Thankyou Walt! Thanks too for pointing out the downside of chlorination. ITo go back to what Hakan was saying about the Netherlands, of all the cities I've lived in (many!) Amsterdam is the only one I can think of where I didn't regularly get a strong whiff of chlorine off the tap water.
You're absolutely right about the destruction of the beneficial microorganisms in the gut and disease (and medication!). Some people go so far as to say that all disease starts this way, or at least manages to gain a foothold because of this factor, an essential precondition. Others take it even further, saying that immunity is a product of a healthy soil, and disease of a sick soil. I don't argue with any of this, there's a basis of truth to it, and indeed the soil has often been compared with an inside-out intestine, same principles at work, very often the same microorganisms too. Sick soil, sick people, sick water, it's all closely related. You might find this an interesting read: 11. The Retreat of the Crop and the Animal before the Parasite Humus and Disease Resistance The Mycorrhizal Association and Disease The Investigations of Tomorrow http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/AT11.html 12. Soil Fertility and National Health http://journeytoforever.org/ farm_library/howardAT/AT12.html -- An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard, Oxford University Press, 1940. I agree about the yoghurt too - some people will call that quackery, but it's firmly established that the flora in live yoghurt will suppress and destroy gut pathogens, and indeed recolonise the gut. Not many doctors prescribe it though, do they? Funny that... (not!). > If my options were (1) drinking from a polluted river or (2) drinking >water containing active chlorine, I'd choose Door Number Two. That would >keep me well long enough to build a cistern so that I could collect rain >water and drink that instead. They're not the best choices, but a couple of billion people only have choice #1 on offer. Door Number Two at least gives them a chance, some space to work with where more and better solutions can be implemented. Damn... every time I think of this (quite often) I get totally furious about the Iraq sanctions and the half-million children who died there because of this. :-( It's bad enough already - shameful enough in this day and age - without deliberately CAUSING it!!! An atrocity to rival Bhopal? I think so. Anyway, thanks once again for the good info. Best wishes Keith >At 11:57 PM 11/27/03 +0900, you wrote: > >But I was wondering about the electrolysis part of this process. > >Salt, water and electricity produces, what, hydrogen and chlorine - > >what happens to the sodium? > > NaCl electrolyses into Na and Cl > > The Na reacts with water to form H2 and NaOH, which in turn reacts with >the Cl to produce sodium hypochlorite, better known as chlorine bleach. > > What the chemistry described in the article is doing is >making bleach, not >free chlorine. > > >And to the hydrogen? It off-gasses. > > >It's really this > >simple? If so there really is application for it, this is a serious > >problem, as you know, it affects billions of people and kills lots of > >them, especially the children. > > Most everyone I know uses chlorine bleach to sanitize. We use a dilute >solution in our dining hall for a sterilizing rise in our dish washing room. > > None of this is to say that the fellow hasn't worked out an ingenious >method for delivering minute quantities of chemically active chlorine into >the water supply, which in certain cases may be very good. In other cases, >it might not in that any chlorine not consumed in the water will be active >in the digestive tract of a someone who drinks that water. > > Humans have a very active set of critters living in their digestive >tracts, and anything that kills them off can put the person at risk. For >example, most of the deaths by salmonella come after someone has taken oral >antibiotics that killed off their resident (benevolent) bacteria. > > People consume malevolent bacteria all the time, but because beneficial >bacteria are already in residence, the bad bugs can't get a foothold. It's >when the good bugs are gone, and the bad bugs can get established that >people get sick and die. > > Bacteria are able to determine when they're out numbered, and >when they're >in the majority. It's only when they reach a critical mass that they start >producing the toxins which kill people. > > I make my living providing coinage services at living history >events, so I >spend all day handling money. In order to protect myself, I consume >substantial quantities of live culture yogurt. I used to get a "stomach >flu" after most every event, but since I started "dosing" myself with >yogurt, I've never had another bought. > > The point of all this is to stress the reality that we're talking about >dynamic, interactive processes, and that every change you make triggers >other changes, and while those consequences may well be unintended, they're >none the less real. > > If my options were (1) drinking from a polluted river or (2) drinking >water containing active chlorine, I'd choose Door Number Two. That would >keep me well long enough to build a cistern so that I could collect rain >water and drink that instead. > >Walt ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. 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