No one ever died from molds
There’s nothing I like better to settle a stomach stuffed full of raw fish and horseradish than a cool drink of water. If possible I like my drink of water to be tall, but short and in-between are fine too. However, I do insist on my drink of water being cool. That’s why I was overjoyed to discover that my employer in its beneficence has provided a water-cooler on my side of the office, meaning I no longer have to expedish to the accounts kitchen when I want a cool, and possibly tall, drink of water.
Interestingly, my comrade (of the Good Vibes deficiency - see below) is half Chinese, and not a believer in the drinking of chilled water. Apparently the Chinese like their water room-temperature, or preferably slightly warmer. You could say she is lukewarm about drinking water which isn’t.
Anyway, according to the info-sheet attached to our new water-cooler, my cool (tap) water has had the following contaminants removed by “microfiltration and reverse osmosis systems”:
Chlorine, Chloramines, Lead, Trihalomethanes (THM’s), Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC’s), Off-tastes & odors, Turbidity, Dirt & Rust, Parasites, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Molds, Algae, Asbestos fibres, Oxidized iron, managanese and sulphides, 99.9% of all particles 0.5 micron and larger.
As far as I can see these contaminants break down, so to speak, into three groups:
Contaminants I’m glad to see the back of
- Lead (makes you atrophy)
- Trihalomethanes (sounds terrifying)
- Parasites (send ‘em back to their own countries)
- Asbestos fibres (plenty of fibre in my diet already)
Contaminants I’d prefer they left in, if possible
- Chlorine (stops infections, verucas &c)
- Off-tastes & odors (nothing wrong with either of these)
- Turbidity (not a contaminant in the first place)
- Dirt & rust (healthy carbon content)
- Molds (no-one ever died from molds)
- 99.9% of all particles 0.5 micron and larger (overly zealous)
Contaminants I’m not sure about, but would like to make an informed choice if possible
- Chloramines (bore-amines)
- Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC’s) (sounds kind of fun)
- Giardia (Italian?)
- Cryptosporidum (surely a made-up contaminant?)
- Algae (isn’t tofu made of algae?)
- Oxidized shit.
Regular, forward-moving osmosis I can handle, but when they start reversing it I’m just not so sure.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 4:46 PM and filed under New stuff. Trackbacks are closed.
the day they add some juniper, grains and other enhancers to the water cooler will be a good day - then leave sliced lemons and a bottle of tonic next to it.
Posted on 23-Feb-06 at 10:45 pm | PermalinkApart from Stachybotrys or Chaetomium.
But then it’s always their mycotoxins. Bleeding lungs, nice.
Posted on 24-Feb-06 at 1:10 am | PermalinkMy parents used to have water straight from the spring through their taps. My father insisted this was A Good Thing.
Posted on 24-Feb-06 at 6:07 am | Permalink“But Daddy, there are newts coming through and clogging up the kitchen sink.”
“Ah hah - proves it’s fresh!”
“But Daddy, they’re not whole newts… more gory newt stumps.”
dmts: strange to relate I have seen such a water-cooler. It looked a bit like this.
Bobble: those aren’t contaminants, those are lesser demons of the eighth circle of hell.
Norah: I like newts put I couldn’t drink a whole one.
Posted on 24-Feb-06 at 9:30 am | PermalinkMy dad got giardia from drinking water from their dam.
Posted on 25-Feb-06 at 4:08 am | PermalinkAnd I’d like to thank you for leaving a link to your new abode on your old website, coz no one else has and I’m feeling very lost, cross and confused.
So, reverse osmosis is when they suck the juice out of the little bugs, is it? So you’re drinking bug juice?
Posted on 27-Feb-06 at 6:11 am | PermalinkAck.