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Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

news.harvard.edu

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Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#101

Post by throwaway91111 »

general_ai wrote: post #49
throwaway91111 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how anyone is better off with reduced regulations. Except possibly developers.

Just goes to show that "regulations" isn't all that needs to happen. We've known for years there are problems in various areas, some of the most drastic of which have been widely publicized due to Flint. What's also been publicized by Flint is that the US government can't find $60M in their multi trillion dollar budget (EPA budget alone is $8.1 _billion_) to fix the situation, yet there's $210M to send abroad at the…

FWIW I agree with you, which isn't to say I have any ideas.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#102

Post by Reason077 »

ggcdn wrote: post #79
Reason077 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! Everyone's always so worried about fluoride in drinking water, with little justification and without giving a thought to all the chlorine which is often present in far greater concentrations and, in certain conditions, can react with other organic and inorganic compounds to form all sorts of nasties. Get a good filter for your drinking water and most of these concerns vanish. Plus you'll save a fortune on bo…

If you're worried about chlorine, you don't even need a filter. Put the water in a jug in the fridge for an hour or so.

Free chlorine will indeed break down over time, but an hour in the fridge probably won't be sufficient - the half life of free chlorine in water is much longer than an hour! (In sunlight or UV, however, it'll break down much faster).

Secondly, Chloramine is now often used instead (or in addition to) free chlorine. Chloramine is more stable and won't break down by putting it in the fridge.

And the potential health issue isn't so much with chlorine itself anyway, but with other chemical products that can be formed by reactions with chlorine, possibly before the water even reaches your tap.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#103

Post by general_ai »

knz wrote: post #98
general_ai wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, the EPA is comprised of 15000 employees, and its annual budet is $8.14B. That's $543K per head. A lot of money for sitting on their hands and making excuses that they're "hamstrung".

That is a poor metric. The EPA funds many pollution prevention and mitigation programs that far exceed the cost of staffing.

Nonetheless, people in Flint didn't have drinkable water for years. If the agency is so toothless with a highly politicized case like this, you can only imagine how toothless it is when it comes to the less publicized cases. So don't tell me how awesome the EPA currently is. Maybe it could, in fact, benefit from a swift kick in the ass.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#104

Post by Reason077 »

SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #83
Reason077 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! Everyone's always so worried about fluoride in drinking water, with little justification and without giving a thought to all the chlorine which is often present in far greater concentrations and, in certain conditions, can react with other organic and inorganic compounds to form all sorts of nasties. Get a good filter for your drinking water and most of these concerns vanish. Plus you'll save a fortune on bo…

>Get a good filter for your drinking water and most of these concerns vanish. Plus you'll save a fortune on bottled water. We do that. But it's worth noting that your comment implies that a filter will remove fluoride. Reverse osmosis will remove fluoride. A Brita filter will not. At least the last time I checked.

I didn't intend to suggest that activated carbon filters will remove fluoride (as you say, reverse osmosis is needed for that).

They will remove chlorine/chloramine, and some of their products, however.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#105

Post by astrodust »

some-guy wrote: post #80
astrodust wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? The same people are arguing the government should stop geo-engineering with HAARP and chemtrails. They're detached from reality. They'll use a study on sock production volumes in Honduras causing earthquakes in India.

> Who cares? They vote, so I care.

There's nothing you can do on a logical level. Your only hope is an emotional appeal that resonates.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#106

Post by astrodust »

thenewwazoo wrote: post #90
astrodust wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? The same people are arguing the government should stop geo-engineering with HAARP and chemtrails. They're detached from reality. They'll use a study on sock production volumes in Honduras causing earthquakes in India.

I care because those people succeed at defeating fluoridation efforts; for example, the 2013 effort in Portland, OR[1] [1] http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/05/portlan...

They'll succeed at banning WiFi and other things if we don't obstruct this nonsense. Hell, they'll succeed at banning refrigeration if they have their way.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#108

Post by jolux »

general_ai wrote: post #103
knz wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a poor metric. The EPA funds many pollution prevention and mitigation programs that far exceed the cost of staffing.

Nonetheless, people in Flint didn't have drinkable water for years. If the agency is so toothless with a highly politicized case like this, you can only imagine how toothless it is when it comes to the less publicized cases. So don't tell me how awesome the EPA currently is. Maybe it could, in fact, benefit from a swift kick in the ass.

They can't do anything with the funding they have, so maybe they'll do better with less funding? That's a non-sequitur.

Re: Toxic fluorinated compounds found in drinking water of 33 states

#110

Post by cialowicz »

anu7df wrote: post #45

here is a better interactive map. http://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2015-teflon-chemical-har...

This is pretty interesting, thanks.

I'm not really strong in stats, but it seems like many of the non-contaminated counties have very low sample sizes that may not be statistically significant. Example: in Marin County, 0 of 11 samples were found to be contaminated. In Alameda, 2 of 73 samples were contaminated.

Maybe someone else can comment?

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