4 ms·
In a sort of related/inverse vein, I thought the engineering at play here was pretty interesting. 96 million shade balls on a public water supply reservoir: ht
by el_benhameen 7y ago
In a sort of related/inverse vein, I thought the engineering at play here was pretty interesting. 96 million shade balls on a public water supply reservoir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o
- tenpies 7y agoI just find it hilarious that they do this on the tail of wanting to ban plastic everywhere. Why yes, please take these black plastic balls, coat them in a known carcinogen, place them over drinking water, and let them bake over the sun[1]. --- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_balls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_balls
- knodi123 7y ago> coat them in a known carcinogen That's actually the opposite of what's going on. From wikipedia: Starting in mid-2008, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) deployed around 400,000 balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir with the main objective of preventing the formation of a carcinogenic chemical, bromate, which forms when naturally occurring bromine reacts with chlorine in the presence of sunlight.
- ryandvm 7y agoFortunately it's because the kind of people that want to thoughtlessly "ban plastic everywhere" are thankfully not making decisions about our water quality. The entire shade-ball program was created to mitigate high levels of bromate which were forming when sunlight interacted with chlorinated water. Bromate is an _actual_ carcinogen; as opposed to the carbon black coating on the shade-balls which is only carcinogenic when inhaled as dust (otherwise the activated charcoal in all those drinking filters would be pretty bad news).
- s0rce 7y agoAFAIK they aren't even coated in carbon black the HDPE is mixed with carbon black (same as many other black plastics/rubbers) and then formed into the spheres.
- seltzered_ 7y ago“The shade balls used in the Los Angeles project are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with carbon black additive to protect the plastic from ultraviolet radiation. Adding carbon black also prevents the formation of bromate, a suspected human carcinogen. [...] The black coating on the balls, called carbon black, is a petroleum derivative which is classified as a carcinogen if inhaled as dust. ” So you have balls made with a known carcinogen (if inhaled as dust) to prevent formation of another carcinogen formed in water. I’m guessing they researched the risks already and it’s a net positive.
- chupasaurus 7y agoYou forgot the part that the color is added in form of a masterbatch.
- zaarn 7y agoYou generally don't inhale the water that these plastic balls are in.
- bch 7y ago> ...on the tail of wanting to ban plastic everywhere. One-time use plastic bags and more recently drinking straws[0], not all plastic everywhere. The world can’t run without plastic. Your own link says the recycleable (fwiw) balls have a 10 year lifespan. ...and the carbon black is a carcinogen if inhaled as dust, but is used (in part) to reduce a suspected carcinogen (bromate) and made for the sun (...with carbon black additive to protect the plastic from ultraviolet radiation.) It’s in your cited article. What would you propose as an alternative? [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_lightweight_plastic_bags https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_lightweight_pla...
- hyperbovine 7y agoPlastic was commercialized 70 years ago. The world ran fine for a very long time without it.
- Itaxpica 7y agoWith significantly fewer people, most of whom (on a global scale) lived significantly worse and shorter lives. Like it or not, the modern world is built on plastics, and undoing that will require either major technological jumps from what we have now, or a LOT of people dying.
- s0rce 7y agoThe world ran a long time with iodine supplements, antibiotics, water fluoridation, doesn't mean we should go back to the dark ages.