Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

cbc.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 166 posts

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#121

Post by LinuxBender »

I live in the U.S. The tap water in my neck of the woods is disgusting. It is a water tank on top of a hill that has open vents and is surrounded by trees, moss and much worse. There is nothing stopping anyone from throwing a water balloon filled with (insert whatever) at the vent. Hikers pass it every day at vent level. The pipes leading up to it leak about 20k gallons of water into the mountainside every day. There are testing taps every few miles on my road and I see them sometimes taking samples. I do not feel comfortable even showering in this water. I certainly would not drink it intentionally.

For bottled water, I get the bottles made of rigid plastic that may have less chance of leaching chemicals over a short period of time. Only time will tell if I chose correctly.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#122

Post by rayiner »

marcosdumay wrote: post #70
foobaw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I visited India, the locals recommended me to always drink bottled water or else I'd get really sick. Maybe in the US, it can be solved on a city-by-city basis. For some other countries, I think it's a much more complex problem.

How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda? People on Brazil will always tell you to drink bottled water too, yet all the safety issues that make into news (always a very small note at the end of the news) are with bottled water and the sanitary standards are much more strict with tap water.

> How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda?

Being from that neck of the woods, it's reality. My brother (coming from the U.S. to visit) was hospitalized for days when he was 5-6 because he ate some food off a plate that had been washed in the local water.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#123

Post by Panoramix »

rayiner wrote: post #122
marcosdumay wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda? People on Brazil will always tell you to drink bottled water too, yet all the safety issues that make into news (always a very small note at the end of the news) are with bottled water and the sanitary standards are much more strict with tap water.

> How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda? Being from that neck of the woods, it's reality. My brother (coming from the U.S. to visit) was hospitalized for days when he was 5-6 because he ate some food off a plate that had been washed in the local water.

Why do you blame the water and not the food?

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#124

Post by dTal »

zolthrowaway wrote: post #117
lopmotr wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a 1000% markup doesn't make it a scam. The raw material is practically free so anything they charge is going to be a huge markup. There's lots of competition and people are willing to buy it. What's wrong with that? You're not paying for the water, but for all the other value that comes along with it. You can carry it around, or store it in your car, or whatever. You don't have to remember to fill up the water…

>What's wrong with using tons of oil? Plastics are incredibly useful. Tons upon tons of bottles end up in landfills, oceans, etc. Even with plastic recycling, PET yields aren't 100%. There is only so much oil and eventually the plastics we have will cease to be recyclable. I'm not trying to say that it's wrong to use a disposable plastic bottle from time to time. There's not anything wrong with having a case of water…

We will never run out of oil, as it can be synthesized from organic waste (basically just by cooking the crap out of it). Right now it's not really a profitable enterprise in competition with ground based oil, but at some point it will be. And it's carbon neutral (as is everything that doesn't involve digging up basically pure carbon and burning it).

Of course, all of your other points are spot on. It is irresponsible to use such a permanent material for so much disposable stuff.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#125

Post by Panoramix »

freebear wrote: post #89

Tap water is about the same, old one: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-... This is just our devouring of the planet, nothing to see here. Now reinsert head in ass and press play.

At least tap water doesn't come in disposable plastic bottles that end up as microplastics in our water supply

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#126

Post by dalore »

sametmax wrote: post #82
TomMarius wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments that do this in Europe fail horribly and just increase prices by huge multiples, nothing else. Last year a whole division of a capital city (Prague) got pretty seriously sick because of government failure. Today in the morning the water did not run at all. Thanks, government. I know HN is very leftist, so I expect downvotes. It'd be nice to have a discussion though.

Last time I checked, we had very decent municipal water in France. In many cities it actually tastes better than bottled water. Water sources are quite well protected as well. It's not perfect, but honestly much better than the swimming pool water I drank in the US. So "Europe" is maybe a broad term here.

UK water is safe and decent. Although here in London it's very hard and so tastes like crap.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#127

Post by Siecje »

rekado wrote: post #116
lopmotr wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a 1000% markup doesn't make it a scam. The raw material is practically free so anything they charge is going to be a huge markup. There's lots of competition and people are willing to buy it. What's wrong with that? You're not paying for the water, but for all the other value that comes along with it. You can carry it around, or store it in your car, or whatever. You don't have to remember to fill up the water…

Oil is a limited resource that can be used for way more important things than disposable water bottles, such as medical supplies (syringes, IV bags, etc) and durable plastics components. Plastics themselves are a great resource that should not be wasted, not least because of the amount of energy and water it takes to produce them. Most plastic bottles are burnt, so they do contribute to climate change; the small perc…

Plastic is created with a by-product of diesel/gasoline, so since it is going to be created anyways it is not very wasteful.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#128

Post by Siecje »

sparrish wrote: post #2

Or not.. "believed to be microplastics" "there is a chance the Nile Red dye is adhering to another unknown substance other than plastic." So it may, or may not be microplastics that they found/counted.

What else could it be? I'm going to assume it wasn't found in the baseline test and it is something that shouldn't be there.

There isn't a whole lot to "manufacturing" water.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#129

Post by beenBoutIT »

andai wrote: post #78
Retric wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can take a lot to filter water safely. The classic carbon filter under the sink does very little to improve safety, even reverse osmosis can fall short. So, while you can make things safer it's far more difficult than many assume.

Sounds like the best option is to buy bottled water, and then filter out the microplastics.

Reverse osmosis should do the trick.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#130

Post by sumoverhistory »

lopmotr wrote: post #108
djsumdog wrote: post #4

Bottled water is a scam. It's less regulated than municipal tap water in most developed nations, companies suck up water from small towns and use tons of fuel to ship it out of those watersheds and then charge people 1000% markup. For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. Don't buy plastic disposable water bottles if you live in a developed nation. They prop up…

Having a 1000% markup doesn't make it a scam. The raw material is practically free so anything they charge is going to be a huge markup. There's lots of competition and people are willing to buy it. What's wrong with that? You're not paying for the water, but for all the other value that comes along with it. You can carry it around, or store it in your car, or whatever. You don't have to remember to fill up the water…

this doesn't address the fact that all that plastic will then end up in landfills or in the ocean. within three decades, some models predict there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. and since we consume those fish, we will likely suffer detriments to our health because of it.
Post reply on HN