Live data from Hacker News

Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

nytimes.com

11–20 of 118 posts

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#11
post #6

This is really bad. Most bad things in life are reversible but this degree of health damage isn't. May everyone responsible for this be exemplarily punished to deter this kind of disregard for human life from happening again. > Since then, the Defense Department has admitted that it allowed a firefighting foam to slip into at least 55 drinking water systems at military bases around the globe, sometimes for generation…

When I was a kid, every year the firefighting department would flush a meadow full of that foam, for all the kids to play in.

Oh well.

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#12
post #4
post #3

I'll stick to my distilled water. I still don't understand why they aren't more popular. Here they add a chemical to our tap water that bonds to lead so that there will be less (hopefully no) lead from the lead water pipes/solder/fittings. No thank you.

Doesn't drinking distilled water in significant quantities remove important minerals from your body?

Not true, but misinformation is probably a major factor.

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#13
post #9
post #2

Once again we see that government doesn’t have regard for doing the best for its citizens. It’s only regard is doing what is best to keep itself alive.

How do you eplain all the instances of when government has shown regard for doing the best for its citizens? Do you apply the same logic you used here for government on corporations? Instead of focusing on the fact that it was a government agency in this instance let’s focus on the fact that without proper oversight bad things can happen. This is true for corporations, individuals, government agencies, non-profit age…

> Do you apply the same logic you used here for government on corporations?

Obviously not, since the article says DuPont did the same, but that elicited no anti-corporate criticism: "While the military has used the chemicals extensively, it is far from the only entity to do so, and in recent years, companies like DuPont have come under fire for leaching PFAS into water systems."

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#14
post #4
post #3

I'll stick to my distilled water. I still don't understand why they aren't more popular. Here they add a chemical to our tap water that bonds to lead so that there will be less (hopefully no) lead from the lead water pipes/solder/fittings. No thank you.

Doesn't drinking distilled water in significant quantities remove important minerals from your body?

The minerals you can get elsewhere, but it seems some people get surprised by the taste of demineralized water and dislike it.

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#15

I wonder if there's a way to democratize inexpensive health testing and see these trends faster? Imagine a world where you're testing your blood/sweat/saliva/vitals daily and semi-anonymously sending the results to be analysed using statistical methods. A doctor can give you a one time use current diagnoses voucher to add into the system for serious diseases. The whole thing is voluntary. There's definitely some dyst…

If only there were a medical device company capable or cheap blood test processing to disrupt and innovate this field:^)

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#16
post #3

I'll stick to my distilled water. I still don't understand why they aren't more popular. Here they add a chemical to our tap water that bonds to lead so that there will be less (hopefully no) lead from the lead water pipes/solder/fittings. No thank you.

You can get an undercounter reverse osmosis system for not much more than $100 that would save you a lot of trouble and expense. If you want to get really crazy hook up a deionizing filter after it to get <10 ppm water.

RO systems are excellent for water purification as well and certainly more convenient if you own your home. So I will restate, I don't understand why RO or distillation systems aren't far more common.

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#18
I was a military wife for a lot of years. I have very serious health problems. Doctors officially blame that on my genes, which can't be changed, so it's a de facto means to throw their hands in the air and call me unfixable.

I think environmental factors are a big part of the problem and that those can be addressed.

I lived on a military base for 2.75 years where there was one tap in the house labeled "potable water." You weren't supposed to drink water from the bathroom sink while brushing teeth, yet we bathed in this stuff and washed our dishes with it, etc.

The house was not very far from Hinkley, CA, location of the hexavalent chromium plume made famous in the movie "Erin Brockovich."

When I have said on the internet that I believe hexavalent chromium poisoning is one of my problems, I have been dismissed as a nutter and conspiracy theorist by internet strangers who are confident they know all about my life better than I do.

I actually spent some years on an antivaxxer email list. They had a lot of interesting and useful information that helped me begin turning my health around while my doctor expressed zero curiosity about my improvement, advised me other patients needed him more and scheduled me fewer appointments.

YouTube recently demonitized anti vax channels (seemingly part of general trend to shut down such views). Most people seem to think that's a good thing. It leaves me wondering where people like me are supposed to go in a world where "fringe" views cannot be discussed in good faith on the internet. Are we supposed to just quietly die because that's the PC answer when doctors tell you "People like you don't get well. Symptom management is the name of the game."?

If you make zero effort to get me well and write me off for dead because of the label you gave me, wouldn't my decline and death be a form of self-fulfilling prophecy?

And when I defy that prediction, I'm written off as a crazy person and thrown off of one forum after another.

Insert some quote about "And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak."

Re: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling

#20
post #6

This is really bad. Most bad things in life are reversible but this degree of health damage isn't. May everyone responsible for this be exemplarily punished to deter this kind of disregard for human life from happening again. > Since then, the Defense Department has admitted that it allowed a firefighting foam to slip into at least 55 drinking water systems at military bases around the globe, sometimes for generation…

One of my favorite things about NYC are the quarterly water resevoir updates. They test constantly (more than bottled water is required to) and release detailed reports about the state of things [0]

Not only that but they'll send you water bottles to fill up and then test your water for lead and give you results which is neat too.

The United States as a whole has done some incredible things in regards to air quality, and water quality. We should keep it up. Travesties like these and Flint are not okay.

[0]-https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/wsstate.sh...

Post reply on HN