Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Don't drink the water

The last few weeks were doubly bad on the plastics-are-going-to-kill-us-all front. First, there was the your-shower-curtain-is-gassing-you-to-death-as-if-you-were-at-Auschwitz report that found lots (too much) media attention, but this is an easy target as the vinylphobes have been out and about for a couple of decades. It doesn't take too much effort to destroy the poor quality of the science in that report, but the Vinyl Institute has some points for starters.

But that's not all. It was also highlighted by the American Chemical Society that PVC water supply lines can lead to higher levels of lead in the water. It's not an obvious route to get from point A to point B, but it goes like this: Brass fitting often contain lead which can leach out at acid conditions which can occur more easily in PVC pipes than in copper pipes since the copper will inhibit the bacterial growth that lowers the pH.

So I guess the conclusions from all of this are:
1) Don't take a shower
2) Don't drink the water

Or maybe go with option 3) Relax and don't worry about it all so much.

2 comments:

Richard C. Lambert said...

Besides actual piping failure, the telltale blue stains the oxidized copper leaves on sinks, tubs, and fixtures can identify copper corrosion. best water filter system

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