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The drinking fountain button

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Re: The drinking fountain button

#181

Post by lores »

matwood wrote: post #128
Johnny555 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you need a better designed toilet. Good low flow toilets do exist. We replaced the old 3.5 gallons per flush toilet in our house with a new Kohler 1.28gpf unit and it flushes and clears the bowl just fine - no worse than the previous toilet with about 1/3rd the water use.

EU toilets are often of the 'poop shelf' design. Which end up requiring cleaning and multiple flushes after every bowel movement.

As far as I know that's purely a Dutch thing, I've never seen them elsewhere.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#182

Post by weinzierl »

radlad wrote: post #168
weinzierl wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"From your first link, Table 1, I see that the United States EPA regulates chlorine to 0.2-4 mg/L. The upper bound is lower than the rest of countries with regulations. Some countries - including the European Union, United Kingdom, and Ireland - appear to have no regulations at all." The European Union is not a country and it is not surprising that it has no guideline, because the member states have. That the United…

No, the question is very much why you are against it when your claim is apparently that the water is not safe to drink because of it.

Safety is always a trade-off. If I am in an area with cholera epidemic I gladly will consider the chlorine in my drinking water safe. Where I live the water is clean and adding chlorine does make it definitely less safe.

Chlorine is a very hazardous substance after all.

According to the CDC the TLV for chlorine is 1.5 mg/m3. Note, that this is per cubic meter and not per liter. So a TLV of 0,0015 mg/l vs 4 mg/l in US drinking water.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/7782505.html

And here the definition of TLV from Wikipedia:

The threshold limit value (TLV) is a level of occupational exposure to a hazardous substance where it is believed that nearly all healthy workers can repeatedly experience at or below this level of exposure without adverse effects.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#183

Post by weinzierl »

radlad wrote: post #169
weinzierl wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think my claim is misinformed and I don't think the US and Germany are similar at all when it comes to water supply. Here we have multiple levels of security that would definitely have prevented a crisis similar to the one in Flint, even considering that corruption and criminal negligence could be at play. I also think we have different views what privatization means. Here privatization begins at the location…

Ok, you win. Germans are infallible and there have never been issues with tap water. > Here privatization begins at the location where the water pipe enters the building. As far as I am aware, the same is true in Flint. I do not understand the distinction you are drawing. Additionally, your Wikipedia link is obviously not an exhaustive list of "water crises" nor does it offer any insight into whether lead in tap wate…

"As far as I am aware, the same is true in Flint. I do not understand the distinction you are drawing."

If that was true, how could Veolia - a private company - ever come into a position to be even partly responsible for the disaster? Did all the wrong-doing happen inside the buildings? Of course not, and before you say Veolia had no responsibility: If they hadn't they would have paid no compensation.

"Although lead pipes have not been used here since 1973, they can still be found in old buildings."

As long as it is not a rental building the state's responsibility ends where the pipe enters the house. We do not have any lead pipes in public water supply anymore and for rental buildings we have mandatory water analysis.

Also we are talking about a limit of 5 μg/l where the us limit is three times that.

The occasional home owner that refused modernization could hardly be described as a water crisis.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#184

Post by alistairSH »

embedded_hiker wrote: post #94
alistairSH wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What countries do have them? In the US, they seem to exist in offices and schools. Airports tend to have them, and often with a bottle filler on the side, which is great since we can't carry water through security. But, just walking down the street, truly public water? Is that a thing anywhere in the US, or elsewhere?

Portland Oregon has the "Benson Bubblers": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benson_Bubbler

Neat. That's really what I was asking about. Parks near me usually have a fountain, but only if the park is large enough to have a bathroom with plumbing (as opposed to no bathroom for single ball fields and playgrounds, or a pit toilet for more remote parks). What I don't see often is a truly public drinking fountain that's out in plain view.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#185

Post by lukas099 »

paulmd wrote: post #157
CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends very much on the country, for example The Netherlands is a poop shelf design country, but Belgium isn't. No idea what's the reason behind it.

lower-calorie, higher-fiber european poops don't generally reach the size of american fast-food poops. but everyone loves the feeling of breaking the surface, so to promote a sense of social well-being some countries have artificially lifted the poop instead. (the above is false, but it is unironically there so that you can look at your poop. admire the shape, the volume, the coloration. and just wait until you learn…

fiber bulks up your poop

Re: The drinking fountain button

#186

Post by lukas099 »

rmason wrote: post #130
radlad wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in/near Michigan all my life and water conservation has never really been a concern, except when it comes to uproars over things like Nestle sourcing water from the Great Lakes.

Live in Michigan as well. I think we are making a huge mistake conserving water as if is scarce. We act as if water is short and about to run out. We should instead celebrate our advantage over other areas where it is in short supply.

Something to be said for not risking messing up a good thing.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#187

Post by lukas099 »

fatnoah wrote: post #136
weinzierl wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not drink American tap water, at least not in the cities that I travelled. It always smelt like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. This is definitely not a thing in western Europe. We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint.

I'm a bit of a tap water connoisseur, and tap water in the US varies greatly. I grew up in the northeast US, in a town where the water comes from a mostly spring-fed lake. The water has zero chlorine taste or smell. I currently live in another town in the US where the water mostly comes from a local reservoir, and also has no taste or smell. In both cases, water pipes are buried to avoid frost, resulting in cold wate…

> tap water in the US varies greatly

Absolutely in taste. In terms of safety I think it is okay pretty much everywhere. If you live anywhere long term you should definitely look up the municipal water testing results at least once though.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#188

Post by lukas099 »

WheatMillington wrote: post #137
the__alchemist wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! USA seems to be the only country I've visited that drinks tap water, let alone has water fountains.

I'm not super well travelled, but of the ~9 of the ~10 countries I've been to, including where I live (New Zealand) it's normal to drink tap water. Thailand was the exception for me. Water fountains are somewhat normal in New Zealand and Australia.

It definitely wasn't normal in Spain. I think they called it "water from the lake" or something dirty sounding like that. And don't bother asking for ice cubes in some parts of Europe, they might have to chisel it off of a big hunk of ice for you (happened to my mother in law)

Re: The drinking fountain button

#190

Post by rjmunro »

HeatrayEnjoyer wrote: post #125
bombcar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my travels the USA is way more concerned with water-saving devices, even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems. Toilets in Europe will still seem to flush using the full power of Niagara Falls, which are quite rare in the US now.

Europe doesn't have the water scarcity issues of the US. When my brother in law from Germany visited a few summers ago he was shocked by the amount of drought news and water conservation instructions broadcast daily on TV.

Europe != Germany. Plenty of parts of Europe have drought issues and water saving laws.

I expect plenty of parts of the US have loads of water and no droughts as well.

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