Can anyone explain what any of the claims MEAN? I've got a PhD in chemistry and every bit of that description is complete psuedo-scientific claptrap. I mean, seriously look at it: "Biostone/ Tourmaline that generates negative ions on contact.....?" Water is water and you can't make it wetter or drier, or more or less "active" (whatever that means). A fool and his money are easily parted. Spend your $945 on some home insulation or on a good charity but not on a mysterious device that will probably end up in your local landfill site in about 5 years. This kind of thing shouldn't appear on Treehugger.

Tourmaline is a wild crystal. Not to sound too new agey but is is a great protector (especially Black Tourmaline). They are also piezoelectric and some are piroelectric, so I dont doubt that it can actually affect the water.. Hey I knwo most people thought the water with "Love" and "Grattitude" printed on the labels were bunk-- but it does seem that ater has memeories, is intelligent and has a consciousness that would most likely be affected by the Tourmalines. Lloyd, if you get one of these, can I come by and fill up a glass jar every now and then???

oh good lord!
if you don't want to drink bottled water (and I recommend of course you don't) but it must be filtered befor hand AND you want ph controlled water run it through a bloody revers osmosis unit, the water will have a nutural PH 7.4 or something like that.

using.. erm.. "crystals" (which have to be either mined or made using huge amounts of energy) to clean water is just hogswollop!

i have a reverse osmosis unit with De-ionization filter and it has less then 12 particulats per million
Its THE most pure way to produce water at home, thats both simple and easy!!!

mind you, it has absolutely no tast what so ever.
Also, floride helps strengthen teeth and I wonder what the effect is like of all these people drinking water without it. Make lots of dentists happy thats for sure!

OMG!! y'all are on the science side of this debate, and then pushing fluoride in the water "for your teeth"? where is the logic in that? (have you done any research into the history of fluoride or any of it's adverse effects??? or the fact that one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC-- FLUoxetene Hydrochloride-- and Sarin nerve gas --Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride--- talk about hogswallop! so you go, slam down something because you dont understand it and the people who sell it dont speak your language, and then hype a toxid waste-product of the aluminum industry? yeah thanks for your input!

And y'all can say that there is no consciousness in water, but maybe you want to read Masaru Emoto before poo-pooing it, he's got degrees just like you, he's a scientist, he just realized there was more to life than what was printed in the books.

or check out another analytical then turned-on pragmatist Cleve Baxter or do yourself a favour and red the secret life of plants. the concept that we are the only sentience on the planet and that everything else is inert matter is part of the reason that we have trashed the planet and why we are in the edge of killing ourselves.

come on guys... let a little love in!

if you read it properly, I said I wondered!

Although I must admit I have never done any research on fluride and its potential effects besides helping to strengthen teeth.

erm, just because its an ingrediant it doesn't mean much. Whats its task in prozac??

and why did you jump on one comment I made? it is a simple fact that flouride was placed in water to strengthen teeth quiet a few years ago! I just WONDERED what would be the effect!

While overdoses of fluoride can in fact have negative health consequences, when added to our drinking water in moderation, and continually monitored to ensure that it does not exceed recommendations, it is incredibly unlikely to cause any health problems. If you happened to live in an area with a lot of natural fluoride (no, it's not generally a "toxic waste product of the aluminum industry," it is found in nature the world over. And like most any naturally occurring substance, it can be found in multitudes of products, good and bad. you could find bad derivatives of calcium, and we've pretty well established that to be good for the body. But too much is a bad thing, as with most anything) in the water, additional fluoridation might be problematic. You don't need a fancy degree to do your research. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/naturalhazards/en/index2.html

Reverse osmosis is the one of the best ways to ensure you're drinking clean, healthy water. It's widely used as a water treatment method in Europe, but expensive, which inhibits it's use here.

Show me a really solid study (or ten) that shows crystals are gonna take all the pathogens out of my water, and I'll believe you.

Tip: the argument that substance X is "one of the basic ingredients" in substance B means nothing. Water is "one of the basic ingredients" in lots of poisons. Conversely, chlorine is "one of the basic ingredients" in salt.

Fluoride may be totally evil, I don't know, but your argument holds no, uh, water.

anaon youre right my sophistry sucks. and ben i really didn't mean to pouncce on you, sorry, i dig you man,

but "it is a simple fact that flouride was placed in water to strengthen teeth" --not so simple...

that may be the 'story'. But if you were one of the people with Tonns of it as an industrial waste product, like ALCOA and the Mellons, you would be singing a different tune. Sorry, I may be sitting on the tin-foil-hat side of the fence, but it's a ruse.

And Meg thanks. that link is very informative, so some of it is natural (not the sources that are in our water tho. unless you live in India?)

well if anyone wants some tin foil (hat, not aluminum waste) links 150 eeek! stories, and teh toxic effects of fluoride, and of course megatinfoilhatter Jeff Rense has also got some god info (of course with all of this, don't believe them either, but do research based on what they say.... try to disprove it, go ahead, try...)

and Meg, if you read the actual brochure nowhere does it say that the crystals remove pathogens or filter the water... that is the job of the .1 micron filter, the activated charcoal, calciums.... the crystals, they claim, are all about the Ionization

As a long time treehugger reader
i am supprised you seem to support water wacko.Here is a useful link about water machines.
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html

Please read the title "Strange Waters" before posting. Treehugger posted this because it’s part of a series on how easily fooled the general public can be with regards to water.

earthchange, none problem just seemed you had focused on one area.

In australia water is placed into potable water in very small amounts (extreamly small)

Meg, ro units are quicky reducing in price! An undersink unit nowdays will cost you about 200 AU and run for a year (or more in some cases) because the ro cartrage needs replacing which is about 60au here for a good one.
of course there is installation which is easly performed by most people if you use the pipe sadel.

I have never heard of calcium being used as a filtration medium only as a buffer against acidic water (ie, high in carbon dioxide or carbonic acids or some such, not too sure what acidic substances are in water) but this is where the ph leveled water statment could come from..
does anyone know of an artical about calcium being used as a filtration medium?

Fluoridated water is not safe and should not be consumed. Here are a couple of sites to check out for some info:
http://www.nofluoride.com/
http://www.fluoridealert.org/absurdity.htm
http://www.holisticmed.com/fluoride/
There are a ton of other resources out there.
Among many health issues connected to fluoride consumption, it affects a part of the brain associated with willpower, helping to create a stupid and docile society that doesn't question much and takes even less action.

I'm sorry if I sound "sciency" and brainwashed. And lacking in sense of humour - I hadn't actually looked at the definition of "strange waters" .
But to just to add to what I said, I have no problem with the reverse osmosis, the charcoal filtering etc. These are excellent and well-established methods of water purification - so good in fact, that NASA reuses astronauts' urine with RO and sailors use RO all over the world to turn sea water into fresh.
But don't let the big words bandied about by these snake oil salesmen impress you, especially since they're invariably taken out of context. The fact that tourmaline is pyro- and piezoelectric sounds very impressive but it's totally irrelevant - the Wikipedia pages on this are excellent. A piezoelectric crystal is one that changes shape when you apply an electric charge - that's what the quartz crystal in your watch is doing - it vibrates under the influence of a rapidly changing charge provided by the battery and associated circuits. And it does so with such precision that you can run clocks off it.
The pyroelectric effect is when a crystal charges up as you heat it, something noticed by the ancient Greeks.
The problem is that the tourmaline crystals are sitting in water! The water will conduct away any charge build up so any effect vanishes. Put a tourmaline crystal in water and it sits there with water molecules bouncing off the surface until the cows come home and nothing more happens. Still, if you're unsure, get yourself some tourmaline and put it in the water bottle in the fridge. You won't come to any harm, you might feel better about life, and if nothing else, your water receptacle will look that much prettier. ;-)

As to fluoride, I can't say I'm that worried. 200 million + Americans and a whole lot more western Europeans have been exposed to low levels of fluoride for almost 5 decades now and yet life expectancy continues to rise. Whatever the "evil" fluoride is doing, it's pretty subtle. On the other hand high levels of fluoride (as in the Rift Valley in Kenya) are a disaster. As Paracelsus said 500 years ago "The dose makes the poison".

http://www.jacynthacrawley.com/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/bio?opendocument&part=12

I have linked your site to my site. I am an international author.

This e.mail is for politeness

Jacyntha didn't actually mean to send such an abrupt e.mail! She was interrupted and it went partially in error!

I have linked your website from my website on the complementary /holistic lifestyle, and this e.mail is by way of politeness/ for information.

I see that some of your correspondents also cover the fluoridisation issue. I shall refrain from calling it "a debate" as, in my view, the evidence stacks up on the anti-fluoride side!

Very sincerely
Jacyntha

Turns out that these things are for sale in Japan... and they ACTUALLY sell!