My hardware guy and I are building fun weekend projects.
What raspberry pi sensors can you use to figure out if our water is polluted, etc.
It should be noticeable, I'm just asking for basic testing. Nothing too crazy.
Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
91–100 of 146 posts
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_paint#History
Most homes built before 1960 contain heavily leaded paint[0]. My assertion isn't that lead wasn't believed to be dangerous, rather that no one saw it as "seriously" dangerous. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead-based_paint_in_the_Unit...
From the above wikipedia entry:
> In the July 1904 edition of its monthly publication, Sherwin-Williams reported the dangers of paint containing lead, noting that a French expert had deemed lead paint "poisonous in a large degree, both for the workmen and for the inhabitants of a house painted with lead colors."
"Poisonous in a large degree" seems pretty serious to me.
People were regularly dropping dead due to lead poisoning in factories by the turn of the century, and it looks like lead was recognized as being capable of doing significant, though hard-to-recognize, harm:
"Although plumbism is usually easy to diagnose, lead occasionally induces obscure affections of the nervous system, the cause and true nature of which are not always easily recognized. As a cause of poverty, too, its influence is not sufficiently known nor the role it may be playing in the physical degeneracy of the race."
https://books.google.com/books?id=gQY9AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA29&ots=...
Lead paint looks to have been largely banned in Europe in favor of zinc-based paint by 1911; it was clearly viewed as a public health threat, not least by housepainters themselves, who were dying of lead poisoning (see the table on page 25).
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unless you're in Flint, or a paranoiac, tap water in the US is safe. Period. Given the size of the United States that's a very brave statement. Water quality in Europe is typically measured on on commune level and even in countries like Austria which pride themselves for drinkable tap water there are incidents which cause tap water to not be drinkable at times.
The U.S. is huge but it's also filled with a lot of people and a lot of local governments, state governments, and of course a federal government. If you want one independent source of proof that U.S. water is safe, consider that almost every U.S. child has blood work done on an annual basis. If elevated levels of lead are a problem, they would be detected at that time, as they were in Flint.
Almost every US child has blood work done on an annual basis? For what? What are they looking for? Lead specifically?
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#94If 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).
Locals will also tell you vaccines will give you autism and wifi is making them sick so they need homeopathic medicine.
Better to go with facts over hearsay.
The EPA requires yearly water quality reports (called Consumer Confidence Reports) for all municipal water supplies in the United States. Specifically they are due by July 1st each year.
LA - https://dpw.lacounty.gov/wwd/web/YourWater/AnnualWaterQualit...
Seattle - http://www.seattle.gov/util/MyServices/Water/Water_Quality/W...
New York - http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/wsstate.shtm...
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google says 45% of bottled water is just tap water. I will never understand this phenomena.
As I currently don't have a Soda Stream, I'd pay for sparkling tap water. I don't think sparkling water can explain all those percentage points, but maybe some of them?
That is actually just referring to regular old non-carbonated water, not sparkling water (or as we call it around here, seltzer).
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#96Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#97If 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).
A pretty good rule of thumb I've heard is that if there's huge multi-liter water bottles available in every supermarket, it's probably a good idea to not drink tap water. The smaller and fewer the water bottles, the better the tap water is.
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It's hard to imagine why the U.S. ever had a single lead water pipe, let alone huge numbers of them. I always supposed that that's where the word 'plumber' came from, or 'loodgieter' (lead caster, Dutch). Both words strongly refer to lead. Growing up in Holland in the early 80's our house had lead pipes. When I bought my first house in 2003 it too still had a lead water main. I drank a lot of that water, tap water o…
Just noticed that in french lead is "plomb" and plumber is "plombier"
That's from Latin, which is why the periodic table symbol for lead is Pb.
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
You will for sure, I actually like it but not everyone does. You can remineralize and change the taste without too much trouble. I would avoid any other claims made for that process but it does usually improve the taste. Straight RO water is not great for coffee or tea as well.
Where does the average person find RO water?
Some grocery stores and walmart's have RO water machines outside their stores also. However, if you choose to use those it would be good to invest in a tester as they do not always change the filters on schedule.
Re: Unsafe Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint
#100Ancient 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…
>It's hard to imagine why the U.S. ever had a single lead water pipe, let alone huge numbers of them. I always supposed that that's where the word 'plumber' came from, or 'loodgieter' (lead caster, Dutch). Both words strongly refer to lead. Growing up in Holland in the early 80's our house had lead pipes. When I bought my first house in 2003 it too still had a lead water main. I drank a lot of that water, tap water o…
Whether or not the lead gets dissolved in the water depends on the water itself. If you have hard water lead pipes are low risk.