151–160 of 383 posts
Distilled water and glass bottles are the way to go. You can get a small distiller for your home relatively cheaply.
The distiller is cheap but the power is not. Its like running a microwave 24/7 to make enough water for two people. I want to try making a solar one.
Or one powered by solar panels? :)
It's good to see the honest qualifications in the article: >Mason's team was able to identify specific plastics over 100 microns (0.10 mm) in size but not smaller particles. According to experts contacted by CBC News, there is a chance the Nile Red dye is adhering to another unknown substance other than plastic. >Mason leaves open that possibility but leans strongly to the smaller particles being plastic. >The develo…
For practical purpose does it matter? It detects non-water particles(pollution) in twice higher ratio than in tap water and plastic bottled water is sold as way purer than tap water with 1000 time higher price. Basically it's scam.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say all of Germany is culturally very much ok with drinking tap water, Berlin not much more or less than other regions. People who drink bottled water here don't usually do it because they think it's "better" than tap water, it's either because of convenience when you're not home or because they like carbonated water (which is very popular in Germany).
Or because the tap water just doesn't really taste that good. The one coming out of my line just tastes too "metalic", I often tried getting over it but I just can't.
Went looking to see what the comparison to tap water was: > Orb found on average there were 10.4 particles of plastic per litre that were 100 microns (0.10 mm) or bigger. This is double the level of microplastics in the tap water tested from more than a dozen countries across five continents, examined in a 2017 study by Orb that looked at similar-sized plastics. Worse... it's worse than tap water.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"From 1973 to 2011, there was a decline of more than 50 percent in sperm counts among men living in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand." "The researchers said that they cannot determine from their data what might have caused the decline, but it could be related to environmental or lifestyle factors." https://www.livescience.com/59948-sperm-count-drop-western-m...
A link has been found to some household chemicals (diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) and polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB153)) affecting dogs: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fertility-problems...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, for microplastics. If you live e.g. in the Bay Area, your tap water instead has a good chance of having a good helping of hexavalent chromium[1], which... not too healthy. (Neither are arsenic, bromium, etc.) Pick your poison. Literally. [1] https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tap-water-Bay-Area-datab...
San Francisco water mostly comes from the Tuolumne River (Hetch Hetchy reservoir).
Upon searching looks like SJC gets if from aquifers, recharge areas and also a bit from sfpuc (hetchhechy). EB MUD gets it from the Sierra snowmelt.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've lived in a few places in Berlin over the years, I've never seen anything but nice clear water come out of the tap (whether at my place or friend's flats). Granted, it's hard water (lots of calcium) but other than that it's perfectly fine. Pipes as bad as you're describing definitely exist but I'd say they're the exception, not the rule.
If there's a lot of calcium old pipes will have nice protection layer, no?
How dangerous are microplastics?
Went looking to see what the comparison to tap water was: > Orb found on average there were 10.4 particles of plastic per litre that were 100 microns (0.10 mm) or bigger. This is double the level of microplastics in the tap water tested from more than a dozen countries across five continents, examined in a 2017 study by Orb that looked at similar-sized plastics. Worse... it's worse than tap water.
Considering the bottles are made of plastic, it would be surprising if they contained less plastic particles than tap water.
What would be interesting is if glass bottled water contained a similar number of plastic particles, because that would suggest a different source of contamination.