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'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

citynews.ca

31–40 of 107 posts

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#31
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the concentration of that vs the concentration here. Note that we also use chlorine to treat drinking water (e.g. on canoe trips), but you don't want to be drinking that unless it's very low concentration. A quick google search suggests that they are used to "improve water clarity" [0], so at a guess you don't use enough of it to turn the water pink. There's also the fact that they think it's concentrated enou…

I would not use livestrong as a source. If the pictures are true to the situation, the concentrations are tiny. You can look up videos of people putting less than a teaspoon into water to get the same result. IIRC, PP can be a precursor to chlorine. But, you're comparing two different chemicals here and what applies to one likely doesn't apply to another. There is a chance your skin will feel like it's burning if it'…

> IIRC, PP can be a precursor to chlorine.

Converting KMnO₄ to Cl¯ would require a nuclear reaction. Chlorides are generally soluble, so it's not going to cause an insoluble salt to slowly dissolve as a permanganate salt precipitates instead. It does appear to be a stronger oxidizing agent than Cl₂ (and Cl¯ and ClO¯ and ClO₂¯), but there are likely better reducing agents in most water than dissolved chlorine ions.

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This type of response is exactly what is wrong with the world, in my opinion. The attitude of "Oh that's absolutely demonstrably awful, here's X to subsidize your life," needs to stop. How about we create societies where the onus of providing clean drinking water to humans is not arguable?

Not sure if you misunderstood the article. The article indicates that potassium permanganate is what caused the water to be pink. The commenter is explaining that potassium permanganate is harmless and usually used as a water purifier anyway. I have no idea how that can be interpreted as "Oh that's absolutely demonstrably awful, here's X to subsidize your life,"

Not sure if you misunderstood the poster you replied to. People don't want pseudoscientific rationalizations for why their preferences don't matter, they want the basic as-pure-as-possible H2O that they paid for.

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you misunderstood the article. The article indicates that potassium permanganate is what caused the water to be pink. The commenter is explaining that potassium permanganate is harmless and usually used as a water purifier anyway. I have no idea how that can be interpreted as "Oh that's absolutely demonstrably awful, here's X to subsidize your life,"

Not sure if you misunderstood the poster you replied to. People don't want pseudoscientific rationalizations for why their preferences don't matter, they want the basic as-pure-as-possible H2O that they paid for.

Trying to understand what you're saying -- I believe when you say "their preferences" you mean that people want "basic as-pure-as-possible H2O that they paid for". However, all water that we drink is purified by a wealth of processes. That's not pseudoscientific, that's real science. Our purification is the reason we don't get cholera, for example.

If you mean that people want non-pink water, I think that's reasonable. But I also think it's reasonable that the reason the pink color is explained by the actual purifying process. I too concede that the water controlling authorities screwed up by using too much of the chemical, but it seems not in a dangerous amount, and they did well to communicate exactly why, and they also conducted tests to ensure safety of the water, thus effectively following up and checking the potential problems with their screw-up.

As far as government mistakes go, I think this one was relatively mild and handled in an adequate manner.

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#34
post #7

Not the end of the world. You can buy potassium permanganate tablets to purify drinking water.

>> You can buy potassium permanganate tablets to purify drinking water.

Or drink your own piss, ala Bear Grylls. Healthy, and helps build character. I just think that these Albertans are just a bit too... spoiled I think?

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#35
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>The commenter is explaining that potassium permanganate is harmless and usually used as a water purifier anyway. Harmless at what level? Because even the most harmless chemical substance will become harmful at high enough doses.

Yup. I heard this di-Hydrogen Oxide can be fatal in very high ingestion cases.

[deleted]

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>IIRC, PP can be a precursor to chlorine potassium permanganate does not contain chlorine

No, but muriatic acid does. I'm pretty sure it's a redox reaction.

How is HCl related to KMnO4? And why would one combine them?

Why not just add a hypochlorite to water if the end goal is to disinfect with chlorine?

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#38
post #7

Not the end of the world. You can buy potassium permanganate tablets to purify drinking water.

Bad drinking water IS the end of the world. Nonchalant cliches like this make the right to drink clean and clear water seem like something that is mostly fairly applied throughout the world.

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#39
post #30

I love potassium permanganate. Growing up in Soviet Union, we used to add potassium permanganate to bath, supposedly to clean your skin. But I love it for its oxidizing properties. Mix potassium permanganate with magnesium shavings, and you have a pretty powerful explosive mixture. Put a drop or two of glycerine into potassium permanganate and glycerine spontaneously burns. There are tons of interesting experiments y…

Or make chlorine by mixing it with hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. Or mix it with glycerine to get a fire from "water" (it used to be a common trick performed by godmen). Pottasium permanganate is wonderful.

Re: 'Very, very pink' tap water in Alberta town

#40
post #7

Not the end of the world. You can buy potassium permanganate tablets to purify drinking water.

This type of response is exactly what is wrong with the world, in my opinion. The attitude of "Oh that's absolutely demonstrably awful, here's X to subsidize your life," needs to stop. How about we create societies where the onus of providing clean drinking water to humans is not arguable?

Yes! :) +1 I feel similarly (outlined in another sibling comment)
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