Thursday, September 21, 2017

How Alive is Your Water?

Water is the source of all life but current practices might killing it.

Water behave like a living organism.Water can loose its natural structure and became essentially dead.

Living water will form beautiful hexagonal crystals when frozen.
Dead water does not form these shapes.

Water is a living substance which die if is treated poorly. My tap water killed all my pond fish in two days when I filled out the lost water from the pond.

In its natural environment the water travels in gently curved paths forming natural vortices.
Streams promote natural flow which restructures and oxygenates the water.
Long distances pipes and processing plants can damage and kill the water.


We as society chlorinate the water. What are the effects of chlorine in the water.

Chlorine is highly reactive which means it doesn’t stick around for very long. So if you have a large water system (think 1000’s of miles of pipe) it can be hard to keep a chlorine residual. This is why some larger systems use chloramines. Chloramines stick around a lot longer than chlorine does.

Are we suffering from lack of questioning the paradigm. A guy in

Chlorine also can make disinfection by products (DBP). This happens when the chlorine reacts with chemicals and compounds in the water, both organic and inorganic. The effects of these DBPs can vary but they are considered a bad thing


From an operation stand point, chlorine is dangerous to work with. ( So we insert poison in the water) If chlorine gas is being used it is super dangerous to the people handling it. While there are many safety protocols in place if the gas escapes into the room it is stored in it can devastating.


The chlorine gas is stored in a pressurized container in a liquid form. When it escapes it expands by about 300 times. It also will freeze whatever it evaporates off of.


The long term effects of chlorinated drinking water have just recently being recognized. According to the U.S. Council Of Environmental Quality, “Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine.”


Chlorine is a naturally occurring element with many uses, from purifying water to disinfecting and bleaching. In small quantities, exposure to chlorine gas or liquid can be poisonous. 

Chlorine as a gas has a pale green color with a smelly odor. 
Inhaling the gas can cause difficulty in breathing. Chlorine ion is abundant in nature and can be found in large amounts in salts.
Why Do We Use Chlorine For Treating Water?

The addition of chlorine in drinking water began in the 1800s and became the standard in water treatment in 1904. Unfortunately, we do not simply use chlorine because it is the safest and most effective means of disinfection, rather because it is the cheapest method. Drinking chlorine-contaminated water is no different than drinking a glass of water that contains bleach.


Cell Damage

Chlorine can be described as a pesticide whose sole purpose is to cause damage to living organisms. Drinking water contaminated with chlorine destroys cells and tissues inside our body. This explains the carcinogenic behavior of chlorine.
Increases the Risk of Asthma

Drinking chorine contaminated water and swimming in chlorinated pools increases the risk of respiratory problems, such as asthma, particularly in children. Unfortunately, in some cities in the US, the concentration of chlorine in tap water is just as high as in swimming pools. This can cause .skin irritation in the airways of sensitive people who are already suffering from respiratory issues, especially babies and children.


 Results in Heart Problems

Chlorine added to your water supply can pose serious threats to your cardio-vascular health.


Breathing in Chlorine Gas in the Shower
Chlorine ingested from the lungs or absorbed from the skin during a 15-minute shower can be much more hazardous than drinking chlorine contaminated water.


Water is treated with chlorine chemicals to kill harmful bacteria. The method is used by almost every household and public facility that houses a swimming pool. 


However, recent studies have revealed that the chemical Chlorine is itself a public health risk.

 Since the first commercial use of ozone for disinfection of drinking water in Nice, France, in 1908, more than 1,300 ozone water treatment plants have been built worldwide. 


The oldest operating ozone system in the U.S. was built in Whiting, Indiana, in 1940 (Dimitriou 1995). By 1990, 40 ozone plants were operating in the U.S. as an alternative to chlorination. An additional 100 plants were expected to be in the design or construction phase by 1995.

Chlorine in Swimming Pools.
 Many cases have been reported, including severe ones, where people developed diseases and infections from the exposure to chlorinated water in swimming pools. The most common health defects are discussed below:

1. Respiratory Defects

The respiratory system is the most susceptible to the effects of chlorine. Many victims of chlorinated water report that they were suffocated by toxic gases surrounding the swimming pool. Poor maintenance and inadequate ventilation system worsen the situation. The case is more severe for people with asthma.

2. Neurological Dysfunction

Chemically sanitized water that uses chlorine is dangerous for the nervous system as well. Numerous cases have been reported that corroborate this fact. According a research conducted by the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), 16% of total chlorinated-water cases are attributed to neurological dysfunctions.

3. Epiglottitis

Chlorine compounds have also been proved responsible for causing epiglottitis in some cases. One such case of severe intensity was reported in Nebraska in 2006 when a six-year old boy developed the disease from the exposure to toxic gases surrounding an indoor swimming pool. Epiglottitis is the swelling and inflammation of the epiglottis which can disturb normal breathing and can cause medical emergency.

4. Cardiovascular Defects

Some people also reported of developing cardiovascular defects that were directly related to the excessive exposure to chlorine.

5. Skin infection

Chlorinated water is responsible for a causing a high percentage of skin cancers every year. People who are excessively exposed to chemically sanitized water begin to develop rashes and infections on their skins. Chlorine tends to react with organic material to produce toxic substance, which affects the skin.

6. Eye infection

Ocular infection is one of the most common complaints of the victims of chlorinated swimming pools. Subjects feel inflammation in eyes as well as watery eyes. More than one-third of the swimming pool defects are those related to eyes.

7. Gastrointestinal Issues

Chlorine also tends to disturb the gastrointestinal system. Many victims of the sanitized swimming pools report that they felt nausea and headaches after bathing. Gastrointestinal problems usually occur when someone swallows the chlorinated water. This produces harmful compounds inside the stomach.

8. Kidney Cancer

Although kidney infections are not as prevalent as respiratory and ocular defects, cases that are reported are often severe. Patients are immediately taken to the hospital for treatment as a medical emergency. Prolonged exposure to chlorine-treated water can also result in renal cancer.

9. Liver infection

Liver and kidney infections are almost similar in nature. Both of them result from the swallowing of chemically sanitized water and are comparatively rare to occur. Sodium hypochlorite and similar chlorine compounds (found in most disinfectants) are potential of producing liver cancer in humans.

10. Colorectal cancer

Some victims of chlorinated water developed colo-rectal cancer as a result of excessive exposure to chlorine. Byproducts of trihalomethanes cause uncontrolled cell growth in the colon which gives birth to colorectal cancer.


Links
http://www.pure-earth.com/chlorine.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talks-tapped-out/
http://gochemless.com/top-10-dangers-of-swimming-pool-chlorine

http://gochemless.com/pdf/CDC_Acute_Illness_and_Injury_from_Swimming_Pool_Disinfectants_and_Other_Chemicals.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5636a1.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Wetlands in Huston Areas

Blog 4 

Houston’s development boom destroyed wetlands that naturally absorbed flood water.

The historic rainfall in Houston in September 2017 has left the Space City underwater with thousands of its citizens displaced.
As the city continues to struggle with the devastation of Harvey, questions have already bubbled up about why the flood has been so devastating.
A big factor could be the lack of rules that helped develop Houston into the country's fourth-largest city — and the biggest without a formal zoning code.
Experts believe the lack of regulation, building in the federally designated flood area, and paving over wetlands might've contributed to the storm's severity.
The stormwater system has never been designed for anything much stronger than a heavy afternoon thunderstorm."
Houston has lost a significant portion of its prairie and wetlands in the last 25 years — and with it a natural absorbent for rain water.
Harris County, which is primarily made up of Houston, lost almost 30% of its wetlands between 1992 and 2010, according to a Texas A&M study.
"Loss of wetlands on this scale means a substantial loss in the ability of the landscape to detain and remove pollutants from stormwater," the report warned. "The results are increased flooding and degraded fishing grounds in downstream bayous and marshes."
Much of that was lost to development, causing water to gush down streets instead of flow into the wetlands.
And for Harris County, that meant $350 million in lost stormwater detention, the report found. The entire Houston area — made up of several counties — lost wetlands that could detain 4 billion gallons of stormwater worth $600 million.
Instead of water being absorbed by these wetlands, it flows into the pair of bayous Houston relies on for drainage, along with two reservoirs, But those, too, get overflowed and spill into area homes.
Uncle Sam has tried to preserve more wetlands through the Clean Water Act, which requires affected developers to replace destroyed areas with new ones. The Trump administration has indicated it wants to undo the requirements, which had been emboldened by the Obama administration.
Development in Houston has also had trouble abiding by this rule. A 2015 joint study by Texas A&M and Houston Advanced Research Center examined permits between 1990 and 2012 in the Houston area. What they found was less than half actually had documentation to show the lands were replaced.
Many of the new homes built have been in the 100-year floodplain, a federally designated area that is at a higher risk of being hit by a bad storm.
Some 4,000 new structures have been built within that 100-year floodplain in Harris County since 2010.
Over development in flood zones has incised some after Harvey dumped several feet of rain on Houston. 
But the impact of flooding, particularly in densely developed areas like cities, is far more constant than a massive, natural disaster like Harvey exposes. The reason cities flood isn’t because the water comes in, not exactly. It’s because the pavement of civilization forces the water to get back out again.
Under normal circumstances, rain or snowfall soaks back into the earth after falling. It gets absorbed by grasslands, by parks, by residential lawns, by anywhere the soil is exposed. Two factors can impede that absorption. One is large quantities of rain in a short period of time. The ground becomes inundated, and the water spreads out in accordance with the topography. The second is covering over the ground so it cannot soak up water in the first place. And that’s exactly what cities do—they transform the land into developed civilization.

Roads, parking lots, sidewalks, and other pavements, along with asphalt, concrete, brick, stone, and other building materials, combine to create impervious surfaces that resist the natural absorption of water. In most of the United States, about 75 percent of its land area, less than 1 percent of the land is hardscape. In cities, up to 40 percent is impervious.