drinking water and colon cancer
It would seem that we live in times when substances with unambiguously harmful effects, such as asbestos - are visible only on old neglected barns from the last century and childhood memories. However, it is not. The harmfulness of asbestos was discovered in the early 1930s by Dr. ERA. Merewether [0]. Since then, more and more cases of lung cancer have been linked to this substance. The medical world recognized this as a real problem in the early 1970s, which is still a rapid progress as far as the pace of adaptation of scientific research in medicine is concerned. It was forbidden to use it in civilized countries only in the 80s/90s of the twentieth century.
What do you think it was used for? After all, it is still an ideal compound that creates with cement an excellent waterproofing coating.
Therefore, Ethernite was used everywhere where water was not supposed to leak, i.e. on roof tiles, as everyone knows.
However, not everyone knows that it was (and still is in countries where it has not been banned) added, for example, in the ventilation ducts of prefabricated blocks. I used to live in such a flat from the 70s and during the renovation, when replacing the ventilation grille in the kitchen, I broke through to the inside of the duct. What I saw made me shiver and I quickly changed my place of residence.
Apart from the dead birds in the duct - hitting the inner wall of the ventilation chimney made the asbestos dust went into the air. It's hard to confuse it with something else. It is wavy, brittle, and breaks when damaged. I was shocked and then it stopped surprising me that all my neighbours in the block, in the apartments next to me, below me and above me - are dying of cancer, mainly of the lungs, but also of the gastrointestinal tract. "Sick Building Syndrome" as they say. In total, in a few years, 6 people I know, aged 40-60, living around me died. I myself lived in this block of flats for a total of about 20 years, so I hope that I will not face a similar fate. Fortunately, I wasn't there more than I was.
But wait a minute: the subject of this article refers to drinking water - where to look for asbestos in it?
Well, for example in Poland, a 38 Milion people country in EU, where azbestos is banned, and where I live, as of the day of writing this article (June 26, 2023) there are about 600,000 tons of water pipes with asbestos (!!!) [1]
This means that drinking water supplied through asbestos-cement pipes may contain crocidolite asbestos fibers, considered as the most biologically aggressive.
There is little direct evidence of the health effects of asbestos contamination in drinking water.
And its super hard to change that. In Poland, there was even an interpellation by MP Marek Matuszewski on the harmfulness of asbestos pipes in water supply networks, in order to do something about it [2] . In civilized countries, its disposal is a priority. In Sweden 20 years ago, stupid waterproofing under tiles in kitchens and bathrooms, laid in the 60s and 70s, were all replaced in entire cooperative blocks, because they could also contain asbestos. Meanwhile, the answer given by the Chancellery of the Parliament to the interpellation is as follows:
The carcinogenicity of asbestos fibers entering the body through the digestive tract raises many controversies. The oral route of absorption of asbestos fibers is associated both with the cleaning of the respiratory tract fibers, their expectoration with mucous secretions and swallowing, as well as the consumption of drinking water containing asbestos fibers. Studies on the consumption of water contaminated with asbestos fibers do not allow to take an unequivocal position on the carcinogenicity of asbestos contained in drinking water on their basis, due to the shortcomings in the methodology of conducting the research, as well as the discrepancy of the results.
And despite the intuition that it was a ticking time bomb, the government refrained from further action.This was in 2008 ... Meanwhile, in 2016, a long-term study on this subject was completed, which was aimed at developing a clear position in this matter [3]. And the conclusions are:
“Exposure to asbestos has been linked with cancer at several levels of the gastrointestinal tract, and it has been documented, in an animal model, a direct cytotoxic effect of asbestos fibres on the ileum. It has been recently described a possible link between asbestos and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and asbestos fibres have been detected in humans in histological samples from colon cancer and in gallbladder bile.”
But that's not all, let's continue with the source, because it also refers to other studies conducted in Canada [3]:
“Canadian cohort study, subjects exposed to large amounts of fibres (1.2 x 109/L) also showed an increased mortality rate from the stomach and pancreatic cancer compared to the cohort with fewer fibres in water.”
Further research confirming the harmfulness of such pipes was described in 2022 [4] by Prof. Giovanni Brandi and Dr. Simona Tavolari from Italy. They included yet another aspect in their study - the use of asbestos filters in production…. BEER and WINE (!). Even I didn't know that - that it was the standard, "because asbestos filters are the best". And only in the 90s they were removed from the production of ... new machines. Do you think all expensive and working devices have been replaced with new ones, just because the old but fresh ones contained "some" asbestos? This applies to EU countries, because in Africa and Asia asbestos is still a widely used legal compound and there no one has to stop adding asbestos to wine or beer to clean them of sediments. Its also not illegal to use asbestos in US. Lets continue with the research:
“More recently, a close correlation has been demonstrated between the intake of filtered beer (with filters containing asbestos) and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, a tumour with the same epidemiological trend and similar molecular characteristics as mesothelioma. During the filtering process — which typically took four months — cellar workers performed two cycles of filtration in which they manually opened bags of raw asbestos, shredded the fibers and scattered them on the surface of the wine.”
So… yes… mass-produced beer and wine can kill you… with asbestos. Especially in countries where it is still legal or only symbolic restrictions are imposed (e.g. India, China, Thailand, Russia or the USA) [5]
As a curiosity, I will add that according to the latest research carried out in Thailand - half of the population has Asbestos in the lungs [6]. There, it is common to use it in water pipes, wine and beer filtration, as well as in the construction of anything.
“A two-year-old infant, who died of congenital heart disease, was the youngest to have asbestos identified in the lungs.”
That is, asbestos was even detected in the autopsy of a two-year-old who died of congenital heart defects. I wonder where all these born-with diseases come from. Rather, certainly not from a healthy environment and a healthy diet. Read on:
“Asbestos lines many Indonesian buildings and health experts fear a coming cancer 'explosion’ In Thailand, about 90% of the asbestos sold goes into roof tiles and cement pipes. “
Meanwhile in Poland…. to quote the source "tropic of cancer", the number of colorectal cancers in young people is increasing [7] and ...
It's still unclear what environmental factors other than lifestyle and diet come into play, but pretty much everything from antibiotics to plastics and stress has been implicated as potential culprits. It is also possible that there is an environmental toxin that has not yet been linked to colorectal cancer.
Assess for yourself whether the asbestos in our water supply (proven to be carcinogenic) can be this toxin and affect the health of the digestive system? It's more of a rhetorical question.
Asbestos from food and water gets from the digestive system into the bloodstream, from where it travels to various organs, to finally be filtered out of the blood by the kidneys and excreted in the urine. That's why you can get lung cancer from eating asbestos, not inhaling it.
The various diseases that asbestos causes in drinking water include [8]:
Malignant Asbestos-Related Diseases
- Mesothelioma, pleural and peritoneal
- Lung cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Laryngeal cancer
Malignant Diseases Possibly Linked to Asbestos Exposure
- Pharyngeal cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Colon cancer
Nonmalignant Asbestos-Related Diseases
- Hyaline pleural plaques
- Asbestosis
- Pleural thickening
- Pleural effusion
- Atelectasis
- Peritoneal effusion (ascites)
- Pericardial effusion
How to protect yourself against asbestos in drinking water?
Very simple. It is enough to install a reverse osmosis filter (RO - Reverse Osmosis) in the kitchen under the tap. I bought one with a pump to filter faster many years ago - just when I had weird headaches, living in a prefabricated block of flats. Expenditure of PLN 700 - works until today. I tested with an electronic PPM meter. It helped and eliminated migraines in my wife as well. Reverse osmosis eliminates virtually all harmful substances from the water with a size of more than 1 micron and thanks to this, from hard water, which has about 600-800 PPM (parts per million) of different particles, you get soft water with 20-32 PPM.
How to protect yourself against beer/wine passed through an asbestos filter?
Do not drink wine and beer from countries where asbestos is legal and production you have not seen / cannot talk to the owner about the production techniques. It's best to drink unfiltered and unpasteurized alcohol, from organic farming, because there they usually pay attention not to poison in any way throughout the process, and they don't just want to produce as much as possible - if the production is smaller, they raise the prices. Such an alcoholic beverage is then the least toxic and thus is produced on a smaller scale, and it is less likely that asbestos-containing filters were used for mass production filtering.
I drank, inhaled asbestos - what to do, how to live?
If you have already been poisoned by asbestos - above all, do not worry, because it will not change anything, and stress does not help in the healing process. After exposure has ceased over time, your body will eliminate most of the asbestos as it does all other toxins - through your urine and feces. The most lethal and carcinogenic is continuous exposure, so the most important thing is to eliminate asbestos from your everyday environment. If you already have cancer, then the problem is serious. To speed up the elimination of asbestos, you can start water fasting, dry fasting, raw fruit diet, celery detox or lemon and chanca piedra smoothies. Search on Howicured exactly the conditions you have and read what can be done about it. Also consult your doctor and naturopath. You can also write to info@howicured.org if you have a problem with finding the right knowledge, then we will prepare an appropriate article with sources for you.
Sources
[0] https://www.mesotheliomahub.com/mesothelioma/asbestos/history-of-asbestos/
[2] https://orka2.sejm.gov.pl/IZ6.nsf/main/37D321FE
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27919155/
[5] https://www.asbestos.com/blog/2018/12/03/asbestos-favorite-alcoholic-drink/
[6] https://bangkokjack.com/2022/11/05/asbestos-found-half-thailand/
[7] https://www.zwrotnikraka.pl/rak-jelita-grubego-u-mlodych-osob/#:~:text=Rak jelita grubego jest trzecimi,do 20%25 w 2019 roku
