Sipping From the Garden Hose? Think Again.

[Javaman]

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/sipping-from-the-garden-hose-think-again/

snip...

Last week the Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that reviews consumer products, released a study at the Web site HealthyStuff.org on potentially hazardous chemicals in gardening tools.

The group tested nearly 200 gardening products, including hoses, gloves, kneeling pads and tools, for lead, cadmium, bromine, chlorine, phthalates and bisphenol A. Over all, they found that two-thirds of the products tested contained levels of one or more chemicals in excess of standards set for other consumer products.

For example, 30 percent of all products tested contained lead exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission‘s standard of 100 parts per million for children’s products.

“Hoses and garden tools are obviously not classified as children’s products,” said Jeff Gearhart, who led the research for the Ecology Center. “But kids are still going to be playing with them. I know I drank out of a hose all summer when I was growing up. What kid doesn’t?”

more at link...

[mopinko]

1. i smell a market.

still drinking from the hose, tho.

[tru]

2. I notice that

Jeff Gearhart is apparently still alive and well.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. I find it hard to worry about this.

For the most part, the water coming out of the hose will have been free-flowing for a while before you take a drink....now maybe if you leave water in the hose for a week in the hot sun, then drink that water, you might have a problem---but who does that???

[Joe Shlabotnik]

4. Ask any outdoor labourer, heat stroke or trace amount of lead? Pass the garden hose please! n/t

[hedgehog]

5. How many people water their vegetable garden

USING A GARDEN HOSE!

Another possible problem - products that spray on to your car or garden using an attachment from the garden hose. Make sure you're not using a cheap knock-off that will allow the pesticide or detergent or whatever to backflow into your or your neighbor's pipes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backflow_prevention_device

[bayareaboy]

6. I love great big ...

Garden slugs coming out of my hose.

On the other hand a garden hose works when it is hot.