organics, inorganic oils, sludges and biofilms (deposits consisting of microorganisms and microbial products harbored in protective mucous layers), killing bacteria and viruses, then just forming water and carbon dioxide with some other residual inert spent material. General effective residual range 1 to 7ppm and shocks water at 62ppm (half pint to 1,000 gallons ratio).
Coagulants – Removal of small particle charges that allow tiny particles to mass together and be removed by contact with filtration
Flocculents– Processes for solids removal, water clarification, lime softening and solids dewatering. Electrical contact charge binding agents Flocculants can also demulsify.
Sequestering Agent – A liquid binding agent to metal-ions that form chelate complexes. Designed to keep metals in suspension to prevent chemically combining with the water. The metals are turned into water-soluble salts if not filtered out first and help prevent scale
Chelation – A type of bonding of ions and molecules to metal-ions involving the formation of two or more separate coordinate bonds.
Clarifiers – Generally poly-acyrlimides. Non-toxic version crustacean shells that begins with flocculation from a long chain polymeric molecule that contains many positive charge hooks then bridges between charges to form a neutral buoyant flocc used to remove solid particulates or suspended solids from liquid.
Enzymes – Non-living organic waste removal and clarifier catalysts that bond with specific molecules and cause substrate deterioration reaction. Proteins that act as a catalyst to speed up chemical reaction and accelerate the breakdown of non-living organics.
Blended – Industrial fermentation developed with a specific target high-concentrate very aggressive enzymes that eat each other after a very short shelf life, produced for one specific category, generally fats & oils.
Broad Spectrum – Made with a fermentation process. Stabilized vegetable based with a variety of coenzymes that catalyze thousands of chemical reactions in pools and spas without cannibalization and stores for years.
Microbial Decomposing Agent – All natural cyanuric acid reducers. Microbes embedded in dextrose when finished consuming sugar are activated to look for new food sources that targets nitrogen, primarily complex cyanuric acid
Waves – Reduce scale, total dissolved solids, bio-sludge and phosphates or ultra-violet sterilization
Magnetic – Permanent chelation of total dissolved solids, slow scaling, stimulates ionization process
Sonic – Ultra high radio transmission frequency (electrical impulses that break down calcium bicarbonate and magnesium bicarbonate crystals into carbonate, a powder that does not bind to surfaces)
Ultra-Violet – Wavelength oxidation that inactivates the DNA of bacteria cysts and pathogenic microorganisms without leaving residual disinfection byproducts. Germicidal ultra-violet alters and disrupts algae, bacteria, viruses, mold spores, and protozoa. It is partially effective on cryptosporidium & breaks down chloramines
Bio-Filtration – Epuration instead of disinfection using plants
Living water plant filtration – Natural inoculants and healthy aquatic bacteria
Phosphorus-binding filter systems
Large filter grids and carbonators
Borates – corrosion and scale inhibitor that buffers PH and decreases the solubility of CO2 that starves algae spores
Green Pastures Group equipment combination for advanced non-toxic pool water technology.
Our company utilizes three synergistic heavy hitters:
o Advanced Oxidation
o Ionization
o Advanced Filtration
Smart pool builders incorporate many of the newly developed colloidal silica and flexible cementitious multi-layered LEED Certified waterproofing systems and concrete substrate impregnators and densifiers. These Nano type of material technologies greatly assist the maintenance and life of plaster, stone, tile, grout, and all concrete elements and contribute to the overall water quality in pools and water features by lowering the TDS, water hardness, and mitigating many of the leaching, delamination and water loss issues associated with cementitious surfaces.
Addenda – The difficult trick with all of the progressive alternative non-toxic pool water technology is finding a service company knowledgeable and willing to maintain pools built with these components. Herein lies the root to the evolution of this industry.
NOTE: A small three-part version of this article has been published in December 2017, E-Magazine, Watershapes.