robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (10/10/84)
I believe there is a statistcial correlation between prevalence of heart attacks and soft water. It is possible that soft water is really not good for you. Sorry that I cannot quote sources. The article I read on this convinced me that I wouldn't want a water softener, but I think the statistical evidence refers to naturally soft water areas, and not to homes with water softeners vs. those without. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison or: decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison or (emergency): princeton!eosp1!robison
qwerty@drutx.UUCP (10/10/84)
The softening process involves exchanging the "hard" impurities with salts. From what I remember of the article I saw on this, it suggested that people on low salt diets (for blood pressure, etc.) should not drink soft water on a regular basis. When I installed a water softner, I left the cold water tap in the kitchen on the hard line. This is where most of the water we drink in the home comes from.
ljdickey@watmath.UUCP (Lee Dickey) (10/11/84)
People around here who study such things say that you should not make a habit of drinking softened water. If you have a choice, take the hard water.
mmr@ritcv.UUCP (Margaret Reek) (10/12/84)
When my parents first got their water softener about 14 years ago, a doctor friend recommended that they put in a separate, unsoftened cold water line into the kitchen for drinking, to reduce the sodium intake from the water. We have done that at our house also. This is not that difficult to do, and then you can have the benefits of soft water without the potential health risk. Margaret Reek Rochester Institute of Technology ritcv!mmr
jimb@amd.UUCP (Jim Budler) (10/17/84)
> I believe there is a statistcial correlation between prevalence > of heart attacks and soft water. It is possible that > soft water is really not good for you. Sorry that I cannot > quote sources. The article I read on this convinced me that > I wouldn't want a water softener, but I think the statistical > evidence refers to naturally soft water areas, and not to > homes with water softeners vs. those without. > > - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) > allegra!eosp1!robison > or: decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison > or (emergency): princeton!eosp1!robison Naturally soft water has fewer minerals such as calcium. Artificially softened water has used a catalytic type reactor to remove those minerals. This reactor uses salt brine for regeneration. This process increases the sodium ion content of the water. With NO additional information, or statistics, I concluded that artificially increased sodium intake was undesirable. Our area has very high mineral content in the water so I wanted soft water for non-food purposes. Therefore, I bypassed the softener to provide unsoftened water to kitchen sink and the icemaker. I installed a filter so the water was sediment free, and a small spring valved gooseneck faucet. This faucet is packaged with a filter and assorted fittings. I purchased it at Wards(tm). P.S. I concluded that the softened water was unhealthy for houseplant consumption also. Normal installation practice with water softeners provides non-softened water to all outside faucets so this only effected HOUSE plants. -- Jim Budler Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (408) 982-6547 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd!jimb Compuserve ID: 72415,1200 ********************************************************** * Advanced Micro Devices is not responsible for anything I * * say here and probably wishes I wouldn't. * * I'm not responsible for typos and homonyms. * **********************************************************