BRING BACK OUR MAGNESIUM!!!

Help us to encourage the government to apply our request to bring back the important mineral - Magnesium to our drinking water. Help to save our health!

WHY MAGNESIUM IS IMPORTANT?

Magnesium is an essential mineral necessary for the proper functioning of body cells. This mineral is important for the proper activity of the body systems - the cardiovascular system (maintaining a stable heartbeat), the proper functioning of the immune system, the nerve, bone building and muscle system.[5]

In addition, it helps in preventing diabetes by balancing the amount of sugar in our blood and it also reduces the risk of stroke and kidney disease. Moreover, studies have shown that providing magnesium-rich water leads to improvement in the body lipid balance and a significant decrease in blood pressure.[4]

In different stages and conditions in life, there are different amounts of Magnesium that our body requires[5]:

Age group/sexג��

Ageג��

Mg/dayג��

Babiesג��

ג��0-6 months

7-12 months

30

75ג��

ג��Children

ג��1-3

4-8

9-13

ג��80

130

240

ג��Men

ג��14-18

19-30

31-50

51-70

70 and up

ג��410

400

420

420

420

Womenג��

ג��14-18

19-30

31-50

51-70

70 and up

ג��360

310

320

320

320

ג��Pregnant women

ג��Younger than 18

19-30

31-50

ג��400

350

360

Breastfeeding womenג��

ג��Younger than 18

19-30

31-50

ג��360

310

320

We get Magnesium from different food sources who contain it, such as vegetables, especially green-leaf vegetables, legumes, nuts seeds, whole grains and their products (for example – whole wheat bread).

As you get older, the amount of Magnesium in our bodies decreases, in addition to the decrease in consumption of magnesium-rich food.[5]

WHAT DAMAGE DOES THE DESALINATION OF WATER CAUSE?

Although desalination of drinking water has several benefits (reducing sodium in Israeli fruits and vegetables), it has also reduced the amount of magnesium essential by 30%.

This is bad news, because about 4,000 Israelis die every year (!) Of magnesium deficiency in their bodies - almost 10 times the number of people killed in traffic accidents - and the amount of drinking water decreases in the desalination of sea water continues to grow. Without magnesium from natural sources, the public has no way to raise their levels up to the recommended amount without taking expensive supplements. In recent years, when desalinated water has become widely used, mortality rates have begun to rise as a result of the magnesium lake in desalinated water. Magnesium deficiency can lead to negative health effects and may increase the risk of heart disease and the risk of death. Magnesium deficiency means high risk for hypertension, heart arrhythmias, atherosclerosis, diabetes and colon cancer. In Israel, drinking water accounts for about 20% of the sources of magnesium in the human body, and therefore, a prolonged shortage of magnesium in the drinking water can cause a reduction in the body's magnesium content. However, there are studies that clearly differ in the risk level, even with the presence of only a few milligrams of magnesium in a liter of water.

WHY DOES THE WATER IN ISRAEL LACK IN MAGNESIUM?

In the last few years Israel has a lack of Magnesium in its water. The main reason for it is the desalination that happens nowadays in Israel. Recently Israel uses desalinated sea water. The new study shows that Israel was a global company in the field of irrigation water efficiency, use non-conventional water resources containing salts for irrigation. Nowadays Israel is producing around 600 million cubic meters of desalinated water (about 70-80 percent of the country's tap drinking water). Israel is a leading country in using desalinated water- which causes to the lack of Magnesium.  The support for desalination comes als from Israeli water desalination company IDE Technologies that explains that there is technology enables us to desalinate the seawater at a low cost with low energy consumption but still to make very pure drinking water. Another support comes from Amadi that says that the desalinated water lacking in minerals is partly used also in the Israeli agricultural irrigation, and it makes the magnesium shortage even greater, Amitai said.Moreover, the lack of Magnesium exists because of the fact that Israel is a hot-weather country.The Israeli population is prone to another decrease because of exposure to heat (which causes loss of magnesium by perspiration), and prolonged situations of stress and tension (that cause loss of magnesium in the urine due to the rise in adrenaline level).  

OFFICIALS’ STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS

For many years there was a deficiency of natural spring water in Israel. The government came to a solution - desalinate the Mediterranean Sea water.

Currently Israel has the highest level of water desalination in the Western World. About 50-70 percent of the country’s public tap water is desalinated Mediterranean Sea water.

On the one hand, the government approves of desalination, which causes the lack of Magnesium. It’s up to the government to approve the budget for adding Magnesium to our drinking water, an action she hasn’t done yet.

On the other hand, there are the concerned citizens who are getting hurt by the government’s lack of activism regarding the problem. There are also the doctors, researchers and specialists who approve to the citizens and government the severity of this problem.

Much of the government opposes requiring the adding of magnesium because of alleged “high costs". Officials say, "We are now in the middle of a public tender for running a pilot in Ashkelon that will estimate the cost and applicability."

Lack of magnesium in the tap water is raising the highest concern among the public, and Israeli Ministry of Health is mulling over a pilot test of the possibility regarding artificial enrichment of magnesium in the desalinated water.

“To investigate effects of desalination in Israel on the status of salinity trends, we evaluated citrus leaf sodium, chloride, and magnesium in the years since the onset of large-scale national desalination in 2008 and examined fresh produce in the country for sodium and magnesium.”

Despite the significant health implications, no authority in the country has ever checked how much Magnesium there is in Israel’s public drinking water. Instead, for the past decade there has been several discussions at a governmental level about solving this problem. A solution hasn’t been found.