[WPRESTO]

Has the reservoir been tested for mercury levels?

Quabbin is the major water source for Boston and some 47 small towns between the reservoir and that city. Although I don't have exact data, I suspect that the water is tested at multiple locations multiple times per year. It has been said flippantly, but with some truth, that when it comes to soluble toxic material "the solution is dilution." Quabbin reservoir is very large, over 400 billion gallons, and mercury, although more soluble than many metallic substances, is not highly miscible with water. The EPA determined permissible mercury level in drinking water is two parts per billion. If you do the math, even if the mercury dump exists, it would have to contain an enormous amount from a local small-town hat maker before it could cause red flag pollution to the reservoir.

[goatsNdonkey]

Quabbin is the major water source for Boston and some 47 small towns between the reservoir and that city. Although I don't have exact data, I suspect that the water is tested at multiple locations multiple times per year. It has been said flippantly, but with some truth, that when it comes to soluble toxic material "the solution is dilution." Quabbin reservoir is very large, over 400 billion gallons, and mercury, although more soluble than many metallic substances, is not highly miscible with water. The EPA determined permissible mercury level in drinking water is two parts per billion. If you do the math, even if the mercury dump exists, it would have to contain an enormous amount from a local small-town hat maker before it could cause red flag pollution to the reservoir.

Not to minimize the risks in any way, but I suspect that I might have gotten a bigger dose of mercury from any one of these three things:
-- touching the mercury from a broken thermometer when I was a kid,
-- breathing in my high school chemistry classroom, when my teacher heated an orange compound long enough for some mercury droplets to form on it,
-- breathing downwind of a coal-fired power plant.

[WPRESTO]

Not to minimize the risks in any way, but I suspect that I might have gotten a bigger dose of mercury from any one of these three things:
-- touching the mercury from a broken thermometer when I was a kid,
-- breathing in my high school chemistry classroom, when my teacher heated an orange compound long enough for some mercury droplets to form on it,
-- breathing downwind of a coal-fired power plant.

Of those potential dangers, the breathing of fumes from a power plant over several years is probably the greatest danger. Mercury is a cumulative poison in organisms. Once it's in, there's no biological-physiological way to get it out, so tiny amounts inhaled over a prolonged time will remain in your system. This is why some fish species are monitored regularly for mercury. The amount in the oceans is vanishingly small, algae collect more, the tiny invertebrates collected from hundreds of algae, small fish concentration from thousands of invertebrates, larger fish from thousands of smaller fish. When to get to a big tuna, the mercury concentration can be frighteningly higher than it is in sea water.

[goatsNdonkey]

Of those potential dangers, the breathing of fumes from a power plant over several years is probably the greatest danger. Mercury is a cumulative poison in organisms. Once it's in, there's no biological-physiological way to get it out, so tiny amounts inhaled over a prolonged time will remain in your system. This is why some fish species are monitored regularly for mercury. The amount in the oceans is vanishingly small, algae collect more, the tiny invertebrates collected from hundreds of algae, small fish concentration from thousands of invertebrates, larger fish from thousands of smaller fish. When to get to a big tuna, the mercury concentration can be frighteningly higher than it is in sea water.

Yes, to avoid the concentration levels in top predators it is better to eat lower on the food chain. I'm thinking of a nice algae sandwich for lunch today!

[Arn]

And then there are the side effects of coffee; coffee containing caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness and restlessness, stomach upset, nausea and vomiting, increased heart and breathing rate, and other side effects. But, I love having a couple of cups every morning! And unlike mercury, the effects do not linger; however I seem to keep coming back for more.
Anyway, here's a coffee sign.

[WPRESTO]

And then there are the side effects of coffee; coffee containing caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness and restlessness, stomach upset, nausea and vomiting, increased heart and breathing rate, and other side effects. But, I love having a couple of cups every morning! And unlike mercury, the effects do not linger; however I seem to keep coming back for more.
Anyway, here's a coffee sign.

Coffee is something people have worked very hard to find evidence that it is bad for you, and failed. I had a small kidney stone, the common type made of calcium oxalate. The urologist advised me to go on a low oxalate diet and queried particularly whether I drank coffee, and urged me to switch to herbal tea (his favorite drink). Turns that that a recent long-term study of people who had had kidney stones found that the coffee drinkers among them had a 10% reduction in recurrence when corrected for other factors. BTW: Oxalate is generated biologically only in plants, and is present in huge variety of fruits & vegetables that are supposed to be good for you including all forms of berries, citrus fruits, all forms of beans, carrots, celery, spinach, kale, lettuce, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, radish, beets, all forms of potatoes, sweet potatoes, chocolate (), the list goes on and on.

[Racer X 69]

Coffee is something people have worked very hard to find evidence that it is bad for you, and failed. I had a small kidney stone, the common type made of calcium oxalate. The urologist advised me to go on a low oxalate diet and queried particularly whether I drank coffee, and urged me to switch to herbal tea (his favorite drink). Turns that that a recent long-term study of people who had had kidney stones found that the coffee drinkers among them had a 10% reduction in recurrence when corrected for other factors. BTW: Oxalate is generated biologically only in plants, and is present in huge variety of fruits & vegetables that are supposed to be good for you including all forms of berries, citrus fruits, all forms of beans, carrots, celery, spinach, kale, lettuce, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, radish, beets, all forms of potatoes, sweet potatoes, chocolate (), the list goes on and on.

A guy just can't win.

Exercise, eat right, don't eat too much, except have plenty of all that stuff you mention, if you do consume alcohol or other stuff, do so in strict moderation, don't smoke.

Die anyway.

[eddie1960]

A guy just can't win.



Exercise, eat right, don't eat too much, except have plenty of all that stuff you mention, if you do consume alcohol or other stuff, do so in strict moderation, don't smoke.



Die anyway.

which is why i ignore it all

[edom31]

A guy just can't win.

Exercise, eat right, don't eat too much, except have plenty of all that stuff you mention, if you do consume alcohol or other stuff, do so in strict moderation, don't smoke.

Die anyway.

Well, if you survive life, lemme know!

[WPRESTO]

With all the money we give the government, they should long since have developed a pill for aging, but they only thing they've been really good at is developing ways to end life sooner.

[dadipentak]

Well, if you survive life, lemme know!

So far...(sorta)...

[normhead]

Coffee is something people have worked very hard to find evidence that it is bad for you, and failed. I had a small kidney stone, the common type made of calcium oxalate. The urologist advised me to go on a low oxalate diet and queried particularly whether I drank coffee, and urged me to switch to herbal tea (his favorite drink).

Unfortunately, most doctors are just as bad at practicing gimmick medicine as Nauturaopaths and Herbalists.

[WPRESTO]

There is truth in the tiresome "everything in moderation," but that doesn't apply to the basic food groups = sugar, salt, grease, artificial ingredients, garlic, chocolate, and caffeine. Always get your MDR and then some.

[edom31]

With all the money we give the government, they should long since have developed a pill for aging, but they only thing they've been really good at is developing ways to end life sooner.

Yes - also - they're really good at keeping you sick enough to need chemicals that cost an arm and a leg. They don't cure you, yet don't let you die.

[goatsNdonkey]

Every day it's just breathe, breathe, breathe....

And take pictures if you can