Banned Fireworks and Firecrackers During Festivals

Hari Raya Aidilfitri, a celebration celebrated by muslims all over the world just around the corner. As usual each year, we can hear the sound of fireworks and firecrackers near our neighbourhood. But not many of us realize that the hazard during any festival in Malaysia especially Hari Raya, New Year and Chinese New Year not only come in burns and blasted fingers from firecracker mishaps, but also in smoke from firecrackers and pyrotechnics that are lighted up. But the only thing highlighted is all about burns.


Firecracker explosions release nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide which worsen the daily smog. As for fireworks, their colors come from the different temperatures of hot, glowing metals and from the light emitted by burning chemical compounds. Chemical reactions propel them and burst them into special shapes. Depending on the effect sought, fireworks produce smoke and dust that contain various heavy metals, sulfur-coal compounds and other noxious chemicals. Barium, for example, is used to produce brilliant green colors in fireworks displays, beside known as poisonous and radioactive. Copper compounds are used to produce blue colors, even though they contain dioxin, which has been linked to cancer. Cadmium, lithium, antimony, rubidium, strontium, lead and potassium nitrate are also commonly used to produce different effects, even though they can cause a host of respiratory and other health problems.


The chemicals and heavy metals used in fireworks can effect the environment, which can cause water supply contamination and even acid rain. Their use also deposits physical litter on the ground and into water bodies for miles around. For examples, some U.S. states and local governments restrict the use of fireworks in accordance with guidelines set by the Clean Air Act. The American Pyrotechnics Association provides a free online directory of state laws across the U.S. regulating the use of fireworks.


Fireworks is highly used around the world, including in countries without strict air pollution standards. According to The Ecologist, millennium celebrations in 2000 caused environmental pollution worldwide, filling skies over populated areas with “carcinogenic sulphur compounds and airborne arsenic.”


Walt Disney company, has create technology where environmentally benign compressed air was used instead of gunpowder to launch fireworks. Disney puts on hundreds of dazzling fireworks displays every year at its various resort properties in the U.S. and Europe, but hopes its new technology will have beneficial impact on the pyrotechnics industry worldwide. They also hoping that other companies will also green up their offerings.


Even though the approach is a good step to carry out, it still better not to use the fireworks or any firecrackers as they may cause more harm than benefit. They just give a moment of happiness but a long lasting negative effect to environment. Better approach such as laser light shows can wow a crowd without the negative environmental side effects associated with fireworks. Therefore, lets banned the use of firecrackers and fireworks during this festival. We can change the world by taking this small steps towards better environment….

The Unhealthy Effects of Chlorinated Shower Water

Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. While it prevented epidemics of one disease, it was creating another. Two decades ago, after the start of chlorinating our drinking water in 1904, the epidemic of heart trouble, cancer and other disease began.

Chlorine as we all know is a toxic chemical. It is used in water treatment to reduce and kill forms of biological agents, such as bacteria and viruses found in water systems. Chlorine is harmful to you not even when you drink it but also can harmful to your body when it is absorbed into your skin and inhaled into your lungs when you get shower.Normally when we return from a gym workout or a jogging session or a game of badminton, we not only feel thirsty but we usually shower or bath. We have been taught that cleanliness and health go together, and indeed they do, when chemical-free water is used.

However when chlorinated water is used, bathing may be much less healthy that we ever supposed. Gasses are as a rule less soluble in hot water, and when water is heated or the free chlorine content in water is greatly reduced, the chorine escaping into the air. When we have a hot shower or run a bath we can sometimes smell the chlorine released as it escapes from the hot water. In a confined shower recess, however, especially one with poor ventilation, the chlorine escapes from the water as we continue the hot shower and steadily increases in concentration in the air we breathe.

The olfactory threshold for chlorine is about 3.5 PPM (parts per million) so when we can smell chlorine the concentration is already above this level. The lethal concentration for ten-minute exposure is about 600 PPM and that means regularly taking hot showers with chlorinated water could pose a health risk. Moreover they can also spread through the house and be inhaled by others. House holders can receive 6 to 100 times more of the chemical by breathing the air around showers and bath than they would by drinking the water.

Besides chlorine causes pulmonary edema, and it would seem likely that regular exposure to chlorine gas even at low levels such as in normal showering may reduce the oxygen transfer capacity of the lungs. This could be a critical factor for athletes and for others prone to heart failure. Another aspect to be considered is our skin. Our skin is an important protective barrier for our bodies. When we shower with chlorinated water we are essentially exposing our skin to a relatively large volume of a dilute chlorine solution. Some of this chlorine reacts with the oils in the skin to form chlorinated compounds and it is these compounds which may then be absorbed by the body. It seems very likely, considering strong oxidizing power off chlorine that regular exposure to chlorinated water serves also to promote the aging process of the skin, not unlike extended exposure to sunlight. Moreover, chlorine may actually enhance the aging effects of ultraviolet radiation by reinforcing the process of cell deterioration

It has been estimated that the "shower steam" in your bathroom can contain up to 100 times the amount of chlorine than the water, because chlorine evaporates out of water at a relatively low temperature. If you bath or shower in unfiltered tap water you are inhaling and absorbing chlorine into your body which finally can cause disease. Even at low levels of exposure in your shower and bath water, chlorine can overtime cause a multitude of symptoms and conditions including respiratory difficulties, corrosion of the teeth, inflammation of the mucous membranes, and increased susceptibility to emphysema, pneumonia, tuberculosis and even cancer.From the previous study showed that water filters is the effective methods to remove chlorine from your home shower especially with the use of carbon and ceramic filters.

Tap water or bottled water?

Water is essential for our body metabolism. We use water for drinking, washing, cleaning, and almost everyday life aspects can be associated with water. Good quality of water will enhance the excellent of health. It should be fresh and contained with dissolved minerals and nutrients and oxygen.

I came across this video about the story of bottled water few days ago. (Click here for the video). The video animation is about the industry of bottled water—how they created the market and manipulated and influenced the people in U.S. It made me wonder whether should we go for bottled water or tap water.

Bottled water exists due to its convenience. We can get a bottle easily when we feel thirst. Most of the shops even hotels around us sell bottled water. However, bottled waters are selling at higher price. No doubt that some bottled water sourced their water from pure natural spring, there are some bottled water source it from tap water. Besides that, it has a larger carbon footprint compared to tap water. From the life cycles: - harvesting of water, plastic manufacturing, product manufacturing, shipping and transferring, to refrigerate water, all need energy and emit pollutants to the environment. Moreover, only 20% of used bottle were recycled and the balance are dumped to the landfill. There is also leaching of toxic chemicals like Bisphenol-A (BPA) from bottled water when use at higher temperature.

With all the negative aspects of bottled water, do we really need it in our market? We can opt for tap water. It is also convenient and cheaper than bottled water. However, a point to ponder with-tap water in urban area i.e. Selangor and Kuala Lumpur may not seem good to be drink. Tap water that drains like teh tarik, kills the mood for drinking it from tap. Solutions such as water filter don’t really solve it and in reverse create more solid waste.

It seems that both bottled water and tap water has it weak spot. I think we can actually do something with our water source - education for our citizen to throw their waste in proper area; house compound cleaning; have proper septic tank; strictly enforcement on polluters; recycle mentality; and etc. By making the surface water especially the river cleaner, we can have less demand on bottled water.

Tap water or bottled water??! It is at your own choice to choose which one for better future as the only difference is money in your wallet and the waste bin.


Reference source:
Image: belmontfrontporch.wordpress.com
http://www.alkalifewater.com.my/malaysia-boiled-water-malaysia-bottled-water-dispenser-malaysia-distilled-water/
http://www.tapwater-bottle.com/index.asp

Bottled Water Kept in Car, Are You Dare To Drink Now?

Do not to drink bottled water that has been left in a car for any length of time because, supposedly, the heat releases cancer-causing toxins which 'leak' from the plastic into the water.

A new European study published on 2009 raises doubts about the safety of disposable water bottles, which have heretofore been regarded as safe by the FDA and other government health agencies. Researchers in Germany found evidence of a man-made estrogen-like compound leaching into water packaged in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles.

Such chemicals, known as "endocrine disruptors," have the potential to inferfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones in the human body.

In the United States, plastic bottles of the type used for commercially marketed water are regulated by the FDA as "food contact substances" and held to the same safety standards as food additives.

Water bottles made from PET plastic leach compounds that mimic the hormone oestrogen raising questions about their safety, say German researchers.

Previous research has focused on plastics containing the chemical bisphenol-a (BPA). During that time regular PET plastic water bottles have maintained a reputation as safe, at least as far as human health is concerned.

But new evidence suggests that PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, may not be so benign after all.

Scientists at Goethe University in Frankfurt found that estrogenic compounds leach from the plastic into the water.

It's too soon to say whether drinking out of PET plastic bottles is harmful to human health, says lead researcher Martin Wagner.

But it now appears possible that some as-yet unidentified chemicals in these plastics have the potential to interfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones, just as BPA and phthalates do.

"Having done all of these experiments, I started drinking tap water," says Wagner. "It might have other stuff in it, but at least it doesn't have estrogenic compounds."

The study adds to growing concerns about products that span the plastic spectrum, says Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York.

The specialised yeast, which change colour in the presence of estrogen-like compounds, revealed estrogenic activity in seven of the nine plastic bottles (and both cardboard samples), compared with just three of the nine glass ones.

Overall, Wagner says, levels of these compounds in the water were surprisingly high.

However, the authors of the study say more research is required to determine whether, or to what degree, this poses an actual health risk to humans.