Guest guest Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 PCBs and mercury are environmentally controlled and it is illegal to dump (major fines). There are many codes in the building, transformer, wire, thermometer, and electronic industries that make it illegal to use PCBs or mercury. Most Government and privates codes prohibit their use. Companies who have them can't sell them and companies who have old ones in use pay dearly when the PCB starts leaking out of a transformer. Plastic suits, waste trucks, and dump site storage is very very expensive. Most companies have changed them all out. Trust me. It's an expensive mess to get rid of PCBs or mercury. Based on this, I think his information is a little dated. I do agree that the oceans are overfished but they usually self correct because areas get fished out and people stop fishing there until the fish come back. The Japanese and Russians are really bad. They have hugh seagoing trawlers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 This is true for USA and some other countries however, unfortunately it is not true for China. There was a MAJOR chemical spill last year in northern China. The people who washed in the water and drank the water weren't told. When the spill got close to a major city, they then closed all the water intake and eventually it made it into the press. There were 176 chemical spills in China last year. They Yangzi river with supplies Shanghai with drinking water is now at Class 4 pollution., Class 5 is dead water where nothing can live. These rivers feed the oceans. I can send you information on this if you would like. The Chinese Govt tries to keep this as quiet as possible but there is almost NO water in China that is not contaminated. People are drinking " PCB " contaminated water daily and dying. Benzene is also in the drinking water. The Govt of China is trying to improve the environment and has rules and regulations, but the local officials will ignore the problems if paid enough. Local city and Provincial govts also don't enforce the rules as they feel they will lose revenue. , from Canada, living in China Maddviking@... wrote: PCBs and mercury are environmentally controlled and it is illegal to dump (major fines). There are many codes in the building, transformer, wire, thermometer, and electronic industries that make it illegal to use PCBs or mercury. Most Government and privates codes prohibit their use. Companies who have them can't sell them and companies who have old ones in use pay dearly when the PCB starts leaking out of a transformer. Plastic suits, waste trucks, and dump site storage is very very expensive. Most companies have changed them all out. Trust me. It's an expensive mess to get rid of PCBs or mercury. Based on this, I think his information is a little dated. I do agree that the oceans are overfished but they usually self correct because areas get fished out and people stop fishing there until the fish come back. The Japanese and Russians are really bad. They have hugh seagoing trawlers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 10, 2006 Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 In a message dated 9/8/2006 10:17:22 PM Eastern Standard Time, maryhilchie@... writes: Class 5 is dead water where nothing can live. These rivers feed the oceans. True but wouldn't mercury and PCBs fall to the bottom of the river (metals) and/or be diluted by the coastal waters? We can't fish off of China. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 10, 2006 Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 Yes mercury would sink if in pure formm however as an oxide it can be absorbed by plants and the plants eaten. PCB's as such should float and or dispurse. Pollution is in many forms, I have one textbook just about water pollution. However, check the fish in your supermarket and see what has been imported from China. China exports a lot. The fish in the ocean near China would be contaminated, they would swim and be eaten by other fish that swim that are, in turn eaten. The contamination does eventually travel around the world. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0623/p01s03-woap.html http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2006/06/15/ap2818330.html http://news./s/nm/20060530/hl_nm/river_cancerous_dc Maddviking@... wrote: In a message dated 9/8/2006 10:17:22 PM Eastern Standard Time, maryhilchie@... writes: Class 5 is dead water where nothing can live. These rivers feed the oceans. True but wouldn't mercury and PCBs fall to the bottom of the river (metals) and/or be diluted by the coastal waters? We can't fish off of China. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 10, 2006 Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 In a message dated 9/11/2006 1:56:18 AM Eastern Standard Time, maryhilchie@... writes: The contamination does eventually travel around the world. That's the part I don't buy. If that was true then the earth couldn't self clean itself and we'd have died in our own filth centuries ago. Granted, mercury is cumulative in fish and animals but I don't think the problem is as widespread as the " Chicken Little " people who brought us the panic of mad cow and avian flu would have us believe. That's just my opinion. I don't eat any food or seafood from China or Thailand after seeing the rivers and coastal areas choked with human waste and kids swimming in it! No tape worms for me thank you. I don't eat the food because it is a common practice to use human waste for fertilizer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 I unfortunately have to because I live here 11 months/year. I don't eat fish usless it is 'ocean' fish. I do eat seafood as I live on the coast in a town on the Yellow sea. from Canada, in China Maddviking@... wrote: I don't eat the food because it is a common practice to use human waste for fertilizer. --------------------------------- Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Small Business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 Maddviking@... wrote: > In a message dated 9/11/2006 1:56:18 AM Eastern Standard Time, > maryhilchie@... writes: > The contamination does eventually travel around the world. > > That's the part I don't buy. Yet there's some truth in it. The oceans mainly stay either in the northern hemisphere going in circles - or in the southern hemisphere, going in circles there. In-between is a still zone at the equator with no winds to move the oceans, known as the doldrums. It's why you never get a hurricane in the equatorial zones. As a sailor, I can tell you that the increase in junk in the ocean when one sails " in the middle of nowhere " very far from land, is a scary thing to see over the years. When I was a kid, the ocean was clean and pristine out there - and it no longer is. Ships are discharging garbage at sea, and there are oil slicks, plastic bags and unmentionable stuff really way out there. Nowhere is clean any more. Those things that are biodegradable, do get acted on, but the rate of this is temperature dependent, and if you ever went deep sea sailing you'll know how darned cold the sea is (other than the doldrums) away from the continental shelf where it warms up at the beach due to being shallow. So the BOD (biological oxygen demand needed to biodegrade stuff that is biodegradable) gets to be very high, and gets ahead of the rate at which the available bioforms can actually break it down in colod water. Even Antarctica's seas way down by the south pole are layered with garbage floating about. People have always assumed you can send it into the ocean in a never-ending stream of junk and it will magically disappear - but it's not true. There is only so much that dilution and bioforms can do, and the rate of garbage-in-sea disposal is way too high for the sea to remain clean any more - go sail there - anywhere from Antarctica on north - and you will see this for yourself! It was getting bad in 1996 when I was last out in the southern Oceans (and the Northern ones are worse) - and can only be that much worse now. And of course anything not biodegradable, makes thongs MUCH worse as the only way to remove that from the sea is to get it into the food chain and have us fish it out and eat it! (only to put it back????) The sea is not a bottomless garbage pit :-(( > If that was true then the earth couldn't self > clean itself And indeed you are right - it can no longer self-clean - the junk rate exceeds the biodegradable fix rate. The sea IS damaged already. > and we'd have died in our own filth centuries ago. Not yet - but we are working on it; the trend is there. Namaste, Irene -- Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom. P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220. www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.) " Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 In a message dated 9/11/2006 11:49:47 AM Eastern Standard Time, furryboots@... writes: And indeed you are right - it can no longer self-clean - the junk rate exceeds the biodegradable fix rate. The sea IS damaged already. Nah, I don't buy it. We'll kill ourselves with pollution and food supply and be a distant memory and the earth and ocean will clean itself and be right back where it started. Look at how clean our air is in spite of the fact that we throw huge amounts of pollution into the air. Soylent Green (the movie) never happened and the earth is cooling. Everything is biodegradable even if it takes 100,000 years to degrade. A blink of the eye for the earth. I knee jerked in the 70s and as a scientist and engineer I was going to be a savior of the earth with pollution control but not this time around. More pollution and crap gets belched out of one big volcanic erruption than we could ever cause. The ocean's a big place. Once you get out away from the coastal areas, it is as green and clear as anything. Insolubles sink to the bottom. All the oil gets eaten by microbacteria that fish eat increasing the fish population. What makes oil bad is the coastal effect on wild life and land. Out at sea there is no land to concentrate the oil. The nodes of dead water in the horse latitudes lump junk together but also serve as fish sanctuaries. Coastal pollution does affect the natural selection of sea birds and is why there are so many sea gulls (flying rats) because they survive on filth and kill other birds. I'm no proponent of pollution and I think we are killing ourselves with the food supply but the good old earth is going to be just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 In a message dated 9/11/2006 8:26:09 AM Eastern Standard Time, maryhilchie@... writes: I unfortunately have to because I live here 11 months/year. I don't eat fish usless it is 'ocean' fish. There you go. Fish away from the coast are not affected. Deep water fish are excellent. Hey, I'm not justifying the Chinese, I'm just saying that they're not polluting the entire earth. Can you imagine turn of the century Chicago when they dumped raw sewage into the lake and drew their drinking water from the same place? I'll bet they sold a lot of toilet paper. By the way, I have a friend and his wife who live or work at Zhifu Island, Yantai 264000, Shandong, PR China. Is that close to you? What do you think of that big dam they're putting in? I've heard that it may fail because of the way they're building it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 Maddviking@... wrote: > The ocean's a big place. Once you get out away from the coastal areas, it is > as green and clear as anything. It isn't! That's what I was trying to tell you. I also expected it to be clear and green - byut even in antarctica - there's nowhere more remote! 0- it is NOT glear and green. I can tell you did not go there to look:-0)) I did. NAmaste, IRene -- Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom. P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220. www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.) " Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 In a message dated 9/11/2006 8:38:47 PM Eastern Standard Time, furryboots@... writes: I can tell you did not go there to look So you've been to Antarctica? I've got friends who were stationed there and other friends who ran ice breakers out of there. They say that it is pristine and full of great tasting fish. The only pollution is around where the humans are living. Speaking of pristene, the rivers I saw in British Columbia and Alberta were the clearest and cleanest I'd ever seen. Just don't walk in them. You'll freeze. Beautiful country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 In a message dated 9/12/2006 8:48:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, maryhilchie@... writes: There are many lakes and rivers nearby which would meet the pristine definition. I found Canada to be beautiful and the mountains breathtaking and I've been to a lot of places. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 Maddviking@... wrote: Speaking of pristene, the rivers I saw in British Columbia and Alberta were the clearest and cleanest I'd ever seen. Just don't walk in them. You'll freeze. Beautiful country. I agree. Lived in Alberta and have visited BC. Most parts of Canada you will find the rivers are clean and full of edible fish. I now live in Ontario (when not in China). There are many lakes and rivers nearby which would meet the pristine definition. The St. Lawrence river however is badly polluted and the fish not safe to eat. That river, of course, does feed the Atlantic Ocean. --------------------------------- How low will we go? Check out Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Maddviking@... wrote: > In a message dated 9/11/2006 8:38:47 PM Eastern Standard Time, > furryboots@... writes: > I can tell you did not go there to look > > So you've been to Antarctica? Pretty close, but no, I crewed on a yacht that went there, and what I remember is the mountainous waves compared with Cape Town area (Cape of Storms). Plenty of garbage down there. The folks who went all the way took lots of video including of the garbage and not just near where the people were messing it up. Sure it is not like the amount of junk elsewhere - but the point is that we are adding garbage to our oceans faster than it can be degraded by bioforms. Namaste, IRene -- Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom. P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220. www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.) " Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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