%0 Journal Article
%T Water as the Earth¡¯s Buffer and Immune System
%A Vladyslav V. Goncharuk
%J Journal of Chemistry
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/472323
%X A comprehensive review on water as a buffer of the planet and its immune system is presented. The relationship between the quality of drinking water, the level of development of human intelligence, and its health is highlighted. The problems of obtaining cytogenetically and physiologically safe high-quality drinking water are discussed along with the problems of its decontamination. The solutions to maintain stable development of aquatic ecosystems are proposed. It is shown that tap water is the habitat of multiresistant genetically-mutated microorganisms. 1. Water Resources of the Planet The bulk of the planet¡¯s water is concentrated in the seas and oceans and constitutes around 1350 million km3. This is salt water, with an average mineralization of 35.0£¿g/L, which makes it unsuitable not only for drinking but also for agriculture needs. Fresh water is localized mainly in the North and South poles and in the mountains in the form of glaciers. This resource constitutes 30¨C50 million km3. However, this source of fresh water is almost unobtainable for human use. The earth¡¯s rivers and lakes contain about 0.4 million km3 of fresh water that is accessible for mankind. Subterranean regions of the planet have substantial stocks of water, mainly saline and salt ones. At a depth of 800£¿m and up to 1600£¿m, the water resource constitutes around 4 million km3. Thus, our planet has only 3% of fresh water of its total amount, with its bulk in the pack ice of the Arctic and Antarctic. The resources of fresh water accessible to human constitute only 0.06%, 0.8 million km3. At present, more than 40 countries of the world experience an absolute water deficiency (e.g., the Near East, Africa, Indochina, and Australia). A fifth of the population in Europe and the Americas drinks contaminated water, which does not meet international standard criterion. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) official data, around 80% of human diseases around the globe are related to the consumption of low-quality drinking water [1]. The first attempts to establish priorities for conservation and functioning resilient natural resources were defined in the documents of the United Nations (UN) conference in Rio de Janeiro (June, 1992) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg ¡°Johannesburg Agreement on Sustainable Development¡± (August 2002) [2]. ¡°Every inhabitant of the planet has the right for clean drinking water,¡± is the formula declared by the UN [3, 4]. This humane statement is unfortunately not supported by any specific actions. An ill-advised economy, the
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jchem/2013/472323/