How you can help protect yourself at home

Currently we are living through a stressful and strange time. Each of us are impacted by the Covid-19 virus in one way or another. Whether directly through infection and fighting the invisible enemy first hand, or by being frontline workers trying to stem the tide of the infection and helping those with it survive. Or we are indirectly impacted through quarantine and isolation, or economically through layoffs, supply shortages, and plummeting financial markets.

These are difficult times to be sure. As we look at our history as humankind, we find that these types of outbreaks are not new. They are actually fairly frequent, and have caused some serious damage to mankind throughout the centuries. From the small pox epidemics of Rome in the late 100 A.D.’s killing as many as 10 million people, to the plaque of 541 A.D. in Europe and Asia that killed possibly 100 million people, to the Black Death in the 1300’s that killed up to 200 million people by some estimates, to the influenza outbreak (Spanish Flu) in 1918 where 52+ million people died, to all of the cholera, malaria, ebola, recurring bubonic plaques, various small pox epidemics, as well as typhus epidemics. When counted up we’ve lost an untold number of human lives on planet earth. In fact, we’ve lost more to these unseen enemies then all of the wars men have perpetrated on men with spears, swords, guns, tanks and bombs in recorded history. It truly is a devastating and dangerous enemy. Maybe this enemy might be even more scary because we can’t see it?

The microorganism world is a hidden world that we can’t see with our human eyes and therefore don’t know where to hide or hold up to defend ourselves. It’s like a ninja all dressed in black hiding in the shadows of the night stealthily sneaking up on you unseen and then administering the assassin’s hand all before you have any idea they were even there till the piercing pain penetrates your skin.

One thing we do have on our side in twenty-first century is technology. We can now see this enemy through powerful electron microscopes. We can cultivate them, study their replication patterns and habits and devise vaccines that can help our bodies develop antibodies to recognize and destroy these invisible warriors. We can at times even create medications to kill these invisible ninjas once they’ve penetrated our defenses. However one the best defenses we have in this viral, bacterial war is avoidance and preparedness.

As suggested by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) we must be aware and be clean. We must use common sense in defending against these tiny terrorists. We should wash our hands and face frequently, we should keep a safe distance between each other so those micro combatants who have become airborne do not have enough hang time to reach our mouth, nose, and hands. We need to avoid touching our faces just in case these viral menaces have somehow attached themselves to our hands via us touching surfaces where they may be hiding, surviving, until we inadvertently pick them up and give them access to our inner selves where they can wreak havoc and devastation. We must be wise, use common sense, and treat every surface as if someone just wiped pooh all over it. This includes not touching the outsides of the masks and gloves we wear. Think, “someone put pooh on them” and keep that disgusting visual in the front of your mind whether or not you think it is a terrible analogy, because it’s not, its a deadly serious one!

When it comes to living in our homes we need to take even more precautions as it is our refuge, our fortress against the invading horde of the viral scourge. Make sure you use chlorine, alcohol, or hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle or in disinfecting wipes…. if you can get them….. and clean the surfaces people touch regularly like door knobs, faucet handles, refrigerator handles, toilet flush handles, computer keyboards and cell phones.

When your within the walls of your home do not let proper etiquette fall by the wayside, cover your mouth with a kleenex or handkerchief when you sneeze or cough. A powerful sneeze can spew misty mucous laden droplets up to 25 feet! Research by MIT even found that droplets can stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes! Yes that is disgusting when you think of someone sneezing in that enclosed car your a passenger in and that sneezer did not cover his mouth while the rest of the victims inside still need to inhale that air to stay alive having to breath in all of the yuck that person just sneezed out.

It is assumed our world has about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 viruses and 5,000 different known varieties and millions of unknown varieties. Viruses are odd in that they have molecules of DNA but no cells. They have some sort of a protein or lipid coat that surrounds their genetic material and they only reproduce or replicate within the cell of a host. Some are airborne, some are waterborne, some spread via insects, some via the fecal-oral route, some via our food, and some are sexually transmitted. In other words, it’s very difficult to escape these strange life forms that virologist Ed Rybicki called, “organisms on the edge of life.”

Covid-19 is primarily spread via respiratory droplets released from talking, coughing or sneezing. Therefore a whole house air filter or water filter will not reduce the spread of Covid-19. However this article seeks to fortify our homes from all types of viruses and bacteria that can cause disease in either the air or in our water.

A consideration to reduce certain microorganisms in our home is to install a Hepa (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter or a UV (Ultra Violet light )air filter in your home either in an independent free standing version or as part of your furnace. There are many types and styles out there so do your research thoroughly to make sure your getting what you feel is the best for your home.

When it comes to the water in your home you can guard that water by filtering the water with a 25-1 micron depth filter. Follow that with an ultra-violet light unit. Follow the UV light with a .2 micron filter to catch the dead little bodies. From there pass the water through an activated carbon filter. This will give you water that is microbiologically safe, as long as you maintain it properly. For water that you will be ingesting we recommend installing a reverse osmosis filter system under your kitchen sink which will filter your water to .0001 microns which is many times smaller than a virus. At Total Water LLC we can help you with this portion of your home self defense planning.

One of the final and best ways to fight these nasty almost and almost not life forms is to live a healthy lifestyle. So stop smoking, stop drinking, stop doing illegal drugs, stop abusing prescription drugs, stop eating poorly. Exercise. Live a moral life. Be clean in your lifestyle and habits. And build up your immune system by getting the proper nutrition so ultimately your body will be able to fight these nasty little pseudo life forms.

God gave us these amazing bodies equipped with everything we need to live on this planet full of viruses, bacterias, mold, funguses, and other nasties. We have internal mechanisms to help fight the fight. We just need to make sure our system is armed as needed. And just like life, sometimes we don’t win every battle. But we need to be suited up and prepared to give every battle everything we’ve got.

At Total Water LLC we hope each of you will be aware of how you interact with your surroundings in a pandemic world. We hope you will be careful and live mindfully of your self and others. Reduce the spread, level the curve, take precautions, and be hopeful. Remember to be kind, be patient, share, be considerate of others. We all live here on planet earth and we all would like to survive. So instead of grabbing all the toilet paper or chlorine wipes, remember there are other humans with feelings, hopes and emotions just like yours on this planet. We all have hopes and dreams we’d like to see fulfilled. We sorrow for those who succumbed to this pandemic and pray for those who are infected and are fighting the fight. Be safe while helping to keep our economic system from collapsing as well adding injury to insult. Lets all do our part.