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Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

nytimes.com

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Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#41

Post by mturmon »

voltagex_ wrote: post #10

If I travel to the US (Let's say Los Angeles, Seattle and New York) how do I know if the tap water is safe to drink? In the EU I normally just ask a local. In Germany it's safe to drink but in the Czech Republic you might be better off drinking bottled water (last time I checked was ~10 years ago, sorry if it's changed).

In major cities in the US like the ones you name, it would be very unusual to doubt the safety of standard municipal tap water. In my home city, this is based upon my own reading of the annual water quality reports they put out. I filter a lot of my own drinking water for taste reasons, but it's un-necessary and I do not hesitate to drink from taps anywhere.

With the recent worries about BPA and other components of plastics, it's unclear if bottled water from plastic is safer than tap at the 99.9th percentile of paranoia. I don't know about exotic risks from bottled water in glass (radioactive Evian from Chernobyl?), but I assume they are there also.

Nonetheless, in my circle of friends, I do know people who drink bottled water because they think it's more pure. I also know people who don't use microwave ovens because of harmful radio waves, and others who do not use plastic containers or plastic-lined metal cans because of hormone disruptors in plastics. I think they're nuts, and they compensate by thinking I'm naive and complacent.

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#42

Post by prewett »

rickdale wrote: post #20
overcast wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking distilled water is not a good idea, which is basically what reverse osmosis gives you stripping out essential minerals. It's also an incredibly wasteful 4:1 process. Look into three stage filtering, that's all you need.

I took a nutrition course given by a former top tennis pro. It was awesome. He recommended a reverse osmosis setup where you add alkalinity to the water. Celtic sea salt, lemon, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, active h2, etc,... not all at once necessarily but thats the protocol I eventually setup at my home.

I'm guessing that lemon and vinegar are not effective at adding alkalinity, seeing as how they are acids...

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#43

Post by colordrops »

overcast wrote: post #5
dmm wrote: post #4

Nassim Taleb taught me that the absence of known danger is not the same as safety. Repeat that to yourself the next time you read your cities water report. It's not "I know my water is safe" it's "I know I don't face these specific dangers. What else could be in the water that they don't test for?" Look into reverse osmosis.

Drinking distilled water is not a good idea, which is basically what reverse osmosis gives you stripping out essential minerals. It's also an incredibly wasteful 4:1 process. Look into three stage filtering, that's all you need.

You can get an RO system with a permeate pump that brings the ratio to 1:1, and a remineralization filter at the end. Even with a ratio of 4:1, avoiding a couple showers or one steak a month would be enough to make up for it for a normal family. Most water usage in a typical household is not from drinking water.

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#44

Post by colordrops »

mturmon wrote: post #41
voltagex_ wrote: post #10

If I travel to the US (Let's say Los Angeles, Seattle and New York) how do I know if the tap water is safe to drink? In the EU I normally just ask a local. In Germany it's safe to drink but in the Czech Republic you might be better off drinking bottled water (last time I checked was ~10 years ago, sorry if it's changed).

In major cities in the US like the ones you name, it would be very unusual to doubt the safety of standard municipal tap water. In my home city, this is based upon my own reading of the annual water quality reports they put out. I filter a lot of my own drinking water for taste reasons, but it's un-necessary and I do not hesitate to drink from taps anywhere. With the recent worries about BPA and other components of p…

Why would you think they are nuts? Hormone disrupters in certain plastics and can liners are a real problem, backed by science.

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#45

Post by jcranmer »

detaro wrote: post #3
staunch wrote: post #2

Ancient Romans knew that lead water pipes were unhealthy and so they preferred terracotta pipes. It's hard to imagine why the U.S. ever had a single lead water pipe, let alone huge numbers of them. Updated with a reference for the downvoters: Sheets of lead were used to line Roman aqueducts (as was cement) and lead pipes to convey water. But lead also was known to be unwholesome and, for that reason, pipes made of cl…

> Ancient Romans knew that lead water pipes were unhealthy and so they preferred terracotta pipes. Do you have a source for this? At the same time, they used lead acetate to sweeten wine and food, which is way more dangerous. If they made the weaker connection between health and water pipes, they should have been able to connect health and this as well.

Read Vitrivius's De Architectura, specifically the part on building aqueducts. It's basically a manual for "So the Emperor told you to build a city from scratch…"

As a random aside, he also includes a proof that the water level mechanism he prefers works even though the Earth is a (roughly) spherical object and not a flat plane.

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#46

Post by Radim »

voltagex_ wrote: post #10

If I travel to the US (Let's say Los Angeles, Seattle and New York) how do I know if the tap water is safe to drink? In the EU I normally just ask a local. In Germany it's safe to drink but in the Czech Republic you might be better off drinking bottled water (last time I checked was ~10 years ago, sorry if it's changed).

Re. Czech Republic -- nothing has changed, in the sense that drinking tap water was perfectly safe ten years ago, as it is now.

I suppose that demonstrates the dangers of your "ask some local" approach :)

Though the safety of tap water in CZ is well known, and has been well known for decades, and any local would tell you as much. So I'm not sure where that came from. Perhaps some temporary local incident?

Even Google may be a safer source of information on tap water quality.

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#47

Post by akg_67 »

serge2k wrote: post #35
akg_67 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Default to not drinking from taps directly. I live in Seattle. We only use tap water after filtering with a Brita Filter for drinking and cooking. When we are outside home, we either bring filtered water with us or buy bottled water. At restaurants, if in doubt we ask if water is directly from tap. Since the flint lead news, I have been exploring how can I get my tap water tested on a routine.

Ridiculous. First off, evidence that Seattle water is unsafe? Second, brita is useless http://www.naturalnews.com/046536_water_filters_heavy_metals...

From another poster

"Nassim Taleb taught me that the absence of known danger is not the same as safety."

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#48

Post by samcheng »

prewett wrote: post #42
rickdale wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a nutrition course given by a former top tennis pro. It was awesome. He recommended a reverse osmosis setup where you add alkalinity to the water. Celtic sea salt, lemon, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, active h2, etc,... not all at once necessarily but thats the protocol I eventually setup at my home.

I'm guessing that lemon and vinegar are not effective at adding alkalinity, seeing as how they are acids...

I'm sure he meant total alkalinity, which is a measure of buffering ability (ability to resist changes to pH).

http://www.vanislewater.com/what-total-alkalinity-swimming-p...

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#49

Post by mturmon »

colordrops wrote: post #44
mturmon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In major cities in the US like the ones you name, it would be very unusual to doubt the safety of standard municipal tap water. In my home city, this is based upon my own reading of the annual water quality reports they put out. I filter a lot of my own drinking water for taste reasons, but it's un-necessary and I do not hesitate to drink from taps anywhere. With the recent worries about BPA and other components of p…

Why would you think they are nuts? Hormone disrupters in certain plastics and can liners are a real problem, backed by science.

A close friend was an entrepreneur and evangelist in this space. I looked into it around 2008 and could not justify a significant level of concern relative to other risks. (Although "nuts" may be too strong...should say, "excessively worried".)

If you know otherwise, please post a link.

Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint

#50

Post by jcranmer »

serge2k wrote: post #35
akg_67 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Default to not drinking from taps directly. I live in Seattle. We only use tap water after filtering with a Brita Filter for drinking and cooking. When we are outside home, we either bring filtered water with us or buy bottled water. At restaurants, if in doubt we ask if water is directly from tap. Since the flint lead news, I have been exploring how can I get my tap water tested on a routine.

Ridiculous. First off, evidence that Seattle water is unsafe? Second, brita is useless http://www.naturalnews.com/046536_water_filters_heavy_metals...

I wouldn't trust that link. The end of the article contains a pitch for a dietary supplement, which is a giant red flag to me. The fact that the sidebar lists conspiracy theories such as "Obama is a sleeper agent" and "San Bernadino was a false-flag" is basically guilt by association.
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