SKL Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 On the topic of water fountains - during Covid, my kids' school shut off all the fountains. I'm not sure whether they've turned them on again or not. In the mean time, they would sell our kids bottles of water at lunch for $1.50 or $2 each. Of course I advised my kids to bring their own reusable water bottles, but they would forget in the mornings. They also didn't have water fountains operating by the sports fields. It bugs me how the school / public facilities have set our kids up to depend on something so unnecessary, expensive, and anti-environment. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartstrings Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 2 minutes ago, SKL said: On the topic of water fountains - during Covid, my kids' school shut off all the fountains. I'm not sure whether they've turned them on again or not. In the mean time, they would sell our kids bottles of water at lunch for $1.50 or $2 each. Of course I advised my kids to bring their own reusable water bottles, but they would forget in the mornings. They also didn't have water fountains operating by the sports fields. It bugs me how the school / public facilities have set our kids up to depend on something so unnecessary, expensive, and anti-environment. I think a lot of schools don’t want to take the time to let kids go get a drink. Lining up 30 kids, having them count to 3 like we used to, fighting over who counted to fast and Wasn’t Fair, bullies slamming kids faces into the fountain, bullying happening in line while the teacher focus elsewhere, all that takes time and energy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 1 minute ago, Heartstrings said: I think a lot of schools don’t want to take the time to let kids go get a drink. Lining up 30 kids, having them count to 3 like we used to, fighting over who counted to fast and Wasn’t Fair, bullies slamming kids faces into the fountain, bullying happening in line while the teacher focus elsewhere, all that takes time and energy. But at least they didn't have the distraction of water bottles in the classroom. My kid was joking that if she got jumped, she'd use her Stanley to knock the attacker out. So there's that. 😛 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busymama7 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 1 hour ago, Heartstrings said: I take a lot of stuff on outings but draw the line at the kitchen sink. 🤣. Kidding aside, it’s for times that we are away from the house. Our parks don’t always have bathrooms and drinking fountains in convient locations or at all or they are closed and the water is turned off to discourage homeless populations. I can’t count on access to tap water out and about. Taking our own drinks ensures access and keeps me from hitting up Sonic for thirsty people. Having filled bottles in the fridge makes it easy to grab on the way out the door instead of trying to find them and fill them all in a hurry. Im also frequently the only planner in my different friend groups so my kids have water bottles and snacks but the other kids don’t. It makes meet ups more pleasant if I bring water and snacks to dole out for everyone, although it does get annoying sometimes. Having bottles in my car made that easier. I am really surprised this many kids and people are willing to drink HOT water. So gross 🤣. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartstrings Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 10 minutes ago, busymama7 said: I am really surprised this many kids and people are willing to drink HOT water. So gross 🤣. I usually figure that means they are *really* thirsty. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Wild. During covid, once schools reopened, the school district gave reuseable water bottles out to students who needed them, and all water fountains were used to refill water bottles only. They kept sanitizing wipes by the water fountains so they could be cleaned regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmom Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) I just reread one article, and it said they theorize that some of the nano plastics in bottled water came from the reverse osmosis membrane that filters out contaminants. lol what? I guess RO is still better than no filtration at all. Trading pharmaceuticals and heavy metals for nano plastics… Edited January 16 by popmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmom Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) 17 hours ago, Matryoshka said: Pretty much all food that's in the current environment has microplastics now, so I'm not sure why the hyperfocus on salt. However, I think the gist with the salt is that salt from the ocean is 'in the soup' of the current plastic-laden environment, so is full of microplastics. Himalayan salt is from salt deposits laid down millions of years ago, pre-microplastics. I would think the same would be true of salt that was mined from a dry salt lake (I'm guessing that's where Utah salt would be coming from??) However, similar to water in plastic bottles, I wonder if the salt could somehow get contaminated from being packaged in plastic? But back to my first point, freaking everything is packaged in plastic, also why the focus on bottled water specifically when milk, soda, juice - virtually everything is in plastic and I'm sure is equally contaminated. They've found microplastics in the snow in Antarctica. It's pretty much entirely permeated our whole food chain, much of it likely at the cellular level. I'm not sure how one can avoid the stuff at this point... Rock salt, as it is not alive, is like the one thing that might have some small hope of managing to not have microplastics in it, but that's such a small part of what we ingest... I’m not hyper focused on salt. I’m focusing on all of it. She mentioned the brand of salt I use, so I wanted to know more. As I later commented, I had misunderstood her first comment and thought there was something wrong with Redmond salt. ._______________________________ I’m not as worried about—say—meat vacuumed packed in plastic. I know exactly where 90% of my meat comes from, what the animals have eaten, etc. I’m sure those animals are consuming some nano plastics since it’s in rain, but that’s about the best I can do. I can’t see nano plastics infiltrating a roast in my freezer. I usually rinse the meat before prepping. I don’t drink bottled water/beverages often, but I’m going to start looking for glass and aluminum options as an alternative. The only thing that I do that I worry about is sous vide. If I didn’t have chronic health issues, I probably wouldn’t be as concerned, but that (sous vide) is something I need to reconsider. Edited January 16 by popmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 22 minutes ago, popmom said: I just reread one article, and it said they theorize that some of the nano plastics in bottled water came from the reverse osmosis membrane that filters out contaminants. lol what? I guess RO is still better than no filtration at all. Trading pharmaceuticals and heavy metals for nano plastics… Huh. The membrane in my RO is made from softwood tree pulp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmom Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Just now, prairiewindmomma said: Huh. The membrane in my RO is made from softwood tree pulp. That's good to know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 58 minutes ago, popmom said: I’m not hyper focused on salt. I’m focusing on all of it. She mentioned the brand of salt I use, so I wanted to know more. As I later commented, I had misunderstood her first comment and thought there was something wrong with Redmond salt. Sorry, I wasn't referring to you hyperfocusing, I was talking about the guy in the video. But based on what he says about why sea salt is so full of the plastic, if Redmond salt is mined from salt flats, I'm thinking it should be relatively plastic-free. I have no actual idea how it's sourced, though, I've never used Redmond - not sure I've ever even noticed that brand. The current bottle of salt I have is sea salt, so whoops. Might switch to Himalayan again! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Redmond is mined from a salt mine, the deposits having been made by an ancient sea. Himalayan salt is from the same sort of circumstances, most of it is from a huge mine (Khewra) in Pakistan. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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