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I'm not saying it's not a problem but it would certainly be an interesting phenomenon if levels were the same for us here in the middle of the pacific as they are for places immediately adjacent to China's manufacturing regions. Also, "safe" is a relative thing. Sunlight is not completely safe.
The wording of the report could be misconstrued to suggest that you would be better off drinking well water but since all water on earth comes from rain water no water source would be safe apart from freshly melted glacier water.
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Bacteria species found in glacial ice could pose disease risk as glaciers melt from global warming:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/ne...e-pose.amp
Seriously though, if our rain isn't pure, then there is no more pure rain.
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(08-23-2022, 11:55 AM)MarkP Wrote: I'm not saying it's not a problem but it would certainly be an interesting phenomenon if levels were the same for us here in the middle of the pacific as they are for places immediately adjacent to China's manufacturing regions. Also, "safe" is a relative thing. Sunlight is not completely safe.
The wording of the report could be misconstrued to suggest that you would be better off drinking well water but since all water on earth comes from rain water no water source would be safe apart from freshly melted glacier water.
I agree, so what's not known is if rainwater is unsafe to drink in Puna. I agree that it would be surprising that rainwater in Puna would be unsafe, but the title of this thread says it is. It would be nice if the OP would provide evidence that Puna rainwater is not safe to drink because that would affect a lot of people.
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It's pretty clear in the original post: “Based on the latest U.S. guidelines for PFOA in drinking water, rainwater everywhere would be judged unsafe to drink." Sources were cited. Here's a couple more links:
https://www.discovery.com/science/unsafe...-rainwater
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/worl...317424002/
Since Puna is a part of this world (more or less) one could assume that rainwater is unsafe to drink in Puna.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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Well, "Sources" were cited except they aren't actually sources and I don't think the original article addressed islands in the middle of the Pacific, they aren't just "everywhere". However, I'm just wondering what everyone in Puna needs to do.
Stop drinking water?
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All of the articles used the term, "worldwide". The ultimate source is indeed included in the original post. Here's a direct link:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c02765
Other posters in this thread who know more about these things than I do have suggested that the filters used in catchment systems should eliminate the plastic. What's not clear about all of this? What we all need to "do" is eliminate single-use plastic.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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Here's an idea: how about testing the rainwater instead of speculating based on "sources"?
Eliminating single-use plastics is a great idea, but unlikely, and does nothing about the plastic already in circulation.
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The vibe I am getting is that the threat is similar to the threat posed by getting too much sun. Ideally one should eliminate all sun exposure to mitigate the risk of skin cancer while in reality people, myself included, just don't make the effort. We all live pretty long anyways but some of us will suffer from skin cancer at some point.
What is most momentous about this news is that nobody on earth can avoid the threat, not that the threat is guaranteed to kill you in a horrible way.
I'll up my game in the filtration department but otherwise continue life as usual.
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RO systems for just drinking water are fairly simple and inexpensive. It's what I use.
To MarkP's point, I also wear a hat and a long sleeve shirt if I'm going to spend any amount of time in the sun. Melanoma killed my grandfather so I'm a little more cautious than your average person. I also wear a full length suit with a hood when I go swimming, and just ignore the stares. In theory it protects against jellyfish too.
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RO would be the only way I would drink rainwater from my roof.
