Portlandia has struck again: fluoride in water

[MacLaddy]

Newcomer to the Portland area (actually about to move up to Vantucket, as I've heard it called), but I routinely work in downtown Portland with swimming pools.

Please help me understand. Locals do not want fluoride in the drinking water, but adding ammonia and chlorine to the water supply-- to intentionally create chloramines-- is okay?

I constantly have to chemically adjust my swimming pools because the supply water is three times the legal swimming pool limit for chloramines. (not always, it's apparently just when someone pee's in the reservoir)

Fine to drink, not okay to swim in. I'm thinking Vancouver was a wise decision.

Ammonia is added in a process called chloramination to ensure that water throughout the system meets federal and state drinking water regulations. Without ammonia the chlorine would evaporate by the end of the supply line..

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/48904

 

[OmCheeto]

...Locals do not want fluoride in the drinking water

Because we read the news?

Fluoride debate: Study looked at fluoride vs. non-fluoride in Portland area

Last week, the Problem Solvers analyzed the raw data from OHA’s 2012 Smile Survey. Our analysis revealed little difference between the cavity rates of kids in fluoridated schools versus non-fluoridated schools:

53.7% of the kids in the non-fluoridated areas had one or more cavities
52.03% of kids in fluoridated areas had one or more cavities
47.81% of kids in fluoride-free Portland water district had one or more cavities

, but adding ammonia and chlorine to the water supply-- to intentionally create chloramines-- is okay?

Per wiki, it's required by the EPA.

Chloramination

The EPA regulations give two choices for disinfectant residual — chlorine or chloramine. Many major water agencies are changing to chloramine to better meet current and anticipated federal drinking water regulations and to protect the public health.

I constantly have to chemically adjust my swimming pools because the supply water is three times the legal swimming pool limit for chloramines. (not always, it's apparently just when someone pee's in the reservoir)

From what I just read, I doubt this has anything to do with the supply water. And you are correct, it is just when someone pees in the pool:

Busting a Chlorine Swimming Pool Urban Myth
Chris Wiant, PhD
...
What actually causes the distinctive, irritating smell around swimming pools is not chlorine–that’s an urban myth–but volatile substances known as chloramines. Chloramines form in pool water when chlorine combines with contaminants brought into the pool by swimmers. Think urine, perspiration, body oils and cosmetics. The truth is that cleaner swimming, not less chlorine, can help reduce the chloramine irritants that cause “swimmer red eye” and itchy skin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s swimmer hygiene tips recommend swimmers shower with soap before entering the pool (almost 70% of the survey respondents said they don’t do this routinely) and stop peeing in the pool.

Fine to drink

You'll have to ask the people in Pennsylvania about that.

How can we be sure that chloramination is safe?

For nearly 90 years, water systems across the United States and Canada have used chloramine without any ill effects. Every day, one in five Americans receive drinking water treated with chloramine, including residents in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Indianapolis, Denver and Miami. Here in Pennsylvania, four million people, including people in York, Lebanon and Philadelphia, have been using tap water treated with chloramine for decades. That’s one out of every three people in Pennsylvania. In addition, Pennsylvania American Water has years of experience providing chloraminated water in community water systems, including Norristown, Clarion, Yardley, Butler, Ellwood City, Connellsville and Mechanicsburg.

 

[nsaspook]

I hope they have plenty of chlorine in this Fairview Oregon residents pool, took this picture not too far from my house.

 

[jtbell]

...WATER NAZI'S​

I thought everyone knew that it's the Communists who want to fluoridate the water.

General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.

Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/quotes

 

[OmCheeto]

I thought everyone knew that it's the Communists who want to fluoridate the water.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/quotes

You are of course correct. My apologies.

...

"You will not collect the rainwater, as it is ours.
And then you will pay for fluoride, and you will drink our water".

...STINKIN' COMMIE *** *****^[1]​

...

[1] As a child, I used to hear the phrase: "Stinkin' Commie Rat Finks!". To this day, I do not know what a "Rat Fink" is, but I'm sure it must be something horrible.

 

[AlephZero]

To this day, I do not know what a "Rat Fink" is, but I'm sure it must be something horrible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Fink

 

[OmCheeto]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Fink

hmmm... Wiki is fine for some things, but sometimes their references are usually more informative than their content:

References
The term fink was originally underworld slang for an informer. It derives from the German word for "finch" -- i.e. one who "sings" -- and is comparable to a "stool pigeon". A ratfink is an intensified version of a "fink. By the time Roth used this name for a character, the term had started to pass into more general usage.

Very informative. About 25 years ago, I ran into some rude Russian kids. I had just finished a year of studying their language at university, and I told them; "Ja znaio gdyay tee rabotee-et, ee ja znaio gdyay tee zsheevyot, ee ja znaio gdyay vasch tetee".

Which, after all these years, I think means; "I know where you work, I know where you live, and I know where your children are".

They were not rude to me after I said it, so I think I got at least a few of the words correct.

ps. Oldster Americans have a view that the Soviet Union was a nation of snitches.

pps. We need to get back to bashing Portlandia... Has anyone seen the video of the naked guy running down the street next to a strip-mall, pulling his pants on, screaming; "That hoe stole my car!"? It was filmed just a few days ago, about a mile from where I grew up.

ppps. How can a garden tool steal a car?

 

[edward]

Bashing Portlandia.

OK how about this: About a month ago my Portlandia daughter called and said she needed to borrow $4.000.

"Oh so you are finally going to buy a house", I said. "No our landlord is selling this house and we need $4,000 for the deposit to rent another house", she replied.

"WOW you must be going to rent one of those big houses high on a hill west of the Willamette river", says I.

"No, no daddy we are going to rent an 840 square foot two bedroom craftsman built in 1914 on the close in NE side" she declared.

"Why don't your move across the Columbia river to Vancouver and get twice the house for half the money and why do you need $4,000"? I queried a bit gruffly.

"Because this one has a bus stop just down on the corner and it has a full basement" she said softly, along with a: "calm down daddy". She continued: "And the money is for the first and last months rent plus a security deposit", she said in a more begging tone.

"Well I suppose everyone in Portland should live in an old two bedroom house with a full basement and have a bus stop on the corner. And I realize that there is some slight chance that you may move out of state and take that cracker box with you" I growled.

"Dad, dad can I talk to mom".

 

[nsaspook]

pps. We need to get back to bashing Portlandia... Has anyone seen the video of the naked guy running down the street next to a strip-mall, pulling his pants on, screaming; "That hoe stole my car!"? It was filmed just a few days ago, about a mile from where I grew up.

Haven't seen that one but we do have this 'water' related item.
http://www.kptv.com/story/26195152/police-naked-man-touching-himself-falls-in-river-rescued-arrested