I was surprised that the chemicals in the dishwasher tablets were not consdered as being harmful to the environment so I decided to tackle the toilet. The traditional ‘white and shine’ bleach contains sodium hypochlorite and chlorine based bleaching agents among many other chemicals. Now these chemicals ARE harmful to aquatic organisms. However the risk to the environment is low IF the chemicals are processed through a proper treatment plant. The temptation is to accept this and carry on using cheaper more convient products BUT are water treatment plants around the world reliable.
This is an extract from the irish times newspaper’The Ballymore Eustace plant, which serves 877,000 customers in the greater Dublin area, produced unsafe drinking water for a period of up to 10 hours on 20th-21st August, due to the loss of a cryptosporidium treatment barrier compounded by inadequate disinfection, the EPA said.
At Gorey, the recent incident arose from a power failure and a chlorine pump failure, resulting in water leaving the plant and entering the public supply without the appropriate level of disinfection for a five day period (August 19th-24th)’
This is just one example of malfunctions happening in water treatment plants in one country. Also the issue was highlighted because it affected the health of humans. This makes me even more motivated to avoid using the chemicals in the first place. Prevention is better than cure!!
