On 23 Apr 2004 03:05:15 GMT, Alun wrote:
>"Reuben Hick" wrote in
>news:RXXhc.940$PV1.740@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com:
>
>>
>> "Alun" wrote in message
>> news:Xns94D3719EF6426elektrosmdonet@130.133.1.4...
>>
>>> I'm no expert on water purification, but other countries manage to
>>> purify water without making it taste of chlorine. Probably if you
>>> asked an expert in the US they would say that is impossible (?), but I
>>> know it for a fact.
>>
>> You are into facts? Instead of making them up (other countries don't
>> use chlorine... and yet are purifying their water); you should exam
>> facts not conjured up out of your imagination.
>
>You admit this fact below, hence saving me the trouble of looking it up.
>Either way, I had experienced it as a fact without knowing how they did it.
>
How did you "experience a fact"? Does it invlove bendign over?
>>
>> The European Environment Agency published a report showing how impure
>> and unsafe European water is.
>> http://themes.eea.eu.int/Specific_media/water/indicators/WEU10,2003.1013
>> /Drinking_Water_Factsheet_final.pdf
>>
>> "The main problem in the Newly Independent States is microbiological
>> contamination of drinking water due to decaying infrastructure e.g.
>> water treatment works that are no longer functioning properly ~the
>> prohibitive cost of chlorine~ or other disinfectants needed to treat
>> the water." - (page 2)
>>
>>> People who have grown up with chlorinated water often can't taste it,
>>> but I have met other people who have lived here all their lives and
>>> who have always had a well who won't drink it either, because it
>>> tastes bad to them too.
>>
>> You are right, they probably don't use chlorine and so they are
>> drinking contaminated water.
>
>Which of your previious statements do you stand by? The one where you said
>only chlorinated water was purified, or the one where you said that the
>earth filtered out all the impurities in well water?
>
>>
>> "Chlorine-based chemicals have been the disinfectants of choice for
>> treating drinking water for nearly a century. in fact, some 98 percent
>> of systems that treat water employ chlorine-based disinfectants." -
>> "The History of Chlorine", Keith Christman
>>
>> "Untreated or inadequately treated drinking water supplies remain the
>> greatest threat to public health, especially in developing countries,
>> where nearly hald the population drinks contaminated water. In these
>> countries, diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and chronic dysentery are
>> endemic and kill young and old alike. In 1990, over three million
>> children under the age of five died of diarrheal diseases.
>> Unfortunately, the availability of safe drinking water in many areas is
>> practically nonexistent..." - ibid.
>>
>> According to the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe,
>> Drinking water Disinfection: "Disinfection by chlorine is still the
>> best guarantee of microbiologically safe water."
>>
>> Now don't you find it odd, that those places that have dangerous water
>> are also those who don't have that chlorine taste in their water?
>> According to "facts", not junk you make up, chlorinated water is
>> superior, and empirically speaking, it is the most effective.
>>
>
>The water in the UK is safe, and it doesn't taste of chlorine. I don't have
>to demonstrate how they acheive that.
>
>> Perhaps that is why the US and Canada use it extensively. We actually
>> don't want to watch our children die of diarrheal diseases from
>> something so simple to do than apply chlorine based disinfectants in
>> the public water supply.
>>
>>> Don't be silly. Other countries have water without chlorine that is
>>> perfectly safe. I can't explain it as I am not dome kind of sanitation
>>> engineer, but it is just a fact.
>>
>> Chlorine has a unique property from other systems in that it leaves a
>> residual that continues to protect the water once it leaves the
>> treatment facility.
>
>And which spoils the taste of the water to the extent that it is completely
>unpalatable to those not raised from birth on chlorinated water
>
>> In China, the Three Gorges Dam project is using a
>> Wedeco AG, a german company's ultraviolet system to disinfect its
>> water.
>
>So you admit there are other systems that don't use chlorine
>
>> The problem with UV is that though the water is acceptable at
>> the end of its treatment, without the residuals, the water can easily
>> become contaminated again as it works its way through pipes and storage
>> reservoirs. Given that many countries have aging and delapidated
>> water distribution systems, and according to the above mentioned EEC
>> document, old systems are a major contributor to water contamination,
>> it is practically a given that the end user will once again have
>> unhealthy water.
>>
>
>Only if there are major infrastructure problems. Apparently the 'quick
>fix' for those is to taint the water with chlorine.
>
>> The bottom line is this. A relatively few countries have "perfectly
>> safe" water. The way you are wording your rebuttal implies that this
>> is the norm, not the exception. If you did a little actual research,
>> rather than BSing your way through the discussion, your conclusions
>> could have been different.
>>
>
>My own experience is that the water is safe in Europe. I have no experience
>of former Soviet bloc countries, which is what you seem to be talking
>about.
>
>> The US and Canada use chlorine because this is a modern society that is
>> rather anal about eliminating water borne diseases.
>
>I'm not sure that modern is a word that comes to mind, but anal certainly
>seems about right
>
>> If you find
>> brackish water to be "perfectly safe" all you are doing is showing us
>> how low your standards are. The person with cholera would probably
>> take issue to your assessment of the world's drinking water.
>>
>>
>>
>
>Show me somewhere in western Europe with a cholera epidemic.
>
>However, I assume that you have consumed chlorinated water all your life,
>so you probably think that's what water tastes like. It isn't.
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