ROgue selling the Reverse Osmosis water filter
Anil Laul
ROgue selling-- the Reverse Osmosis water filter
In the beginning we had UV water filters acting as life savers for potable drinking water, now deemed as archaic. Even the new Reverse Osmosis system, I suspect, is also on it’s way out, the latest to join the band wagon being the ROM, (Reverse Osmosis Mineral) the ultimate solution to pristine, clear water. To my mind it is the all “American Way” hard sell gimmick that makes people buy this very expensive machine.
To prove a very valid point read on…..
A few days ago our UV filter which had served us well for more than two decades finally went bust. My wife was passionate about this gadget as she was of her archaic washing machine which had served us well for almost the same period of time. (A new washing machine has since replaced the old one, about one year ago). There was virtual panic and the service mechanic was called in post haste. One look at the UV water filter and he advised retirement of this machine suggesting a replacement with the all new concept of the RO (Reverse Osmosis) system. A new UV system would cost Rs 7000.00 and the all new RO system would cost only Rs.11,000.00. With a buy back offer of the old UV system, I would be poorer byRs 9,000.00 only.
Slickly initiated into the all “American Art of Selling”, the salesman had tested our fresh water system and quickly established that we were lucky to have survived thus far. This added to my wife’s panic – ridden state left on with little option but to go in for the RO system (she calls the shots on the domestic front). Tests with the meter had shown brown and green sediments in the which began to boil when the sales man had used the meters called the Electrolyser. Grime had collected on the surface of the glass of water. I pride my self on the fact that our underground water source is as good as water can be and it forms the basis of my so called expertise on the issues of Sustainable Development. My self confidence I felt was about to take a severe beating.
With great temerity I requested the salesman to come to my (in the same complex as my house) along with the samples of the tested water and the test equipment. To say that the water samples were truly horrific is putting it mildly.
At this point I might add that my office had recently developed a Common Man’s Water Filter, aimed at removing Arsenic from water. Laboratory tests showed clearly that this water filter did remove Arsenic. The basic ‘funda’ was simple. After placing copper vessels one over the other water was passed through coconut charcoal, marble chips, sand and then eventually over silver coins or chains. There was nothing earth shakingly new about this gizmo where a combination of traditional systems that were used to filter water. This can be downloaded from our website at www.anangpur.org. A sample of water through this system the TDS (Total Dissolved Salts) meter showed a reading of 410 ppm for the water passed through this home made gizmo whereas the bottled mineral water allows for less than 100 ppm. The meter looks rather like a pen and costs app Rs. 1200.00. One has to dip it in the water for a few seconds and the reading is displayed. However when the salesman used the Electrolyser, the water turned a murky brown and gained heat. The salesman’s job was done and I immediately ordered his RO system where he guaranteed TDS of less than 100 ppm. (The Electrolyser basically comprises two rods, one of Iron and the other of Copper, connected to a step down transformer, much like a battery eliminator, so that the system can be used through the power mains).
Within the hour the RO system was firmly ensured in our kitchen and fully operative within the next half hour. A glass of water after it had been filtered through the RO system was brought in and the very two tests repeated. The TDS meter showed a reading of 74 ppm and the Electrolyser turned the water very pale brown which was hardly discernable and no heat was emitted. Very impressive indeed.
In a flash, I recalled my Physics lessons inclass 9 and 10 way back in 1957 and 1958. I asked for a small amount of common salt and asked the salesman to repeat the same tests on the same freshly filtered water through the RO system. Few grains of a barely visible quantity of salt were added to this water. When the Electrolyser was used, the water turned murky brown and started heating up. I then took off my wedding ring and with a rather blunt knife made gentle abrasions on it. The abrasions on the ring were barely visible. Some barely visible particles dropped into the glass of water. The water turned even murkier than the unfiltered water from my underground source. The salesman was at a complete loss for words, his selling skills dampened. Surely salt is not poison, neither is gold. If there are traces of gold then of course you have the ultimate pristine water. Silver a tried and tested mineral for water purification, was not at hand, but I am certain that the results of the water turning murky would have been similar. If you access google and type in therapeutic value of silver in water, you will be surprised at the studies available on this subject. The tradition of gifting a silver or gold spoon and bowl as a gift for the newly born baby is therefore significant as water becomes pure on contact with these metals even for a short period of time. In this context I would like to narrate an interesting meeting with a 90+ years old traditional doctor, way back in 1973. His recommended form of medication was crushed diamonds, rubies, pearls and powdered metals such as silver, gold and platinum etc. ostensibly expensive as it might seem, he proved that in dispensing quantities as miniscule as those that could be picked up by the tip of a needle, these were affordable by the common man. These metals had no carrying agents and therefore had no side effects. The electrical charge emitted by each of these elements kept the circuitry of the blood and the body stable. Each had it’s own electrical charge and were explained as a series of small batteries working in combination. He compared the body and the nervous system to a computer way back in 1973. He claimed to restore this very delicate balance in the blood through his form of medication.
He went on to explain, that based on the mineral content in the body of human beings there is a constant electrolysis taking place. This is what makes peoples of different regions what they are. Water therefore cannot be standardized as per the Euro norms but must be different for different regions. This would be the first step to sustainable development. On a similar note, the fact that even a small element like the building brick has been standardised, is the first step to unsustainability. Brick varied according to the different clay of each region. In standardising the brick we are asking for the standardisation of earth, and this is simple if the decision makers of these standards were God. More can be read on this subject by accessing the very same website at www.anangpur.org and reading Sustainable City Strategies which was part of the Local Agenda 21 for the Asia Region, authored by the undersigned, for the Johannesburg Summit.
It now became clear that this was indeed “ROgue selling the Reverse Osmosis the all American Way”. The entire explanation is relatively simple if one is cued into the very basic lessons in Physics.
The RO system tends to turn water into what one may term as “Dead Water”. Devoid of minerals and nutrients so essential for the balance of blood in the human body, the immune systems of the body are now susceptible to disease. Some standards rate the essential TDS as 500ppm and this goes up to 1500ppm in the WHO standards. At less than 100 ppm, no electric charge passed through the water and therefore no electrolysis took place. Consequently no sediment formed. The anode and the cathode (the two bars of iron and copper) had next to no exchange of ions and therefore the pale brown colour in the RO filtered sample. With the addition of common salt or microns of metal in the form of gold or silver, the electric circuit was complete and with the passage of current, electrolysis took place and the sediment formed the scary looking layer. This scare syndrome that was induced was enough to have us buy the RO water filter. It had nothing to do with the impurities.
So now you have a choice between the Devil or the Deep Blue Sea. Drink the Municipal water and you die. Drink the water through the RO system and you still die, albeit slowly but with copious amounts of pills to make up for the loss of essential minerals owing to drinking “dead water”. It’s almost as if the entire system was tailor made to feed the pharmaceutical industry.
I now get calls from the salesman regularly to check how I am. His fear is that I may enlighten others (much to his discomfort) which I am most diligently doing. My RO filter has been set to app 700 ppm. Now that I have told you my story I would venture to make some suggestions. The purpose here is not to scare anyone, as we all know that our municipal water in India and some other countries is unsafe. But this does not mean that the scare syndrome using technology must compel us to take conscious decisions.
Here are some thought provoking suggestions for those of you who wish to invest in a water purifier as well as those who manufacture them :_
1. Do get yourself a water filter but have it set to between 500 to 1500 ppm. Don’t get carried away by the scare instilled by the sales gimmick.
2. The manufacturers must be compelled to make a more honest selling campaign.
3. The manufacturers must carry a pamphlet stating that essential minerals exist in the treated water and just as in the case of packaged foods, the levels of resultant maintained mineral content must be printed on the equipment being sold.
4. Manufacturers must set equipment to suit the local needs and metabolisms
In the eventual analysis a very apt quote comes to mind and is pasted below:-
Even though the following statement was made with respect to India, it is applicable to the tropical areas the world over.
Lord Macaulay in his speech in the British parliament on February 2, 1835 on introducing English education in India said “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such high calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her cultural and spiritual heritage, and therefore I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native self culture, and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”.
Since the true statement of Human Values is encompassed in the way we design Human Settlements, our effort is to respect traditional wisdom and blend with today’ its needs to provide for a sustainable future.
from the desk of
anil laul
c.e.o & principal architect
anangpur building centre
(the ABC of
holistic human settlement design)
faridabad, haryana - 121003
(india)
telefax: +91-129-2512364
mobile: +91-98100-59691
email: anil...@vsnl.com, anil...@rediffmail.com
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http://www.anangpur.com