5. Biological Contaminants: A Hidden Threat

Think disinfectants and chemical filters have you covered? In this eye-opening episode of The Toxic Truth About Water, Drs. Glenn and Ina reveal the often-overlooked world of biological contaminants—from bacteria and parasites to viruses and mold. Learn how these microorganisms end up in our water through failing infrastructure, natural disasters, sewage leaks, and even red tide blooms. If you thought you were safe, this conversation might make you think twice—and empower you to take the right precautions.

What You’ll Learn

• Different Types of Biological Contaminants: Bacteria (E. coli, Legionella), viruses, parasites, mold, and more.
• How They Get In: Explore the role of sewage overflows, cracked pipes, and boil water alerts.
• High-Risk Groups: Why children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems should take extra steps.
• Real-World Examples: Recent outbreaks in Florida, Nebraska, and the dreaded “red tide” phenomenon—and how these can impact municipal water.

Key Takeaways

1. Infrastructure Matters: Aging pipelines and storm damage often create unexpected openings for bacteria and parasites to invade.
2. Boil Alerts: Understand how boil orders work—and why it’s crucial to pay attention to local notifications.
3. Global Issue: From “Montezuma’s Revenge” in Mexico to unexpected outbreaks in the U.S., biological contamination is more common than you’d think.
4. Stay Informed: Being proactive about these risks is your best defense—knowledge truly is power.

Resources & Links

• Local Water Quality Reports: Check your municipality’s website or local health department page for boil alerts and updates.
• Environmental Working Group (EWG): EWG.org (Great for general water quality data)
• Connect with Drs. Glenn & Ina:
  • Call Us Today: (732) 300-1925
  • Facebook: Ina Nozek and Glenn Nozek
  • Instagram: @drsglennandina

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Transcript

Glenn: 0:01

Welcome to the Toxic Truth About Water. We're Drs. Glenn and Ina, and in this podcast, we're uncovering the hidden dangers lurking in your water, and how those contaminants impact your health.

Ina: 0:11

After decades of exploring natural health, we've learned the importance of clean, safe water, and we're here to share that knowledge with you. From the effects of toxins and contaminants to the solutions that you need, we've got the inside scoop. Let's dive in.

Glenn: 0:29

Let's dive in. Let's talk about what we've covered so far.

Ina: 0:32

Just to do a little regroup. The past four episodes, we've been talking about the various types of contaminants. that we're finding in our water, right? We want to bring the awareness. So we talked about chlorine and other disinfectants that are used to treat municipal water. We talked about heavy metals and pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides, a lot of those chemical contaminants. We talked about forever chemicals. We did a whole episode on forever chemicals. And the last group of contaminants that we're gonna discuss we're going to start talking about different solutions, different options that we have just to protect ourselves. But we're going to talk about the biological contaminants on this episode today. Okay, so what are the biological contaminants? It's all of the microorganisms, it's the live contaminants like bacteria, E. coli, for example. Exactly. Legionella. If you have Legionnaires disease, Legionella is the bacteria that causes that. Viruses, molds, cysts, parasites, fungus, all of that are the biological contaminants and many of us assume That's being taken care of when our water is treated, and to a big point it is, but It gets in. And there's a lot of outbreaks and there's a lot of things that we wanna discuss with you to bring your awareness because it's potentially a very big risk.

Glenn: 2:06

It sure is.

Ina: 2:07

So let's talk about how are these getting into our water supply?

Glenn: 2:11

It's sad, but one of the main ways is sewage. Raw sewage ends up in many of our municipal water systems, prior to treatment, things like that.

Ina: 2:19

even just animals.

Glenn: 2:21

Dying on land.

Ina: 2:23

fecal matter.

Glenn: 2:23

Matter is a big deal.

Ina: 2:24

Waste from animals, right? So it's, human waste, animal waste. it's important to, because you said, before it gets to being treated, but remember the aging infrastructure.

Glenn: 2:35

That's the biggest issue, that we have.

Ina: 2:38

right? So are the pipes that it's traveling through can have you know cracks and breaks and that's how a lot of these biological contaminants are getting into our water supply. And we're going to talk about some other ways they're getting in as well.

Glenn: 2:51

Absolutely.

Ina: 2:51

there's a lot of health

Glenn: 2:52

People have GI conditions, they'll vomit. you can have anything from a fever to flu like symptoms. You can have dehydration.

Ina: 3:01

Yeah, a lot of potentially dangerous and GI is usually. How it starts to make us feel, and sometimes that's a big clue that we know we've been contaminated. But often it can result in death, like it can actually be very severe and very serious. And, certainly there are certain people that are more vulnerable, right?

Glenn: 3:23

Children. Unhealthy adults, people who are immune system, right?

Ina: 3:28

Elderly definitely pregnant women, right?

Glenn: 3:30

Your classic vulnerable ages And social areas, different

Ina: 3:35

parts of your life process, right? Exactly. So when obviously young children, their immune system isn't developed as much, babies, young children, pregnant women are susceptible because they're growing a baby. And so again, more vulnerable. And that's with all of these contaminants. it's that vulnerable population that's more susceptible. So what's really interesting and what's You know, we have to really start paying attention to some of this and never to create, and we always say, we're not trying to create doom and gloom, we just want to bring the awareness because when we know we're going to be better able to protect ourselves. So there's been some recent outbreaks that are I would say, mind blowing.

Glenn: 4:20

Yeah.

Ina: 4:20

Really interesting. So remember we here in Florida and some other parts of this, area in the Southeast had the recent hurricanes. There was an article in October that Bradenton, which is our town here, released a hundred and thirty million gallons of sewage into the Manatee River. Glenn.

Glenn: 4:48

Right now.

Ina: 4:48

A hundred and thirty million gallons into the river.

Glenn: 4:55

And the Manatee River, by the way, is a source of municipal water in Bradenton. Just to be clear, You know that water needs to be treated obviously, right?

Ina: 5:04

whew.

Glenn: 5:04

water.

Ina: 5:05

So that's just local to here, but it's not just as a result of, the hurricanes. That certainly will have an impact when there's like natural disasters. It could definitely affect. The biological contaminants that are inundating or get released into

Glenn: 5:19

the environment from various reasons, whether it's, things getting knocked down or, animals getting killed,

Ina: 5:26

But also in October unrelated. In Nebraska, the Center for Disease Control released a report that there was a very large outbreak of Campylobacteriosis. So an outbreak of that, again, biological contaminant, bacteria, and 19 percent of the town's population were reported as ill.

Glenn: 5:54

That's insane.

Ina: 5:55

So that's major, right?

Glenn: 5:57

Yeah.

Ina: 5:57

And I think a lot of people can relate to the biological contaminants when you think about going to Mexico,

Glenn: 6:05

Montezuma's Revenge.

Ina: 6:06

Known as traveler's diarrhea. So sometimes in developing countries or, just going outside of the U. S. We can run into that where we have diarrhea and we have, again, those germs. gastrointestinal issues as a result of drinking the water. So I think you guys get the gist. Now, what's interesting is there are a lot of boil alerts. And a boil alert.

Glenn: 6:34

This happens all over the country,

Ina: 6:35

Yeah.

Glenn: 6:36

So many people have no clue.

Ina: 6:38

And what's interesting is since the last hurricane we had here, There were over 70 boil alerts in the state of Florida. The thing about a boil alert is, they, basically lost control of the safety of the water.

Glenn: 6:57

it could be a breach. It could be a crack in a pipe. They have sensors. So they don't have like scopes or anything that go looking for problems. But what they do have is sensors and it picks up a difference in pressure. So when there's a crack in the pipe, obviously it's gonna leak water. And so the pressure changes.

Ina: 7:14

And

Glenn: 7:14

so that's how they go about finding and then trying to fix and patch it,

Ina: 7:17

So the boil water alert also called a boil order, right? They're ordering you as the county health

Glenn: 7:25

officials

Ina: 7:26

boil your water in order for it to be safe enough to consume It's not killing the forever chemicals, but it does

Glenn: 7:33

talked about in our past episodes,

Ina: 7:36

but it does kill the biological contaminants when we boil the water. So when there's a boil water alert, you want to boil that water. It's usually five minutes. You let it cool, put it in the refrigerator and that's the water you're going to use now. Also you're going to use it not only to cook and drink, but also to brush your teeth with. If you're in a shower, you just want to be careful that you're not swallowing that water because it's contaminated and it's potentially very dangerous, Like pay attention, stay informed. So like Glenn said, a lot of times we don't even realize there is a boil alert and how would we know, right? So that doesn't give us much peace of mind, but this is something really important. Biofilm will result from stagnant water. So if you leave some water out for your dog outside by the pool, and forget to bring it in you'll see it's gonna create like a film. Those are microorganisms. Those are these biological contaminants that we're talking about, right?

Glenn: 8:36

We all know when Water sits, for instance, that can be a source of creating problems, like in a cup or a jar, it's going to get moldy, it's going to grow bacteria.

Ina: 8:45

especially if it's out in the warmth or in the air. If it's refrigerated, that's a different story, but right. That's just something to think with. And what we're going to talk about as we move forward is, sometimes even in certain types of filtration, there can be. biological contaminants that are in the system itself. Filters, refrigerator filters, the dispenser can grow a lot of mold and other microorganisms, biological contaminants. So it's just the awareness. It is something that, again, we assume, right? We assume that it's all being clean and disinfected and we don't have to worry, but it is something that we need to think with. Do you want to mention, Glenn, about just like the red the bloom?

Glenn: 9:27

Yeah.

Ina: 9:28

more common down here. On the coast, on the west coast,

Glenn: 9:31

So we have a bacterial bloom that happens. It's an algae bloom, actually, that happens in this area from like the Tampa Bay area south on the west coast of Florida. And it's very popular during certain times of year where that bloom is so horrendous that it actually affects the air. You can't even sit on the beach.

Ina: 9:52

It could cause skin irritation.

Glenn: 9:54

You don't see it. It's not a visible thing, but you won't be out there five minutes without noticing something's wrong.

Ina: 10:00

And it's considered a cyanotoxin. But how is that impacting our water that's coming into our home?

Glenn: 10:08

and even these, I'm glad you brought that up because it's in the air. Obviously it travels by air. So Yeah, it's super common. It stems on the coast, so you see it on the beaches and along that shore. But inland, it affects the water, too, because, it doesn't sit still. We have winds and everything.

Ina: 10:24

So it's just another part of the equation, and I think it's just important to mention that. In a nutshell, just for today's episode, to be aware of these biological contaminants that are more apparent than we would ever realize and definitely a big risk to our health when we're not aware and we're not protecting ourselves. thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode of the Toxic Truth About Water. We hope that you're walking away with valuable insights on how to protect yourself and your loved ones from hidden water toxins.

Glenn: 10:58

And if you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe. And as always, feel free to share this podcast with any friends, family, anybody you think could benefit from the information we're sharing.

Ina: 11:09

So until next time, remember we are in this together. Keep questioning, keep learning, stay healthy, and stay informed. Bye for now.